Putting Unlimited Data to Good Use, Why We Give Google So Much Information, and the Return of CISPA

This week on the podcast we're talking about the return of CISPA, re-installing Windows , and working an on-call job without losing your mind. We're also answering your questions about why we give Google so much information, how to use unlimited data effectively, and syncing your files over your local network without the aid of a cloud storage service.

How to Listen to This Week's Episode

Here's how you can listen to our episode:

News and Top Stories

• CISPA's Back!: The privacy-eroding bill is back! Learn all about it, and call your representatives if you oppose it.
• iOS 6 Bug Lets Anyone Unlock Your Phone Without a Passcode: A recently-discovered bug in iOS 6.0.1 and above lets you unlock an iPhone without needing to know the password, meaning anyone with access to your phone can make calls, edit contacts, and more.
• How to Have a Stress-Free Valentine's Day (Whether You're Single or Not): Valentine's Day is a divisive holiday. Some people love it, others hate it, and many couldn't care less. Regardless of where you stand, navigating the holiday stress-free is pretty difficult. Whether you want to do something special while avoiding the circus or you're flying solo, here's how to make it through today without stressing yourself out.
• How We Work: Every week, we share the shortcuts, workspaces, and productivity tips of our favorite experts and internet personalities. This week, however, we're giving you guys a glimpse into how we work, and all the tips and tricks that keep our blogging wheels spinning.
• How to Work an On Call Job and Keep Your Sanity: Being connected or on call doesn't mean your friends and family have to suffer along with you. The key is to draw bright lines between your "on" and "off" times, and manage your coworkers expectations for when you're supposed to be available. Here's how to turn that struggle for balance into an easily managed routine.
• How to Do a Clean Install of Windows Without Losing Your Files, Settings, and Tweaks: There's nothing like a fresh install of Windows to clear your mind, but it comes at a cost: you have to set everything up again, just the way you like it. Here's how to reinstall Windows, migrate your important settings, and leave the clutter behind.

Questions and Answers

Each week we answer five questions from readers and listeners. Here's what we tackled this week.

• Aren't we worried that Google will start charging us for their services some day and that we will all be too locked in to say ?no'? Not really. It's not that hard to leave a service, and Google makes their money off of information so we're more concerned about what they may do with that information. If you want out now, check out these alternatives.
• How do I sync files across the local network without paying for online storage? Crashplan offers free local backups, but rolling your own Dropbox-like service is probably the best way to go.
• I'm still grandfathered in to Verizon's unlimited data switchover but I don't really use that much data. How can I make better use of my unlimited data plan? A lot of people are clinging to their unlimited data plans but we don't really understand because there's not much of a reason to have it and it costs so much less to get lesser plans (in most cases). If you really want to keep using it, however, just tether your phone as much as possible and stream music whenever you can.
• Why don't you have an official Lifehacker IRC channel? Why do you want an official Lifehacker IRC channel? We actually don't know, so please tell us and maybe we can make it happen if it makes sense.

Tips of the Week

Downloads of the Week

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Please keep your questions as brief as possible. This means about 3-5 sentences for emails and 30-60 seconds for calls and videos. Your questions can be specific, but broader questions are generally better because they'll apply to more people. For example, "how can I breathe new life into my old PDA?" is much better than "what can I do with an old HP iPAQ 210?" Either way, we look forward to hearing from you!

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EU, U.S. to start free trade talks

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The United States and European Union aim to start negotiating a vast Transatlantic free trade pact by June, though the plan confirmed on Wednesday faces many hurdles before it might help revive the world's top two economies.

A deal would be the most ambitious since the founding of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995, embracing half of world output and a third of all trade. It reflects impatience with the lack of a new global agreement to cut tariffs and ease commerce.

But after a year of preparatory discussions between Brussels and Washington, major differences remain, such as EU resistance to importing U.S. foodstuffs that are genetically modified.

"This is potentially a very big deal," said Michael Froman, White House deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs, a day after President Barack Obama endorsed talks with the 27-nation bloc in his State of the Union address.

In Brussels, EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said: "These negotiations will set a standard, not only for our future bilateral trade and investment, including regulatory issues, but also for the development of global trade rules."

Once the U.S. Congress is notified and all 27 EU states assent to the talks going ahead, the sides hope for a deal by the end of 2014 - a tight deadline in international trade talks. A decade of argument among all world governments in the Doha round of trade negotiations has so far resulted in deadlock.

"If we want to go down this road, we want to get there on one tank of gas and we don't want to spend 10 years negotiating what are well known issues and not reach a result," Froman said in a conference call with journalists.

RISKS

The collapse of Doha disappointed hopes that a worldwide cut in tariffs and other barriers to trade could boost the global economy. Creating preferential trade agreements (PTAs) between states, such as an EU-U.S. deal, may achieve some of the same ends, but many experts are concerned that breaking the world into blocs could end up creating new obstacles to global trade.

"The more problematic side of myriad different PTAs is that they create a hodgepodge of different regulations, standards and norms that can evolve into serious non-tariff barriers," said Keith Rockwell, chief spokesman at the Geneva-based WTO.

He said it was too early to say what the impact of an EU-U.S. deal would be. U.S. and EU officials countered the criticism by saying their deal would set global standards for the world to follow in lowering a wider range of trade barriers.

However, creating jobs and economic growth on either side of the North Atlantic provide the main rationale for their alliance, given both economies are struggling to break free from almost five years of downturns and stunted recovery as well as increasing competition from China and other emerging economies.

The deal has support at the highest level, give an name check by Obama in his speech to Congress on Tuesday and cast as a central pillar of Britain's presidency of the G8 this year.

Under an agreed outline for the deal, the two sides expect it to add 0.5 percent to the EU economy and 0.4 percent to the U.S. economy by 2027, or 86 billion euros ($116 billion) a year for the Europeans and 65 billion euros for the Americans.

But EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht has warned that the talks will be tough, with no "low hanging fruit". Import tariffs between the two are already not high - an average of 4 percent.

Negotiations will focus on harmonizing standards, from car seat belts to household cleaning products, and regulations governing services. These help ensure exporters can compete.

But fleshing out the negotiating plans could cause friction - last year it took EU trade ministers four months to persuade the European car industry to let Brussels officials talk to Japan about creating a similar free-trade pact.

AGRICULTURAL MUD

One of the key sticking points is likely to be agriculture, even though the deal will not tackle the politically poisonous issue of farm subsidies. When a Transatlantic trade deal was mooted in 1998, it was shot down by France, which feared Europe could be forced into too many concessions on farm trade.

"There is a reason we have not launched an effort of this nature in the past, because of some of these historic difficult issues that have frustrated our ambition," said U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk.

Leaders' fears of prolonged slump, however, may help a deal.

Froman at the White House said the United States now believed "the stars could well be aligned, given developments on both sides of the Atlantic for us to resolve issues that we've never been able to resolve before".

Washington has long been frustrated by EU restrictions on U.S. farm produce, such as foodstuffs made with genetically modified organisms (GMOs), poultry treated with chlorine washes and meat from animals fed with the growth stimulant ractopamine.

In an early sign of EU reticence, Barroso said the negotiations would not compromise consumer health.

"We will not negotiate changes that we do not want of the basic rules on either side, be it on hormones or GMOs," he said.

French Trade Minister Nicole Bricq said she would back a deal if it benefited France, long a vocal defender of its agricultural interests: "I will ensure that French interests are heard," she said.

Kirk said everything was on the table, "including all across the agricultural sector, whether it's GMOs or other issues". Froman said agricultural issues were not being put off but would be resolved before and during the main negotiation.

Another thorny issue that is unlikely to be resolved directly by the EU-U.S. negotiation is the battle over subsidies for Europe's Airbus and Boeing of the United States, the biggest and longest-running dispute in the WTO's history. But it could improve the mood and help usher in a settlement in the aircraft dispute.

Brussels has been negotiating possible free-trade agreements with more than 80 other countries, with some successes, such as a recent deal set to be struck with Singapore. But some talks, such as those with India, show no signs of ending. Talks with Canada since 2009 have also failed to settle differences over agriculture, intellectual property and public procurement.

($1 = 0.7427 euros)

(Additional reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek and Adrian Croft in Brussels and Tom Miles in Geneva; Editing by Peter Graff and Alastair Macdonald)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/eu-u-start-free-trade-talks-011313445--sector.html

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Pope Benedict's legacy: More influential than Pope John Paul II?

Pope Benedict's legacy may be a willingness to let liberal Catholics leave in favor of a more orthodox church in the US and Europe.

By Robert Marquand,?Staff writer / February 11, 2013

Pope Benedict XVI delivers his message during a meeting of Vatican cardinals, at the Vatican, Monday. Pope Benedict announced Monday that he would resign at the end of the month - the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years.

Courtesy of L'Osservatore Romano/AP

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Pope Benedict resigns later this month after arguably being the single most influential figure inside the Roman Catholic Church for three decades, dating to the early 1980s.

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A shy but brilliant scholar whose consistent vision has been to reinstitute the grand authority held by the Vatican in the Middle Ages, Benedict has, often single-handedly, redirected his church away from the liberal experiments and sometimes amateurish enthusiasms of the Vatican II period of the 1960s, which conservatives saw as a dangerous diversion. He has also, over years, instituted doctrines, individuals, and orders consistent with his theological view of the Catholic Church as the true and only authentic one.

While not as widely beloved as his predecessor John Paul II, the popular Polish pope who helped crack the Soviet hold on eastern Europe and attracted global crowds, Benedict arguably has had more influence inside the church ??even as he often irritated Protestants who he said were not "authentic" Christians, angered Muslims by put-downs of Islamic figures, or unsettled Jewish-Catholic relations by rehabilitating a fringe religious society with a bishop who denied the severity of the Nazi holocaust.

Benedict's chief occupation as pope has been, observers say, to purify his church.?

To do so, Benedict crushed the liberation theology movements of the?third world, put a slammer hold on efforts to ordain women and question celibacy, put earlier ecumenical impulses on the back burner, and, instead, has greatly empowered more hardcore orders like Opus Dei, Legions of Christ, and other orthodox wings, largely on the idea that the church must first cherish its most ardent believers.

Yet, while Benedict has won many battles inside the church, he is also widely seen as having lost many larger wars that he either instituted or took part in.

Benedict?s effort to reinstitute Christianity in its European context has largely failed to generate enthusiasm on a continent increasingly secular. While in pursuit of liberal priests and nuns who he implied were polluting the church with wrong doctrines, Benedict has appeared to many Europeans to be too inattentive to priests who sexually abused minors, of whom there are an estimated 8,000. The revelations of sexually abusive priests in Germany, Ireland, Belgium, and Austria two years ago brought a change to the story line that such problems were restricted to the United States.?

For fully believing Catholics, the Roman church is a divine, not a human institution; its leader, the pope, is the ?vicar of Christ,? the direct spiritual descendant of Jesus Christ and his disciple Peter. The kingdom of heaven on earth that Jesus asked his followers to pray for, must, in orthodox Catholic doctrine, come through the Catholic Church and the pope, also known as the Holy Father.

For many modern-thinking or non-literal Catholics, particularly after the long-running church self-examination known as Vatican II, those orthodox doctrines of the identity of the church and the pope were put in question and thrown open for new interpretation.

Vatican II lead, though often quite indirectly, to a massive re-evaluation of things like the operation of the spirit in the church, the possibility of women being ordained as priests, a faint questioning of the doctrine, only adopted in pre-medieval Europe, of celibacy, and of more "democracy"?or power by the laity or non-clergy members in matters of church governance.

For a rising college theology professor named Joseph Ratzinger, these new interpretations were viewed with increasing horror. They often lacked seriousness, were sloppy, and seemed chaotic and undignified.

As then-Cardinal Ratzinger, Benedict took office in 1982 as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the same office that earlier conducted or oversaw heresy trials. Yet while that office has a five-year term and most predecessors held it for 10 years at most, Ratzinger stayed 24 years, only leaving to become pope in 2005.

Now, as Catholics think through their future they will do so with a set of cardinals, bishops, priests, and church authorities that have largely been vetted through the orthodox filter set up by the Bavarian-born pontiff.

Indeed, a church hierarchy carefully pruned of liberal and ecumenical impulses may be one of Benedict?s enduring legacies, though it has brought the current pontiff into serious disagreements with powerful orders, like the Jesuits, that previously saw themselves as the main defenders of Rome.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/fHR6tRo16ts/Pope-Benedict-s-legacy-More-influential-than-Pope-John-Paul-II

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Lower TV sales temper JB Hi-Fi profit | Stuff.co.nz

Consumer electronics retailer JB Hi-Fi made a A$82 million (NZ$101m) profit for the half-year ended December, but same-store sales declined due to a slowdown in television sales.

In New Zealand sales fell 6 per cent to NZ$117.5m, while gross profit declined 3.4 per cent to NZ$20.1m. Same-store sales in New Zealand slipped 5.6 per cent.

The retailer said the result for New Zealand was affected by the Rugby World Cup, which had delivered a boost to sales in the first half of the previous financial year.

It expected pricing to remain aggressive in consumer electronics in New Zealand throughout the second half of the year.

The 3 per cent increase in net profit year-on-year for the group followed a similar-sized increase in total sales to A$1.8 billion.

Sales at JB Hi-Fi branded stores in New Zealand and Australia rose 3.1 per cent but same-store sales fell off by 3.5 per cent.

Chief executive Terry Smart said the TV category was largely behind the decline.

"The industry has seen TV sales decline over the past few years as the category moves towards a more typical replacement-driven sales market," he said.

But the ASX-listed company was pleased with the overall results, with total sales growing and an improved gross margin resulting in net profit growth.

Gross margin increased to 21.5 per cent for the half, up from 21.2 per cent year-on-year. Earnings before interest and tax (ebit) rose 2.5 per cent to A$123.7m.

In New Zealand gross margin increased to 17.1 per cent, from 16.7 per cent, while ebit rose 18 per cent to $2.6m.

Smart said the retailer had started the 2013 calendar year positively, with year-on-year sales growth of 11.7 per cent in January, and same-store growth of 4.2 per cent.

The company predicts full-year sales will reach A$3.25b and net profit to land between A$108m and A$112m.

That is based on a fall in same-store sales of about 3 per cent in the year and gross margin to remain unchanged at 21.5 per cent.

"In the second half the 2012 financial year, we saw aggressive discounting across the market, which while driving sales, did impact gross margin," Smart said.

"As we cycle this period we anticipate sales growth may be more challenging, but this should be offset by a relatively stable gross margin environment."

JB Hi-Fi has 13 stores in New Zealand, and 163 in Australia.

- ? Fairfax NZ News

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/financial-results/8288022/Lower-TV-sales-temper-JB-Hi-Fi-profit

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The death toll in the Kumbh Mela stampede in India has risen to 36. The fataliti...

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Gunmen kill Nigeria women giving polio vaccines

KANO, Nigeria (AP) ? Gunmen suspected of belonging to a radical Islamic sect shot and killed at least nine women who were taking part in a polio vaccination drive in northern Nigeria on Friday, highlighting the religious tensions surrounding the inoculation of children in one of the few nations where the disease still remains endemic.

The attack shocked residents of Kano, the largest city in Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north, where women often go from house to house to carry out the vaccination drives as Muslim families feel more comfortable allowing them inside their homes than men. It also signaled a new wave of anger targeting immunization drives in Nigeria, where clerics once claimed the vaccines were part of a Western plot to sterilize young girls.

The first attack Friday morning happened in Kano's Hotoro Hayi neighborhood and saw gunmen arrive by three-wheel taxis and open fire. At least eight female vaccinators died in that attack, witnesses said.

The second attack, in the Unguwa Uku neighborhood, saw another four people killed, witnesses said. The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of angering the radical sect known as Boko Haram.

However, confusion surrounded the death toll, as Kano state police spokesman Musa Magaji Majia said the attacks killed only nine people ? all of them women taking part in the drive and giving the oral vaccine drops to children. A local hospital later said it received only two corpses from the Unguwa Uku attack, with four others wounded.

Definitive death tolls for such attacks in Nigeria are difficult to obtain. Police and military forces in Nigeria routinely downplay such casualties, and families quickly bury the dead before the next sunset per local Muslim tradition.

While police said they had no immediate suspects for the attacks, witnesses said they believed that Boko Haram had been behind the shootings. Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the Hausa language of the north, has been behind a series of violent attacks across northern Nigeria as part of its fight against the country's weak central government. Boko Haram is blamed for killing at least 792 people last year in Nigeria, according to an Associated Press count. That includes a massive attack in Kano last January that killed at least 185.

There have been other attacks targeting polio vaccinators in Kano. In October, police said two officers involved in guarding a polio immunization drive there were shot and killed. State government officials who oversee the vaccination program did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the attack Friday or whether they'd suspend the drive after the killings.

A Kano radio station earlier this week aired a program talking about how one of its journalists had been attacked by local officials and had his equipment confiscated after coming upon a man who refused to allow his children to be vaccinated. A producer for the program apparently spoke on air about fears people have about the vaccine, which then spread through the city. Kano state's police commissioner later ordered his officers to arrest the producer, officials said.

The suspicion surrounding polio vaccinations in Nigeria exploded in 2003, when a Kano physician heading the Supreme Council for Shariah in Nigeria said the vaccines were "corrupted and tainted by evildoers from America and their Western allies." That led to hundreds of new infections in children in Nigeria's north, where beggars on locally made wooden skateboards drag their withered legs back and forth in traffic, begging for alms. The 2003 disease outbreak in Nigeria eventually spread throughout the world, even causing infections in Indonesia.

Today, Nigeria remains one of only three countries where polio remains endemic, the others being Afghanistan and Pakistan. Last year, Nigeria registered 121 new polio infections, more than half of all cases reported around the world, according to data from the World Health Organization.

Attacks targeting polio vaccinators don't just occur in Nigeria, however. In December, militants in Pakistan killed at least nine workers on a polio vaccine drive. Militants there have accused health workers of acting as spies for the U.S., alleging the vaccine is intended to make Muslim children sterile. Those rumors only grew after it was revealed a Pakistani doctor ran a fake vaccination program to help the CIA track down and kill al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden.

___

Jon Gambrell contributed to this report from Johannesburg and can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP .

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-02-08-Nigeria-Polio-Attacks/id-2426b196c24a4e16bc98eb5fd873f8f7

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Alcatel One Touch Premiere (U.S. Cellular)

The $9.99 Alcatel One Touch Premiere is either a feature phone that isn't priced like one, or smartphone that doesn't work like one, depending on how you look at it. Either way, you should probably keep looking. As a messaging-focused feature phone, it isn't half bad. But as a smartphone, it's nowhere on par with the competition. And since it's priced like a smartphone, we're going to rate it like one.

Design, Call Quality, and Data Plan
The One Touch Premiere measures 4.66 by 2.28 by 0.48 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.30 ounces. It's a comfortable size with a solid feel, but budget flourishes abound. The glass panel over the display, for instance, doesn't feel properly fitted into the frame of the phone?you can actually feel the edges of the glass raised just over the plastic. The back panel is a matte blue soft touch plastic, and the front and sides are two shiny black plastic rings. There's a volume rocker on the right, a 3.5mm headphone jack on top, and a power jack on the left.

Given the relatively compact size of the phone, you only get a 2.8-inch display. And unfortunately, at just 320-by-240 pixels, text and images look pretty grainy. There are six function keys right underneath, which is about two too many. Almost every time I meant to hit the Back key I turned the screen off instead. This probably says something about my memory, but it also means the keys are likely too close and poorly placed. Below the line of function keys is a four-row QWERTY keyboard.

Although they are made of a nice, grippy plastic, the One Touch Premiere's keys are cramped and tiny. I found it difficult to type without accidentally pressing other keys in the process. I actually found myself wishing for a larger screen in place of the keyboard, which is really the opposite of how a messaging phone should make you feel.

A 3G handset with 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, voices sounded okay in the phone's earpiece, but dipped in and out a bit in my tests. Calls made with the phone sound robotic and muffled, and noise cancellation is poor. The speakerphone is too low to hear outside, though calls sounded fine through a?Jawbone Era?Bluetooth headset. Standard Android voice dialing worked over Bluetooth, though the app crashed a number of times. Battery life is disappointing at just 4 hours and 2 minutes of talk time.

U.S. Cellular is the seventh-largest carrier in the U.S., and runs its own 3G and 4G LTE networks in parts of 26 states. Prices are good, but not significantly better than any of the big four carriers. Instead, U.S. Cellular sells itself on a higher level of customer service and network quality. Our readers agree, giving the carrier our?Readers' Choice?award last year, for reasonable prices and a reliable network.?

The biggest issue here is data pricing. The One Touch Premiere is powered by Android, yes, but it isn't quite a smartphone; I'll touch on this more in the next section. And even though the Premiere isn't a smartphone, U.S. Cellular requires that you pay $15 for a monthly 200MB data plan. When you take that into consideration, you might as well go for a genuine smartphone, like the Samsung Galaxy S III, whose data prices start at $20 for 300MB of data, but $25 gets you a much more reasonable 2GB of data?not to mention countless other features the Premiere can only dream of.

Smartphone or Feature Phone?
The One Touch Premiere is running Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread), but it isn't an Android smartphone?at least not in some of the ways in which it really counts. When most people hear the word smartphone, they think of apps. And while the Premiere comes with a few pre-loaded apps to get you started, it doesn't come with a way to get any additional third-party apps. Android's app store, Google Play, is strictly off limits. I tried to install it on the phone and received the message "This device does not support download of applications or content from Google Play." That means you can kiss those 600,000+ apps goodbye.

I was able to install Amazon's Android app store on the phone through the Web browser, but that doesn't have anywhere near the same number of apps as Google Play. You also don't get any of Google's excellent, standard Android apps, like Google Maps. So even though this phone has some smartphone trimmings, like a decent Web browser and email capability, it's closer to a feature phone in more ways than not.

You get three home screens you can swipe between that come jam packed with apps and widgets. There's lots of bloatware preinstalled, and you can't delete any of it. As far as the UI is concerned, Gingerbread is a hopelessly outdated version of Android lacking many of the features and refinements you'll find in version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and above. It isn't bad for a feature phone, but again, the Premiere is priced more like a smartphone, which makes the old operating system and missing features difficult to justify.

From a performance standpoint, the One Touch Premiere is lacking across the board, smartphone or not. It is powered by a 600MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 MSM7627 processor, which hasn't been relevant for a few years now. Everything about this phone feels slow, from opening apps to swiping through your home screens.

Multimedia, Camera, and Conclusions
The One Touch Premiere comes with 159MB of free internal storage. There's also a microSD card slot beneath the phone's back cover with a preloaded 2GB card; my 32 and 64GB SanDisk cards worked fine as well. Music tracks sounded fine through both wired headphones as well as Altec Lansing Backbeat?Bluetooth headphones. I was able to play AAC, MP3, OGG, and WAV test files, but not FLAC or WMA. For video, the phone plays MP4 and H.264 test files at resolutions up to 800 by 480, but not AVI or Xvid files. This is better multimedia file support than most feature phones, but lacking compared with other smartphones.

The 2-megapixel camera has an LED flash. Performance is average, at best. There's a 1.3-second shutter delay, and then it takes another 3 seconds to save the image. Colors are fairly accurate, though pictures are somewhat dark no matter where you take them. Images are also a bit soft, but compared with other 2-megapixel sensors, they look about average. The camera records video at an ultra-low 352-by-288-pixel resolution, which is so small, it's hard to see.

The Alcatel One Touch Premiere could be a decent feature phone, if only it were priced like one. Instead, the monthly required data plan pits it against heavy-hitting smartphones, like the aforementioned Samsung Galaxy S III, the Motorola Electrify M, and even the older, keyboarded HTC Merge. Next to those phones, it just can't compete. So if you're looking for an inexpensive messaging phone, you're better off with the Samsung Freeform 4, which has a solid keyboard and better call quality. You won't get all the same multimedia features, but you'll save nearly $200 per year in data fees.?

More Cell Phone Reviews:
??? Alcatel One Touch Premiere (U.S. Cellular)
??? Alcatel One Touch Shockwave (U.S. Cellular)
??? Samsung Galaxy Admire 4G (MetroPCS)
??? LG Spirit 4G (MetroPCS)
??? Motorola Electrify M (U.S. Cellular)
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/A-8S0pAoBhE/0,2817,2415094,00.asp

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Exposure to Smog in Early Pregnancy Linked to Complications ...

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 6 (HealthDay News) ? Women exposed to elevated levels of ozone air pollution in the first three months of pregnancy may be at increased risk for complications such as preeclampsia and premature birth, a new study suggests.

Mothers with asthma may be most vulnerable, according to the report published in the Feb. 6 online edition of the journal BMJ Open.

Preeclampsia occurs when a woman develops high blood pressure and protein in the urine after the 20th week of pregnancy. Left untreated, it can cause serious complications. Premature birth is delivery before 37 weeks of pregnancy, the study authors noted in the report.

For the study, David Olsson, of the department of public health and clinical medicine at Umea University in Sweden, and colleagues looked at data from nearly 121,000 single-baby pregnancies in Stockholm between 1998 and 2006, as well as air pollution records for the city during that time. Preeclampsia occurred in 2.7 percent of the pregnancies and 4.4 percent of them resulted in a premature birth, the investigators found.

There was no association between levels of vehicle exhaust exposure and pregnancy complications, nor between any air pollutants and low birth weight among the babies, the study authors noted in a journal news release.

However, the researchers did find evidence of a link between exposure to ozone air pollution during the first three months of pregnancy and the risk of preeclampsia and premature birth. The risk for each rose by 4 percent for every 10 micrograms per cubic meter rise in exposure to ozone during the first trimester.

About one in 20 cases of preeclampsia was linked to ozone exposure during early pregnancy, according to the report.

The study also found that mothers with asthma were 10 percent more likely to develop preeclampsia and 25 percent more likely to have a premature birth than those without asthma.

Although the study found an association between first-trimester exposure to high ozone levels and preeclampsia and premature birth, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development has more about preeclampsia and eclampsia.

Source: http://news.health.com/2013/02/06/exposure-to-smog-in-early-pregnancy-linked-to-complications/

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Signing Day: Ole Miss muscles in on power programs

Grayson High School football player Robert Nkemdiche, right, the nation's top recruit, is congratulated by his brother Denzel during Robert Nkemdiche's announcement to play college football for Ole Miss, at a Grayson, Ga., signing ceremony Wednesday Feb. 6, 2013. Denzel Nkemdiche also plays for the Rebels. (AP Photo/David Tulis)

Grayson High School football player Robert Nkemdiche, right, the nation's top recruit, is congratulated by his brother Denzel during Robert Nkemdiche's announcement to play college football for Ole Miss, at a Grayson, Ga., signing ceremony Wednesday Feb. 6, 2013. Denzel Nkemdiche also plays for the Rebels. (AP Photo/David Tulis)

Grayson High School football player Robert Nkemdiche, the nation's top recruit, announces his intent to play college football for Ole Miss during a signing day ceremony at his high school auditorium in Grayson, Ga., Wednesday Feb. 6, 2013. (AP Photo/David Tulis)

Dee Liner, a defensive lineman at Muscle Shoals High School in Muscle Shoals, Ala., smiles after announcing Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013, that he has chosen to sign his national letter of intent to play football at Alabama. (AP Photo/TimesDaily, Matt McKean)

Jaylon Smith, a linebacker from Bishop Luers, signs his letter of intent with Notre Dame, at the high school on Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013, in Fort Wayne, Ind. (AP Photo/The Journal-Gazette, Swikar Patel) NEWS-SENTINEL OUT MAGS OUT NO SALES

Alabama. Ohio State. Michigan. Florida. Notre Dame. Mississippi?

Ole Miss muscled in on the powerhouses that usually dominate national signing day, landing some of the most sought-after prospects in the country on college football's annual first-Wednesday-in-February frenzy.

The Rebels, coming off a promising 7-6 season in their first season under coach Hugh Freeze, had the experts swooning by signing three of the bluest chips still on the board and building a well-rounded class otherwise.

"I do think (this class) has the possibility of being a program changer," Freeze said. "But it's all on paper right now.

The day started with defensive end Robert Nkemdiche from Loganville, Ga., rated the No. 1 recruit in the country by just about everyone who ranks them, deciding to join his brother, Denzel, in Oxford, Miss.

"I feel like it's the right place for me," Nkemdiche said after slipping on a red Ole Miss cap. "I feel like they can do special things and they're on the rise. I feel like going to play with my brother, we can do something special."

Nkemdiche originally committed to Clemson last year, then backed off that and narrowed his picks down to LSU, Florida and Mississippi ? and the Rebels beat the big boys.

They weren't done. Coaches in the Ole Miss war room were exchanging hugs and high-fives again a couple hours later when Laremy Tunsil, a top-rated offensive tackle from Lake City, Fla., picked the Rebels over Florida State and Georgia.

"Tunsil to Ole Miss I think was the biggest surprise of the whole (recruiting season)," said JC Shurburtt, national recruiting director for 247Sports.com.

And, as if the Ole Miss needed more good news, highly touted defensive back Antonio Conner from nearby Batesville, Miss., chose the Rebels over national champion Alabama.

Ole Miss also landed Laquon Treadwell from Crete, Ill., one of the best receiver prospects in the country. He made a verbal commitment to the Rebels back in December, and sealed the deal Wednesday, the first day high school players can sign binding letters of intent.

The end result was a class good enough to even catch the attention of LeBron James.

"Ole Miss ain't messing around today! Big time recruits coming in. SEC is crazy," the NBA MVP posted on his Twitter account.

Crazy good. While the Rebels racked up, it's important to remember they still have plenty of ground to gain on the rest of their conference.

Nick Saban reloaded the Crimson Tide with a class that Rivals.com ranked No. 1 in the country.

SEC powers Florida, LSU and Georgia pulled in typically impressive classes. SEC newcomer Texas A&M cracked the top 10 of several rankings. Even Vanderbilt, coming off a nine-win season, broke into the top 25.

It's the cycle of life in the SEC, which has won seven straight BCS championships. Stock up on signing day and scoop up those crystal footballs at season's end.

___

SLIPPING AWAY FROM USC

Signing day didn't do much to soothe the scars left from a difficult season for Southern California.

NCAA sanctions limited the number of scholarships coach Lane Kiffin and the Trojans could hand out this year, and then as signing day approached USC had several players who had given verbal commitments change their minds.

The most notable defection on signing day was five-star defensive back Jalen Ramsey of Brentwood, Tenn., who flipped to Florida State. Defensive end Jason Hatcher from Louisville, Ky., bailed on USC and signed with Kentucky, and defensive end Torrodney Prevot from Houston not only reneged on his USC commitment, but he landed at Pac-12-rival Oregon.

"People expected (Prevot) to flip from USC, but they thought it would be to Texas A&M," Shurburtt said.

USC's class won't be lacking blue chippers. Quarterback Max Browne from Washington is considered the next in a long line of topflight Trojans quarterbacks, and Kenny Bigelow from Maryland is rated among the best defensive linemen in the nation.

Kiffin will be banking on quality to make up for the lack of quantity, but that's a precarious way to play a game as uncertain as recruiting.

____

IF MOMMA'S NOT HAPPY ...

Alex Collins, a top running back prospect out of Plantation, Fla., announced on Monday night that he was going to Arkansas instead of Miami.

It was considered a huge victory for new Razorbacks coach Bret Bielema.

But on Wednesday morning, when it was time to make it official, Collins' letter of intent didn't come spinning through the fax machine in Fayetteville, Ark.

There were some odd reports about Collins' mother not being happy with her son's decision to go so far from home.

College coaches aren't allowed to talk about specific players before they sign, but Bielema did acknowledge during his signing day news conference that Arkansas' class of 22 players could "grow by one."

___

THE BIG TWO

Ohio State and Michigan received two thumbs up from experts on their signing day classes. They all had the Buckeyes and Wolverines around top five in the country.

After that, there was a drop off. Nebraska received solid grades and Penn State, despite NCAA sanctions that limited its class to 17 signees, held up pretty well.

"That's a tribute to the job (Penn State coach) Bill O'Brien and the staff did," Shurburtt said.

But signing day 2013 signaled that Urban Meyer's Buckeyes and Brady Hoke's Wolverines are primed to pull away from most of the Big Ten, and maybe ? just maybe ? give the league a team or two that can challenge those SEC teams for a national title.

___

BUILT TO LAST

Notre Dame followed up its best season in more than two decades with a recruiting class that coach Brian Kelly hopes can keep the Fighting Irish contending for more national titles.

The class includes a famous name in Torii Hunter Jr., the son of the All-Star outfielder. Hunter Jr. is a top-notch receiver prospect, though he broke his leg during an All-Star game and it could be a while before he's back on the football field.

Linebacker Jaylon Smith from Fort Wayne, Ind., is generally regarded as the jewel of a class that experts have ranked among the best in the country.

"I love agreeing with experts," Kelly said.

___

BASEBALL OR FOOTBALL?

Oklahoma hopes it has found the next Sam Bradford in Cody Thomas, a pocket passer from Colleyville, Texas.

One small problem. Thomas is also a big-time baseball player who could draw interest in the major league draft this summer.

"We wouldn't have pursued him if we didn't feel there was a great chance he'd be playing football," Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said.

___

QUOTABLE

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier said recruiting classes "don't always pan out. Of course, they always seem to pan out at Alabama."

___

AP Sports Writer David Brandt in Oxford, Miss., and Associated Press Writer Tom Coyne in South Bend, Ind., contributed.

___

Follow Ralph D. Russo at www.Twitter.com/ralphdrussoap

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-02-06-FBC-Signing-Day-Rdp/id-8e334301c9ea448db5ec080e3596e509

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Pringles pop boosts Kellogg's finances

NEW YORK (AP) ? Kellogg reported a fourth-quarter loss on a pension-related charge, but its underlying earnings rose as its recently acquired Pringles chips helped boost sales.

The maker of Froot Loops, Eggo waffles and Pop Tarts said net sales for the period rose 18 percent to $3.56 billion. Sales of existing products rose 5 percent.

However, the company said a new accounting method for its pensions affected results for the quarter. Under the new method, Kellogg Co. lost $32 million, or 9 cents per share, for the period. That compares with a loss of $195 million, or 54 cents per share, for last year's revised results.

Not including one-time items, the company said underlying earnings were 67 cents per share.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pringles-pop-boosts-kelloggs-finances-133438104--finance.html

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Takeover costs dent NYSE Euronext's Q4 profit

PARIS (AP) ? Exchange operator NYSE Euronext says its net income fell 75 percent in the fourth quarter of last year compared to a year earlier on the back of costs related to its upcoming takeover and debt refinancing.

In the last quarter of 2012, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange earned $28 million, compared with $110 million in the fourth quarter of 2011.

The company says Tuesday that excluding charges related to write-offs in preparation for its acquisition by Intercontinental Exchange and the refinancing, its earnings would have been $105 million against $130 million the year before.

Its 2012 earnings were down 29 percent at $462 million on falling trading volumes, largely related to the exceptional volatility that existed in markets in 2011.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/takeover-costs-dent-nyse-euronexts-q4-profit-082233182--finance.html

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Bill Clinton to speak at Ed Koch's funeral in NYC

FILE - In this Dec. 10, 2012 file photo, former New York City Mayor Ed Koch says goodbye to reporters as he gets in his car after being released from the hospital in New York. Koch died Friday, Feb. 1, 2013 from congestive heart failure, spokesman George Arzt said. He was 88. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 10, 2012 file photo, former New York City Mayor Ed Koch says goodbye to reporters as he gets in his car after being released from the hospital in New York. Koch died Friday, Feb. 1, 2013 from congestive heart failure, spokesman George Arzt said. He was 88. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

In this Sept. 11, 1985 file photo, New York Mayor Ed Koch raises his arms in victory at the Sheraton Centre in New York after winning the Democratic primary in his bid for a third four-year term. Koch died Friday, Feb. 1, 2013 from congestive heart failure, spokesman George Arzt said. He was 88. (AP Photo/Mario Suriani, file)

Workers at the Trinity Church Cemetary prepare former New York City mayor Ed Koch's gravesite, Friday, February 1, 2012, in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York. Koch, who was New York's mayor for three terms from 1978 to 1989, died early Friday morning from congestive heart failure. He was 88 years old. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

The American flag flies at half-staff outside City Hall to honor the death of former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, Friday, Feb. 1, 2012, in New York. Koch, the combative politician who rescued the city from near-financial ruin during three City Hall terms, died Friday morning of congestive heart failure at age 88. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Ed Koch is being remembered as the quintessential New Yorker ? an admired but tough, colorful former mayor who will be honored at his funeral by former President Bill Clinton.

At the service Monday morning at Manhattan's Temple Emanu-El, mourners will also hear about Koch's other fierce loyalty: Israel. The Israeli consul general is set to speak, along with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Clinton interrupted a trip to Japan to return to New York for the funeral, according to Koch spokesman George Arzt.

He said Koch was a friend of both Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton, and was helpful during her successful campaign for the U.S. Senate from New York. Koch also backed Hillary Clinton in her presidential run.

Bill Clinton will serve as a representative for President Barack Obama at the funeral.

Koch died Friday of congestive heart failure at age 88.

Friends from his weekly Greenwich Village luncheon gathering got together on Saturday, two weeks after his last meal with them.

The funeral will be held at one of the nation's most prominent synagogues, a Reform Jewish congregation on Fifth Avenue. Bloomberg is a member, as are comedian Joan Rivers and former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

Koch led his city for 12 years, with a brash, humor-tinged style that came to personify the New York of the 1980s.

The Democratic mayor is credited with helping save New York from its economic crisis in the 1970s and leading it to financial rebirth. But during his three terms as mayor, he also faced racial tensions and corruption among political allies, as well as the AIDS epidemic, homelessness and urban crime.

In his weekly radio address, Bloomberg called Koch "our most tireless, fearless, and guileless civic crusader."

The mayor said his predecessor's "tough, determined leadership and responsible fiscal stewardship ... helped lift the city out of its darkest days and set it on course for an incredible comeback."

He added, "When someone needed a good kick in the rear, he gave it to them."

Koch lost the Democratic nomination for mayor in 1989 to David Dinkins, who succeeded him.

Koch said he was defeated "because of longevity." In his words, "people get tired of you."

But as the votes were coming in, he said he told himself, "I'm free at last."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-03-Koch-Funeral/id-d44843772bc1480eb5043ff0d544f750

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Oh the drama! Super Ads go epic

NEW YORK (AP) ? Super Bowl ads have morphed into soap operas.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson shrugged off aliens and other villains so he could get more milk for his kids at breakfast in a Super Bowl spot for the Milk Processor Education Program. Anheuser-Busch's commercial told the story of a baby Clydesdale growing up and returning to his owner for a heartfelt hug years later. And a Jeep ad portrayed the trials and triumphs of families waiting for their return of family members.

The reason for all the drama? With 30-second spots going for as much as $4 million this year and more than 111 million viewers expected to tune in, marketers are constantly looking for ways to make their ads stand out. And it's increasingly difficult to capture viewers' attention in between plays.

"A lot of advertisers are running long commercials to tell these stories that engage people often in a very emotional way," said Tim Calkins, clinical professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. "These spots that tell stories really stand out in the clutter."

TEAR-JERKING MINI EPICS

Chrysler started the long-format commercial trend last year, with a two-minute spot starring Clint Eastwood that became very popular.

This year, Chrysler led the trend again with its two-minute salute to troops and their families. The ad featured Oprah Winfrey reading a letter from the Jeep brand to encourage families to stay hopeful.

"Wendy Ochoa, a high school teacher who lives in Novi, Michigan, said the ad was very emotional. "It tugs on your heartstrings, how can it not," Ochoa, 44, said.

Audi's 60-second ad in the first quarter, that featured an ending that was voted on by viewers prior to the game, showed the story of a boy gaining confidence from driving his father's Audi to the prom, kissing the prom queen and getting decked by the prom king.

The Audi mini-epic was a favorite of Super Bowl viewer Stephanie Bice, 39, a business development director in Oklahoma City.

"It was fun and whimsical," Bice said.

Meanwhile, Anheuser-Busch pulled at heartstrings with a spot about a baby Clydesdale growing up and moving away from his farm and his trainer. The horse remembered the trainer after returning for a parade, and raced to hug him.

"The Budweiser commercial with the Clydesdale made me cry," said Wendy Ponzo, 49, who was watching the game in Pont Pleasant, N.J. "I can relate to that."

COMEDY GOES LONG

Not all of the storytelling ads were dramatic, though.

Samsung's two-minute ad showed Seth Rogen ("The Guilt Trip" and Paul Rudd ("Role Models") getting called in to do a "Next Big Thing" ad for Samsung. But they're agitated once they realize that they're sharing the spotlight. LeBron James, an NBA basketball player for the Miami Heat, makes a cameo, appearing on a tablet.

The ad won over some fans in the ad world.

"I could watch the Samsung ad over and over again," said David Berkowitz, vice president at digital marketing agency 360i. "It's as good as any Seth Rogen movie."

Budweiser, a long-time Super Bowl advertiser, also told mini-movies in its two of its ads. One showed rival 49ers and Ravens fans each creating a voodoo doll for the other team with the help of R&B legend Stevie Wonder. In the other ad, fans go to great lengths to curse a rival fan's "lucky chair."

"It's only weird if it doesn't work," reads the copy.

And Mercedes-Benz's 90-second ad had a Faustian plot.

A devilish Willem Dafoe ("Spider-Man") shows a man everything that comes with a Mercedes-Benz CLX: A date with supermodel Kate Upton, dancing with Usher, driving around with beautiful girls, getting on the cover of magazines including Vanity Fair and GQ, getting to drive on a racetrack.

He almost signs his soul away for the car. But then he sees a billboard that says the car starts at $29,900, and doesn't sign.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/oh-drama-super-ads-epic-040414360--finance.html

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Caught in the act: Researchers capture key moments in cell death

Feb. 2, 2013 ? Scientists at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have for the first time visualised the molecular changes in a critical cell death protein that force cells to die.

The finding provides important insights into how cell death occurs, and could lead to new classes of medicines that control whether diseased cells live or die.

Cell death, called apoptosis, is important for controlling the number of cells in the body. Defects in cell death have been linked to the development of diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative conditions. Insufficient cell death can cause cancer by allowing cells to become immortal while excessive cell death of neurons may be a cause of neurodegenerative conditions.

Dr Peter Czabotar, Professor Peter Colman and colleagues in the institute's Structural Biology division, together with Dr Dana Westphal from the institute's Molecular Genetics of Cancer division, made the discovery which is published in the latest edition of the journal Cell.

Dr Czabotar said activation of the protein Bax had long been known to be an important event leading to apoptosis, but until now it was not known how this activation occurred. "One of the key steps in cell death is that holes are punched into a membrane in the cell, the mitochondrial membrane," Dr Czabotar said. "Once this happens the cell is going to go on and die. Bax is responsible for punching the holes in the mitochondrial membrane and visualising its activation brings us a step closer to understanding the mechanics of cell death."

Using the Australian Synchrotron, Dr Czabotar and colleagues were able to obtain detailed three-dimensional images of Bax changing shape as it moved from its inactive to active form. The active form ruptures mitochondrial membranes, removing the cell's energy supply and causing cell death.

"By using the powerful X-ray beams created by the synchrotron, we obtained structures of Bax that were really exciting," Dr Czabotar said. "Bax is activated when small protein fragments called BH3-peptides bind to it. We saw that these peptides open up the Bax molecule like a key unlocking a padlock. This unlocked form of Bax can bind to another Bax molecule, which can then form larger Bax complexes that can go on to break up membranes in the cell.

"As well as explaining the detail of how cell death occurs, our research could provide clues about how to design potential new therapeutic agents that target Bax," Dr Czabotar said. "Now that we can see how Bax changes its shape to move from the inactive to the active form, it may be possible to block Bax activation, to prevent cell death in conditions such as neurodegenerative disorders, where illness is caused by excessive cell death. Similarly, agents that drive Bax into its active form could force immortal cells such as cancer cells to die, providing the basis for a potential new class of anti-cancer agents."

The research was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian Research Council, the Australian Cancer Research Foundation, Cancer Council Victoria, the German Research Foundation, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (US) and the Victorian Government.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Walter and Eliza Hall Institute.

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. Peter?E. Czabotar, Dana Westphal, Grant Dewson, Stephen Ma, Colin Hockings, W.?Douglas Fairlie, Erinna?F. Lee, Shenggen Yao, Adeline?Y. Robin, Brian?J. Smith, David?C.S. Huang, Ruth?M. Kluck, Jerry?M. Adams, Peter?M. Colman. Bax Crystal Structures Reveal How BH3 Domains Activate Bax and Nucleate Its Oligomerization to Induce Apoptosis. Cell, 2013; 152 (3): 519 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2012.12.031

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/top_environment/~3/IHLdgIdih0Q/130203085132.htm

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Weekly US jobless aid applications rise to 368K

In this Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013, photo, perspective job seekers talk with employers during a job fair in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid jumped last week, though the increase mostly reflected difficulties the government has seasonally adjusting its numbers. Applications are still at levels signaling modest hiring. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

In this Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013, photo, perspective job seekers talk with employers during a job fair in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid jumped last week, though the increase mostly reflected difficulties the government has seasonally adjusting its numbers. Applications are still at levels signaling modest hiring. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

In this Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2012, photo, Norma Urbario, left, and America Rodriguez stand in line, holding their resumes, during the job fair that the Miami Marlins hosted at Marlins Park in Miami. The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid jumped last week, though the increase mostly reflected difficulties the government has seasonally adjusting its numbers. Applications are still at levels signaling modest hiring. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid rose sharply last week but remained at a level consistent with moderate hiring.

Weekly applications for unemployment benefits leapt 38,000 to a seasonally adjusted 368,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. The increase comes after applications plummeted in the previous two weeks to five-year lows. Applications fell by a combined 45,000 in the second and third weeks of January.

The volatility reflects the government's difficulty adjusting the data to account for layoffs after the holiday shopping season. Job cuts typically spike in the second week in January as retailers dismiss temporary employees hired for the winter holidays. Layoffs then fall in the second half of the month.

The department attempts to adjust for such fluctuations but the January figures can still be volatile. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, ticked up to 352,000, just above a four-year low.

Most economists weren't concerned by the increase.

"This just reverses some of the previous sharp falls without altering the gradual downward trend," said Paul Dales, an economist at Capital Economics.

On Friday, the government is scheduled to issue its January jobs report. Analysts forecast that it will show employers added 155,000 jobs, the same as in December. The unemployment rate is expected to remain at 7.8 percent for the third straight month.

That's consistent with the number of people seeking unemployment aid. Applications fluctuated between 360,000 and 390,000 for most of last year. At the same time, employers added an average of 153,000 jobs a month.

That's just been enough to slowly push down the unemployment rate, which fell 0.7 percentage points last year to 7.8 percent.

The number of people continuing to claim benefits also rose. More than 5.9 million people received benefits in the week ended Jan. 12, the latest data available. That's 250,000 more than the previous week.

Steady hiring is needed to resume economic growth. The government said Wednesday that the economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.1 percent in the October-December quarter, hurt by a sharp cut in defense spending, fewer exports and sluggish growth in company stockpiles.

The contraction points to what is likely to be the biggest headwind for the economy this year: sharp government spending cuts and ongoing budget fights.

The economy will likely expand in the current quarter and is forecast to grow around 2 percent this year as strength in areas like housing and auto sales could partly offset government cutbacks. But looming, across-the-board spending cuts, set to take effect March 1, would weaken a still-precarious recovery.

Two key drivers of growth improved last quarter. Consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of economic activity, increased at a faster pace and businesses invested more in equipment and software.

Homebuilders, meanwhile, are stepping up construction to meet rising demand. That could create more construction jobs.

Home prices are rising steadily. That tends to make Americans feel wealthier and more likely to spend. Housing could add as much as 1 percentage point to economic growth this year, some economists estimate.

And auto sales reached their highest level in five years in 2012. That's boosting production and hiring at U.S. automakers and their suppliers.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-01-31-Unemployment%20Benefits/id-36db2187fd594e49b3884ddff328c7c5

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