Free Republic

Everyone has a "personal fat threshold," which if exceeded, will allow type 2 diabetes (T2D) to develop, even if they are of a lower body weight. The ReTUNE Study looked at whether weight loss can also reverse the condition in people with a BMI at or only just above the "normal" range (BMI below 27kg/m2). Men and women with T2D followed a weight loss program in which they consumed 800 calories a day for two weeks, followed by four to six weeks in which they kept their new weight steady. They completed up to three rounds, until they had lost...

Italy is bracing for a political earthquake as the most right-wing Government seen since World War Two is expected to be handed power following tomorrow’s election. The potential emergence of a far-right government in Italy has put the European Union on alert for disruptions - with fears that the unity of the war in Ukraine could be jeopardised. The leader of the post-fascist Brothers of Italy Party, Giorgia Meloni, is slated to be a big winner in Sunday’s election, becoming Italy’s first female Prime Minister.

Seattle’s housing market is slowing faster than any in the country, a new study has revealed - as cash-strapped buyers increasingly shy away from home purchases. The study, from real estate firm Redfin, ranked the nation’s most populous hubs using metrics such as prices, price drops, and supply - and found that the real estate market is cooling fastest primarily along the West Coast. Property prices along West Coast metropolitan areas are understood to be dipping because of a glut of properties on the market, amid a mass exodus of citizens deterred by rising mortgage rates, crime, and warnings of...

Britain has played a key role in NATO forward troop deployments and training exercises on Russia’s borders. With war underway, the UK sends billions in arms, special forces, and volunteers to ensure escalation. In an effort to evade his domestic woes, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson—who may soon be replaced—has spent much time toing and froing to Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described the buffoonish British PM as one of Ukraine’s closest allies. If and when Johnson leaves office, he is tipped for a role as Ukraine Envoy. The Johnson-Zelenskyy relationship contrasts sharply with Zelenskyy’s experiences with French President...

I've tried several of my favorite sites and they are down right now, including Amazon. Freerepublic and facebook are up, however.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut is worried that if the GOP takes over either house of Congress in the midterm elections, that will spell the end for funding the war in Ukraine. Journalistic servants of empire Paul Waldman and Greg Sargent dutifully repeat Murphy’s words in the pages of the Washington Post, raising the alarm and fearmongering about the calamitous lack of war that might ensue if Republicans win an electoral victory. ...

The fan is not budging and refuses to give baseball to Albert and Cardinals Last night was an historical one at Dodger Stadium as future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols hit his 700th career home run. Fans applauded and cheered the former Dodger on this historical feat as Pujols became the 4th player in history to achieve this milestone. However, a source revealed to a Fox Sports contributor that the fan – who remains unidentified – has opted to keep the historical baseball. The fan turned down multiple offers from the Cardinals...... “Souvenirs are for fans,” Pujols said.

The FBI raided Mike Lindell looking for evidence of a crime, but what they found instead was a good night's sleep. .....

Explanation: The defining astronomical moment for this September's equinox was on Friday, September 23, 2022 at 01:03 UTC, when the Sun crossed the celestial equator moving south in its yearly journey through planet Earth's sky. That marked the beginning of fall for our fair planet in the northern hemisphere and spring in the southern hemisphere, when day and night are nearly equal around the globe. Of course, if you celebrate the astronomical change of seasons by watching a sunrise you can also look for crepuscular rays. The shadows cast by clouds can have a dramatic appearance in the twilight sky...

We have written a number of times about the Feeding Our Future scandal, the worst to emerge from the federal government’s feckless distribution of covid dollars. Briefly, Feeding Our Future (“FOF”) was a fraudulent nonprofit that accessed an astonishing $240 million in federal money, ostensibly to feed needy children in Minnesota. Under the supervision of Minnesota’s Department of Education, FOF distributed that money to a network of Minnesota nonprofits who allegedly delivered the actual meals to children. But it turns out that the money mostly went to luxury purchases, fancy cars, overseas vacations, gold and jewels, new houses, and property...

The U.S. government must end the “venomous nativism” of ordinary patriotic Americans by flooding it with tens of millions of immigrants, according to two immigrants, Indian-born Deepak Bhargava and South Korean-born Rich Stolz.

The Spinnaker concept to deorbit small satellites received $375,000 in seed funding from the investment firm Manhattan West, which NASA will match under its Small Business Innovative Research Phase II-Extended (SBIR Phase II-E) contract. The combined $750,000 in funding will pivot Vestigo Aerospace's product line to commercial manufacturing, the company said in a Purdue University release(opens in new tab), with the first sales expected in 2023. Vestigo did seek to test out its Spinnaker3 concept in orbit. However, that prototype was destroyed during the debut test flight of Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket, which ended with an explosion shortly after liftoff...

The State of New York, as part of its COVID-19 response, overproduced hand sanitizer by hundreds of thousands of gallons, costing the state taxpayer close to $10 million. Under the leadership of former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New York spent over $4 million in taxpayer funds to produce the 700,000 gallons of hand sanitizer that were never used, WRGB News reported. The massive amount of product was abandoned by the state until criticism forced New York to send it to a local recycling facility, adding millions more to the cost of the abandoned stockpile, according to the report. The 168...

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. Ephesians 4:31 Anger and rage can do more harm to those those who practice it, than it does to the person the anger is targeted at. How many times have we witnessed someone so full of anger and rage that they end up doing something that only hurts themselves. I readily admit that for many years I walked with anger in my heart for those who did me wrong or hurt my loved ones. I chose to sin and be angry, rather...

Unsubstantiated speculation swirled Saturday morning that Chinese President Xi Jinping has been locked down in isolation amid a potential coup. Far East expert Gordon Chang said the rumor is likely "untrue," but he noted there is something unusual going on in China and "there is turbulence" among the Chinese Communist Party leadership.

Five months into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there remains a startling lack of understanding by many western policymakers and commentators of the economic dimensions of Putin’s invasion, and what it has meant for Russia’s economic positioning both domestically and globally. A common narrative has emerged that this is a “war of economic attrition which is taking its toll on the west,” given the supposed “resilience” and even “prosperity” of the Russian economy. These widely cited narratives are wrong. Far from being “ineffective” or “disappointing,” international sanctions and voluntary business retreats have exerted a crippling effect over Russia’s economy. ......

The object, named FRB 20201124A, was detected with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) in China and described in a new paper led by astronomer Heng Xu of Peking University in China. So far most evidence points to a magnetar – a neutron star with extraordinarily strong magnetic fields – as a source of FRB emissions like this. If FRB 20201124A is indeed from one of these wild cosmic beasts, it's looking like an unusual specimen. Polarization refers to the orientation of light waves in three-dimensional space. By examining how much that orientation has changed since the light departed...

Dr. Shayne Sebold Taylor of the Pediatric Transgender Clinic at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) says "the surgeries we do on minors are labor intensive, require a lot of follow-ups, a lot of our time, and they make a lot of money for the hospital. They are a huge cash cow for the University." Vanderbilt health law expert Ellen Wright Clayton warned employees of the clinic that "any conscientious objection to participating in these lucrative procedures will be met with dire consequences. You probably shouldn't be working at VUMC if you don't want to participate in the trans surgeries on...

Twenty-two years. Seven hundred home runs. Albert Pujols achieved a level of greatness only three other players in the history of the game have matched when he hit No. 700 on Friday night -- his second homer of the evening at Dodger Stadium. He joins Barry Bonds, Henry Aaron and Babe Ruth as the only players in the exclusive 700-home run club. As the St. Louis Cardinals slugger made his march for history, ESPN's Jesse Rogers, Buster Olney and Alden Gonzalez asked current and former teammates, opposing pitchers and other greats in the game to describe their favorite moments and...

Wow. How awkward! Joe Biden and Dr. Jill, in a tight-fitting plastic bag, honored Elton John last night in Washington DC. Poor Elton. During the ceremony, at one point Joe Biden wrapped his arm around Elton and told the crowd, “By the way, it’s all his fault we are spending $6 billion in tax payer dollars on HIV and AIDS this month.” Why is that, Joe? It’s his fault because he’s gay? What the hell, Joe?