It's Friday, so rather than do any real work, I've been soaking in the news, networking, and catching up on all the gossip surrounding the developing sale of Slide to Google for some $182 million + employee retention bonuses.

Slide, you say? What's that? They make "casual games," which is Silicon Valley speak for: goofy cheap stuff you can build quickly then flip. And what's the big technology innovation Slide will leave the world for $182 million? Superpoke! -- the Facebook app. Yipppeeee! In 10 years will anybody give a damn what Superpoke! is?

The gossip is juicy. Credit where credit is due: TechCrunch had a huge scoop here, digging up the story before it was announced and even publishing the amount that everybody will make (or not make) on the deal. Judging from chatter on various message boards, the top employees at Slide make out well but the great-unwashed -- pretty much everybody on down the line below employee #10 -- didn't make diddly.

The engine of value creation, economic growth, and mortgage payments is jobs. To build stuff, you still need to hire people. Unfortunately this morning's jobs report was a bit of a disappointment, as private-sector jobs creation fell short of expectations, growing by only 71,000 for the month.

Unemployment remains elevated, with the number of unemployed persons, at 14.6 million, and the unemploymen rate, at 9.5 percent, unchanged in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report.

Where are the jobs? Healthcare, and surprisingly, manufacturing. Healthcare added 27,000 jobs and manufacturing employment increased by 36,000 jobs in the month.

I've been doing my own research in the technology industry, and I will say, I have noticed an uptick in activity lately. Two sources at Internet jobs boards indicated that jobs listings are growing. Individual companies have also been expanding their hiring. For example, take a look at the "Careers" page of Right Now Technologies, a local company I have been following here in Montana. Their listings have expanded to 58 people.

Now, 58 jobs is not enough to counteract the macro trend, but it's clear that there is still growth in innovation markets (hey, I had to find the positive spin somewhere).

On to more of the news:

• CNN's take on the jobs market. Before you read this, you have to realize the big headline loss was in temporary Census workers.
• Wheat prices are hitting highs on the Russian drought situation. Meanwhile, millions of metric tons of wheat are rotting in India (AP).
• Activision Blizzard fell on disappointing results (AP). No blizzard of cash, apparently.
• Yoko Ono says the Beatles won't be coming to iTunes any time soon (AppleInsider). As long as they keep Yoko Ono's music off iTunes as well, we'll be okay.
• Mixed metaphor of the day: "RIM, Adobe, and Microsoft Grasping at Mobile Straws" (PCWorld). I am trying very hard to imagine what a mobile straw is. Aren't all straws mobile?
• All 1,000 studemts at Kearns High School in Utah will get an iPod touch (Salt Lake Tribune). And just in case you don't know how to get some people riled up -- point out that these were bought with stimulus money!
• Neither Google or Verizon officials are talking about the latest net neutrality kerfuffle -- the rumors that they're going to do a "deal" for tiered traffic pricing (CNET). Meanwhile, I'm still campaigning for beer neutrality -- all the beer you can drink.
• 1 million little brown bats have been killed by a disease known as white-nose syndrome (BBC). That's not to be confused with white-man syndrome, which renders Silicon Valley executives unable to stomp their feet in rhythm to soul music.
• Japanese social games company DeNA is on track for $1B in revenue (TechCrunch).That's a lot of sushi.
• Avere Systems raises $17 million (VentureBeat).