Do you work a lot or a little? Type in your hours, and we'll tell you how you compare with the average employee in your own country, and the average across 34 developed nations. The figures come from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), sometimes referred to as the rich countries' club, which gathers them from its 34 members. A global comparison of working hours is impossible because of the lack of comparable data. As Wesley Stephenson of BBC radio's More or Less programme explains, developing countries often work longer hours, but working longer doesn't necessarily mean working better. Continue reading →

ABC Owned Stations Aim to Wake-Up Viewers Launches new free Alarm Clock app in Houston, with launches in all of its eight markets planned by mid-June By George Winslow -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/23/2012 2:56:08 PM The ABC Owned Television Stations Group has begun rolling out new iPhone and iPod touch alarm clock apps that also offer news, weather, live radar, traffic reports and other features. The first launch of the product occurred today with the launch in Houston of KTRK-TV's "ABC13 Houston Alarm Clock."The station group expects the app, which offers a variety of alarm tones as well as custom wake-up tracks from their favorite anchors, to be available in all eight of its markets by mid-June."This all-in-one Alarm Clock app represents the ABC ... Continue reading →

Reuters For the first time ever, the majority of jobless people have attended college. But it doesn't mean higher ed has lost its value. Shutterstock The issue at stake is individual responsibility, not liberty. YouTube How Gotye and other newcomers resemble past single-smash acts Continue reading →

Wed May 23, 2012 9:03am EDT (Reuters) - Facebook Inc, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, and several banks led by Morgan Stanley were sued by shareholders, who claimed the defendants hid the social networking leader's weakened growth forecasts ahead of its $16 billion initial public offering. The defendants were accused of concealing from investors during the IPO marketing process "a severe and pronounced reduction" in Facebook revenue growth forecasts, resulting from increased use of its app or website through mobile devices.The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, according to a lawyer for the plaintiff.(Reporting By Dan Levine in San Francisco and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick) Continue reading →

And now for some more bombshell news about the Facebook IPO... Earlier, we reported that the analysts at Facebook's IPO underwriters had cut their estimates for the company in the middle of the IPO roadshow, a highly unusual and negative event. What we didn't know was why. Now we know. The analysts cut their estimates because a Facebook executive told them to, a source tells us. The information about the estimate cut was then verbally conveyed to sophisticated institutional investors who were considering buying Facebook stock, but not to smaller investors. The estimate cut appears to have influenced the investment decisions of at least some institutional investors, dampening their appetite for Facebook stock, and, crucially, affecting the price at which they were willing to buy ... Continue reading →

Wed May 23, 2012 9:06am EDT * Euro-zone crisis increases appeal of German debt* Sale means Germany completes almost half of 2012 funding target* Funding costs widen between Germany and peripheryBy Kirsten DonovanLONDON, May 23 (Reuters) - Germany sold 4.56 billion euros ($5.8 billion) of bonds carrying a zero percent coupon on Wednesday, its first-ever sale of debt offering investors no regular return and underscoring its safe-haven appeal at a time of turmoil in the euro currency zone.Germany - which joins a select band of counties including Japan by issuing conventional debt carrying little or no coupon payment - attracted strong demand for the two-year bonds, whose sale completes nearly half of its 2012 funding target."As long as the Greek/euro zone crisis continues, people have ... Continue reading →