Craigslist on The Huffington Post

Craigslist BlackBerry App Coming Exclusively To RIM Phones (VIDEO)

2009-11-16T08:55:33Z

The BlackBerry app store may be trailing the iPhone and Android app market but it's got an exclusive that's sure to leave other smartphone users envious.

The official Craigslist app will soon be exclusively available to BlackBerry users.

Tanja Aitamurto: Sophisticated Tree Hugging: the Pure Joy of Public Data

2009-11-11T13:42:33Z

What happens when a city releases public data for anybody to use? The city becomes a better place to live.

Disabled people can more easily find nearest blue zones, which are parking spaces for the disabled. The most kid friendly neighborhoods can easily be found on a web page. Even tree hugging becomes more sophisticated, as residents can notify the city's maintenance department about suffering trees with one click on a computer.

Is this an utopia? No. This is happening in San Francisco, California, and all the services mentioned above are available on web or mobile applications. San Francisco is one of the few cities in the country that have released public data on a website for anybody to use.

The spreading, country-wide data liberation movement has created a whole new ecosystem, including web developers, non-profit organizations, journalists, and citizen activists. All the ecosystem's parts were present at the California Data Camp organized on Saturday in San Francisco. The historical camp, first of its kind ever, was a part of the city's initiative to encourage data sharing.

Inspired by the liberated data, developers are coding iPhone apps and pondering revenue models. Non-profits are creating services based on processing the data. Journalists want to break stories based on public data and do impressive visualizations highlighting problems.

We were witnessing something historical at the Data Camp. Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist, got the gist out of the phenomenon by saying: We are all part of something bigger. This is changing the ways we govern ourselves.

So far, the City of San Francisco has released for example street sweeping and local transportation schedules, and crime data. One of my favorite apps based on public data is Mom Maps. With the app, you can find kid friendly locations such as playgrounds, indoor play areas, and restaurants nearby your location in the city.

San Francisco is lucky to have a mayor like Gavin Newsom who has taken the data liberation movement seriously. Both stick and carrot are used to encourage data sharing. As a stick, he has given an executive directive to make all the city's non-confidential data public.

Internal competition is used as a carrot. On the city's online dataservice, you can see a leaderboard about data liberating in the city. Not surprisingly, the Department of Technology is leading.

The freedom of public data is still in its infancy, and a lot of things need to be figured out, as Jay Nath of DataSF put it. One of the open questions is an attribution system for public data. Maybe a Creative Commons-kind of an attribution could work?

One of the biggest challenges is the mindset in the city governance. Sharing can be scary for some people. On the other hand, sharing public data must be motivating for the city staff. It is more meaningful to maintain datasets that will make difference in people's lives, rather than maintaining the data only for city's internal use.

Susan Finkelstein Offered Sex For World Series Tickets On Craigslist

2009-10-27T17:44:37Z

Talk about taking one for the team.

Police say that Susan Finkelstein was so desperate to see her beloved Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series that she offered to exchange sex for tickets.

Finkelstein described herself in an ad on Craiglist as a "diehard Phillies fan -- gorgeous tall buxom blonde -- in desperate need of two World Series Tickets."

Police found the ad and set up a meeting between her and an undercover officer. At that point Finkelstein allegedly "offered to perform sex acts" for seats to a game.

The 43-year-old woman was arrested Tuesday and charged with prostitution, among other offenses.

David Segal: Rhode Island Inches Closer To Banning Prostitution

2009-10-27T10:27:41Z

It was kimchi, rice, and Starbucks at Sunday morning's meeting at Providence's Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE). About three-dozen Korean "spa" managers and workers -- yes, prostitutes -- had gathered to discuss concerns about the pending outlawing of prostitution in Rhode Island with legislators, victims' rights advocates, prison reformers, and anti-human trafficking activists. The General Assembly will convene this week, and will likely overturn three decades of decriminalized prostitution here.

Rhode Island is one of two states without blanket prostitution bans. It's only sanctioned in a few counties in Nevada, but in RI it's legal everywhere, so long as there isn't public pandering (soliciting via street walking, for instance). Different versions of bans passed the House and Senate this year -- the former, which seven colleagues and I opposed (out of 75), was harsher than the latter. They promise to be reconciled later this week.

We attended yesterday's meeting for a variety of reasons -- a last ditch effort to stir up opposition to some of the changes, to inform the women of the new jeopardy they'd face and of their rights to attorneys and to remain silent, the conceit that we'd be somehow empathetic enough to read the plight of a trafficking victim off of her drowsy face as she sipped coffee early on a Sunday morning.

How did it come to be this way? The Providence Journal covers the genesis of the dynamic here. Lord knows that legislators in the tough-on-crime 1980s weren't in a hurry to sanction prostitution, and essentially, it appears as though the state accidentally decriminalized the act of exchanging money for sex during a push to re-classify what had been a felony as a misdemeanor. (The intended move to misdemeanor status was meant to make it easier for courts to process cases faster and get more women off the streets.)

The effort to criminalize all prostitution has grown, as Asian "spas" have popped up across the state, and some people have become convinced that legal prostitution has turned Rhode Island into a human trafficking "Mecca." The evidence for this has been mostly anecdotal -- I don't doubt that it occurs, but the magnitude of the practice has not been quantified -- and there's reason to think that lower prostitution penalties could even make trafficking less of a problem -- for instance, women might be more willing to report their traffickers if they can do so without fear of imprisonment. Robert Moosy, the director of the U.S. Department of Justice's Human Trafficking Prosecution Section of the Civil Rights Division, has noted that trafficking victims usually fear law enforcement precisely because they worry they will be prosecuted for prostitution. (The same goes for reporting of crimes committed by johns: For instance, the infamous Craiglist killer was reported by an escort he met in Rhode Island, who could report him without fear of prosecution.)

Nobody would argue that all prostitution in Rhode Island occurs in spas, and one would be hard-pressed to justify claiming that even most of it does, but those concerns about coercion have turned them into the debate's flash point.

Yet prostitution is different than human trafficking, even though some proponents of putting prostitutes in prison have cynically conflated the two issues. This was highlighted in testimony to the Rhode Island Senate Judiciary committee, given by lawyer Ann Jordan, director of the Program on Human Trafficking at American University's law school: "The bill erroneously assumes that arresting women who sell sex will somehow lead to more prosecutions for human trafficking. This is not an effective strategy."

Earlier this year, a colleague and I penned an editorial outlining some of the reasons for our opposition to the proposed ban. I'm a civil libertarian at heart, and think so long as there aren't ancillary concerns, consenting adults should be able to do as they please. Under certain circumstances, legal prostitution could conceivably create peripheral problems -- for instance, if lax prostitution laws were indeed wedded to increased human trafficking, we'd need to figure out how to address that. Sadly, what research I've done on the subject makes it difficult to point to any particular policy scheme as better than the rest, and best at reconciling civil libertarian values with the desire to protect the vulnerable. But we're hardly at a point where this is even a relevant debate, as the bill that passed the Rhode Island House was just so bad.

Advocates for the ban include law enforcement officials, the Catholic Church (RI is the nation's most Catholic state), and a small segment of the anti-trafficking community. They have framed the women as victims -- of trafficking or other unfortunate circumstances -- and some certainly are so, but those same advocates would inexplicably have these victims incarcerated or owing huge fines. In this sour economy, they'd probably work off that debt via further prostitution, putting the general public in a role more comfortably played by what's commonly known as a "pimp." The bill contains no right to diversion to psychological or substance abuse counseling. It provides no protection from deportation. Women would have new criminal records that would make it even harder to find "legitimate" work.

Certain criminalization supporters have even suggested that high penalties are important and good because they'd allow law enforcement officials to compell trafficked women to testify against their captors in exchange for relaxed punishment -- an emotionally trying and highly dangerous predicament, potentially jeopardizing the women and their families, with an overworked public defender as their lonely guide to the legal system.

As American University's Jordan asserts, "Such coercive tactics might expose the women or their families to violence from the traffickers who remain at large ... It is highly probable that the overwhelming majority of victims of trafficking would be arrested and prosecuted multiple times for prostitution ... without ever being recognized as victims."

Opponents include most of RI's anti-trafficking activists, the ACLU, anti-domestic violence activists, the RI chapter of the National Organization for Women (reportedly against the national organization's wishes), criminal justice reform advocates, and two-thirds of respondents to the Providence Journal's online polls on the matter. Some of these people and groups are foremost civil libertarians, who'd oppose any sort of ban, while others view the johns as victimizers and would support proscribing buying, but not selling, sex.

For some opponents to the ban, there's a basic distrust of the courts and law enforcement, exacerbated by the sad revelation earlier this month that certain police-affiliated organizations have regularly and repeatedly solicited thousands of dollars in donations from the brothels. (Police officials have vowed to put and end to that practice.)

That opponents of criminalization include academics, and former national-level law enforcement officials like Jordan and Moosy, has led proponents to retort that these outsiders are simply "sex radicals" who are trying to use Rhode Island as a proving ground for perverse, out-of-touch mores. Criminalization proponents tout their own letters, some from legitimate sources, and some from reactionaries like Concerned Women for America, which got famous for outing Harry Potter as a witch.

Sunday's gathering was arranged by a local filmmaker who has researched RI's brothels, is sympathetic to the women who work in them, and is convinced that trafficking concerns are overblown. Workers helped organize the meeting, looking up phone numbers of brothels in the "Adult Section" of the Providence Phoenix, and inviting their employees.

The venue was the modest headquarters of DARE, one of Rhode Island's most prominent social justice activism organizations, a square room with walls of white-painted cinder block and linoleum floors. Perhaps 40 brothel workers -- managers and prostitutes -- attended, sitting in a circle, mostly bedecked in jeans, sweatshirts, and sneakers, simple but clean and well-fitted. Also present were three legislators, a half-dozen activists, two translators, a newspaper reporter, and a radio journalist. (The women had voted to ask the press to attend.) Towards the end of the meeting at least one brothel owner -- a tall, heavy-set, white man in his 50s, exhibiting an oilman's brand of sleaze (he might as well have worn cowboy boots, or might have been) -- rolled up in a luxury SUV with Jersey plates. Under lighter circumstances, it might have been refreshing to be lobbied by someone so lacking public relations-savvy.

Our quick read of the situation made it impossible to know who among the women, if any, might have been coerced in the hardest sense. It is safe to assume that at least some were working because of unfortunate economic circumstances, but that the meeting came about via workers calling fellow workers at other spas, most of whom did not know each other prior to Friday, makes it seem unlikely that many of them would identify as being forced to do the work that they do, or would be identified by the spa managers as such: The sense among organizers and most attendees was that spas where the women are tightly controlled would have been loathe to permit their workers to attend, knowing that legislators, representatives from victims' rights groups, and anti-human trafficking activists would be present, and that the meeting would be controlled and translated by others, in a foreign environment, with dozens of spa workers milling about the building and parking lot. (State and local police were invited, but did not attend.)

In full disclosure, though: At least one anti-trafficking activist took aspects of the meeting's dynamic -- which women spoke and which didn't, for instance -- as further evidence that many of them were indeed trafficking victims.

Many of the women spoke passable or good English, and there's some audio posted here. It is clear that not every person in attendance was a "manager" of a brothel -- there were many rank-and-file workers there, and more women present than there are known brothels in the state -- but I cannot speak to the situation of any particular interviewee. I have no way to affirm which specific women were or were not being forthright, but many expressed sentiments along these lines, from the Providence Journal:

The new law would target the men who pay for sex, landlords who "knowingly" allow prostitution, and women such as Williams, a 53-year-old single mother who uses money from prostitution to help finance her daughter's college education. "I do not want anything to happen until she finishes school ... If I get arrested, my children get hurt."

Williams, who speaks broken English, moved to Rhode Island from Arkansas seven years ago because she heard "the schools were good here." A mother of two, with little education, she quickly found employment in a Pawtucket spa that offered sex for money.

It was only last year, she says, that she learned indoor prostitution was legal. "Everybody found out last year," she said. "Before, we don't know. We were very careful."

Williams works in the Pawtucket spa with three other women. She says that each has a separate tax identification number and pays taxes.

"No one here is under any force to be working in this field," said Sunyo Williams through an interpreter. "We are willing to answer one by one and testify that this is our own choice."

Another worker said:

"We choose to do the jobs. If a law really pass (sic) it's going to hurt our family, hurt us to plan for future, for better life."

And another, asked if they were there by choice:

"I like working ... This is the 21st century. We are free to go ... we like Rhode Island that's why we're working here. You know, this is all lying. Nobody forced us working (sic) in there. Because we want to work, we work."
And another:

"We are here cause ... we don't want to change the laws ... We all work for a living, right? Other woman they raise the kids and they work for money. If they change the law, what are you gonna do? ... " "I am 35 years-old and don't know what to do ... We are kind of ... in trouble now."

And, later, "All the person who come here, choice. No human tracking (sic) or anything."

No matter the specific predicament of each individual woman present, whether or not they were there entirely freely, one thing remains starkly clear, or grew even clearer: The answer cannot possibly be to put all of these women, and so many more, in prison. And the newly-organized workers are planning to come out in force for hearings on the legislation over the course of the week.
Read more: Sex Trafficking, Criminal Justice, Human Rights, Rhode Island, Prostitution, Sex, Human Trafficking, Craigslist Killer, Craigslist, Politics News

Craigslist Prostitution Lawsuit Thrown Out

2009-10-22T10:40:07Z

Craigslist won dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the sheriff of Cook County, Illinois, that accused the classified ads Web site of creating a public nuisance by providing a forum for prostitution services.

Robyn Griggs Lawrence: Top Green Consumer Trends for 2009: Which Predictions Came True?

2009-10-16T13:54:06Z

At the end of last year, our friends at Boulder’s The Fresh Ideas Group
(FIG), a PR agency for natural products companies, went out on a limb with
some public predictions about how Americans would act in 2009. As
the year winds down, let’s see how they did.

They predicted: We’ll get thrifty.

FIG forecasted that thrift stores, consignment shops, antique stores and
sites like eBay and Craigslist would see a boost in sales.

What happened: They got it partly right. According to
Forbes, eBay sales fell by 11 percent in the first quarter, but listings in
Craigslist’s barter section
were up 100 percent over last year. Consignment and thrift store sales were up,
according to USA Today. Goodwill’s sales rose 7.1 percent in the
first three months of the year and the Salvation Army saw sales rise 8 percent
from October of last year to March 2009.

They predicted: We’ll take better care of our stuff.

FIG predicted that in 2009 all types of repair services—from shoe repairs to
minor home remodeling (with an emphasis on green
remodeling!) would thrive as Americans put off buying new things.

What happened: Right on. Car repair shops are thriving as
Americans put off buying new cars, according to Santa Rosa’s The Press Democrat.
A national survey conducted by the Clarus Research Group for
AAMCO found that 63 percent of car owners said they would save money by putting
off buying a new car and repairing and maintaining their current cars
instead.

They predicted: We’ll stay home and watch TV—online.

FIG predicted that we’d save green by keeping our entertainment close to
home. More of us would join Netflix, but premium cable channels would take a
hit.

What happened: Despite tough economic times, consumers
seemed loathe to give up their TV sets. According to a PriceGrabber.com Consumer
Behavior Report, 69 percent of responders considered a standard TV set to be a
necessity—but 56 percent said they considered cable or satellite TV a luxury.
The survey also showed that more people (about 80 percent) were choosing to stay at home for entertainment. As for Netflix, FIG predicted
correctly. Netflix saw a 26 percent growth in subscribers over last year. Almost 10
percent of U.S. households now subscribe.

They predicted: We’ll use our kitchens.

FIG said we’d rediscover the benefits (and savings) of cooking
at home.

What happened: The Wall Street Journal reports that
Americans are passing up restaurants in favor of the grocery
store—and restaurants are chasing them. Sales of California Pizza Kitchen’s
frozen pizzas rose 20 percent last year.

They predicted: We’ll keep buying organic, despite the
cost.

FIG predicted organic
food sales would continue to grow for their families.

What happened: While their prediction was predictable (they
do represent these companies, after all), FIG got this right. A study released
by the Organic Trade Association in July found that 31 percent of
U.S. families said they buy more organic items than they did a year ago.

They predicted: We’ll hit the bottle—at home.

FIG believed that our economic anxieties would cause us to drink more at
home—but less in restaurants.

What happened: Not quite. A Wine&Spirits
magazine survey found that 62 percent of restaurants claimed alcohol sales
remained the same.

They predicted: We’ll heal ourselves.

FIG saw consumers with tight budgets trying more natural
home remedies to prevent costly doctor’s visits.

What happened: Yep. Newsweek reported that sales of Emergen-C
rose at Wal-Mart, consumers bought more over-the-counter
remedies than prescriptions and store pharmacists were being asked more
medical questions.

They predicted: We’ll get conscious (at least as
consumers).

FIG said we’d show more concern for what our money’s supporting and where our
goods originate.

What happened: Correct. While numbers for 2009 fair trade
sales aren’t out yet, in 2008 fair trade sales grew by 10 percent in the United
States, despite economic woes. In response to the 2008 figures, the Fairtrade Labelling
Organizations conducted a study on people’s thoughts on fair trade. Good
news: More than three quarters of those surveyed believe that companies should
pay workers in developing nations fairly, ensure safe working conditions and
contribute to community development, and 81 percent said that seeing the Fair Trade Certified label positively affected their
perception of a brand.

They predicted: We’ll be less trashy.

As we consume less, our carbon footprints will get smaller. We’ll buy less,
so we’ll waste less packaging.

What happened: According to the Washington Post, landfill
waste is down by 30 percent.

Jose Antonio Vargas: How We Unplug

2009-10-06T07:00:00Z

Sometimes, we just need to unplug.

No firing off text messages. No updating Facebook profiles. No browsing Craigslist or Yelp or whatever-hot-new-site is trending on Twitter. No compulsively -- okay, obsessively -- thumbing through iPhones, BlackBerries and Androids. Yes, technology is all around us -- in our pockets, on our beds, constant, clickable companions. And, yes, it's all moving at such warp speed (have you heard? foursquare is the new Twitter!) that we can't help but try and keep up.

Still, there's a reason why most everything technological has an off button. So in honor of "In Praise of Slowness: How a Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of Speed," Arianna's inaugural book club pick, we asked some of the world's most notable techies to tell HuffPostTech how they slow down. That is, when they do slow down.

Susie Middleton: I'll Trade You! Bartering is an Old Island Tradition Perfect for the New Economy

2009-10-04T10:51:42Z

Thanks to my stupidity and the New York Times website, I contracted a computer bug last weekend. Keeping in mind that it never pays to panic -- even if you are on deadline... and you make your living by meeting deadlines... and you are being assaulted by phantom Trojans every time you try to access a website -- I walked calmly to my car, hugging my laptop tightly to my chest, got in and drove to the only two computer stores we have on Martha's Vineyard. The good news is that this only took ten minutes (nothing is too far away on an island). The bad news is, both stores were closed.

Still trying not to panic, I thought about my farmer friend Heidi. Like most farmers I know, Heidi has a second job (or, rather, a first job), too. She's an IT consultant. I felt awkward about calling her late on a Saturday, but I mustered up my nerve. I didn't really expect to hear right back from her, as she generally spends her weekends immersed in a tangle of weeds and herbs and edible flowers. And I wasn't even sure if computer bugs were something she messed with.

So when she enthusiastically invited me to stop by her place at 9 o'clock on a Sunday morning, I was overjoyed. Several hours later, I wasn't just joyful -- I was extremely grateful. Not only had Heidi banished my computer bug, but she had cleaned up my dangerously overcrowded hard drive.

I asked Heidi what I owed her for all her work. "Oh, well, I'm happy to barter. Food is good, dinner even better!" she said, munching on one of the freshly baked Snickerdoodles I'd brought with me as a simple Sunday-morning courtesy. Pretty soon, I'd agreed to have her and her husband over for a local feast some night -- and to spend a little time helping her weed. Cooking and weeding are two skills I happen to have (though I am a decidedly better cook than weeder), so I was only too happy to trade, as cash is a rather spare commodity these days. I counted myself really lucky for Heidi's generosity of time and spirit.

Strangely, the offer to barter came up again only a few days later. From my yoga teacher. She's been asked to prepare a book proposal that will, in part, address the relationship of nourishing food and yoga, and she's at a loss about how to approach the recipes. She knew I had just written my first cookbook and wanted to know if I would help her with the proposal in exchange for some private yoga lessons. Would I?! Of course. I'd help this incredibly spiritual woman even without an exchange, but since I kind of need help with the whole breathing thing (it might have something to do with that constant deadline pressure), I agreed.

I shouldn't really be surprised at these offers; bartering is a long-standing tradition on this Island, especially in winter, when cash flow diminishes. A lot of Vineyarders have extra-large freezers, as it's not unusual to bank some striped bass or venison in exchange for help, repairs, or rides. No doubt freezers will be extra-full this winter, as cash is extra-scarce.

It's one thing to see how well an old-fashioned idea still works in a small community (the 90-square-mile Vineyard has only 16,000 year-round residents). But it's even more exciting to see a concept like bartering take more than a tender toehold in the new economy: bartering posts on Craigslist doubled last year. So if you need a haircut -- or a chimney cleaning, or an oil change -- maybe it's time to brush up on your long dormant carpentry or cooking or piano-playing skills. You never know when an offer might come your way.

Ben Berkon: Republican Party Posts "Looking for Inspirational Black Guy to Run For President in 2012" Ad on Craigslist

2009-09-23T15:54:50Z

In political news, the Republican Party has reportedly placed an advertisement on Craigslist which reads "looking for inspirational black guy to run for President in 2012." While on the surface it may seem like a desperate and even illegal method to recruit Presidential candidates, the Republican Party has been scrambling for ways to compete with their "unfortunately diverse" political rival.

Here is the original Craigslist ad (it can also be viewed at http://tinyurl.com/Republican2012Craigslist):

We here at the Republican Party are looking for an inspirational black guy to run for president in 2012. The Republican Party has always been the party of the people, and apparently the people want a black president. Even though we have Michael Steele, who could potentially be a solid black guy for the job, we feel that his obsession with oreo cookies might be a distraction while he's in the Presidential spotlight. We are essentially looking for any black person - any black person at all - who is willing to risk their good name, and run for President in 2012 against Obama. Ideal candidates include ones with little-to-no jail time, a willingness to at least pretend like they've voted Republican in the past, and a knowledge of what politics are. But those are just ideal candidates, we'll really take any black guy.

Prominent Republican and former vice-president Dick Cheney claimed, "There is no way that we posted that advertisement. If anyone is familiar with the Republican Party, they would know that we would never attempt to put a youthful, black, inspirational, intelligent, or politically-interested candidate in office. I hope that all of this nonsense can be put to rest, so we can continue to search for our next laughable puppet candidate."

Despite Cheney's denial, anonymous campaign staffers admitted that Republicans have "aggressively pursued" other black people in prior elections. For instance, in 1996, Chicago Bulls player Scottie Pippen was offered a "lifetime of free haircuts," and most recently in 2000, the Republicans offered any Wayans brother their own sitcom in exchange for running on the Republican ticket. According to sources, however, the offer was pulled off the table after Keenen Ivory was the only Wayans brother to take them up on the offer.

(For more articles and segments of this kind, visit www.SomethingYouShouldRead.com.)

Ben Berkon: Obama to Address "Rising Terrorist Unemployment Rate" in America

2009-09-21T09:45:34Z

The unemployment rate, which has reached a startling 9.6% of the country's population, has not only had a drastic effect on blue collar Americans, but also anti-American terrorists who secretly live within the United States. President Obama, who is already being scrutinized for his other progressive plans, has pushed the terrorist unemployment problem to the forefront of his concerns.

"These terrorists came to America with high hopes of destroying it," President Obama stated in his speech to Congress. "It is not fair that they have found it difficult to find any terrorist-related work due to the 'hard times' and 'lack of funding to kill in the name of Allah,' but it is our duty to make their dreams of eliminating freedom come true."

Terrorists by the thousands have congregated in Washington, D.C. to demonstrate their strong belief that they should be employed to "devastate America in ways they have never dreamed of."

"It just sucks," said an anonymous, unemployed 22 year-old terrorist. "There is literally nothing out there for young terrorists like myself. I've tried to put myself out there, trying to convince people that I'm willing to blow myself up for literally any decent job, but all these terrorist cells just want me to do menial tasks like making copies of Jihad pamphlets, going on coffee and potential suicide-attack-scouting runs, and maintaining their anti-Semitic website [http://tinyurl.com/NoJews4Ever] and Twitter account [http://tinyurl.com/Terrorism4Ever]. They're only looking to hire experienced terrorists at this point. How can you expect me to have 'prior terrorist experience' if I'm applying for an entry-level terrorist position? It's entry-level terrorism! I should have just stayed in Pakistan and helped my father milk goats - at least that's a steady career choice."

Despite the general malaise among young terrorists, some older generation terrorists have tried to make the future seem a bit brighter.

"There is always a struggle to find a good terrorist job when you first get out there," said an anonymous 55 year-old terrorist. "Before I got my first secure terrorist job, I was working in terrorist restaurants as a terrorist busboy, or in a terrorist temp agency as a terrorist temp, or even as a terrorist paralegal at Berman & Schwartz [a terrorist law firm]! The point is, a secure terrorist job will come, you just have to be patient, keeping looking, and want to die in the name of Allah."

According to sources, there are approximately 50,000 young terrorists in America who are unemployed. Despite scouring the Internet on sites like TerroristCareer.com, BombJobs.com, and even Craigslist, thousands of young terrorists have not only been left unemployed, but also, unfortunately disgruntled about their once bright future in terrorism.

When President Obama was questioned about when the rising level of unemployed terrorists would decrease, he replied, "There is no real way to project an exact date, but I'm hoping it will coincide with my plan to provide illegal immigrants with health care and change the legal tender to 'Obama Bucks.'"

(For more articles and segments of this kind, visit www.SomethingYouShouldRead.com.)

The 19 Craziest Craigslist Ads: Pick Your Favorite! (SLIDESHOW)

2009-09-16T10:19:03Z

Craigslist has revolutionized the way companies search for employees, young folk search for roommates, and crazy people search for each other and/or crazy things. We have compiled a set of 19 of the craziest Craigslist ads ever, but now we want to hear from you: First, vote on the slides to tell us which are your favorites, then send us the ad we didn't list that you think is the funniest, weirdest, wrongest, cockrioachiest ever!

Here's how it works: hit the participate button, give your submission a title, upload a screen grab of the listing (here's how to take one on a Mac or PC) and hit submit!

Craig Newmark: Social by Social -- A Really Practical Guide for Social Media in Orgs

2009-09-11T19:33:06Z

Hey, if you're interested in using social media in your organization, and you should be, Social by Social: A practical guide to using new technologies to deliver social impact is the real deal.

Its focus really is on how to get your organization really using the stuff, looking at practical measures like getting buy-in from the top and the bottom.

There is a wealth of technical talent out there, but energy
currently being driven towards creating 'the new Facebook' or 'the next
iPhone' could instead be given an alternative, social outlet. We need
fewer cool tools and more useful, effective software to improve our society. As social innovators begin to engage in this new world, the impact on our lives could be huge.

The opportunity is there, but to take it will require a shift of mindset,
mandate and expectations on the part of social innovators, charities
and public institutions. Because once upon a time, there were captive
audiences, things we wanted to tell them, channels for reaching them, a
group of people who were waiting to be 'serviced'. Now that's all
changed.

Michael Amatrudo: Man Puts Parents Up For Sale On Craigslist (VIDEO)

2009-09-01T23:01:03Z

(AP) MADISON, Conn. — A Connecticut man put his parents up for sale on Craigslist as a joke to pass the time on a rainy weekend.

Michael Amatrudo, a 51-year-old Madison resident and insurance executive, says in the ad that he's gotten "lots of use out of these guys over the past 50 years, but it's time to move on." He says he'll take $155 or a trade for a younger set of parents, an Erector set or a "hot blonde."

Amatrudo says he's gotten dozens of responses from around the country, including inquiries about who would pay the shipping cost and how many days it would take to receive them.

He says his parents, Ed and Arlene Amatrudo of Noank, have a good sense of humor and took the ad in stride.

WATCH:

View more news videos at: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/video.

Craig Newmark: Need Help Using Social Media to Promote Causes

2009-09-01T11:39:55Z

There are a lot of people around doing really good work for others, not only with good intentions, but they're getting stuff done. That includes:

Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America (GI Bill, back pay, VA advance funding)

DonorsChoose.org (microfunding for classroom projects)

Kiva.org (microfinance for small business across the world)

Well, social media, like Twitter, Facebook, and blogging are ways to get the word out, the efforts need buzz, and they often need finance.

I have a lot of followers; what's the effective, and ethical, way to do this, and to enlist my followers?

Maybe there's Facebook causes, etc, but what do you think works?

Thanks!

Alex Green: Corporate Boards, Conflict of Interest and Copyright

2009-08-31T18:02:08Z

Throughout the month of August the poker game of Internet business took a vacation as Amazon, Yahoo, and Microsoft lined up in opposition to Google Inc.’s attempt to digitize the world’s entire collection of books. In an industry where bluffing reigns supreme and overt reaction against competitors is considered a sign of weakness, each of these companies announced that they would join an organization called the Open Book Alliance in defiance of Google’s nearly one-year old settlement with The Author’s Guild of America.

For years Google has been trying to find ways to digitize books that remain under copyright for Google Books, their ambitious book digitization program. After a prolonged legal battle Google agreed last fall to pay $125 million to the Author’s Guild in return for what appeared to be a near full inversion of the United States copyright structure for printed authors.

After the settlement, the Justice Department took interest in the case and began laying the foundation for an investigation into Google. Two weeks ago, as it became clear that the department would pursue a full inquiry, Amazon, Yahoo, and Microsoft backed the Open Book Alliance, which was established by the founder of the Internet Archive, Google Books’ non-profit competitor. The goal of the alliance is to ensure that no single corporation gains monopoly access to digitized books and information.

The idea of mass digitization of books is extraordinarily appealing, and Google is not entirely incorrect about the need for updated copyright laws. Gordon Crovitz’s recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal clearly explains how our now outdated copyright laws were once intended to support working authors, not to impede the spread of knowledge. Nonetheless, Google’s approach is far beyond reasonable, effectively forcing authors to invoke their copyrights while setting the legal default that assumes Google’s right to full access, digitization, and dissemination.

Equally problematic is the fact that beneath the veneer of support for equal access by Amazon, Yahoo, and Microsoft, a number of their board members have direct or indirect conflicts of interest that should make their involvement in this inquiry untenable. John Doerr, a member of Google’s board, is also a member of Amazon’s. His colleague and partner at the investment firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, & Byers is William Gordon, who also serves on Amazon’s board. Former Vice President Al Gore is a senior adviser to Google as well as a partner at Kleiner.

Amazon also has a board member serving in a senior capacity with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Yahoo board member Ron Burkle currently owns an 8.3% stake in Barnes & Noble.

An allegation of wrongdoing against the members of these boards would be unfounded, but it is difficult to envision how they intend to carry out their duties as directors without compromising the interests of their companies, shareholders, and colleagues. An example of the danger of such close ties emerged last week when online classified giant Craigslist posted a blog claiming that a member of their board is, “uncomfortably conflicted,” and “obsessed with dominating online classifieds”. The reason for their consternation is that the board member was appointed by eBay after the Internet auction company acquired 28.4% of their company last year.

Rewriting copyright law by proxy through Justice Department inquiries and legal settlements is a far cry from democracy, especially when one of the private citizens with an apparent conflict of interest is a former vice president. Much like the privatization of radio in the early twentieth century, non-elected citizens who win even when they lose are governing how old media will be used by new media. It is difficult to believe that any non-profit alliance can address this problem, nor should it be asked to. Copyright law and its application to the Internet requires Congressional attention. Much about the world we know will be delegated to the barons of tech, and much already has been, but the governance of copyright cannot or we endanger our access to open information and the ownership of our own words.

Cash-Strapped California Turns To EBay, Craigslist

2009-08-26T08:18:11Z

Does Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have a deal for you.

Need a 2001 Ford Focus wagon with 110,059 miles and Schwarzenegger's autograph on the visor? Someone did, offering the high bid of $1,625.01 for the old state car as of Tuesday afternoon.

Larry Gellman: It Was Never Fair and Balanced -- Now It's Not Even News

2009-08-24T13:32:18Z

We are all painfully familiar with the many casualties of the deep economic decline that has ravaged the value of our homes, businesses, and investment accounts.

Another less obvious victim of the economic crisis has been the truth. Hatespeech and lies have been on the rise in politics and the media while fact checking has almost disappeared. The actions of those with a political agenda are reprehensible but at least easy to understand.

But I have always assumed that the real journalists would step in at some point and refuse to cover the rantings of crazy people, fanatics and liars as though they were actually news. For decades these types have stood on street corners handing out pamphlets and screaming about the coming end of the American way of life but none of them ever showed up on the national news or was written up in real newspapers.

But that has all changed in a big time hurry. Forget about "Fair and Balanced" or "News You Can Believe In." What we now see on cable TV is nothing resembling news. The entertainers who pose as newsmen now routinely spew lies, distortions, and biased opinions or provide a platforms of legitimacy to the sociopaths who do.

It's all right to have personal opinions expressed on television or the radio. Just label them appropriately.

There is a guy who sits near me at the University of Arizona games who starts screaming at the referees at the opening jump ball and never stops for a minute throughout the game. He and the other fans don't want the game called fairly -- they just want their team to win. You certainly wouldn't ask the president of the Booster Club to be the referee. He would have no interest in being fair and balanced and could never be objective.

But that's what we now have on cable news. People who are on the payrolls of or involved with partisan groups or political parties are introduced as "analysts" with no disclosure of their obvious conflicts of interest.

For years Fox News has been the unofficial network of the Right wing and Republican party while hilariously calling its coverage "fair and balanced." If Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity were actually fair and balanced then none of the Fox viewers would watch them -- and they know it.

But during the last year, Glenn Beck has taken hatred, bias, and unabashed lying and demonization to a level that Hannity and O'Reilly could only dream about.

Last month, Beck went on the air and called President Obama "a racist -- who hates white people" without giving any support or documentation for his claim. He also did not explain if Obama's hatred of white people extended to his own mother and white family members of the hundreds of white people he has chosen to advise and represent our country in his administration.

Just a few days ago, Beck came up with a blatant lie claiming that Mark Lloyd, the newly appointed FCC Diversity Chief will levy exorbitant taxes against Right wing radio stations with the proceeds slated to go to public radio, The fact is that Lloyd has neither the plans nor the authority to do any such thing. Non-Beck watchers should view this link as Beck and his guest talk in very specific terms about a complete falsehood.

When this happened, I was at the Aspen Institute FOCAS conference with 40 media leaders from around the U.S.

When the News Corp (the parent company of Fox) people at the Aspen conference were asked about how Beck could keep his job given his record of blatant fabrications and racist rants they admitted that they were personally embarrassed by his behavior. But they confessed that Fox has made so much money by pandering to the hateful Right wing that nothing is going to change in the foreseeable future. Maybe the fact that many of Beck's sponsors have recently canceled their advertising on his show will make a difference.

The unfair and unbalanced hatemeisters of Fox have been recently joined by Lou Dobbs of CNN ("The Most Trusted Name in News") who for years has railed on a daily basis about how Americans are being victimized by foreign countries and undocumented immigrants who come here in search of a better life. In recent weeks, Dobbs became of hero of the Right wing with his endorsement of the Birther movement.

Apparently Dobbs and a many Republicans believe that Americans should not have had the right to vote for the man they wanted to be their next president because he was born in Kenya. The Birther movement is a thinly veiled racist effort to undo the will of the American people that has been promoted by a depressingly large group of people who simply can't deal with the notion that we have elected a Black president by an overwhelming margin.

The management of CNN, like the leaders of Fox, have not been able to turn their backs on the revenues that have accompanied the journalistic malpractice that in the past would have caused Dobbs to be fired. Today, the truth is apparently just a matter of opinion and it's just fine for a newsman to call the President of the United States a traitor, socialist, Nazi, Kenyan, and such with no evidence or supporting facts.

Chris Matthews of MSNBC provides a more troubling case study. Matthews has repeatedly questioned the sincerity and "grass roots" credentials of protesters at the health care town meetings and the sanity of the Birthers accurately claiming that they are either paid or political stooges or well meaning real people who have fallen under the influence of the political operatives who are trying to bring Obama down.

He has referred to the Birthers and the anti-health care reform mercenaries and liars as "whack-jobs, crazies, and nut cases." But then he invites these very people to be guests on his show to state their cases.

He does not seem to understand that once you provide liars, haters and people who bring loaded guns to presidential meetings with a platform, you have already lost the battle. If a person is crazy or hateful, they should get no platform at all. Once you start presenting "both sides" of an issue where one side feels free to rant and lie you have already lost.

There was a time when we could have expected our most respected journalists and news reporters to be an effective filter and only present us with issues and stories that had real merit. But the economic crisis facing all types of journalism have put us in a different place.

During the three days I spent with a broad range of print, internet, and media managers and contributors in Aspen, most of the conversation focused on financial survival and ways to monetize the variety of information services being provided and how to keep from going broke in a very challenging environment. Many were mourning the imminent loss of print journalism. Few were grieving over the ongoing loss of journalism itself.

I came away from this experience with a better understanding of what is going on and why. It didn't make me happier. Even in a tough environment, there is no way to excuse the blatant lying, distortion, and almost complete absence of fact-checking that is now business as usual at media organizations that claim to be reporting news.

It's just plain wrong to call it "Fair and Balanced" or "News You Can Believe In" and it has been for quite a while.

Now there's no way to justify calling it "news" at all.

Bartering For Health Care On The Rise

2009-08-11T12:47:13Z

Cash, check or a cord of wood for that doctor visit? As health care costs climb, old-fashioned bartering has seen brisk growth since the economy soured.

Hillsborough, N.J.-resident Robert Josefs traded his Web site designing skills for nearly $1,000 in dental work last year when he had no insurance, and many other patients are learning that health care debts don't always have to be settled with sometimes-precious cash.

"Luxury" On Craigslist: What's So Luxurious?

2009-08-07T09:22:00Z

Luxury: What does it mean? A few complaints, and proposed guidelines for usage.

Andrea Chalupa: Coolest Find on Craigslist? Mansion Living in Seattle, Just $650/Month

2009-08-05T17:23:49Z

Wouldn't it be great to live in a mansion on the water, Gatsby-style, with your best friends and make art all day? That was the fantasy of Celene Ramadan, a twentysomething filmmaker and musician living in Seattle, who rented a lake house in Chicago with 17 friends while attending an improv festival. The rental only lasted a week, but it left Ramadan with the idea that her artist collective, Beta Society, should have a "frat house" of its own.

Then a friend forwarded her a Craigslist posting for a 10,000-s.f. mansion on Seattle's Puget Sound, available for rent. The subject line of the e-mail expressed the astonishment of the find: "really, truly, seriously."

The mansion had been languishing on the market for two years until the owner, web entrepreneur and indie-film financier Garr Godfrey, gave up and decided to rent it out at a loss. Ramadan spent months wrangling 10 tenants, enough to cover the rent -- and writing Garr a heartfelt letter expressing her appreciation for his house.

And so it was that Ramadan scored quite possibly one of the best Craigslist finds in history. The housewarming party, celebrating the signing of a two-year lease, lasted days. "I never thought anything like this would exist in Seattle," Ramadan said as she relaxed in her ivy-covered gazebo on a sizzling afternoon last week, during the Pacifc Northwest's mercifully rare triple-digit heat wave.

The mansion, built in 1952, is a gated, multitiered playground. Along with the gazebo, the backyard has its own kitchen with a pizza oven, a playground fit for a well-endowed elementary school, a massive lawn, and a seating area festooned with tiki torches and a telescope for stargazing over tranquil Puget Sound. Just past the palm-tree garden in the front yard is a hot tub and pool with a retractable roof and changing rooms, where the crew has been hanging out every day since moving in in April.

The sprawling interior -- nine bedrooms, 7.5 baths (and three bidets), a home theater (projector, 12 giant leather recliners), and entryway fountain -- gives its tenants plenty of room to roam; they could avoid each other for days if they wanted to. The house's 10 bohemian tenants have made the house a performance space. Last weekend, they hosted an interactive play inspired by MTV's longrunning reality series The Real World, in which the audience/party guests shuffled from room to room, voyeuristically checking out the drama in each. They even wrote and recorded a retro sitcom theme song for their mansion, inspired by the bidets.

"I've never been this popular in my life," says Ramadan. Even better, the high life is saving her money. She's spending $650 a month on rent, less than she was for her old apartment, and she's cut back significantly on bar tabs: her friends would rather meet at her place. But she's already living with most of the people she hangs out with anyway.

"This is the first time I'm excited to go home," says Ross Whippo, 29, a marine-biology student working at the Seattle Aquarium. The giddiness has yet to wear off, and the usual roommate tensions include "fridge wars" -- elaborate espionage games between the two fridges in the kitchen, each used by half of the household. One cunning retaliation included wrapping one fridge like a gift and leaving it on the backyard lawn -- still plugged in, of course.

If you're burning with envy, don't begrudge these people for their good fortune -- follow their example instead.

Continued here at Walletpop.com...

Mother Finds Her Seven-Month-Old Son For Sale On Craigslist (VIDEO)

2009-08-04T13:05:34Z

You can find just about anything for sale on Craigslist, even, as one Massachusetts family discovered to their horror, your own baby. After receiving a tip that her son was being presented as a "cute baby boy" in the ad, the child's mother did some detective work and uncovered what appears to be an international adoption scam. KCRA.com has the details:

Brennan decided to play detective and sent an e-mail to the address listed. She quickly received a picture in her inbox.

"The picture he sends you is a picture of Jake," Brennan said. "It was horrifying. I never would have thought in a million years that I would have the emotional reaction that I did."

The e-mail claimed her son is Canadian born and living at an orphanage in Cameroon and said that for $300 she could begin the adoption process.

Watch a video report on the incident:

Michael Likosky: Finally, a Craigslist for Government Assets

2009-07-27T22:29:37Z

If you're looking for a good deal on public assets, Allen & Overy LLP, a leading international law firm, has a product for you. It's called the "PPPs & Municipal Home Rule" tool. Don't be turned off by the long-winded name. Allen & Overy is saving investors a lot of time and money by honing in on what really matters.

The two most important things for public asset gobblers are:

(1) good prices

and

(2) elected officials ready to deal

But you might ask: Who has the time to drive around the country looking for good government garage sales? And, Craigslist doesn't have a listing for bridges, emergency response systems and dog shelters.

This is where Allen & Overy provides such a valuable service. It turns out that there are 27 states in America that make it easy for their cities to deal directly with investors. So far so good.

But, that information only takes us so far. That is, the real deal on public assets is to be had from cities in financial distress. A road is not just a road. The same road will command different prices in different cities.

In other words, a cash-strapped city will sell its public park at a better price than a cash flush one. Financial crisis, it turns out, depresses asset price, but not necessarily value. Even crisis-ridden Californians have to drink water and drive to work. And, when the financial crisis does end for more Americans, there'll be more water drunk and more miles driven. Now that's value for the money.

What Allen & Overy does is to find all those cities in states that have had credit rating downgrades during the last quarter of 2008. Ones with, as the law firm puts it, "heightened interest" in selling off public assets. Allen & Overy's right: when looking for "jurisdictions of opportunity", it is easy to become "overwhelmed by the scale of the U.S. infrastructure market." The beauty of the Allen & Overy tool is that they reduce the so-called "pursuit costs" of investors looking for this type of opportunity.

Does this investment tool offer a way out of financial crisis? Or is it an invitation to fleece already struggling cities?

Revolico.com Takes Communist Cuba's Black Market To The Web

2009-07-24T09:23:43Z

HAVANA -- On this Communist-run island, the black market is a vast, irrepressible force, an underground river of unlicensed services, goods pilfered from government stores and coveted items carried in from abroad. Cuban authorities go to great lengths to curtail it; they cannot.

Recession Buster: Barter Classifieds On Craigslist

2009-07-14T09:29:10Z

If you can teach guitar or chess, if you are very organized, if you have any talent in Web design or interior design, if you live in New York, there is no reason you should be paying for dry cleaning. If you have any of those skills, but never thought they would get your suits cleaned, you probably have not been spending enough time perusing the barter classifieds on Craigslist, where this very Monday, a dry cleaner suggested that wide range of opportunities for trades of services.

Craig Newmark: A Personal Call To Service

2009-07-08T08:06:16Z

Okay, I've been pushing the Administration Summer of Service/United We Serve thing, particularly AllForGood.org, which is pretty much the "craigslist for service."

Like most humans, I'd like to save the world, but I figure I need a nap.

So, I figured it'd be much easier to talk you into doing it, by talking up the efforts of people who are really effective at helping others.

That is, I might as well find people are good at getting stuff done in areas that somehow matter to me, that might have large scale impact. That's a tough role for me; as a nerd, I prefer to actually do things, rather than just talk about them. However, everyone tells me that what they really need is for me to forgo the thing-doer role, and be a talker-abouter.

Specifically, they say they need a bunch of humans to bear witness for them, talking about what they do, and then talking more about them.

I do see that Americans have always wanted to give others a break, that is, to serve. Some do so full time, in the Armed Forces, Peace Corps, teachers, cops, firemen, social workers, and a lot of other "helping professions."

Most of us have conventional full-time jobs with a little extra time to help out, and a lot of us devote some of that time to volunteering, or would like to. If you're in the mood to volunteer, just need to find something nearby, we just got something new launched relating to United We Serve and serve.gov, it's AllForGood.org. That's pretty much the "craigslist for service" Obama and Colin Powell cited last year.

Please remember that many Americans struggle to get through the day, maybe working two or three jobs to put kids through school. Far as I'm concerned, that's public service.

I take all this seriously, figuring that if someone is going to help out our general community, our nation, our world, I should help in the ways I can do best. As a nerd, it feels surreal, but people tell me they need advice regarding tech and social media, but mostly, they need me to be a talker-abouter. That way I can be force-multiplier.

Just a few examples:

-- working with the Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America, iava.org, these are the folks who helped get the new GI Bill passed, and much better treatment of veterans, including getting back pay and better funding for the Veterans Administration.

-- Sunlight Foundation is the leader of the movement for getting real accountability and transparency for government all across the US. The deal is that they get online the information which shows how government really operates.

-- Consumers Union, best known for Consumer Reports, but is also very much in the vanguard pushing for realistic health care reform. I tell 'em that refrigerator reviews are really good for people, but if you want to ease the suffering of millions, health care reform is where it's at.

I've joined the board of all three; what they mostly want and get from me: help with tech and social media, and then getting the word out on what they do, and then getting the word out more.

I'll be asking a lot more of you, but for now, check out:
allforgood.org
iava.org
sunlightfoundation.com
consumersunion.org