Free Republic

If anytime in American history is a good time for someone to come out of the closet, this is the time. Today’s media headlines prove that nothing will assure you greater love, acceptance, and applause from the chattering classes than “bravely” admitting that you’re gay.

Lots of people in the Republican party are fed up with Sen. Ted Cruz, but Sen. Rand Paul is the guy who is doing something about it. On Monday, the conservative news website, Breitbart News, published an op-ed by Paul, where the senator from Kentucky took Cruz to task -- without ever actually naming the guy who may be beloved by the Tea Party conservatives, but has earned some pretty impressive dislike from the elected members of his own party -- for his hijinks that Paul said have encouraged divisions within the party: "I don't claim to be the next...

Dutch researcher Saskia Lindhoud has discovered a new way to package enzymes by causing charged polymers to form a 'ball of hair' around them. Her approach significantly increases the utility of the enzymes. For example, healthy enzymes with a foul taste can be packaged in such a way that they are released in the stomach without being tasted...

BUTCHER Pan Xueping must have the world's strangest hobby. He collects hairballs from the stomachs of slaughtered pigs - just for fun. Pan, of Xiyangpan, eastern China, said: "They are very rare - I probably only find about one every three months when I'm cleaning the animals intestines. "I then wash them carefully to remove all the dirt and then I dry them with a hairdryer to make them nice and fluffy." The 42-year-old, who works in an abattoir, has amassed hundreds of furry balls over the nine years since starting his job, as reported in the Austrian Times. He...

Feral Shih Tzus roam Ga. condo complex MARIETTA, Ga., Jan. 19 (UPI) -- A small pack of feral, and very small, Shih Tzus has been evading capture at a Georgia condominium complex. The group of four dogs first showed up at the Covered Bridge complex in Cobb County in the Atlanta suburbs around Thanksgiving. Since then, two of them have disappeared, including one believed to have been killed by a car. The two remaining dogs appear to have reverted to their wild roots as the alpha male and female of their own small wolf pack -- albeit wolves that weigh...