Free Republic

Waving the Chinese national flag above her head, face ecstatic, Yao Miao sprints through thick, cheering crowds lining the streets of Chamonix, France. It’s September 2, 2018, and the 23-year-old runner is about to win one of the world’s premier mountain ultras—the 62-mile division of the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB). She crosses the finish line in 11 hours, 57 minutes, and 46 seconds. The second place woman, American Katie Schide, is more than 30 minutes behind her. Despite a race that’s infamous for its high-altitude passages and grueling weather conditions, Yao Miao’s stride and posture betray no signs...

When Perry Shoemaker crossed the finish line of the Eugene Marathon in 2:43:33, qualifying for the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials, it was the realization of a dream she had pondered as a possibility since 2015. She had kept the goal quiet, sharing it only with those closest to her. She’s a runner, a mom, and a preschool teacher, and, well, she’s realistic. Sometimes things go according to plan. Other times they don’t, and that’s okay, too. Plus, she’s 48 years old, and she didn’t know how many chances she had left. For her to run the sub-2:45 she needed? Everything...

White, suburban men are reaping the benefits of public construction projects in the Syracuse area, despite the city's demographics, according to a new report. Advocacy groups are sounding the alarm, before a decision is made regarding the future of the Interstate-81 viaduct in Syracuse. The I-81 project is expected to be a massive undertaking with the potential to create lots of jobs for local residents. Andrew Croom, staff attorney with Legal Services of Central New York, which issued the report with the Urban Jobs Task Force, said they reviewed the payroll records for five construction projects in the Syracuse area,...

A few years ago, during a panel discussion at the 47th annual Congressional Black Caucus, U.S. Representative Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.) was the opening speaker on the topic of “Putting Black America to Work: the New Skilled Trade Workforce.” Lawrence noted that the industry supported by skilled trade workers will need an infusion of youth because the average age of workers was 53 years old. Rep. Lawrence said, “We are building a new bridge from Detroit to Windsor (Canada). I’ve been told we are bringing in welders from Vietnam to help build it.” It seems unfathomable that the United States, a...

Exercising just 10 minutes every other day may reverse the effects of aging Fitness marketers often use extreme language (“Breakthrough!” “Miraculous!”) to describe the latest hot workout or gear. But scientists and doctors are now using superlatives to discuss what many consider to be one of the most important new fitness approaches in decades: high-intensity interval training, or HIIT, an approach to exercise that people can do in relatively little time, but with oversize benefits. If you ever did wind sprints in high school, then you know what HIIT is — brief bursts of very intense exercise followed by periods...

The fountain of youth just might be filled with sweat: Certain types of exercise can help you age better, new research published in the European Heart Journal suggests. In the study, researchers enrolled 266 young, healthy participants who were generally inactive. Then, they split them into four groups: an endurance training group, a HIIT group, a circuit-based weight lifting group, and a sedentary control group. The three exercise groups performed 45-minute sessions three times per week (the control group continued doing what they were doing, which, well, wasn’t much). At the end of six months, researchers looked at the lengths...

New free AWS machine-learning training offers everyone the same curriculum that its employees use. Amazon has announced new, free courses in machine learning, offering all developers the same curriculum that it uses to train its own software engineers and data scientists. The company has over 30 online machine-learning courses, including video, labs, and documentation that have been used within Amazon for the past 20 years. The courses are split into four main tracks, catering to developers, data scientists, data platform engineers, and business types. Developers, for example, are offered courses that teach machine-learning building blocks, how to build machine-learning applications,...

Jessica Turnbow was on mile 16 of her 19-mile training run for her first 26.2 at the Las Vegas Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon when a bee buzzed by her ear along the canal path in Chandler, Arizona. The canal paths were one of her favorite running routes, and she ran there often, even passing that spot just five minutes prior before she turned around to finish her run. The bee was persistent. Because of that distraction, and someone cutting grass nearby, she wasn’t able to see the swarm of bees around her. “Before I could even think, I had a...

Chicago runner Lynn Rogers knows the brain and nervous system in detail. After all, she earned her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering. Every day in her research, she uses non-invasive brain stimulation to understand the connections between mind and muscle. But even with a brain-science background, she struggled to find information about her prognosis when, last year, she received a rare diagnosis: chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, or CIDP. The disease causes her body to attack her own nerve cells, destroying their protective coatings and short-circuiting their signals. After three weeks of paralysis and three months as an inpatient at the same...

An evidence based argument with real life situational videos for carrying a concealed pistol with a round in the chamber.

Who would have thought a few years ago that the biggest problem facing the labor market today would be a lack of workers — not a lack of jobs? As recently as 2012, the unemployment rate was above 8 percent, more than twice its current rate. Since President Trump's election, nearly 4 million new net jobs have been created. The unemployment rate has tied lows unseen since the Vietnam War, when men were being drafted to fight. Black and Latino unemployment rates are at record lows. And for the first time in recorded history, there are more jobs available than...

Unless one has lived in a cave for the past couple of years, the majority of Americans are fully aware of this story, as depicted in the best-selling book and popular movie by the same name, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of BenghaziFrom the book: “Against overwhelming odds, Mark ‘Oz’ Geist, Kris ‘Tanto’ Paronto, John ‘Tig’ Tiegen, Jack Silva, Dave ‘Boon’ Benton, and Tyrone ‘Rone’ Wood went beyond the call of duty, performing extraordinary acts of courage and heroism, to avert tragedy on a much larger scale.” I have personally had the honor of meeting with Oz, Tig, Tanto and...

Oklahoma's Republican Gov. Mary Fallin on Friday vetoed a bill supported by the National Rifle Association (NRA) that would have allowed state residents to carry a firearm without a permit or training. "I believe the firearms laws we currently have in place are effective, appropriate and minimal," Fallin said in announcing her veto of Senate Bill 1212, which would have removed the requirement for Oklahoma residents to complete a training course and demonstrate competency with a firearm before carrying in public. The governor argued that the bill would have taken away the ability of the state's law enforcement personnel to...

The Senate is expected to decide on the bill by next week, the representative said, adding that he thinks the chances of it passing are “pretty good.”...If passed, it will be presented to Gov. Mary Fallin for a signature. Stone said he doesn’t expect Fallin to veto the bill.

Take a seat and watch Act II, in the Death of the US Army, a Shakesperaean tragedy powered by gutless generals, candyass Millennials and Barry Soetero, worshipping social justice warriors. It seems that every week there is a story detailing the newest clusterfu*k to hit the US military. Today, CNS News reported, “Army Basic Training to Drop Hand Grenade Competency as Graduation Requirement.” Hmm… Maybe, I’m just a cynical ex cav trooper, but maybe, just maybe, the US Army might need soldiers who are competent at throwing grenades in any future conflicts. But, then again, I’m assuming the Army is...

Homeowner Mark Parkinson and his wife Diana. (Photo: WSBTV.com) WALKER COUNTY, Ga. Agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are investigating an officer-involved shooting in Walker County in which a deputy shot and killed a man in his Rossville home. The incident began in the early-morning hours of New Year’s Day when a woman called 911 and said her estranged daughter-in-law threatened to kill her child and then herself. When deputies arrived at the home on Meadowview Drive in Rossville, the family was sleeping. The estranged daughter-in-law was living in the home with her parents while going through a...

DENVER (CBS4)– The Colorado Department of Transportation is gearing up for a major project that will change the landscape of Interstate 70 through the central part of Denver. The Central 70 Project will dramatically impact the community from Colorado Boulevard to Brighton Boulevard. The Colorado Department of Transportation is now hiring people who live there. “The Central 70 Project is by itself a major economic driver for the entire Denver-metro region. CDOT wanted to also ensure that these economic and job opportunities were made available to local residents,” said Shailen Bhatt, CDOT Executive Director. “CDOT is one of only a...

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D.-Minn.) (CNSNews.com) - Every member of the U.S. Senate and all staff members are required to undergo sexual harassment training in the next 60 days and at least once every two years after that under the terms of a resolution that the Senate approved on Thursday evening . The resolution was sponsored by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D.-Minn.), the ranking member of the Senate Rules Committee, and co-sponsored by 19 others. Among the co-sponsors were Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R.-Ky.), Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R.-Iowa), Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D.-Ill.) and Sen. Ted Cruz...

TUSTIN, Calif., Nov. 2, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- New American Funding, a leader in the mortgage industry, announced today the launch of its new STEP program, a corporate training curriculum that's designed to prepare people for a career in mortgage banking. STEP, which is Specialized Training Empowering People, is a nationwide program that was developed by the company to equip people for working in every aspect of the industry. STEP provides live weekly online and onsite classes that cover a spectrum of topics ranging from the fundamentals of mortgage banking to compliance education to the specifics about loan products. It's designed...

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak yesterday announced the launch of Woz U, which will start as an online learning platform focused on both students and companies that will eventually hire those students. Based out of Arizona, Wozniak hopes to launch physical locations for learning in over 30 cities across the globe. The platform will initially be centred around computer support specialists and software developers, with courses on data science, mobile applications and cybersecurity to be added in the future. In addition to the education platform, Woz U will also offer platforms for tech companies to recruit, train and retain their workforce...