Free Republic

ST. GEORGE, Vt. (AP) -- A Colonial-era boundary dispute between two Vermont towns that were never exactly sure where one ended and the other began is finally going to be settled. But it was old maps, not GPS or Google Earth, that ultimately found the common ground for the towns of St. George and neighboring Shelburne. The process has pointed up the art of trying to read the minds of the original surveyors and land granters to establish where the lines were drawn. "It's a matter of 'let's get this defined,'" said Phil Gingraw, chairman of the St. George Select...

In a recent column on the Huffington Post, "Why I'm Single," writer Lea Lane lists all the reasons that she's still single. Why? So she can send the URL to all the nosy, possibly well-meaning busy-bodies who keep asking her why she isn't in a relationship. Lane presents a persuasive case; it almost made me wish for the days I, too, had the whole bed to myself. She's one of what I'll call the "Happies," women who are perfectly content with their single status. They don't want for a companion; they love their solitude and have enough friends, hobbies, and...

"Star Trek" is a cultural comet. From its tiny, ancient core -- a mere 79 episodes, airing before we set foot on the moon -- a seemingly infinite tail has grown, its glow still bright after 43 years. The original series (featuring James T. Kirk, Mr. Spock and Dr. "Bones" McCoy) ran for just three seasons, from 1966 to 1968. All of the techno-bling we associate with the show -- communicators, transporters, warp drive, phasers and Tribbles -- was introduced during that first run. It’s staggering to reflect that the premier episode aired during NASA’s two-man Gemini program -- five...

In stories hittings newsstands next week, brunette bombshell Megan Fox manages to insult a good chunk of Young Hollywood; including Zac Efron, Robert Pattinson — both of whom the actress called “too pretty” in an interview with Elle — and now she’s shooting daggers at fellow actress Scarlett Johansson. In the June issue of Esquire Magazine, the Transformers 2 star says being a sex symbol comes naturally to her, and she has now desire to put on a Ms. Smarty Pants act to distance herself from the empty-headed bimbo image that often plagues beautiful women, unlike her Golden Globe-nominated counterpart....

President Barack Obama gets hailed by supporters as a transformational, visionary leader. But can he boldly go where no man has gone before? Possibly: POLITICO hears from several sources that the President has asked Paramount Pictures for his own screening of the new "Star Trek" film in the White House. The White House request could just be an attempt by the president to stay on top of pop culture by watching this box office bonanza — but could there be more to it? Consider: Comparisons between the enigmatic president and "Star Trek’s" Mr. Spock have become a media meme of...

A man wanted in Germany for Nazi war crimes has been ordered by US authorities to surrender to an immigration office for deportation. John Demjanjuk, who lives in Ohio, has been fighting deportation since March, when Germany filed charges against him. On Thursday, the US Supreme Court rejected a request by Mr Demjanjuk, 89, to intervene in the case. He denies accusations that he worked as a guard in the Sobibor Nazi death camp during World War II. He says he was captured by the Germans in his native Ukraine during the war and kept as a prisoner of war.

Experts who examined a cache of long-lost photos from the 1930s Spanish Civil War say it yielded a lot of new information, but failed to solve the biggest mystery whether legendary photojournalist Robert Capa took the famous picture of a man at the instant he was killed by a bullet. Answering that question was a principal goal of curators at the New York-based International Center of Photography when they first delved into the so-called Mexican Suitcase, a collection of 4,300 frames shot by Capa, his companion Gerda Taro and close friend David "Chim" Seymour. The negatives, long believed to have...

Today on Fresh Air, host Terry Gross interviews Douglas Emlen, professor of biology at the University of Montana. Emlen has devoted his life to an unlikely creature: the dung beetle. And deep in the wild beetle underworld, he has found natural beauty. These close-up photos of scarabs, taken by Emlen and other scientists, reveal rather pretty little critters. (And sometimes not so little -- rhinoceros beetles can measure up to several inches!)

Rain is pelting down on Doña Porcela's treatment room in Puerto Cabezas, the main town on Nicaragua's Northern Caribbean coast. The room is barren except for a few plastic chairs, a wooden table and some old plastic bottles balanced precariously on timber beams. Doña Porcela is a respected traditional healer here and the bottles are filled with her secret medicinal potions. Her patient today is a teenage girl asleep on a piece of cardboard, serving as a mattress on the dirt floor. "Grisi Siknis turns people into witches and they go crazy," she said. Last year there were 65 cases...

Joni Mitchell - one of the great singers...how is she?

I just gave "24" the 3 red thumbs of death on my Tivo. After jenene garafalo last rant about conservatives, I can't stand to see her. I refuse to watch the show now after watching for years.

Is Janeane Garofalo lying about Rush Limbaugh? It sure seems that way. Ms. Garofalo, the actress, liberal activist, and failed radio host went after Mr.Limbaugh, the number-one rated talk-radio host in the country, during a recent interview with the Village Voice. An exclusive interview with Mr. Limbaugh raises questions about the actress' honesty.

Republican in Name Only? Try the future of the GOP. The following is Meghan McCain's address to the Log Cabin Republicans Convention—a group that promotes gay issues within the GOP—on April 18, 2009. Thank you all for having me here tonight. I am thrilled to be able to speak to you this evening to share some of my experiences from the campaign and observations on where our party is today. And I’m proud to tell you there is a special role for the Log Cabin Republicans to play in our future. The last two years of my life have been...

One has to hand it to Meghan McCain. She has certainly found the perfect shtick for extending herself beyond her allotted 15 minutes of fame. And the method Meghan has discovered is to slam conservative Republicans. That is her meal ticket to getting invites on cable news shows such as Larry King and, "OMG," she is also going to be guest co-host of The View for a couple of days this week. Think any of these invitations would have materialized had Meghan urged Republicans to become more conservative? If that were to happen all those TV appearances plus her new...

I know I shouldn't find this funny... but... well, I do.

Wombat droppings are helping an industrial city in Australia fight the effects of the global financial crisis. Burnie, in the north-west of the state of Tasmania, has been hit by repeated rounds of job cuts. But despite the gloom, one local industry is thriving by producing handmade paper out of a material no-one else wants - wombat poo. The novelty paper is a hit with tourists keen to buy a distinctly Australian souvenir from the area. The wombat, a furry marsupial, lives in the wild only in Australia.

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...