Scammer Flips Free Kitties For Profit

The next time you're worried about making rent, do try to resist the temptation to turn to Craigslist in search of something furry to sell. Because you might get caught.

Recently a Park Slope battle was born when one woman found out that the cats she'd given away were being sold by a serial "cat flipper."

The best part is the "flipper"s response to being confronted:
 

"I just decide to find them homes...You still gave them away to me for free, no contract, once in my      hand their [sic] initially mines. That means if I wanted to give them to my nieces, stranger walking the street, dad, or grandmother thats initially on me. ... I'm not gonna sit here going back and fourth with you, then get excited and have an asthma attack."

...Fair enough?

Spending A Fortune To Become An Average Joe

The U.S. political system has a long and noble tradition of catering almost exclusively to those who can front a big wad of cash for their campaigns - between 2000 and 2009, candidates spent $925.1 million on their own campaigns, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics - and this year's election circuit saw an especially high number of country clubbin' candidates paying their own way.

But during this recession, there's been a glitch in the matrix. Even though these candidates are loaded, they've gotten to talking all Huey Lewis-like. The current populist cravings of the public have led to some particularly bizarre behavior from these candidates. And by bizarre, I mean laughably hypocritical.

The New York Times noted that Jeff Greene, in an appearance last month in Miami, "arrived in a Cadillac Escalade S.U.V., before stumping for energy conservation," told the crowd "that he was “fed up and frustrated” with Washington while suggesting job-creation ideas previously proposed by Washington politicians"; and then received "a raucous welcome as an outsider who could turn Florida around."

While in the past, self-financed candidates have tended to lose (again, see the National Institute on Money in State Politics), this recent election saw them at a greater advantage. That's largely because the wells of financial support for traditional fund-raising have all but dried up during the recession.

And with the way things are going now, that phenomenon may persist for many elections to come.

Don't Hate Us Cause We're Apathetic

Despite facing a job market that could make a bilingual Harvard valedictorian soil her madras pants, a full 41% percent of job seekers this year turned down job offers. That's the same percentage that said "thanks, but no thanks" in 2007, when the economy was booming.

This peculiar statistic has been attributed to the large number of recent college grads who have recently entered the job market, and to the special breed of self-confidence that has flourished among their generation.

This NY Times article blames the strange sense of entitlement among the kids of Gen Y - aka the "why worry?" generation - on "parents who overstoked their self-esteem, teachers who granted undeserved A’s and sports coaches who bestowed trophies on any player who showed up."

But perhaps these well-educated (and, importantly, well-informed) college grads are just no longer willing to settle for the shitty hand their counterparts have played in years past. Maybe they are sick of employers taking advantage of a competitive market to expand the (already obnoxious) phenomenon of unpaid internships beyond part-time, supplemental learning experiences into full-time, full-responsibility, unpaid jobs.

I say right on, Gen Y. You may be hyperactive and cocky, but you sure know how to stick it to the man.

But stop having your Moms call work to negotiate your salary. That is just not cool.

@mikebloomberg: chill with the tweeting

The City of New York is hiring, in a big way. While that is good news for the ranks of the unemployed, it may be bad news for the City itself. That's because the hiring is concentrated on the "exciting" and "forward-thinking" fields of social media and digital communications. And if past examples count for anything, New York just can't afford to go there right now. 

Remember the story Juan Gonzalez broke on CityTime, the admitted disaster of a computer project for which the city pays some 230 consultants an average salary of $400,000 a year to manage, despite it being seven years behind schedule and is hundreds of millions of dollars over budget? Yeah.

As just one element of this new project, Mayor Bloomberg will roll out his own social media arsenal consisting of Facebook and MySpace pages, a YouTube channel, and a Twitter feed.

I'm all for creating jobs, but this seems like it could be more like the most pricey bid for status points in the history of cool.

Over the past two years, workers across the country have become all too acquainted with the concept of "settling." But, surprisingly enough, many employers have been less than thrilled to have PhD candidates applying to management positions and former CFOs managing small nonprofits. 

It turns out, there's some science behind this overqualification-phobia. As the Times put it this weekend,

"conventional wisdom warns against hiring overqualified candidates [because they] often find themselves chafing at their new roles."

Fair enough. But it seems that, for some, "settling" has been working out just fine. The New York Times profiled several employees who have taken pay- and responsibility-cuts in the recession. Yet instead of "chafing" these workers are excelling in their new roles, going above and beyond the call of duty, and becoming huge assets to their respective employers.

Of course, it may be that they're not chafing because they've been frightened into silence by the prospect of bankruptcy. They may be excelling because they are terrified that their current employer will suffer a setback and lay them off. They may be going above and beyond because, well, you get the point.

Congratulations, capitalism, you've won again. Workers of the world, don't unite; just settle.

Come On Get Happy

...because sad people spend more money. That's according to a recent article on the website Financial Highway that suggests good money management is a task more psychological than mathematical. The author cites the study “Misery is not Miserly: Sad and Self-Focused Individuals Spend More”, which found that "sad and self-focused individuals spend as much as 300% more for the same type of commodity."

The study seems to apply to situational sadness more than the generalized variety;when it was conducted, "the researchers randomly assigned people to either watch a sad video or an emotionally neutral video, after which they were asked to purchase a commodity (i.e. bottle of water). Participants in the sad group offered about 300% more than the neutral group for the same item."

So next time you go see a tearjerker, hands off the wallet as you leave the theater - or you could end up crying into a $7 bucket of popcorn.


Don't be like Dawson.

Why you should be glad you don't have a job

.

In the interest of finding the silver lining, here are some reasons the jobless of you out there could thank your lucky stars.

1. One in three women has been harassed at work according to this article by the Daily Mail. (via savetheassistants.com)

What's more,

• 14 percent are “dreading” going to their holiday party because they’ll have to dodge a drunk and/or handsy coworker
• 20 percent say they have had to fend off a coworker’s sexual advances
• 5 percent report that they have quit a job because the office harassment was so bad
• 32 percent say that they have experienced harassment in the form of lewd “humor” or inappropriate joke

2. All bosses want a softie. The unemployed, on the other hand, are free to act like the bitches they really are.

3. Have you seen The Office?

4. Economist Frank Ackerman writes that "on the whole, unemployment is better for our health." He cites less work-related driving/traffic accidents and the fact that unemployed people exercise more, drink less alcohol, prepare and eat healthier food, see their friends more, and enjoy lower levels of stress. You will live longer than your employed friends, even if it is in a van down by the river!

5. Uniforms - wait, make that all work-appropriate clothing. Not as fun as sweats and slutty dresses.

6. The most common time for heart attacks to occur is Monday morning. WONDER WHY.

The Tale Of The $4 Million Road Sign

Once upon a time, the City of New York had a shitload of money, just burning a hole in its pocket. No one could figure out what to spend it on -- the city had no homeless or jobless citizens, and all the New Yorkers already had everything they could possibly need!

Along came a man named Eliot Spitzer. He was a modest guy who, at various points in his life, had spent his time upholding the American tradition of wealth-based social hierarchy, prosecuting others for crimes he committed himself, "steamrolling", taking the meaning of hypocrisy to a new level, and being every high-end hooker's worst nightmare. Mr. Spitzer was the governor of New York.

One day Mr. Spitzer had an idea for how to spend some of that ever-flowin money. New York City would rename the Triborough Bridge! Mr. Spitzer would get lots of publicity, make a bunch of rich and powerful people feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and, best of all, kiss the collective ass of one of the most powerful families in the country.

And so it was decided. For a substantial but entirely reasonable and worthwhile cost of $4 million dollars, the historic Triborough Bridge would become a completely new feature in New York City's landscape and history. Wellll, OK, technically it would be the same exact feature as it always was. But it would have a new name!

Some unpatriotic fools voiced opposition, making unreasonable points regarding the untimely nature of the change. Councilman Vallone of Astoria, for instance, said:

"Robert Kennedy was a great man, but this isn’t the time. While one agency that gets money from the state is raising fares and cutting service to the neighborhood at the foot of the bridge, another has somehow found a way to spend millions of dollars on changing the signage of it."

Oh come on, Vallone! As if anyone could think of anything better the city could be spending money on right now!!