On September 8, 1966, television viewers set out to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before. It was our first trip aboard the Starship Enterprise.

40 years later, Star Trek is a classic, a series that NBC cancelled in its third season, yet around which a cult following sprang up. The series went into reruns, and became more popular than it was during its brief run in prime time. It spawned 5 additional Star Trek series, and 10 movies, six of which featured the original stars.

Now some of the original props are up for auction. Christies in New York will auction off some 4,000 items from the original series. The items include models of the Starship Enterprise as well as costumes and communicators. You can even buy the bridge of the Enterprise - estimated selling price is about $20,000.

I was thinking of buying one of these little items, but then, we all know the trouble with tribbles.

A year at Yale costs $46,000. But you soon will be able to study at Yale online for free.

Yale University is planning to offer some courses online for free, starting 2007. They will offer free video lectures on the Internet and transcripts in several languages.

If you’d like to expand your horizons or just know what it feels like to be a student at one of the most prestigious Ivy League schools, check it out.

Yale University to post courses on Web for free

Opening in theatres today is David Leaf’s documentary, The US vs John Lennon. The film details the evolution of John Lennon from one of rock n’ roll’s innovators as a member of the Fab Four to his emergence as political activist.

The Beatles were part of our early years, and in some ways we grew up alongside John Lennon, maturing from pop culture to social consciousness as the boomer generation that was going to change the world. John traded on his Beatle name and fame to bring attention to political and social issues.

John’s awareness of social and class distinctions in society often led to his expressing his views in humor that was at once disarming but with an undertone of cynicism and sarcasm. Performing at the Royal Variety Show in 1963, in the presence of members of British royaly, John advised the audience, “Those of you in the cheaper seats can clap your hands. The rest of you, if you’ll just rattle your jewellery.”

The film chronicles the efforts of the government to deport John, and his struggles to stay in the country. The conservative government saw him as an undesirable, his anti-war protests and music too influential. John eventually won the battle and his green card. Strangely it was not long after that John retreated from the spotlight to become a househusband and raise his son, Sean.

John re-emerged from his self-exile in 1975 to record the Double Fantasy album, but in the final irony, this proponent of peace and love again had his name and fame used, but this time it was by a madman who shot him to achieve some maniacal fantasy of legendary status of his own. John Lennon died on December 8, 1980.

So much history was crammed into his short life, so many lives changed forever by the music, the lyrics, the ideas and the tragedy. Although the murder was witnessed, the inevitable conspiracy theories arise and have fingered everyone from then president Ronald Reagan to J. Edgar Hoover (from his grave apparently) orchestrating the death of John Lennon. I think that, for those of us who remember the early days, the end is too depressing to live through again.

Besides wondering why women would pay over $7 for a magazine, such as Elle, that is more advertising than content, have you ever wondered why so many products are marketed to women using sexy models? Are women really interested in gazing at photographs of sexy models? Some new research says no, and marketing executives should pay attention.

The study gauged the reactions of women looking at photos of attractive women. The more seductive the model, the more women were uninterested. This hardly seems surprising. It’s been a long standing trend in advertising to use sex to appeal to women as well as men but why do advertisers think women will react to the same stimuli as men?

The trend to use skinny fashion models in sexy poses has been shown to give young girls a distorted image of how they must look to be considered attractive and has led to a rise in eating disorders and other serious problems. It’s encouraging that young women in this study showed a preference for images of more wholesome beauty. Let’s hope advertisers take notice of this research and give us some better images of female beauty and accomplishments.

Read the article on Fox News.