Month: April 2019

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The Best iPhone Deals in December 2018: Compare Contracts for the XS, XS Max and X

April 4, 2019 | News | No Comments

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These are the best offers for Apple iPhone contracts from the best network providers below. This month sees a range of exclusive price-drop deals on the most popular Apple handsets: iPhone X and the new iPhone XS and XS Max. The below deals are split across storage variants and are all market-leading.

Best iPhone XS Contract Deals

Apple iPhone XS 64GB
On Three
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Three Network, Unlimited Data, Minutes and Texts: £99.00 Upfront Cost, £61 p/m

By far the best contract deal for the iPhone XS available right now, and you only have to pay £99 upfront! This deal is on the Three network so you’ll get lots of added value like personal hotspot and great roaming deals when you’re abroad.

  • Get this deal here – £99.00 upfront cost, £61 per month for 24 months after cashback
Apple iPhone XS 256GB
On Three
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Three Network, 8GB Data, Unlimited Minutes and Texts: £99.00 Upfront Cost, £67 p/m

Similar to above, there’s a £99.99 upfront cost with this deal and you will have to pay a few pounds more each month than you would for 64GB storage naturally, but you’ll get 8 gigs of data, unlimited minutes and texts with Three.

  • Get this deal here – £99.00 upfront cost, £67.00 per month for 24 months
Apple iPhone XS 512GB
On Three
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Three Network, 100GB Data, Unlimited Minutes and Texts: £99.00 Upfront Cost, £71 p/m

If you don’t want to limit your data, this deal is worth checking out. Three combines a huge 100 gigs of data with unlimited minutes and texts. There’s a £99 upfront cost but then you’ll only be paying £71 per month for 24 months. Don’t forget Three is probably the best network for roaming, allowing you to use up to 12GB of data in 49 European destinations and 71 destinations worldwide.

  • Get this deal here – £99 upfront cost, £71 per month for 24 months

Best iPhone XS Max Contract Deals

Apple iPhone XS Max 64GB
On Mobile Phones Direct
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O2 Network, 75GB Data, Unlimited Minutes and Texts: FREE Upfront Cost, £66 p/m

The best high-data plan for the Apple iPhone XS Max comes from Direct Mobiles. The upfront cost is free and you’re only paying £66 per month after. This deal originally came with 25 gigs of data, but Mobile Phones Direct has tied together an exclusive with O2 so that users can enjoy 75 gigs of data instead.

  • Get this deal here – FREE upfront cost, £66 per month for 24 months
Apple iPhone XS Max 256GB
On Three
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Three Network, 8GB Data, Unlimited Minutes and Texts: £99.00 Upfront Cost, £72 p/m

This is a great deal because you get four times the amount of storage, but only pay £6 more per month than the deal above. The downside? Only 8 gigs of data, which is something you can expect if you want a good deal on the 256GB variant of the iPhone XS Max.

  • Get this deal here – £99.00 upfront cost, £72 per month for 24 months
Apple iPhone XS Max 512GB
On Sky
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Sky Network, 2GB Data, Unlimited Minutes and Texts: £12.00 Upfront Cost, £59 p/m

Previously, it was impossible to think you could pay less than a £300 upfront cost for the iPhone XS Max 512GB variant. Sky has proved that wrong this month with this deal. Pay a small upfront cost of £12 and an equally small monthly cost of £59 to get 2 gigs of data, unlimited minutes and texts on the best phone in the market right now with the biggest amount of storage.

  • Get this deal here – £12.00 upfront cost, £59 per month for 24 months

Best iPhone X Deals

Apple iPhone X 64GB
On Affordable Mobiles
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EE Network, 50GB Data, Unlimited Minutes and Texts: £59.00 Upfront Cost, £48 p/m

This is an incredible deal on the iPhone X. Pay nothing upfront and only £53 per month to get a massive 50 gigs of data on the EE network. For those of you who don’t know, EE has been voted the best for 5 years in a row. Part of the reason why is because EE give freebies away, such as 3 months worth of BT Sport and 6 months worth of Apple Music with their contracts.

  • Get this deal here – FREE upfront cost, £53 per month for 24 months
Apple iPhone X 256GB
On Carphone Warehouse
See it
Vodafone Network, 26GB Data, Unlimited Minutes and Texts: £99.99 Upfront Cost, £58 p/m

An awesome deal that gets you an 256GB iPhone X with 26 gigs of Vodafone data for a £58 monthly cost.

  • Get this deal here – £99.99 upfront cost, £58.00 per month for 24 months

Haven’t found the right deal on this page? Use IGN’s sister site PCMag to compare all mobile phone contract deals here.

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By Tncse

High-Strength Fish Oils Show Promise Treating Heart-Related Problems: Doctors

April 4, 2019 | News | No Comments

CHICAGO — News from an American Heart Association conference over the weekend reveals a lot about what works and what does not for preventing heart attacks and other problems.

Dietary supplements missed the mark, but a prescription-strength fish oil showed promise. A drug not only helped people with diabetes control blood sugar and lose weight, but also lowered their risk of needing hospitalization for heart failure.

Good news for everyone: You no longer have to fast before a blood test to check cholesterol. Don’t stop at the doughnut shop on your way to the clinic, but eating something before the test is OK for most folks, the guidelines say.

They’re from the Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology and are endorsed by many other doctor groups. No authors had financial ties to drugmakers.

Here are highlights from the conference, which wraps up Monday:

Cholesterol

Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. High cholesterol leads to hardened arteries that can cause a heart attack or stroke. When guidelines were last revised five years ago, they moved away from just using cholesterol numbers to determine who needs treatment and toward a formula that takes into account age, high blood pressure and other factors to more broadly estimate risk.

That was confusing, so the new guidelines blend both approaches, setting targets based on the formula and considering individual circumstances, such as other medical conditions or a family history of early heart disease.

“It will never be as simple as a single cholesterol number,” because that doesn’t give a clear picture of risk, said one guideline panel member, Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones of Northwestern University.

If treatment is needed, the first choice remains a statin such as Lipitor or Crestor, which are sold as generics for a dime a day. For people at high risk, such as those who have already had a heart attack, the guidelines suggest adding Zetia, which is also sold as an inexpensive generic, if the statin didn’t lower cholesterol enough.

Only if those two medicines don’t help enough should powerful but pricey newer drugs called inhibitors be considered. Many insurers limit coverage of them and the guidelines say they’re not cost-effective except for folks at the very highest risk.

Finally, if it’s unclear whether someone needs treatment, the guidelines suggest a coronary artery calcium test, which looks for hardening of the arteries, to help decide. It’s a type of X-ray with a radiation dose similar to a mammogram and costs $100 to $300, which most insurers do not cover. Lloyd-Jones and others defended its use.

“Half of people will have a zero calcium score and can avoid a statin very safely,” a quarter will score high and need treatment, and the rest will need to weigh options with their doctors, he said.

The Cleveland Clinic’s Dr. Steven Nissen, who had no role in the guidelines, called them a big improvement but disagreed with “using a test that involves radiation to decide whether to give a drug that costs $3 a month,” referring to the price of statins. A cheap test to check for artery inflammation would be better, he said.

Fish oil, vitamin D

Two major studies gave mixed results on fish oil, or omega-3 fatty acids. There are different types, including EPA and DHA.

In a study of 26,000 healthy people, one gram a day of an EPA/DHA combo, a dose and type found in many dietary supplements, showed no clear ability to lower the risk of heart problems or cancer.

But another study testing four grams a day of Amarin Corp.’s Vascepa, which is concentrated EPA, found it slashed heart problems in people at higher risk for them because of high triglycerides, a type of fat in the blood, and other reasons. All were already taking a statin, and there’s concern about the results because Vascepa was compared to mineral oil, which can interfere with statins, and may have made the comparison group fare worse. Still, some doctors said Vascepa’s benefits seemed large enough to outweigh that worry.

The study that tested the lower amount of fish oil in the general population also tested vitamin D, one of the most popular supplements, and found it did not lower the risk of cancer or heart problems.

“I think we need to accept that that’s a good test” and that the vitamin is not worthwhile, said Dr. Jane Armitage of England’s Oxford University. “We do not see any benefit.”

“Don’t waste your money on those supplements,” which are not well regulated and are of varying quality, said Dr. Deepak Bhatt of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Diabetes

People with diabetes often die of heart disease or heart failure, and new diabetes medicines are required to be tested in large studies to show they don’t raise heart risks. One such medicine, Jardiance, surprised doctors a few years ago by lowering the risk of heart attacks and strokes. A second medicine, Invokana, later showed similar benefits but with some worrisome side effects.

A new study tested a third drug, Farxiga, in more than 17,000 diabetics with other heart risk factors and found a lower rate of hospitalization for heart failure or death from heart-related causes — five per cent among those on the drug versus six per cent in a placebo group after four years of use. That’s on top of the drug’s known benefits for controlling diabetes.

Certain infections and a serious buildup of acids in the blood were more common with Farxiga but these were rare and are known complications of the drug. It costs about $15 a day, about the same as similar medicines. Farxiga’s maker, AstraZeneca, sponsored the study and many study leaders consult for the company.

One independent expert, Dr. Eric Peterson, a Duke University cardiologist and one of the conference leaders, said doctors have been eager to know if the earlier studies suggesting these drugs might help hearts were a fluke. Results from the new study, the largest so far, “could make this class of drugs much more standardly used” for diabetics with high heart risks or heart failure, he said.

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By Tncse

Smallpox bioterrorist attack could devastate planet for 10 years

April 4, 2019 | News | No Comments

In August 2018, Australian scientists launched a complex international simulation dubbed, ‘Exercise Mataika’, which investigated a ‘worst-case scenario’ for a smallpox bioterrorist attack and the results are horrifying.

Smallpox, one of the most infectious diseases known to man, was officially eradicated in 1980, but two officially known samples of the disease are held in secure laboratories in the US and Russia.

The team’s simulation began with a smallpox bioterrorist attack in Fiji; the first case is reported in a private hospital but is not diagnosed properly as doctors are unfamiliar with the (now effectively-extinct) disease. The hypothetical outbreak then spreads to 200 people, of which roughly 40 percent die.

As the virus spreads, local health systems are overwhelmed, mass panic ensues, exacerbated by media reports and a 13-day delay in correctly identifying the outbreak. The number of infected quickly rises to 2,000 cases, including doctors, at which point nurses go on strike. The first wave of 32,000 vaccinations arrive in Fiji just as another, larger attack occurs in a more populous country in Asia.

In the study’s worst-case scenario, only 50 percent of people infected with the disease are isolated and only half of the people they had contact with are tracked and vaccinated. This leads to a “catastrophic blow-out in the epidemic.”

“Under these conditions, modelling shows it will take more than a billion doses and 10 years to stop the epidemic,” the researchers explain.

The variola genome, which causes smallpox, is fully sequenced and advances in synthetic biology have increased the likelihood of smallpox being synthesized in a laboratory. In addition, roughly one in five people live with some degree of immunosuppression in developed countries across the globe, while a large proportion of the world population today is unvaccinated.

© AFP / Mike Nelson

Biosecurity experts previously scoffed at the potential for a smallpox bioterrorist attack until Canadian scientists reconstructed the extinct horse pox virus in a lab using mail-order DNA in 2017.

Worldwide, the World Health Organization has a stockpile of 34 million vaccine doses from member donations, however, it only has roughly two million in its own possession.

As governments and health organizations work to contain the infection in the simulation, the global workforce is decimated, which severely disrupts transport, power, communications and food infrastructure.

“Trust in government and authority structures has disappeared, and legitimate attempts at communication by authorities are viewed with suspicion and fuel conspiracy theories,” the researchers write of the worst-case scenario.

“The results of the exercise are sobering… the results and lessons learned should be considered by every country in the world,” says biosecurity expert Michael Osterholm, the director of the Centre for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at Minnesota University.

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By Tncse

Oregon Slides Into No. 1 Spot in USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Poll

April 4, 2019 | News | No Comments

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In a wild and competitive week that witnessed only four top-25 programs go undefeated, Oregon becomes the third squad to claim the No. 1 ranking this season in the USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Poll, announced Tuesday by the Association.

 

The Ducks (30-4) are coming off a 5-1 week and received 18 out of a possible 32 first-place votes and 781 total points. Oregon closed out with a Pac-12 series win over then-No. 19 Washington taking the bookend games over the weekend. Behind Cheridan Hawkins’ perfect game, they triumphed in game one, 8-0, and after a 10-2 defeat in game two, the Ducks clinched the series with a 15-6 win. Oregon returns to No. 1, a spot it held for the final six weeks of the 2014 regular season.

Following a 2-2 week, LSU fell out of the top spot and comes in at No. 2 after receiving 12 first-place votes and 767 points. The Tigers (32-3) opened with an 8-0 victory over then No. 24 South Alabama, but suffered a pair of defeats in a SEC road series at then-No. 16 Kentucky (1-3 / 2-5) before salvaging the final game in Lexington (2-0).

Florida (32-4), Michigan (31-5), Alabama (25-7) and Oklahoma (28-5) held steady at three through six. The Gators and Crimson Tide wrapped up their series on Monday, splitting their twinbill in Tuscaloosa with UF taking game two (4-1) and Alabama avoiding the series sweep with a 5-1, game-three triumph. The Gators, who received a first-place vote, stayed on the road, taking two-of-three at RV Mississippi State (3-2 / 16-2 / 3-5).

The Wolverines put together a 3-1 week with a victory over in-state foe Western Michigan (8-2) and taking a Big 10 series from Iowa (6-0 / 7-4 / 4-6). After their series versus the Gators, the Tide trumped Georgia Tech (11-0) and won its league series against No. 23 Texas A&M (13-0 / 8-5 / 5-11).

Undefeated last week, the Sooners received one first-place vote and inched closer to the top five after scoring 43 runs in a three-game Big 12 road sweep of Texas Tech (9-1 / 13-5 / 21-6).

Joining Oklahoma as the other top-25 teams to go undefeated last week were No. 11 Tennessee (25-7), No. 16 UCF (34-5) and No. 24 James Madison (27-6). No. 25 Texas, which was receiving votes a week ago, moved back into the top-25 following a 5-0 week.

No. 7 Auburn (35-4) moved up a spot after going 3-2 on the road against then-No. 11 Florida State (7-10 / 10-4) and then-No. 20 Missouri (14-6 / 4-5 in 8 inn. / 10-8). The Seminoles (30-8) made their way back into the top 10 at No. 8. After FSU split with the Tigers, it shut out Pitt (8-0 / 7-0 / 3-0) in a home ACC series.

Rounding out the top-10 is Georgia (30-6), falling two spots to No. 9, and UCLA (30-6), which remained 10th for the second straight week. 

As stated earlier, No. 25 Texas (23-9) enjoyed a 5-0 week with walk-off wins over UTSA (2-1 / 3-2) and three Big 12 victories at then-No. 22 Kansas (6-0 / 11-5 / 7-5) to slide into the top-25 for the first time since the second regular season poll. The Jayhawks fell out of the top Top-25 for the first time since entering on March 3. 

The USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Poll is voted on by 32 NCAA Division I head coaches, one representing each conference.  Current 2015 records are shown and first-place votes are in parentheses.

USA Today/NFCA Division I Softball Poll – March 31, 2015

Rank

Team

2015 Record

Totals

Prev. Rank

1

Oregon (18)

30-4

781

2

2

LSU (12)

32-3

767

1

3

Florida (1)

32-4

732

3

4

Michigan

31-5

689

4

5

Alabama

25-7

667

5

6

Oklahoma (1)

28-5

661

6

7

Auburn

35-4

597

8

8

Florida State

30-8

517

11

9

Georgia

30-6

498

7

10

UCLA

30-6

480

10

11

Tennessee

25-7

476

15

12

Louisiana-Lafayette

27-5

473

9

13

Kentucky

23-9

436

16

14

Minnesota

27-4

415

12

15

Baylor

24-7

349

13

16

UCF

34-5

299

18

17

California

26-7

281

17

18

Arizona

28-9

264

14

19

Arizona State

24-11

245

21

20

Washington

31-9

240

19

21

Missouri

22-7

176

20

22

South Alabama

24-7

91

24

23

Texas A&M

25-9

82

23

24

James Madison

27-6

72

25

25

Texas

23-9

27

RV

New to Poll: No. 25 Texas

Dropped out: No. 22 Kansas (29-5) 

Others Receiving Votes: Kansas (25), Notre Dame (22), Mississippi State (13), North Dakota State (7), Western Kentucky (5), South Carolina (4), USC Upstate (2), Virginia Tech (2), UAB (2), Hofstra (2), Cal State Northridge (1).

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By Tncse

North Korean embassy break-in carried out by shadowy government in exile

April 4, 2019 | News | No Comments

A secretive group dedicated to overthrowing Kim Jong-un was behind a raid on Madrid’s North Korean embassy just days before a high-profile summit with Donald Trump, according to US media.

Ten men burst into the compound on February 22, tied up staff, stole computers and documents before escaping in two luxury vehicles.

According to the Washington Post, the operation was carried out by a group called Cheollima Civil Defense, a secretive dissident organisation committed to overthrowing the Kim dynasty.

Experts believe the stolen documents could provide insight into North Korea’s efforts to bypass international sanctions and import luxury goods from Europe. Those files could be a veritable treasure trove for intelligence agencies, who may seek access to them from the group.

The raid has been shrouded in mystery and was initially reported as a break-in. Spanish authorities have only officially confirmed that on February 22 a North Korean woman who was slightly injured was picked up on a street near the embassy.

Spanish press had previously suggested the raid was carried out in co-ordination with the CIA, but American media reports have disputed this, suggesting US intelligence agencies would be reluctant to be involved in such a brazen attack, particularly so close to a high-stakes summit between President Trump and Kim. The meeting between the two leaders in Hanoi, Vietnam, ultimately ended without an agreement.

The CCD group first emerged in 2017 when it posted a video of Kim Jong-un’s nephew online, saying it had guaranteed his safety after his father, Kim’s half-brother, was killed after being smeared with nerve agent in Kuala Lumpur airport in February that year.

Last month the group declared itself as a government-in-exile for the North called "Free Joseon", an old name for Korea.

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By Tncse

‘Peacekeeping group’? US to leave 200 troops in Syria for a ‘period of time’ after withdrawal

April 4, 2019 | News | No Comments

Despite President Donald Trump’s promises to withdraw American troops out of Syria, the US intends to maintain presence on the ground with a “small peacekeeping group” for an unspecified “period” of time, the White House said.

“A small peacekeeping group of about 200 will remain in Syria for a period of time,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement without elaborating.

Trump took the world by surprise back in December, when he announced the US withdrawal from Syria without specifying a timetable. The initiative was not well received in the Pentagon, even forcing Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to resign after clashing with Trump, as both the generals and politicians have been claiming that US presence in Syria is vital and that Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorist group would inevitably reemerge if all of some 2,000 Americans leave.

The US withdrawal is being stalled by concerns about potential Turkish incursion into the territories currently controlled by the US-backed Syrian Kurds. On Thursday, Trump had another phone call with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the issue. Washington wants Turkey to agree to a buffer ‘safe zone’ in northeastern Syria and is also contemplating arming the Syrian Kurds, despite Ankara’s strong opposition.

While the US continues its diplomatic maneuvering, some noted the irony, wondering if the White House was using the term ‘peacekeeping’ correctly or was even aware of what it actually means. Others questioned the logic and the motive of maintaining such a contingent on the ground, noting that 200 troops could serve as a human shield, but is unlikely to really sway the outcome of the conflict.

Traditionally, the term peacekeeping has been used to describe the UN Blue Helmets whose missions are strictly mandated by the Security Council. American troops, however, hardly have any legal basis to remain in Syria, as they had never been invited by the official government in Damascus.

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By Tncse

NFCA Announces 2015 NAIA All-American Teams

April 4, 2019 | News | No Comments

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The National Fastpitch Coaches Association is pleased to announce the 2015 NFCA NAIA All-America teams.

 

This year’s squad is comprised of 32 players representing 22 schools across the five NFCA geographic regions on each of two All-America teams.

Oklahoma City University led the way with five selections, three on the first team, while five other institutions — including national champion Auburn-Montgomery, Grand View, Oregon Tech, St. Xavier and Marian (Ind.) — had two players honored. Oregon Tech also had two first team honorees.

Representing Oklahoma City on the first team are outfielder Jocelin Diaz and at-large selections Kyndra Holasek (infield) and Jamie Rateliff (pitcher/outfield). Diaz, a first-team all-Sooner Athletic Conference selection, hit 449 with 13 home runs and 69 RBI to go with 59 runs scored, 80 hits, 20 doubles, two triples, 14 stolen bases and a .989 field percentage. Holasek, a SAC first-teamer, boasted a .450 average with 91 hits, 76 runs scored, 21 doubles, 13 homers, 76 RBI and 26 steals.  At the plate, Rateliff hit .390 with 18 doubles, 16 home runs and 57 RBI, while going 36-7 in the circle with a 2.03 ERA, eight shutouts, four saves and 120 strikeouts.

Oregon Tech designated layer Tara Moates and outfielder McKenzie Shrum garnered first team recognition for the Owls. Moates, the Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) Player of the Year, batted .479 with a school-record and NAIA-best 101 hits. She drove in 73 runs, scored 58 times, recorded 14 long balls and registered 12 doubles. Her RBI, hits, average and total bases led the CCC. A first team All-CCC awardee, Shrum finished in the conference top 10 in batting average (.411), on base percentage (.498), RBI (47) and total bases (130).  She led the league in runs scored (68) and was second in hits (86), triples (3) and stolen bases (20).

Headlining the pitchers are NAIA Player of the Year Cassie Jones of two-time national championship Auburn-Montgomery and NAIA Pitcher of the Year, Nicole Nonnemacher of St. Xavier, who earned a spot as an at-large. Jones finished her career as one of the most decorated pitchers in NAIA history and had a phenomenal 2015 campaign. Jones led the NAIA in wins (35), ERA (0.85), opponent batting average (.103), and total batters struck out (411). In 46 appearances, she recorded 17 shutouts and went 35-5 on the year. Her strikeouts and shutouts rank seventh and ninth (tie) in the NAIA season record books. 

Nonnemacher posted a 27-5 mark in the circle with 17 shutouts, a 1.02 ERA and 385 strikeouts. In 206.1 innings, she landed No. 1 in strikeouts per seven innings (13.06) and was No. 2 in opponent’s batting average, ERA and strikeouts, while ranked third in wins.

Garnering the first-team nod at catcher is Reinhardt’s Randi Wimpy. Wimpy, the two-time Appalachian Athletic Conference Player of the Year, finished fifth in the country in slugging (.912) and 22nd in RBI (57). She led the Lady Eagles squad with a .447 batting average to go along with 16 doubles, 11 home runs, 53 runs scored and 42 walks.

The first-team first baseman is Cassidy Littlefield of Georgia Gwinnett College. Leading the Grizzlies to their first conference title and top-25 national ranking, Littlefield batted .462 with 80 hits, 17 doubles, eight triples and a school-record-tying seven home runs to go along with 40 stolen bases. Ranked in the top 20 in 17 statistical categories, she scored a program-record 75 runs and topped the single-season marks with a .550 on base percentage and .775 slugging percentage.

Bellevue’s Ashley Gigaz is the first team’s second baseman. Gigax, the 2015 MCAC Player of the Year, set school records in 2015 for most home runs (21) and highest slugging percentage (.871), while leading the Bruins with a .424 batting average, 72 hits, 56 RBIs and a .490 on-base percentage. A six-time MCAC Player of the Week,

Jessica Grochala of Grand View University took home the first-team honors at third base. Grochala, the 2015 MCC Player of the Year, led the Vikings at the plate, batting .437 with 59 hits, 15 home runs, 12 doubles, two triples and 49 RBI. Nationally, Grochala was among leaders this season in slugging (6th – .889), total bases per game (12th – 2.609), home runs (14th), total bases (34th – 120), batting average (36th) and RBI per game (37th – 1.065).

Rounding out the infield is Davenport shortstop, KC Dunne. The senior led the team in many offensive categories, which were highlighted with a .458 batting average and 11 homeruns on the season. Dunne was also tied for the team lead in runs batted in with 52, while she was named the WHAC Player of the Year for the second consecutive season. 

Columbia College’s (Mo.) Carly Spalding is your final first-team outfielder following a record breaking 2015 campaign for the Cougars. She led the squad with a program-record .491 batting average and was second in single-season hits with 83. Coined American Midwest Conference Player of the Year, Spalding led the NAIA in hits per game (184), runs per game (1.47), triples (8) and total bases per game (2.96).  She also landed in the top ten in triples per game (0.18), stolen bases per game (1.18), stolen bases (53), batting average (0.491), hits (83) and runs scored (66).

Coming in as the first team’s utility player is Cat Maldonado of Southeastern University. Maldonado was The Sun Conference Player of the Year, hitting .395 with 16 home runs, 13 doubles, and 57 RBIs. Pitching, Maldonado was 12-3 with a 2.73 ERA in 89.2 innings of work. She finished the season ranked in the top 50 in the NAIA in eight offensive categories, including total bases (129), slugging percentage (.750), and hits (68).

Rounding out the five first-team at-large selections are outfielder Meghan Leubbert of Concordia University (Ore.) and Indiana Wesleyan freshman Alexandrea Springer. Leubbert helped her squad to a third-place finish at the NAIA World Series and school-record 46 wins. She hit 381 and ranked in the top five in the CCC with 81 hits, 66 runs scored, 70 RBI and 16 stolen bases. The sophomore also belted a CCC-record 21 round trippers and scored 66 runs, third most in a conference single season.

Springer, a first baseman/catcher, hit .450 with 42 extra base hits and 67 RBI. The Crossroads League Newcomer of the Year led the nation with 23 doubles and ranked second with 155 total bases, fourth with a .917 slugging percentage, fifth with 18 home runs and seventh with 2.67 total bases per game

NFCA member coaches in the five regions selected the teams. For the complete squad, click HERE

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By Tncse

‘Challenging’ Russia in the Arctic: Political posturing or a war in the making?

April 4, 2019 | News | No Comments

As Russia bolsters its efforts to secure and tap the Arctic, both the UK and the US have been vowing to meet its “challenge” – a premise that could lead to war, experts say, if their naval powers could muster the capabilities.

“It’s nobody’s lake,” said US Admiral James Foggo in a recent interview with US media – the latest in a string of American warnings against Russia’s northward push. His concern is primarily for “Arctic Council nations – of which we are a member,” and which are not interested in the Northern Sea Route being exploited by adversary powers like Russia and China.

UK Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson recently joined the chorus of warnings, saying Britain would “stay vigilant to new challenges” by “sharpening our skills in sub-zero conditions, learning from longstanding allies like Norway or monitoring submarine threats with our Poseidon aircraft.”

But Russia is better positioned both legally and physically to oversee the Arctic and, while still dangerous, the bellicose statements carry little weight for the reality on the ice, experts have told RT.

Bravado for domestic consumption

Williamson’s promise to defend NATO’s northern flank from Russia must be viewed “in the context of current UK domestic politics,” believes security analyst and former UK army officer Charles Shoebridge. With Brexit just around the corner, Williamson is drumming up the Russia and China threats so that other European nations aren’t “tempted to turn to the EU for its security, but must continue to rely on the US and UK through NATO.”

Ultimately, he could be aiming just for political gain.

Likewise in the US: James Foggo’s “nobody’s lake” comment was tellingly lacking in detail as to how exactly the US is going to keep Russia out of the Arctic, says retired colonel Mikhail Khodarenok.

“James Foggo’s statements at this point are of a purely political nature. It’s telling that he never clarified how exactly the US Navy is going to accomplish that task. Are they going to create naval groups in the Arctic Ocean, seize important coastal areas, channels, naval bases and ports? But that means war with a nuclear power, one which would see unrestricted use of weapons of mass destruction.”

US Navy submarines break through sea ice during ICEX 2018 exercises in the Beaufort Sea ©  Reuters / US Navy / Mass Communication 2nd Class Micheal H. Lee

Dangerous free-for-all

War can be averted, the experts believe, though the danger of escalation is very real. The situation, according to Khodarenok, is complicated by the vagueness of international law regarding the Arctic.

“James Foggo’s statement is a fresh indication that the Arctic is becoming an arena of global rivalry over transport lanes and natural resources,” Khodarenok said.

Shoebridge, on the other hand, believes that when faced with the danger of an armed incident spiraling into “uncontrolled escalation,” cooler heads will prevail.

“Despite the confrontational language they might use, most leaders of most states want to avoid this,” he said.

Questionable claims and capabilities

The US seeks to deny Russia and China the use of the Northern Sea Route – but the lane goes along the Russian coastline, which, under international law, gives Russia a degree of control over it, something Russia should lean on when defending its rights to use the waters, says Khodarenok.

Besides, while Foggo wants Russia and China out of the “nobody’s lake,” he admits American companies can’t use it either, since their vessels are too big for local conditions. Besides, Russia is the only world power with a significant icebreaker fleet, which makes it the only one capable of rendering aid to ships that have an emergency while sailing there.
On top of that, Russia has been reviving its military installations that guard the area, including radar arrays and permanent military bases. Abandoning those is not an option, since that would mean losing a vital strategic foothold.

At the end of the day the only ones undoubtedly standing to profit from the opening of the Arctic arena are military industrial contractors – with the US 2nd Fleet revived for the sole purpose of containing Russia’s Arctic ambition, Navy contracts are bound to follow.

Providing the military industrial complex with new contracts might in fact be one of the major reasons behind all this “public posturing,” William Mallinson, a former British diplomat and a professor at the Guglielmo Marconi University, believes.

“The American military industrial complex is very worried about a possibility of an independent EU Army,” he said, adding that Washington as well as its allies in London decided to once again drum up the anti-Russian hysteria and perpetuate the perceivable Russian threat.

“It is in the interests of the Americans and the British to continue the Cold War for as long as possible to keep the old business model of NATO,” even if it means reviving the Truman doctrine of containing Russia, which goes back to 1947, the professor explained.

“An EU army, independent from NATO, would be friendlier to Russia and the shareholders of the US and UK companies would lose billions of dollars in arms sales,” Mallinson said, adding that the US and the UK would continue to portray Russia as an adversary to keep NATO relevant, even though they could hardly challenge Russia in the Arctic as it has “more experienced” Armed Forces that are better adapted to the harsh polar conditions.

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Between Two Ferns With Zach Galifianakis Movie in Production at Netflix

April 4, 2019 | News | No Comments

The Funny or Die series Between Two Ferns With Zach Galifianakis will reportedly be receiving a feature-length film on Netflix, and production is already underway.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, series co-creator and frequent director Scott Aukerman will be helming the film. Though the plot itself isn’t known, it is set to incorporate the low-budget talk show segments the series is comprised of, with Galifianakis inappropriately insulting guests while interviewing them between, you guessed it: two ferns.

Famous guests reported to be involved in the film include Peter Dinklage, David Letterman, Keanu Reeves, Ed Helms and Bradley Cooper.

Beginning in 2008, Between Two Ferns saw Galifianakis interviewing celebrities like Natalie Portman, Justin Bieber, Charlize Theron, Jerry Seinfeld, Sean Penn and more with a bizarre persona that amplified his already awkward humor. Special episodes include interviews with President Barack Obama and then-presidential candidate Hilary Clinton, both of which raked in tens of millions of views.

For more on Zach Galifianakis, check out our interview with him about his stand-up special, Live at the Purple Onion, and another interview where we spoke with him about the HBO comedy Bored to Death.

Colin Stevens is a news writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

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Best Last-Minute Christmas Gifts For Anyone You May Have Missed

April 4, 2019 | News | No Comments

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Even when you make a list and check it twice, it can still be easy to forget someone during all the holiday bustle. While this can be a stressful thing for many — especially when you realize the week before Christmas — last-minute shopping doesn’t have to be hard.

Here, we’ve rounded up 21 of the best last-minute Christmas gifts for anyone you may have missed. With one of these ideas, they’ll never know you were scrambling to buy them something sweet.

1. “A Star Is Born” Original Motion Picture Soundtrack 2XLP

Buy it here: Urban Outfitters, $44.98

2. Plaid comfort kit

Buy it here: Canadian Tire, $34.99

3. Floral fauna candle

Buy it here: Anthropologie, $45.55

4. Winnipeg Jets pullover hoodie

Buy it here: Sport Chek, $79.99

5. Monogramed cheeseboard

Buy it here: Anthropologie, $91.10

6. Whiskey in a Teacup by Reese Witherspoon

Buy it here: Chapters, $20

7. Sony over-ear wireless headphones with mic

Buy it here: Best Buy, $124.99

8. Anomia Party Edition

Buy it here: Walmart, $55

9. Chunky cabin mitts

Buy it here: Roots, $42

10. Astrology by Bite Beauty lipstick set

Buy it here: Sephora, $95

11. Fjallraven laptop bag

Buy it here: Fjallraven, $124.99

12. Wine subscription box

Buy it here: Wine Collective, $57.24+

13. Narwhal indoor slippers

Buy it here: Forever 21, $19.90

14. Queer Eye: Love Yourself. Love Your Life.

Buy it here: Chapters/Indigo, $23.99

15. Milk & dark chocolate favourites gift box

Buy it here: Purdys Chocolatier, $45

16. Coeeze pants

Buy it here: Adidas, $90

17. Amazon Prime subscription

Buy it here: Amazon, $7.99/month

18. Fitbit Charge 3 SE Fitness Tracker

Buy it here: Sport Chek, $178.98

19. Calligraphy Made Easy Journal

Buy it here: Chapters/Indigo, $15.95

20. Jacquard scarf

Buy it here: Zara, $39.90

21. Ninja professional blender

Buy it here: Canadian Tire, $99.99

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