What a two weeks it’s been. Something happened that has been simmering for a while. The API market exploded. Intel bought Mashery for more than $180 million and CA acquired Layer 7. 3Scale received a new $4.5 million round of funding from Javelin Ventures. Programmable Web acquired Mulesoft. And then Facebook jumped in and bought Parse. The acquisitions and funding point to a maturing market that is reflected in the ubiquity of APIs across the application landscape. It’s not a new market by any means. The space is filled with companies that have leveraged the API build out that has happened over the past several years. Instead this is an inflection point. There are more than 30,000 APIs, according to Programmable Web, the leading API directory and blog. Javelin Ventures Managing Director Noah Doyle said to me in an interview that analysts see the API market growing five to ten times over the next five years. With that scaling in number of APIs comes a virtuous circle for the developers that build compelling apps and APIs. The APIs extend the apps reach as they become part of distributed data network. As more people use the APIs so the app developer generates more data. As the data increases in scope, often the service will become an API. Facebook needs new streams of data to keep rolling out new digital products. Back end as a service providers like Parse provide SDKs and APIs that give developers access to infrastructure for storing basic data types, locations and photos. How Facebook uses this data is a question mark. But regardless, Pare serves as a constant replenishing source, nourished by the apps on the Parse platform that use APIs. Facebook now will decide how to package and segment that data to push more relevant advertising to its 1 billion users. APIs Are Like Glue APIs will be the glue to the Internet, said Programmable Web Founder John Musser. Musser, like Doyle, sees a new generation of APIs emerging that are fueled by demand, triggered by mobile devices, which serve in many respects as the new client/servers. Apps are hosted on cloud services and distributed across mobile devices that read and write data, sending and receiving information, connecting via APIs. In the first generation, Mashery and companies like Apigee pioneered the API management space. Twitter and other web companies emerged in the second generation. In the
If ever there was something bubbling out of the primordial ooze it's these little pools of light. There's something that's just gloopy and compelling about them. This is KIHOU, a series produced by tangent, a London/Tokyo design studio. More »
Echoes of one of Tolstoy's great works, inspired by the conflict between Russia and Chechnya, can be found in the final novel by David Foster Wallace.
By Nina Martyris,?Contributor / April 26, 2013
Tolstoy's novel 'Hadji Murad' reflects the author's fascination with the East-West struggle between the Europeanized rulers of Russia and the Muslims of Chechnya.
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The Boston Marathon bombing brought together two disparate worlds: Cambridge and Chechnya. And at the same time it reasserted a connection between two great writers: Leo Tolstoy and David Foster Wallace.
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In the United States, many people became focused on the strife in Chechnya only last week. Tolstoy beat us by more than century. His 1912 novel "Hadji Murad" (written years earlier) tells a story of violence between Chechens and Russians that was historic even then.?
This slim novel ? a sapling when compared to the oaks of "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina" but with a theme as weighty ? tells the tragic story of the eponymous Avar warrior, who, after a falling out with a Chechen chief, turns himself over to the Russians, escapes from them, only to find himself trapped like an animal in a ditch between the Russian militia and his own people. Finally, another tribesman cuts off his head. It is a brutal story but softened with touches of great tenderness and empathy, both for the ordinary Chechen as well as the ordinary Russian soldier.
Fast forward to the 20th century. Long before the Boston Marathon bombing, "Hadji Murad" seems to have left its imprint on the troubled and capacious mind of a writer who made Boston his home for three years: David Foster Wallace, author of the peculiarly brilliant novel "Infinite Jest." It is not in "Infinite Jest," however, that we see the striking influence of Tolstoy. Instead, it is found in Wallace's last work, "The Pale King" ? an unfinished novel completed and published in 2011, three years after Wallace's 2008 suicide.
Theme-wise the two novels are completely different. ("The Pale King," set in Illinois in the 1980s, satirizes the Internal Revenue Service.) The similarity is found in the form and style of the first chapter. The opening paragraph of "The Pale King," in which the weeds and wild flowers in an Illinois field are described with a forensic clarity, is an unmistakable bow to the first page of "Hadji Murad," where the flowers and weeds of the Chechen mountains are evoked with the rustic lyricism that Tolstoy did so well.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's on Friday said they have settled two long-running lawsuits seeking to hold them responsible for misleading investors about the safety of risky debt vehicles that they had rated.
The lawsuits had accused Moody's, a unit of Moody's Corp , and S&P, a unit of McGraw-Hill Cos, of negligent misrepresentation over their activities regarding the Cheyne and Rhinebridge structured investment vehicles (SIVs).
Morgan Stanley, which marketed both SIVs and helped structure the Rhinebridge SIV, also settled.
Settlement terms were not disclosed in the cases, which had been brought in 2008 and had sought more than $700 million (452 million pounds) of damages. Both lawsuits were dismissed with prejudice, meaning they cannot be brought again.
Moody's spokesman Michael Adler, McGraw-Hill spokesman Jason Feuchtwanger and Morgan Stanley spokesman Mark Lake confirmed their companies' respective settlements.
"This settlement allows us to put the significant legal defence and related costs, as well as the distraction, of these very protracted litigations behind us," Adler said.
Feuchtwanger said McGraw-Hill's settlement involved no admission of wrongdoing.
Lawyers for the plaintiff investors did not immediately respond to several requests for comment.
A trial in the Cheyne case had been scheduled for May 6 before U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin in Manhattan, who oversaw both lawsuits.
Credit rating agencies have been accused by investors, regulators and politicians of inflating the ratings of risky mortgage-backed and structured securities in a bid to win new business.
Critics said these activities also fuelled demand from investors who believed the ratings were objective, but prices collapsed once the risks materialized, helping to trigger the 2008 global financial crisis.
S&P still faces the U.S. Department of Justice's $5 billion civil fraud lawsuit filed in February over its ratings, the government's first major post-crisis action against a credit rating agency. The credit rating agency is trying to dismiss that case.
FIRST AMENDMENT
In the Cheyne and Rhinebridge cases, investors accused rating agencies of collaborating with banks to ensure that SIVs received ratings as high as "triple-A," though much of the underlying collateral was low-quality or subprime mortgage debt.
The Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, King County in Washington state, and other investors sought $638 million of damages related to losses they claimed to have suffered when the Cheyne SIV went bankrupt in August 2007. The similarly-named firm that managed the SIV did not go bankrupt.
King County and the Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corp, meanwhile, had been seeking $70 million of damages over Rhinebridge, which had been structured by Germany's IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG and was wound down in August 2008.
IKB settled the Rhinebridge case last year, and credit rating agency Fitch Ratings, a unit of France's Fimalac SA , settled last month.
Among the defences raised by the rating agencies were that their ratings were opinions that deserved free speech protection under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Scheindlin limited that defence in a 2009 ruling, saying that ratings on notes sold to select investors were not "matters of public concern" deserving broad free speech protection.
The government has not hit Moody's and Fitch with lawsuits similar to the case it is pursuing against S&P.
The cases are Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank et al v. Morgan Stanley & Co et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 08-07508; and King County, Washington et al v. IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG et al in the same court, No. 09-08387.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Gary Hill and Lisa Shumaker)
Are you worried about the eco-impact of all that tossed confetti at your upcoming nuptials? Or maybe you don't want to have to pay someone to clean it all up. Either way, just opt for Niko Niko's new Throw & Grow eco-friendly confetti. Made of a biodegradable paper-like material shaped like little blossoms, the confetti is filled with seeds that will eventually sprout into a patch of wildflowers. More »
Apr. 14, 2013 ? A new chemical process can transform waste sulfur into a lightweight plastic that may improve batteries for electric cars, reports a University of Arizona-led team. The new plastic has other potential uses, including optical uses.
The team has successfully used the new plastic to make lithium-sulfur batteries.
"We've developed a new, simple and useful chemical process to convert sulfur into a useful plastic," lead researcher Jeffrey Pyun said.
Next-generation lithium-sulfur, or Li-S, batteries will be better for electric and hybrid cars and for military uses because they are more efficient, lighter and cheaper than those currently used, said Pyun, a UA associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry.
The new plastic has great promise as something that can be produced easily and inexpensively on an industrial scale, he said.
The team's discovery could provide a new use for the sulfur left over when oil and natural gas are refined into cleaner-burning fuels.
Although there are some industrial uses for sulfur, the amount generated from refining fossil fuels far outstrips the current need for the element. Some oil refineries, such as those in Ft. McMurray in Alberta, are accumulating yellow mountains of waste sulfur.
"There's so much of it we don't know what to do with it," said Pyun. He calls the left-over sulfur "the garbage of transportation."
About one-half pound of sulfur is left over for every 19 gallons of gasoline produced from fossil fuels, calculated co-author Jared Griebel, a UA chemistry and biochemistry doctoral candidate.
The researchers have filed an international patent for their new chemical process and for the new polymeric electrode materials for Li-S batteries.
The international team's research article, "The Use of Elemental Sulfur as an Alternative Feedstock for Polymeric Materials," is scheduled for online publication in Nature Chemistry April 14.
Pyun and Griebel's co-authors are Woo Jin Chung, Adam G. Simmonds, Hyun Jun Ji, Philip T. Dirlam, Richard S. Glass and ?rp?d Somogyi of the UA; Eui Tae Kim, Hyunsik Yoon, Jungjin Park, Yung-Eun Sung, and Kookheon Char of Seoul National University in Korea; Jeong Jae Wie, Ngoc A. Nguyen, Brett W. Guralnick and Michael E. Mackay of the University of Delaware in Newark; and Patrick Theato of the University of Hamburg in Germany.
Pyun wanted to apply his expertise as a chemist to energy-related research. He knew about the world's glut of elemental sulfur at fossil fuel refineries -- so he focused on how chemistry could use the cheap sulfur to satisfy the need for good Li-S batteries.
He and his colleagues tried something new: transforming liquid sulfur into a useful plastic that eventually could be produced easily on an industrial scale.
Sulfur poses technical challenges. It doesn't easily form the stable long chains of molecules, known as polymers, needed make a moldable plastic, and most materials don't dissolve in sulfur.
Pyun and his colleagues identified the chemicals most likely to polymerize sulfur and girded themselves for the long process of testing those chemicals one by one by one. More than 20 chemicals were on the list.
They got lucky.
"The first one worked -- and nothing else thereafter," Pyun said.
Even though the first experiment worked, the scientists needed to try the other chemicals on their list to see if others worked better and to understand more about working with liquid sulfur.
They've dubbed their process "inverse vulcanization" because it requires mostly sulfur with a small amount of an additive. Vulcanization is the chemical process that makes rubber more durable by adding a small amount of sulfur to rubber.
The new plastic performs better in batteries than elemental sulfur, Pyun said, because batteries with cathodes made of elemental sulfur can be used and recharged only a limited number of times before they fail.
The new plastic has electrochemical properties superior to those of the elemental sulfur now used in Li-S batteries, the researchers report. The team's batteries exhibited high specific capacity (823 mAh/g at 100 cycles) and enhanced capacity retention.
Several companies have expressed interest in the new plastic and the new battery, Pyun said.
The team's next step is comparing properties of the new plastic to existing plastics and exploring other practical applications such as photonics for the new plastic.
The National Research Foundation of Korea, the Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the American Chemical Society and the University of Arizona funded the research.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Arizona, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Woo Jin Chung, Jared J. Griebel, Eui Tae Kim, Hyunsik Yoon, Adam G. Simmonds, Hyun Jun Ji, Philip T. Dirlam, Richard S. Glass, Jeong Jae Wie, Ngoc A. Nguyen, Brett W. Guralnick, Jungjin Park, ?rp?d Somogyi, Patrick Theato, Michael E. Mackay, Yung-Eun Sung, Kookheon Char, Jeffrey Pyun. The use of elemental sulfur as an alternative feedstock for polymeric materials. Nature Chemistry, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nchem.1624
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Secretary of State John Kerry issued a stern warning Friday, telling Kim Jong Un North Korea will not be accepted as a nuclear power. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
By Arshad Mohammed and Ben Blanchard, Reuters
BEIJING -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met China's top leaders on Saturday in a bid to persuade them to exert pressure on North Korea to scale back its belligerent rhetoric and, eventually, return to nuclear talks.
Traveling to Beijing for the first time as secretary of state, Kerry made no secret of his desire to see China take a more activist stance toward North Korea, which in recent weeks has threatened nuclear war against the United States and South Korea.
As the North's main trading partner, financial backer and the closest thing it has to a diplomatic ally, China has a unique ability to use its leverage against the impoverished, isolated state, Kerry said in the South Korean capital, Seoul, on Friday before leaving for Beijing.
"Mr. President, this is obviously a critical time with some very challenging issues -- issues on the Korean Peninsula, the challenge of Iran and nuclear weapons, Syria and the Middle East, and economies around the world that are in need of a boost," Kerry told Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People.
Kerry said after the meeting that his talks with Xi were "constructive and forward-leaning", though he did not elaborate.
China had a testy relationship with Kerry's predecessor, Hillary Clinton, believing her to be too abrasive in their disagreements over everything from human rights to territorial disputes like the South China Sea.
Pentagon intelligence has assessed that North Korea likely does have the ability to launch nuclear missiles, which raises the stakes for John Kerry, who just landed in South Korea, to find a diplomatic way out of the crisis. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
"Clinton added fuel to the mistrust during her four-year term. We hope Kerry can pull it in the other direction," China's widely read and influential Global Times tabloid said in an editorial.
Kerry's visit to Asia, which will include a stop in Tokyo on Sunday, takes place after weeks of shrill North Korean threats of war since the imposition of new U.N. sanctions in response to its third nuclear test in February.
North Korea has repeatedly said it will not abandon nuclear weapons which it said on Friday were its "treasured" guarantor of security.
No sign of imminent missile launch North Korean television on Saturday made no mention of Kerry's visit and devoted most of its reports to preparations for Monday's celebrations marking the birth date of state founder Kim Il-Sung.
These included a numerous floral tributes and grandiose flower show, foreign visitors seeing the sights of the capital ahead of the festivities and the unveiling of a monument in a provincial town.
But Rodong Sinmun, the ruling Workers' Party's newspaper, issued a fresh denunciation of joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises, saying: "The outbreak of nuclear war has now become a fait accompli, owing to the U.S. and the South Korean puppet forces.
"If the enemies dare provoke (North Korea) while going reckless, it will immediately blow them up with an annihilating strike with the use of powerful nuclear means."
However, South Korea's Yonhap news agency, quoting a government source, said North Korea had not moved any of its mobile missile launchers for the past two days after media reports that as many as five missiles had been moved into place on the country's east coast.
Yonhap said there had been no signs of any movement by the mobile launchers since Thursday "or that missile launches are imminent".
U.S. 'fanning the flames'? Beijing has been reluctant to apply pressure on Pyongyang, fearing the instability that could result if the North were to implode and send floods of refugees into China, and has looked askance at U.S. military drills in South Korea.
North Korea is trending online and has been searched on Google more than ever before now that the country's outlandish threats have gotten the world's attention. Kim Jong-un is still expected to launch a missile, and some analysts predict they will then ask for money not to do it again. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
China's official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary that Washington had itself been "fanning the flames" on the Korean peninsula with its shows of force.
"It keeps sending more fighters, bombers and missile-defense ships to the waters of East Asia and carrying out massive military drills with Asian allies in a dramatic display of preemptive power," it said.
However, U.S. officials believe China's rhetoric on North Korea has begun to shift, pointing to a recent speech by China's Xi in which -- without referring explicitly to Pyongyang -- he said no country "should be allowed to throw a region and even the whole world into chaos for selfish gain".
Kerry told reporters in Seoul that if North Korea's 30-year-old leader went ahead with the launch of a medium-range missile, he would be making "a huge mistake."
At a news conference in Seoul on Friday and in a U.S.-South Korean joint statement issued on Saturday, Kerry signaled the U.S. preference for diplomacy to end the tension, but stressed North Korea must take "meaningful" steps on denuclearization.
The United States and its allies believe the North violated the a 2005 aid-for-denuclearization deal by conducting a nuclear test in 2006 and pursuing a uranium enrichment program that would give it a second path to a nuclear weapon in addition to its plutonium-based program.
David Guttenfelder / AP
As chief Asia photographer for the Associated Press, David Guttenfelder has had unprecedented access to communist North Korea. Here's a rare look at daily life in the secretive country.
Related:
John Kerry in Seoul: North Korea missile launch would be 'huge mistake'
Missile launch is North Korea's exit strategy, experts say
Google+ Hangout featuring NBC News correspondents in Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo
Full North Korea coverage from NBC News
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. (AP) ? An 18-year-old student is behind bars, charged with shooting and injuring two women at a mall branch of a southwestern Virginia community college.
Christiansburg Police Chief Mark Sisson said Friday evening that Neil MacInnis of Christiansburg was charged with two counts each of malicious wounding and using a firearm in the commission of a felony. He was being held without bond at the Montgomery County Jail.
Authorities are still trying to establish a motive and any connection between MacInnis and the victims.
Sisson says MacInnis was subdued at New River Valley Mall minutes after he entered the satellite campus of New River Community College around 2 p.m. Friday.
One of the victims was airlifted to the hospital and the other was taken by ambulance. Officials did not provide any update on their conditions.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
A man shot and injured two women at a mall branch of a community college in Virginia Friday before he was subdued by police, a city official said.
The suspected gunman was being interviewed by police Friday evening as law enforcement continued to clear the New River Valley Mall, said Christiansburg city spokeswoman Becky Wilburn. The mall in this town of approximately 21,000 in southwestern Virginia includes a branch campus of New River Community College. Christiansburg is less than 10 miles from Blacksburg, home to Virginia Tech.
The suspect's name was not immediately released and a motive for the shootings was not known.
One of the victims was airlifted to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, but spokesman Eric Earnhart could not provide additional information on her identity or condition.
The other victim was taken by ambulance for treatment. She was in stable condition Friday afternoon but was transferred to another hospital to get specialized care, said Nancy May, a spokesman for Lewis Gale Hospital at Montgomery.
Student Josh Brown said he was working on a computer near the classrooms when the shots were fired.
"I heard one gunshot, and I didn't know what it was. ... I saw people running out," he told The Roanoke Times.
Brown then got up and ran out himself.
"I'll be scared to come back to school," he told the newspaper as he started to cry. "What's wrong with people? Who would do something like this?"
Friday isn't usually a busy day at the school's mall campus, Ben Kramer, an activities counselor for the community college, told the newspaper. Enrollment is roughly 1,500, and about a third of those students likely were on campus, he said.
Wilburn said emergency officials received a 911 call around 2 p.m. about someone with a gun and shots fired at the college's satellite location in the New River Valley Mall outside of Blacksburg, home to Virginia Tech. Authorities do not believe there's any continuing threat to the community, Wilburn said.
The community college was closed Friday following the shooting and Saturday classes were cancelled, according to its website.
Montgomery County Schools were briefly locked down as a precaution.
It?s official: Chris Davis is the hottest hitter on the planet right now.
Davis? early season rampage continued in the Orioles? home opener this afternoon, as he delivered a go-ahead grand slam in the bottom of the eighth inning to lead the club to a 9-5 comeback win over the Twins.
The opposite-field blast capped a five-run rally. The table was set when Twins manager Ron Gardenhire elected to walk Nick Markakis intentionally to load the bases. After Adam Jones delivered a game-tying single, Gardenhire took out Casey Fien and brought in Tyler Robertson to face Davis. It backfired in a big way.
Davis went 2-for-5 with five RBI on the afternoon and is now hitting .600 (9-for-15) with four home runs and 16 RBI over the first four games this season. His OPS is sitting at 2.211. He?s just the fourth player ever to homer in the first four games of a season, joining Willie Mays (1971), Mark McGwire (1998) and Nelson Cruz (2011).
Davis actually has 11 home runs over his last 11 regular season games dating back to last season. He was homerless in six games during the team?s postseason run.
Students at an elementary school in Janesville, Wis., act out bullying scenarios ? like a bus ride tease ? with supervisors, a sign that more educators are trying to prevent bullying rather than remediate its aftereffects.?
By Frank Schultz,?The Janesville Gazette/AP / April 4, 2013
Students in Janesville, Wis., are roleplaying bully situations, a sign that nationwide there's a shift toward preventation by educators criticized for doing too little, to late. Here, Alex Libby, a victim of bullying portrayed in the 2011 documentary "Bully".
The Weinstein Company/Associated Press
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The kids in Amanda Werner's fifth-grade class were role playing.
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The scene: A girl on the bus was calling another girl names.
"I would tell the driver. Or I would go up to her and tell her she shouldn't say mean things to people," Payton Kahl said.
"Would you confront her?" asked student services specialist Ryan Stengl, who was leading the discussion.
"I would," Payton said.
"I would tell her to stop being mean," agreed Caleb Nelson.
Stengl wanted to make a point about confronting the bully. "If you feel safe doing that, that's probably the biggest difference you could make," Stengl told the students.
Stengl talked to the kids about bullying when they were fourth-graders. He was back to give them a refresher. All students at Adams Elementary get lessons and reminders on a regular basis. It's part of the school's overall discipline program, The Janesville Gazette reported.
Schools these days are working to stamp out bullying before it starts, or at least limit it as much as possible. They start early and repeat the message often, said Adams Principal Sally Parks and Stengl, who sat for a separate interview.
The local effort reflects a push by the federal government, which started an interagency website, stopbullying.gov, Parks noted. An attitude of an earlier generation was that bullying happens, kids will be kids, and there's not much that can be done to prevent it, Parks said.
Now, educators intervene early, hoping students will be less likely to be bullies or victims of bullies later. Middle school, as district statistics suggest, is the worst time for bullying. Werner's fifth-graders will be in middle school next September.
"We're really teaching social skills, and the best time to learn that is early on," Stengl said.
"I don't think anyone here is a bully," Werner told her students. "But I've talked to you guys about your choices."
Indeed, after numerous visits to the class, The Gazette has seen little evidence of meanness and never an outright bullying incident.
Werner told the kids she wants them to recognize their roles when bullying occurs ? do they encourage the bully by joining in or even by not getting involved, or do they do something?
"That's a tricky part," she said. "It's tricky even for adults."
Kids are taught that telling an adult about bullying is not the negative "tattling" of a previous generation. "We really need the kids on board, so they're reporting and talking to us," Parks said.
Students are encouraged to report incidents even if they aren't sure that what they saw was a problem. That message ? don't be a passive bystander; do something ? was not what children were told not so long ago, Parks said. The message is that if you do nothing, you're a part of the problem.
Eight sides reignite their ambitions for European glory as the knockout stages of the 2012/13 Heineken Cup take place this weekend.
Three teams from France, three from England and two from Ireland remain to battle it out for a lucrative place in the semi-finals of European rugby union?s ultimate prize.
All four Heineken Cup last-eight ties will be shown exclusively live on Sky Sports HD, forming part of an unmissable weekend of knockout European rugby.
There will also be full coverage of the Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-finals, where Aviva Premiership sides Gloucester, Wasps and Bath compete for a place in the last four of the second tier competition.
Details of how to follow the 2012/13 Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup Quarter Finals below:
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Your weekend?s Heineken Cup entertainment gets under way on Saturday afternoon with the all-French affair between Clermont Auvergne and Montpellier at Stade Marcel Michelin.
The occasion marks the first time that the clubs have met in European competition and will be an opportunity for the visitors to make an impression on their maiden appearance in the knockout stage.
Clermont are the side to avoid in this season?s Heineken Cup and have been in simply irresistible form, having won five of their past six games domestically.
They negotiated their way through the Heineken Cup pool stages unbeaten and?also boast a sensational record at home, with their 66-21 rout of Agen stretching their unbeaten streak to 57 matches.
Their quarter-final opponents Montpellier and potential last-four rivals Munster or Quins will not fancy a trip to the fortress Stade Marcel Michelin.
Montpellier return to Heineken Cup action as big outsiders to progress into the semi-final, let alone finish as champions.
They claimed their place in the last eight as one of the two best runners-up ? and that means they will have the unenviable prospect of tackling their French compatriots.
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Saracens host last season?s beaten finalists Ulster in the second of Saturday?s matches, a contest that is also available to watch in 3D.
The English club are now three-time quarter-finalists and can call upon the experience and guidance of Mark McCall.
Now director of rugby at Saracens, McCall captained Ulster en route to their Heineken Cup triumph in 1999.
The Aviva Premiership leaders have been timing their run of form to perfection.
Sarries have won their previous five league encounters ? including impressive wins over Leicester and Harlequins, while Wasps were brushed aside 22-13 last time out.
Their never-say-die attitude makes them a dangerous proposition for any side, as their stunning 37-28 win over Racing Metro in Nantes proved.
That victory helped Saracens claim top spot in the pool and a home quarter-final against Ulster.?
Having got the season off to a flying start with 13 successive wins in all competitions, Ulster?s form has stuttered of late.
Last Saturday?s 22-18 win over Leinster in Dublin was their first in four attempts ? however given they had last won away to their provincial rivals 14 years ago, they can head to Saracens with renewed hope of emulating last season?s heroics.
Ulster had carved their way through Europe before coming unstuck against Leinster in the final at Twickenham.
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The first instalment of Sunday?s double bill pits Harlequins?- one of the five clubs in the last eight to have won a European title ? against Munster.
Quins came through the pool stage as the top seeds for the first time in their history and will take further confidence from the fact that they got the better of their Irish opponents when they met in the semi-finals of the 2011 Amlin Challenge Cup.
Munster boast an impressive record of their own, though. They?ve won nine of their 13 quarter-final clashes and three of those successes came away from home.
The Premiership champions are the top seeds going into the quarter-finals, however their domestic form of late will be a cause of concern.
They have lost their last three Aviva Premiership games ? going down to Exeter, Saracens and Gloucester ? and although they did win the LV= Cup title in between, that only papers over the cracks that have appeared in their challenge.
There is no doubting the potential at Quins, though, and if they can recapture their early season form they are a match for anyone.
On paper, Munster have a mountain to climb if they are to make it past the quarter-final stage ? however never write off the Thomond Park side.
The former champions gatecrashed the last-eight places courtesy of their bonus-point win over Racing Metro on the final day.
An added bonus for the Munstermen was the fact that they claimed the last ?best runners-up spot? at the expense of their old foes Leinster.
Defeats to Racing and Saracens showed they are vulnerable away from home, though, while their form of late has hardly looked that of potential winners.
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Toulon take on two-time tournament winner Leicester Tigers in the final fixture of a bumper weekend.
The French heavyweights lost to Perpignan in front of a record crowd of 55,000 on their only previous quarter-final appearance.
Meanwhile the Tigers?have ten last-eight encounters under their belts, six of which they?ve been on the victorious side.
With Jonny Wilkinson, Carl Hayman, Bakkies Botha, Simon Shaw, Matt Giteau, Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe and Frederic Michalak, the Toulon squad is like a ?Who?s Who of Rugby?.
However, despite the galaxy of stars, Toulon have not enjoyed the success to justify the amount that has been spent.
?The Top 14 leaders have high hopes of ending their 21-year wait for silverware this time around, though.
They have lost just once at Stade Felix Mayol in their past 18 games, meaning that home advantage against the Tigers will suit them in the last eight.
Leicester will make the trip to Toulon full of confidence after their 36-8 demolition of Northampton at Franklin?s Gardens.
The Tigers are currently on a three-match winning run in the league and remain hot on the heels of table-topping Saracens.
Their form in Europe this season has been equally impressive as they progressed from the hardest of the six pools.
The Tigers are five-time finalists of the competition but the last of their two wins came in 2002.
However if they are to end their 11-year wait to lift the trophy again they will have to do it the hard way, with trips Toulon and then Saracens or Ulster now on the cards.
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Thu?4 Apr -?GLOUCESTER v BIARRITZ?- k/o?20:00 ? SS2Fri?5 Apr -?WASPS v LEINSTER?- k/o 20:00 ? SS2Fri 5 Apr ? PERPIGNAN v TOULOUSE- k/o 20:00 ? SS2 (Red Button)Sat 6 Apr ? BATH v STADE FRANCAIS- k/o 13:00 ? SS1
In addition to?its coverage of every match from the Heineken Cup?s first knockout stage, Sky Sports will show all four Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-finals live.
It all begins on Thursday, April 7, when Gloucester host defending champions Biarritz at Kingsholm.
Twenty-four hours later, London Wasps tackle last year?s Heineken Cup winners Leinster at Adams Park.
Gloucester flew through the pool stage of the Challenge Cup, winning all six of their games.
Biarritz struggled to make an impact in the Heineken Cup pools for the second successive season, and finished 13 points shy of Harlequins.
Second prize is an opportunity to defend the title they won last season, after beating Toulon in a final that went down to the wire.
With just three points separating the sides, Toulon had the ball deep inside opposition territory with Jonny Wilkinson primed for the drop goal.
It was not be, however, and Biarritz?s defence stood firm to claim their first ever European prize.
Leinster will hope to make amends for a disastrous Heineken Cup showing.
Progression to the quarterfinals of the Heineken Cup had seemed straightforward for the defending champions, but successive defeats to Clermont Auvergne proved fatal.
Lifting the Challenge Cup would go some way to healing those wounds but Wasps showed they are no pushover after scoring 30 tries during the pool phase.
An early score here could unsettle their visitors and set the tone for another big European upset.
As if that wasn?t enough, Sky Sports viewers can also take in the remaining quarter-final between Bath and Stade Francais at the Recreation Ground on Saturday lunchtime, all part?of a busy weekend of enthralling knockout European rugby.
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Sky Sports is the only place to follow all the action from the 2012/13 Heineken Cup with a plethora of live games from the opening round through to the final at the Aviva Stadium, Dublin, on Saturday, May 18.
Alex Payne and James Gemmell will present Sky Sports? live coverage of both competitions with expert analysis and comment from Will Greenwood, Dewi Morris, Dean Ryan, Paul Wallace, Scott Quinnell and many more.
Commentary on all the big games will be led by Miles Harrison and Stuart Barnes.?
Other members of the commentary team include Johnnie Hammond, Mark Robson,?Martin Gillingham, Simon Ward, Ieuan Evans and Scott Hastings.
Live coverage begins on Thursday evening with a European Rugby Club Special, hosted by Alex Payne, which builds up to a brilliant weekend of knockout rugby with analysis and discussion about the events to come.
If you miss any of the live action, highlights of the whole weekend?s action will be shown in European Rugby Special on Sunday evening.
Selected games will also be shown in stunning 3D on the Sky 3D channel, plus Sky Sports customers can watch the live action wherever they are via mobiles, tablets and laptops on Sky Go.
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Despite no Welsh representation in the latter stages of both European competitions, Welsh language channelS4C will have free-to-air highlights of the Heineken Cup knockout stages.
The one-hour highlights programme will round-up all the action from the four Heineken Cup ties on Sunday evening at 10pm, presented by Gareth Roberts with?former Wales captain Gwyn Jones alongside.
Sky Sports subscribers can follow every Heineken Cup match via the Sky Sports Events Centre - CLICK HERE
Keep up to date with all the latest Heineken Cup reports, score flashes and results by logging onto the Sky Sports rugby union website, or by following?Sky Sports? dedicated rugby union Twitter feed (@SkySportsRugby).
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YANGON, Myanmar (AP) ? The newspaper industry might be shrinking in the rest of the world but it expanded Monday in Myanmar when privately run daily newspapers hit newsstands for the first time in 50 years.
For many people, the rebirth of daily papers is a novelty: Many weren't even born when the late dictator Ne Win imposed a state monopoly on the daily press in the 1960s.
But for 81-year-old Khin Maung Lay, it's like a second lease on life. He is chief editor of Golden Fresh Land, one of four dailies that went on sale Monday as Myanmar takes another step in its march toward democracy.
"We've been waiting half a century for this day," said the veteran editor, adding that the paper's initial print run of 80,000 copies was sold out by late morning. "It shows how much people long for private daily newspapers. This morning, I was in tears seeing this."
He's old enough to recall there once had been a big and vibrant daily press in the Burmese, English, Indian and Chinese languages in the period of parliamentary democracy after Myanmar, known then as Burma, won independence from Britain in 1948.
Khin Maung Lay worked as a senior newsman at the Burmese language Mogyo daily before it was driven out of business by government pressure in 1964.
Now as chief editor of Golden Fresh Land ? the name sounds less awkward in the original Burmese ? he heads a team of young journalists he recruited from various weeklies, journalists who have only the briefest of acquaintances with the concept of a free press, having grown up under the military government that ruled for five decades. They are up against some media behemoths and papers belonging to the country's top political parties.
The ruling USDP party launched a daily called The Union, and the well-established weekly The Voice is converting itself into the Voice Daily. The other newcomer is The Standard Time Daily. All four newspapers are in Burmese, ranging in price from 150 kyat-200 kyat (US20 cents- 25 cents).
Khin Maung Lay acknowledges there are innumerable challenges ahead, but said he is ready to face them "in the name of freedom of press." He's well acquainted with the cutting edge of the concept ? he went to jail three times under Ne Win, including a three-year stretch in "protective custody," a catch-all phrase the military regime used when imprisoning critics.
"I foresee several hurdles along the way," he said. "However, I am ready to run the paper in the spirit of freedom and professionalism taught by my peers during the good old days."
One of the main hurdles will be beating the competition.
"It won't be easy for all the newspapers to survive. As a reader, I can't afford to buy every newspaper, every day," said taxi driver Tun Win, 52, who normally kept up with current affairs by buying three news weeklies. Nonetheless, he called the arrival of daily papers a big step for the impoverished country.
"Now we can get information every day, rather than once a week," he said. "It's the best way to get up-to-date news for those who don't have access to the Internet."
The newspaper renaissance is part of the reform efforts of President Thein Sein, who, after serving as prime minister in the previous military regime, took office in March 2011 as head of an elected civilian government. Political and economic liberalization were at the top of his agenda, in an effort to boost national development.
As part of an easing of media restrictions, The Associated Press became the first international news agency to open a bureau in Myanmar since the new government took power two years ago. Six multi-format journalists will staff the new AP bureau full-time.
The government lifted censorship in August last year, allowing reporters to print material that would have been unthinkable under military rule.
It's not smooth sailing yet. The draconian 1962 Printing and Registration Act remains in place until a new media law is enacted. It carries a maximum seven-year prison term for failure to register and allows the government to revoke publishing licenses at any time.
The government announced in December that any Myanmar national wishing to publish a daily newspaper was welcome to apply and could begin publishing on April 1.
There were nearly two dozen applications, and Golden Fresh Land was one of 16 to win approval. Others include dailies to be put out by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party and Thein Sein's ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party.
The Voice Daily made its debut Monday, issued by the same group that has published a popular weekly since 2004.
"I am very excited that we are finally printing daily editions. It is a dream come true because that was our objective when we began publishing the Voice Journal in 2004," 42-year-old editor-in-chief Kyaw Min Shwe said Sunday, as reporters hustled around his newsroom to put out their first edition.
He said the established government newspapers have an advantage in terms of money and distribution, but "I can say with absolute confidence that we can compete with government papers in terms of content and quality of news."
Most coverage of local and national news in the state press is little more than the equivalent of government press releases, typically reporting on less-than-riveting topics such as the names of all the officials who attended the inauguration of a new bridge. Opinion pieces invariably reflect conservative positions that seem decades behind the times.
Aware of its vulnerability, the English-language state paper, the New Light of Myanmar, is seeking a joint venture partner to help with a makeover.
The entry of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party plans to make use of its strong financial base. The pro-military party, which holds a strong majority in parliament, is backed by many tycoons. Chief editor Win Tin said the paper will be distributed free of charge for the first 10 days.
"We are financially strong and we have many experienced people," he said, adding that the party will have its own separate propaganda sheet and that the newspaper will not be a mouthpiece for it.
Strong competition will come from savvy big media groups who say they will launch later.
"We need more time for preparation. It is quite challenging for the reporters to switch from weeklies to dailies," said Nyein Nyein Naing, executive editor of the 7-Day weekly news journal.
"We need more time for preparation and we have to have test runs before we start the daily edition," said Dr. Than Htut Aung, CEO of the popular Eleven media group, which plans to launch The Daily Eleven on May 3.
"I will print my first daily edition on May 3, Press Freedom Day, because it is very symbolic," he said.
___
Associated Press writer Yadana Htun contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON - Sen. Chuck Schumer said today that while there is not a final deal on immigration legislation just yet, the bi-partisan "Gang of Eight" senators working on immigration reform has reached a "substantive agreement" on the major components of an immigration plan.
"It is not a done deal. We have to draft the legislation. We have to have the group of eight sign off on the specific language, but we have substantive agreement on all the major pieces now between the eight of us," the Democrat from New York said in an interview with ABC News Sunday.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., made a similar statement today and said that he expects the parameters of the plan to be revealed next week.
"I think we've got a deal. We've got to write the legislation, but 2013, I hope, will be the year that we pass bipartisan immigration reform," Graham said on CNN's "State of the Union." "It's got to be written off. We haven't signed off. There are a few details yet. But conceptually, we have an agreement between business and labor, between ourselves that has to be drafted. It will be rolled out next week."
On Friday, business and labor leaders came to an agreement on a visa program for low-skilled immigrant workers, a major turning point in the debate on immigration reform.
In what the AFL-CIO described as the "W-Visa" program, 20,000 visas would be available for low-skilled workers beginning in April of 2015. The number of available visas would increase gradually in the following years but would never go above 200,000 or dip below 20,000 in any given year. Only 15,000 visas would be allocated to construction jobs each year.
"The fact that business and labor have come to an agreement overcomes the last major substantive hurdle we've had in our negotiations," Schumer told ABC News.
But the deal on a guest worker program does not mean the senate group's plan is finalized, because the Gang of Eight still has to hammer out details including border security and the path to citizenship and write the actual legislation.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., one of the members of the bipartisan group working on immigration, said today that reports of a final deal being reached are "premature," and he called for more hearings and discussion on the topic of immigration so that a "healthy public debate" is conducted.
"Arriving at a final product will require it to be properly submitted for the American people's consideration, through the other 92 senators from 43 states that weren't part of this initial drafting process," Rubio said in a statement. "In order to succeed, this process cannot be rushed or done in secret."
ABC News' Carlos Boettcher contributed to this report.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? North Korea's parliament approved the appointment of a new premier seen by outside experts as an economic reformer one day after top party officials adopted a declaration making nuclear arms and a stronger economy the nation's top priorities.
The U.S., meanwhile, made its latest conspicuous display of firepower, announcing it had sent F-22 stealth fighter jets to participate in annual U.S.-South Korean war games that Pyongyang calls preparation for an invasion. The new South Korean president, who has a policy meant to re-engage Pyongyang with talks and aid, told her top military leaders Monday to set aside political considerations and respond strongly should North Korea attack.
The re-emergence of Pak Pong Ju as premier at an annual spring parliamentary session is seen by analysts as a clear signal that leader Kim Jong Un is moving to back up recent vows to focus on strengthened economic development. The U.N. says two-thirds of the country's 24 million people face regular food shortages.
Pak was the North's premier in 2003-2007, according to Seoul's Unification Ministry. He was sacked initially because of a proposal for an incentive-based hourly, rather than monthly, wage system deemed too similar to U.S.-style capitalism, Japan's Mainichi Shimbun newspaper reported in 2007. Pak replaces Choe Yong Rim, who is 82.
"Pak Pong Ju is the face of economic reform, such as it exists ? reform with North Korean characteristics as they say," said John Delury, a professor and North Korea analyst at Seoul's Yonsei University.
Any economic changes won't be radical, Delury said, and, for the time being, they're mostly aspirational. One possible change could entail a shift of part of the country's massive military spending into the economy as a whole, he said.
Pak is widely known for spearheading reforms in 2002, when the government began allowing some markets, although it later backtracked, said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea analyst at Seoul's Dongguk University. His appointment could be a message to the outside world that North Korea wants to calm tension and focus more on economic revitalization, Koh said.
Pyongyang has reacted with anger to the U.S.-South Korean military drills and to a new round of U.N. and U.S. sanctions that followed its Feb. 12 underground nuclear test, the country's third. Analysts see a full-scale North Korean attack as unlikely and say the threats are more likely efforts to provoke softer policies toward Pyongyang from a new government in Seoul, to win diplomatic talks with Washington and to solidify the young North Korean leader's military credentials at home.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday the U.S. has not detected any military mobilization or repositioning of forces from Pyongyang to back up the threats.
Despite the rising hostility, recent rhetoric has focused on efforts to turn around a moribund economy and nuclear development.
"There was a danger that this was getting to the point ... of a permanent war footing," Delury said. "In the midst of this tension and militant rhetoric and posturing, Kim Jong Un is saying, 'Look, we're still focused on the economy, but we're doing it with our nuclear deterrent intact.'"
On Sunday, Kim and top party officials adopted a declaration calling nuclear weapons "the nation's life" and an important component of its defense, an asset that wouldn't be traded even for "billions of dollars." Pyongyang cites the U.S. military presence in South Korea as a main reason behind its drive to build missiles and atomic weapons. The U.S. has stationed tens of thousands of troops in South Korea since the Korean War ended with a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953.
Pentagon press secretary George Little said the U.S. sent two F-22s to participate in the annual U.S.-South Korean military drills. Little said this is the fourth time F-22s have been deployed to South Korea. He said their participation in the exercises is meant to show U.S. commitment to the defense of South Korea and to the region.
On Thursday, U.S. officials said two B-2 stealth bombers flew from the United States and dropped dummy munitions on an uninhabited South Korean island as part of the drills. Hours later, Kim ordered his generals to put rockets on standby and threatened to strike American targets if provoked.
While analysts call North Korea's threats largely brinkmanship, there is some fear that a localized skirmish might escalate. Seoul has vowed to respond harshly should North Korea provoke its military. Naval skirmishes in disputed Yellow Sea waters off the Korean coast have led to bloody battles several times over the years. Attacks blamed on Pyongyang in 2010 killed 50 South Koreans.
Under late leader Kim Jong Il, North Korea typically held a parliamentary meeting once a year. But Kim Jong Un held an unusual second session last September in a sign that he is trying to run the country differently from his father, who died in late 2011.
Parliament sessions, which usually are held to approve personnel changes and budget and fiscal plans, are scrutinized by the outside world for signs of key changes in policy and leadership.
At a session last April, Kim was made first chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission, the body's top post.
At Monday's session, Kim Kyok Sik, North Korea's defense minister who is believed to have been responsible for deadly attacks on South Korea in 2010, was appointed to the National Defense Commission. North Korea also named Choe Pu Il, a general in the Korean People's Army, to the commission.
On Sunday, Kim Jong Un presided over a separate plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party, a top decision-making body tasked with organizing and guiding the party's major projects. The meeting set a "new strategic line" calling for building both a stronger economy and nuclear arsenal.
North Korea's "nuclear armed forces represent the nation's life, which can never be abandoned as long as the imperialists and nuclear threats exist on Earth," according to a statement issued by state media after the meeting.
Sunday marked the first time for Kim to preside over the committee meeting. The last plenary session was held in 2010, according to Seoul's Unification Ministry, and before that in 1993.
___
Associated Press writers Youkyung Lee in Seoul and Robert Burns in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report. Follow Foster Klug on Twitter at twitter.com/APKlug
Even though the Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey state legislatures just passed laws that pave the way for online gambling in the U.S., Zynga is not going to be the first to get in on it. Given how terrible the economics of running a blog are, TechCrunch has been exploring new revenue streams. They may include, but are not limited to, premium Justin Timberlake-filters on blog posts, Path 3.0-like stickers for Livefyre comments and a new sponsored section about Scientology-related hardware startups. What has been most promising, however, are virtual currencies and real-money gaming. If the hope of real-money gaming has boosted Zynga’s shares by about 15 percent in the last six months, imagine what it can do for AOL’s stock. In that vein, we’re launching a new series of slots and social betting games that let you put real money on the startups you think will get ahead. Think of it as an even easier way to bypass SEC regulations around being an accredited investor. Why bother with the $1,000 minimums of Funders Club or deal with AngelList or SecondMarket, when you can just straight-up gamble your seed capital? Yes, the game on top of this post really works. Seriously, click the spin button. There are real prizes in this, including a ticket to TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco (which is worth $1,795). The Tesla Roadster, I’m afraid, is virtual though. But if you do get three Alexias in a row, she could write you a poem and if you get three Anthony Has in a row, he could sing you his infamous rendition of the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the U.K.” over Skype. For every three-in-a-row match that readers get, we’ll collect their contact information for a drawing. And one person randomly selected from each pool will win the prize. Special thanks to real-money gaming platform Betable and Murka, a social gaming studio for putting this working game together in literally a week.
What a two weeks it’s been. Something happened that has been simmering for a while. The API market exploded. Intel bought Mashery for more than $180 million and CA acquired Layer 7. 3Scale received a new $4.5 million round of funding from Javelin Ventures. Programmable Web acquired Mulesoft. And then Facebook jumped in and bought Parse. The acquisitions and funding point to a maturing market that is reflected in the ubiquity of APIs across the application landscape. It’s not a new market by any means. The space is filled with companies that have leveraged the API build out that has happened over the past several years. Instead this is an inflection point. There are more than 30,000 APIs, according to Programmable Web, the leading API directory and blog. Javelin Ventures Managing Director Noah Doyle said to me in an interview that analysts see the API market growing five to ten times over the next five years. With that scaling in number of APIs comes a virtuous circle for the developers that build compelling apps and APIs. The APIs extend the apps reach as they become part of distributed data network. As more people use the APIs so the app developer generates more data. As the data increases in scope, often the service will become an API. Facebook needs new streams of data to keep rolling out new digital products. Back end as a service providers like Parse provide SDKs and APIs that give developers access to infrastructure for storing basic data types, locations and photos. How Facebook uses this data is a question mark. But regardless, Pare serves as a constant replenishing source, nourished by the apps on the Parse platform that use APIs. Facebook now will decide how to package and segment that data to push more relevant advertising to its 1 billion users. APIs Are Like Glue APIs will be the glue to the Internet, said Programmable Web Founder John Musser. Musser, like Doyle, sees a new generation of APIs emerging that are fueled by demand, triggered by mobile devices, which serve in many respects as the new client/servers. Apps are hosted on cloud services and distributed across mobile devices that read and write data, sending and receiving information, connecting via APIs. In the first generation, Mashery and companies like Apigee pioneered the API management space. Twitter and other web companies emerged in the second generation. In the
This continues?our series?highlighting new positions posted at Twitter each week.?Check out past listings?here.
And here they are:
Even though the Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey state legislatures just passed laws that pave the way for online gambling in the U.S., Zynga is not going to be the first to get in on it. Given how terrible the economics of running a blog are, TechCrunch has been exploring new revenue streams. They may include, but are not limited to, premium Justin Timberlake-filters on blog posts, Path 3.0-like stickers for Livefyre comments and a new sponsored section about Scientology-related hardware startups. What has been most promising, however, are virtual currencies and real-money gaming. If the hope of real-money gaming has boosted Zynga’s shares by about 15 percent in the last six months, imagine what it can do for AOL’s stock. In that vein, we’re launching a new series of slots and social betting games that let you put real money on the startups you think will get ahead. Think of it as an even easier way to bypass SEC regulations around being an accredited investor. Why bother with the $1,000 minimums of Funders Club or deal with AngelList or SecondMarket, when you can just straight-up gamble your seed capital? Yes, the game on top of this post really works. Seriously, click the spin button. There are real prizes in this, including a ticket to TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco (which is worth $1,795). The Tesla Roadster, I’m afraid, is virtual though. But if you do get three Alexias in a row, she could write you a poem and if you get three Anthony Has in a row, he could sing you his infamous rendition of the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the U.K.” over Skype. For every three-in-a-row match that readers get, we’ll collect their contact information for a drawing. And one person randomly selected from each pool will win the prize. Special thanks to real-money gaming platform Betable and Murka, a social gaming studio for putting this working game together in literally a week.