Free Republic

A prominent human rights activist has blasted Samoa's film censors for banning SEAN PENN's Oscar-winning movie MILK. Samoa's Censorship Board has rejected an application for DVDs of the movie - which is based on the life of gay activist Harvey Milk - to be distributed in stores. Principal Censor Leiataua Niuapu Faaui says, "There are rules and guidelines for these things." But the move has prompted outrage, with leading Samoan human rights activist Ken Moala angrily questioning the decision. He say, "I do not think it should be banned. It is basically a documentary about the human endeavour to conquer...

In a week, Susan Boyle has gone from karaoke and her local church choir to global fame and an invitation to the Oprah Winfrey show. The frumpy 47-year-old, who says she's never been kissed, has gained celebrity fans and millions of admirers including a fair number of men since she wowed judges on the TV show "Britain's Got Talent." Her fame has been fueled by new technology, with a clip of her performance viewed more than 12 million times on Google's YouTube video site. "Susan can't help herself, she just sings whenever she can sing," said Jackie Russell, the manager...

Villagers in the area around the city of Sibu in the Malaysian State of Sarawak on the island of Borneo got a real surprise when they looked up into the sky on January 17 2009. They noticed a slightly luminous, bright pink disc travelling across the sky. ‘We were standing in front of my home when I looked up and noticed something strange in the sky. At first we thought it might have been a meteor until we saw a second identical object move towards the first one’ Noted Mr Ong. ‘It was not flying in the manner of an...

A prominent New York financier and art collector, Ezra Merkin, has been charged with a $2.4bn fraud for collecting money from clients under false pretences and secretly handing it to the jailed fund manager Bernard Madoff. New York's attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, has accused Merkin of acting as a middleman for Madoff and using the proceeds to fill his apartment with $91m worth of art. Merkin has one of the world's largest collections of Mark Rothko paintings. The charges came as French authorities seized a $7m yacht, Bull, moored near Madoff's Mediterranean villa in Cape d'Antibes. Bailiffs threw a chain...

It's been a long hiatus since the last time a human strode across the lunar terrain, and we're still some years out from the next planned mission to the moon. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't tinker around with notions of how astronauts in the not-too-distant future might get around the Sea of Tranquility or some other lunar destination. That's part of the driving force behind NASA's Great Moonbuggy Race, an annual event geared toward college and high school students. The mission: design and build a lightweight, human-powered buggy, then race it around a half-mile track pocked with gravel pits...

I make it 21 - but it's not a record. That, I think, goes to one man and his revolving door of backing musicians. I was wondering the other day which band boasts the highest numbers of past and present members. Who can rival Spinal Tap, from that bit in the film where David St Hubbins said he wouldn't miss Nigel Tufnell any more than any of the other "37, 38" members of the band. The first suggestion from the floor was UFO, the British heavy rock band who've been banging away for nearly 40 years now. The band that...

I was looking for some good background chatter on TV as I work, and I came across a History Channel special entitled "UFOs in the Bible." It is one of the UFO Files series episodes, and the description from the History.com website reads: "Journey back through time into the mysterious history of UFOs as revealed through ancient biblical texts. Through intensive reinterpretation of early religious documents, researchers believe that they have found evidence of ancient UFO activity. From Elijah's flying "chariots of fire" and Ezekiel's "wheels within wheels in the sky" to the enigmatic aerial phenomenon that lead Moses during...

A Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) report concerning the now-famous Morris County, NJ, UFO scam describes the sighting as something manmade. Joe Rudy, 28, and Chris Russo, 29, have been charged with disorderly conduct, after prosecutors there learned of the hoax on YouTube, where they actually showed us how they did it - red flares, helium balloons and fishing line. The first attempt at a hoax appears to be a report filed with MUFON on Jan. 5, 2009. Other hoax dates are Feb. 7 and Feb. 17, 2009. But MUFON called this one correctly on Jan. 7, 2009. Photo Analyst Marc...

Day in pictures

Scientists have shown scratching helps relieve an itch as it blocks activity in some spinal cord nerve cells that transmit the sensation to the brain. However, the effect only seems to occur during itchiness itself - scratching at other times makes no difference. While it is widely-known scratching relieves an itch, the physiological mechanisms for how this works are little understood. The University of Minnesota study appears in Nature Neuroscience.

There has been a rash of recent UFO activity in the southern California region. Recent reports include: Los Angeles, CA - 4/4/2009 - Witness observed what they first thought to be a star, but noticed that the object was spinning. The object had flashing blue, white, and red lights and appeared to be far away, possibly travelling over the ocean. It hovered steadily, but would also move up and down. The red lights seemed to be more laser-like and would flash out. Witness said that there were times where the red light was pointed right on their eye. Santa Cruz,...

The new movie ALIEN TRESPASS opens in theatres Friday, April 3, and its value for audiences now may be below our conscious radar. When watching ALIEN TRESPASS, we might wonder about the intentions of producer and director R.W. Goodwin, and writers James Swift and Steven P. Fisher in making this 1950s-type UFO movie. Goodwin contributed to more than 100 episodes of "The X-Files" so we know he has a sophisticated understanding of many current questions about UFOs and government activities related to them. Did Goodwin, Swift and Fisher intend to make fun of these old movies, create a nostalgic tribute...

An astonishing revelation regarding UFOs is being reported in some initial media reports relating to the very recent Japanese false alarm regarding an alleged North Korean missile attack. The entire population of Japan is in a state of utter panic and anger and an international crisis might well all be the result of irresponsible actions of extraterrestrial tourists flying a UFO from North Korea to Japan on a sightseeing expedition. As the story initially unfolded the remarkable information emerged that the highest levels of the Japanese defence establishment conceded that their most advanced radar system has picked up, in the...