Job market shows surprising strength in April

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Employment rose more than expected in April and hiring was much stronger than previously thought in the prior two months, easing concerns belt-tightening in Washington was dealing a big blow to the economy.

Nonfarm payrolls rose 165,000 last month and the jobless rate fell to 7.5 percent, the lowest level since December 2008, the Labor Department said on Friday.

Payrolls rose by 138,000 jobs in March, 50,000 more than previously reported, and job growth for February was revised up by 64,000 to 332,000, the largest gain since May 2010.

"Overall, a strong set of numbers which will reassure markets that the U.S. economy is not as weak as it may have seemed given some of the earlier data," said Andrew Grantham, an economist at CIBC World Markets in Toronto.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected April payrolls to rise 145,000 and the unemployment rate to hold steady at 7.6 percent.

U.S. stocks rallied on the data, while government bonds fell hard. The dollar strengthened against the yen and pared losses against the euro.

The drop in the jobless rate reflected a gain in employment, rather than people leaving the workforce. The workforce actually expanded, while the labor force participation rate - the share of working-age Americans who either have a job or are looking for one - held steady at a 34-year low of 63.3 percent.

Still, some details of the report remained consistent with a slowdown in economic activity. Construction employment fell for the first time since May, while manufacturing payrolls were flat.

The average workweek pulled off a nine-month high, with a gauge of the overall work effort falling, but average hourly earnings rose four cents.

The relative strength of the data was particularly surprising given other recent signs that suggested the economy had slowed sharply in recent weeks. Although the economy expanded at a 2.5 percent annual pace in the first quarter, a wide range of data suggested it ended the period with less speed. Further, factory activity barely grew in April.

FISCAL HEADWINDS

Economists feared uncertainty over the full impact of higher taxes and deep government spending cuts on already sluggish demand was making businesses reluctant to hire. A 2 percent payroll tax cut ended at the start of the year, and $85 billion in federal budget cuts went into effect on March 1.

"The idea that the employment is holding as well as it is in the face of the fiscal headwinds the economy is currently enduring is a very positive sign of the economy's underlying fundamental improvements," said Russell Price, senior economist at Ameriprise Financial Services in Troy, Michigan.

While the pace of hiring was stronger than expected in April, it remained below the pace needed to put a significant dent in the jobless rate.

Economists said the data did not appear strong enough to dissuade officials at the Federal Reserve from pressing forward with their bond-buying stimulus, although it could cool speculation the U.S. central bank would step up its purchases.

On Wednesday, the Fed said it would continue to buy $85 billion in bonds each month and that it would increase purchases should the need arise.

"I don't think today's data is strong enough to completely offset some of the weakness we have seen in some other areas, such as overall manufacturing activity and the general pace of economic growth, so I think the Fed will remain fully engaged," said Price.

All the job gains last month were in the private sector, which added 176,000 new positions. Gains were led by a rebound in retail employment, which had dropped in March after eight straight months of increases. Retail payrolls rose 29,300.

But construction employment surprisingly fell, shedding 6,000 jobs after 10 straight months of gains. Residential construction has been marching higher and the pullback in construction jobs could be the result of cold weather in April.

Manufacturing employment posted no gains last month.

Government payrolls dropped 11,000 after falling 16,000 in March. Most of the job declines last month came from the federal government and the U.S. Postal Service.

(Editing by Tim Ahmann and Andrea Ricci)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-april-employment-data-point-sluggish-economy-042112467.html

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South Korean MPs plot to regulate 'addictive online games' - Develop

New bill groups games with drugs, alcohol and gambling

A South Korea politician backed by 14 MPs has proposed a bill to labelling online games as a source of addiction and calling for the strict regulation on the sector.

Gamemeca reports, as translated by Kotaku, that Saenuri Party MP Shin Eui-jin has grouped online games with addictive substances such as drugs and alcohol, as well as gambling.

It is claimed that the bill states the governing body should be able to ?regulate manufacturing, distribution and sale of addictive substances and also limit the promotion of them".

This could result in more stringent rules on the type of content developers can create in South Korea, and may also affect the marketing of online games.

?It is regretful that the government views games in the same category as drugs and gambling,? said one developer to Inews24.

?The previous administration viewed games negatively, and it?s the same with the current administration. They are talking about a creative economy and yet are constantly trying to regulate one of leading industry for content business.?

The bill comes after a small number players in South Korea and the surrounding region are said to have died as a result of playing games for an extended period of time, with competitive gaming a hugely popular sector in the country.

In 2005 a 28-year old South Korean man died after playing a game for 50 hours. In 2009, it was also reported that a three-month child died of malnutrition after parents neglected the girl after playing an online game in which they raised a virtual child.

Source: http://www.develop-online.net/news/44078/South-Korea-MPs-plot-to-regulate-addictive-online-games

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Primate hibernation more common than previously thought

May 2, 2013 ? Until recently, the only primate known to hibernate as a survival strategy was a creature called the western fat-tailed dwarf lemur, a tropical tree-dweller from the African island of Madagascar.

But it turns out this hibernating lemur isn't alone. In a study appearing May 2 in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers report that two other little-known lemurs -- Crossley's dwarf lemur and Sibree's dwarf lemur -- burrow into the soft, spongy rainforest floor in the eastern part of Madagascar, curl up and spend the next three to seven months snoozing underground.

By comparing the hibernation habits of eastern dwarf lemurs and their western counterparts, researchers hope to shed light on what sends hibernating animals into standby mode, and whether lemurs -- our closest genetic relatives known to hibernate -- do it differently from other hibernating animals.

"Exactly what triggers hibernation is still an open question," said lead author Marina Blanco a postdoctoral researcher at the Duke Lemur Center.

Unlike animals such as bears and ground squirrels, which hibernate to survive the cold, western dwarf lemurs hibernate to survive during western Madagascar's long dry season -- a time when temperatures top 85 degrees, trees drop their leaves and food and water are in short supply.

But the hibernation habits of Madagascar's eastern dwarf lemurs, whose homes include high-altitude forests where winter temperatures occasionally dip below freezing, were poorly known.

"It's a very different environment," Blanco said.

To find out more, Blanco and her colleagues trapped and fitted the squirrel-sized animals with temperature-sensitive radio collars before the start of the hibernation season, allowing them to find the lemurs' underground burrows and monitor their body temperature once hibernation began.

Hibernating animals tend to breathe more slowly, drop their heart rate and lower their body temperature, becoming inactive for days at a time. Dwarf lemurs are no exception.

"To the casual observer, it looks for all the world as if the animals are dead. Their bodies are cold, they are utterly still and they take a breath only once every several minutes or so," said co-author Anne Yoder, director of the Duke Lemur Center.

Western dwarf lemurs hibernate in drafty tree holes, where their body temperature fluctuates by as much as 20 degrees with the outside air. But the researchers found that eastern dwarf lemurs keep their body temperatures more constant in cozy underground burrows.

The research suggests that lemur hibernation -- and therefore primate hibernation -- may not be so different after all. "Maybe these lemurs, though they live in the tropics, look more like temperate hibernators than we thought," Blanco said.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Duke University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Marina B. Blanco, Kathrin H. Dausmann, Jean F. Ranaivoarisoa, Anne D. Yoder. Underground hibernation in a primate. Scientific Reports, 2013; 3 DOI: 10.1038/srep01768

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/-sjUziR3kh0/130502094759.htm

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Weebly refreshes its website publishing tools

By Gerry Shih

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - For futurists in Silicon Valley, the question is fundamental, almost philosophical: In the coming years, will the humble website still be the dominant way we interact with the Internet?

For David Rusenko, the 27-year-old founder and chief executive of global website builder Weebly, the answer is: Of course!

On Thursday, Weebly unveiled a refresh of its publishing suite, which allows people to simply drag and drop page elements like images and headlines onto a canvas to build a site. Using the new form, mobile versions of websites - a critical concern in a modern economy awash with smartphones - can be published simultaneously with desktop versions.

The San Francisco startup's update comes at a time of flux for the Internet industry, which has been grappling with the ramifications of users who are spending less time on the Web and more time within closed ecosystems like Facebook Inc's social network or the cornucopia of smartphone apps ? an economy valued at $25 billion in 2013, according to research firm ABI.

Yet Rusenko is not willing to accept any talk of the open Web's demise. He argues that Web pages, more than ever, carry more weight and meaning in an age of fleeting tweets and malleable Facebook identities.

"The picture is becoming clearer," Rusenko said. "Facebook has focused on the conversation, but not really on absorbing the Web into its walled garden."

For a lot of people, "their digital identity is their site," he added. "It's where they showcase their ideas and really put themselves out there."

Along with his Thursday relaunch, Rusenko unfurled a slate of new growth statistics and research data showing that his company, which has enjoyed healthy growth and now boasts a network of 15 million sites that have been visited by 100 million people.

Weebly's own extensive research showed that a majority of people would not trust a business that had no website, yet 58 percent of businesses do not have a Web presence, Rusenko said.

In 2006, Rusenko, a fresh-faced graduate of Penn State University, burst onto the Silicon Valley scene and garnered plaudits in national magazines with Weebly, which quickly rose in stature as the natural heir to GeoCities, the service that fueled a webpage-creating craze in the 1990s.

After the initial acclaim, Weebly has kept a lower profile while rivals like Wordpress, the professional-grade blogging platform, and Tumblr, the minimalist social blogging network, have captured more media attention, but not the consumer Web publishing market.

With its refresh, Weebly is now more oriented toward what Rusenko called everyday entrepreneurs looking to "start something": amateur food bloggers, teachers, or crafts enthusiasts who want to share their passion before potentially launching a small business.

Weebly has been in talks with a payment startup to provide an e-commerce platform for people wanting to sell goods, said Rusenko.

The company is also introducing planning tools that offer ideas and inspiration to help newcomers "identify their goals" and lay out their pages, Rusenko said.

The company, which has 70 employees, has been profitable since 2009, but accepted an undisclosed amount in funding from Sequoia Capital in 2011 to continue growth.

"At the end of the day these are doers, these are makers, and we want to help bring that dream to life," Rusenko said.

(Reporting By Gerry Shih; editing by Gunna Dickson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/weebly-refreshes-website-publishing-tools-203743800.html

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Google adds Shawnee, KS to its Fiber map

Google recently announced Provo, UT and Austin, TX are on its list of Fiber expansions, and now it's added another region near Kansas City. The city council of Shawnee, KS has voted to bring in the 1Gbps internet / TV combo, although Google isn't ready to put a timetable on the rollout yet. We're sure passed over Kansas City-area residents are happy to see Google Fiber has expanded its footprint a couple of times, but the rest of us are just as envious as ever.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD

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Source: Google Fiber Blog, City of Shawnee

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/03/google-fiber-shawnee-kansas/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Facebook's mobile business expands in first quarter

By Alexei Oreskovic

(Reuters) - Facebook Inc's mobile advertising revenue growth gained momentum in the first three months of the year as the social network sold more ads to users on smartphones and tablets, partially offsetting higher spending which weighed on profits.

New types of ads designed for smartphones, particularly ads aimed at enticing Facebook users to install mobile apps on their phones, helped lift revenue while traffic to the social network remained strong.

The results reassured Wall Street that the world's largest social network was keeping up with consumers' shift from PCs to smartphones, even if the company provided few big surprises during the first quarter.

Mobile ad revenue accounted for 30 percent of Facebook's ad revenue in the first quarter, compared to roughly 23 percent in the fourth quarter. Sales of ads on mobile devices have been a key element in the recovery of Facebook's overall ad revenue from a sharp slowdown early last year.

The first-quarter mobile ad revenue was at the higher end of expectations, said Macquarie Research analyst Ben Schachter. But he said it "needed to be higher for people to get really excited about trend lines".

Shares of Facebook, which are down roughly 12 percent since the end of January, were up 7 cents at $27.50 in after-hours trading on Wednesday.

"Everyone was focused on two things, one was mobile and how big it could be, and the other thing was engagement," said Ronald Josey, an analyst with JMP Securities.

Facebook delivered solid results on both fronts, Josey said, noting that consumers' use of Facebook does not appear to have declined despite a growing array of popular social networking and mobile messaging alternative services, such as Pinterest and WhatsApp.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's 28-year-old co-founder and chief executive, told investors on a conference call on Wednesday that there was room for Facebook and rival services to thrive. He said mobile photo-sharing service Instagram, which Facebook acquired last year, was now growing faster than Facebook did at a similar stage in its history.

Facebook said it now counted 1.11 billion monthly active users and about 665 million daily active users.

The company said the number of monthly users who logged on solely through mobile devices more than doubled to 189 million users from a year ago.

Graphic: http://link.reuters.com/ryp77t

NEW AD PRODUCTS

Created in a Harvard dorm room in 2004, Facebook, along with other established Internet companies such as Google Inc and Yahoo Inc, are moving to reposition their businesses for a world in which consumers' primary Internet access occurs on small-screened smartphones rather than PCs.

Facebook has rolled out a string of big product launches and revamps in recent months, including an overhaul of its newsfeed and search feature, as well an app for Android smartphones that puts Facebook features front and center on phone homescreens.

The various initiatives have contributed to rising spending, with Facebook's 60 percent year-on-year increase in costs and expenses outpacing the 38 percent revenue increase.

Facebook said it earned $219 million, or 9 cents a share, in the first three months of the year, compared to $205 million, or 9 cents a share, in the year-ago period.

Excluding certain items, Facebook said it earned 12 cents a share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S were looking for adjusted EPS of 13 cents.

Facebook executives reiterated previous guidance that spending would be up in 2013 as the company invests in new products and in improving the efficacy of its ads.

One nascent type of mobile advertising pioneered by Facebook ? ads that encourage users to install third-party apps ? could grow meaningfully, Zuckerberg said.

"We're starting to see real revenue from mobile app installs," Zuckerberg said, without giving details. "It's one of our most important new ad products."

Facebook's revenue in the first quarter totaled $1.46 billion, versus $1.06 billion in the year-ago period, and roughly in line with analyst expectations. Advertising revenue was up 43 percent in the first quarter, the fastest growth rate since the end of 2011.

"You are seeing pretty strong revenue growth right now," said Raymond James analyst Aaron Kessler. But he warned that the revenue growth could slow in coming quarters as Facebook faces tougher year-on-year comparisons.

(With additional reporting by Gerry Shih; Editing by Stephen Coates)

(This story was refiled to correct analyst Ronald Josey's firm to JMP Securities from Jefferies & Co in the seventh paragraph)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/facebooks-mobile-business-expands-first-quarter-011501788.html

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Moon: Tebow can't cut it in CFL

Getty Images

It?s been a minute since we?ve consulted our CFL rulebook, but we need to see how many kilograms or hectares or whatever they penalize you for piling on.

Because Hall of Famer Warren Moon added his voice to the down-with-Tim Tebow chorus, saying the Canadian Football League wasn?t a good fit because of the emphasis on passing, saying that was Tebow?s ?biggest problem.?

?You have to be able to throw the ball up there if anything and they throw the ball a lot,? Moon told Houston?s 610-AM, via the New York Daily News.??There are only three downs so the passing game is much more important up there. You have got to be able to throw it and I think that?s his biggest problem, just being [able] to complete passes, be an accurate passer. I think he?s a really good athlete playing the position but I don?t think that?s enough sometimes.?

Moon spent six years in the CFL before he got to the NFL, but said the difference between him and Doug Flutie going North of the border and Tebow was about chances, which Tebow has had.

?We were very good passers. That had nothing to do with it. We didn?t have to go up there and try and change our throwing motion,? Moon said. ?We didn?t have to go up there and try and become more accurate. We just needed to get the opportunity. . . .

?He?s worked as hard as anybody can but there just hasn?t been that much improvement made in his quarterback fundamentals and his technique so he might think about maybe playing another position if he wants to stay in the NFL.?

At the moment, no one?s rushing to Tebow?s defense and saying Moon?s wrong. But not succeeding in the mess that was New York last year shouldn?t necessarily be an indictment, and the guy has had playoff success.

There are a lot of quarterbacks in the NFL who can?t say that, and still have employment without being destroyed in the court of public opinion every day.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/05/02/warren-moon-says-the-cfl-is-no-place-for-tebow/related/

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