Free Republic

Forty years after it was made, The Velvet Underground's first recording has become a financial hit - in cyberspace. Bought for 75 cents four years ago at a Manhattan flea market, the rare recording of music that ended up on the influential New York band's first album, "The Velvet Underground & Nico," sold on eBay for a closing bid of $155,401. The buyer is a mystery, only identified by the eBay screen name: "mechadaddy." But a greater mystery endures: How did the 12-inch, acetate LP end up buried in a box of records at a flea market? Warren Hill, a...

Drinking up instead of lighting up / Gina Greene Health Nico Water promises refreshment -- with a kick. (CNN) -- If the executives at QuickTest5 have their way, smokers will soon be reaching for nictoine-spiked bottled water when they find themselves in smoke-free environments like airports, restaurants -- even their offices. Nico Water, like nicotine gum, comes with 2 or 4 milligrams of nicotine. But unlike the gum, Nico Water is marketed as a supplement -- not a replacement. Novel, yes. Benign? No, says Danny Goldrick of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. "It should be regulated. It has a...