Free Republic

eBay Founder Pierre Omidyar is starting a news outlet called First Look Media. In the site's animated video, he describes it as "a new kind of marriage between a technology company and a new kind of newsroom," and that one of its goals will be to "make it easier for journalists to deliver the transformative stories we all need." Omidyar is known as a philanthropist, and has put his money where his mouth is (in this case, he is reportedly investing $250 million in the First Look venture). His Omidyar Network - with its funding of many altruistic initiatives such...

Jim Krehbiel was up past midnight making a piece of art by layering maps and field notes onto photos he had taken of an ancient ritual site high on a cliff ledge in the desert Southwest. He looked at the image of the kiva and remembered how the ruins were nearly inaccessible. Krehbiel had to lower himself on a rope to reach them. Why, he wondered that night in the fall of 2007, would anyone build something so important in such a remote spot among the canyons and mesas? It was then that the chairman of Ohio Wesleyan University's art...

Yes, one needs to be skeptical when it comes to celebrities making endorsements and corporations making donations to charities. But this one passes the sniff test for me. (Mmmmm... the smell of freshly washed and dried laundry!)Angie Harmon of Law and Order fame is a rare breed in Hollywood. Not only is she conservative, but she is gracious, lovely, and she has her priorities straight. She gave birth to her third daughter about 5 months ago, and she has found a great balance between her home life and her career.Now she is teaming up with Purex to help women in under-developed countries, while...

Mon Jun 5 09:31:01 2006 Pacific Time New Mexico's Chaco Canyon: A Place of Kings and Palaces? BOULDER, Colo., June 5 (AScribe Newswire) -- Kings living in palaces may have ruled New Mexico's Chaco Canyon a thousand years ago, causing Pueblo people to reject the brawny, top-down politics in the centuries that followed, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder archaeologist. University of Colorado Museum anthropology Curator Steve Lekson, who has studied Chaco Canyon for several decades, said one argument for royalty comes from the rich, crypt-style burials of two men discovered deep in a Chaco Canyon "great house"...