What a difference a year makes. Or 34 years. Take your pick. Either way, it's a loss for Detroit and the surrounding area.

The Pontiac Silverdome was sold this week at auction for $583,000, or about 1% of the $55.7 million it took to build it in 1975, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

The sale was halted Wednesday when a judge ordered an injunction to stop it after a complaint was filed by developer H. Wallace Parker, who claims he had an agreement with the city to buy it, according to Crain's Detroit Business.

In this "Your Job Will Come" podcast, WalletPop's Aaron Crowe talks with Francis Larkin, a senior product manager at SimplyHIred.com, a job board Web site that helps people search for jobs, about how to spot fake job postings.

I wrote about the site in October, and was impressed by its various filters to help narrow job searches.

Among the tips that Larkin suggests for spotting fake postings on job boards are to not apply for jobs that require you to move money from one bank account to another, which is essentially money laundering, and looking for misspellings in a job post.

A "cash for caulkers" program being studied by the Obama administration should look at much more than caulking windows and other simple ways to give households money to pay for weatherization projects.

Filling in air gaps where heat escapes from homes is a good start to cutting heating bills and thus cut America's energy use, but any stimulus project aimed at homes should look at how most American homes are heated and how to do it more efficiently.

New York Times columnist David Leonhardt recently wrote about the home weatherization version of the wildly successful cash for clunkers program. It would help put contractors and construction workers back to work insulating homes and caulking air leaks, while saving homeowners money in the long term by weatherizing their homes.

Some unemployed people are so anxious to work that they're volunteering for jury duty and the minimal pay that goes with it, according to a New York Post story.

As someone who recently spent four boring and frustrating days sitting on a jury, the $30 that I'll get wasn't worth the hassle and won't make me volunteer for it, no matter how underemployed I am.

Other than the civic duty involved, it's a waste of time as far as getting paid. My recent jury duty netted me $1.53 per hour.

Besides, if I was a lawyer I wouldn't want a juror who was there for the money and would be likely to extend deliberations a few more days for some extra pay.

It's a promise from Santa Claus, so it has to be good: The global swine flu pandemic won't stop him from delivering presents this year.

"I swear that Christmas will not be canceled this year," Father Christmas told Finnish national broadcaster YLE, explaining that many children were worried he would catch swine flu, according to an ATP story.

And in what may not look like the kindest move after a child has left his lap, Santa Claus is pulling out the hand sanitizer and tissues more than ever this holiday season in an effort to ward off swine flu and the seasonal flu.

In yet another sign of how lives are changing in the fight against H1N1, mall Santas are being asked this year to get vaccinated, use hand sanitizer often, wash their beards regularly and bleach and wash their white gloves nightly, according to a story in the Vancouver Sun.

After five years of price increases, the cost of a classic Thanksgiving dinner dropped 4% this year -- down $1.70 to $42.91 for a feast for 10.

The figures are from the American Farm Bureau Federation, which has conducted the annual survey since 1986 as an informal gauge of price trends around the nation.

The Minnesota Twins, or as they now call themselves, "The 2009 American League Central Division Champion Minnesota Twins," have unveiled new uniforms for 2010, joining the long list of teams looking to get fans to buy whole new wardrobes of team merchandise.

Everyone wants the latest in fashion, but paying $169.99 for a new home jersey that doesn't look much different than the 2009 model seems like a waste of money.

The best news is that the new jersey costs $10 less than the old one, but that may be more a sign of the recession than of the Twins subtly trying to offer a deal on something that is outrageously priced to begin with.

One of the worst things about the recession may turn out to be one of the best things about it: The layoffs are creating a new workforce -- the part-time workforce.

Cobbling together enough part-time jobs to add up to full-time work is becoming the skill set of the new part-time workforce.

A new economy is being formed, or at least expanded upon, as more laid off workers join the ranks of freelancers and contract workers who don't get benefits such as paid vacation and sick days, but get paid for each project they complete.

Microsoft and Google, two titans in technology, are separately trying to help combat the worst flu season in decades. First came an interactive Web site from Microsoft to help diagnose the swine flu.

Now comes a flu shot finder from Google to help find shots for the regular flu and swine flu. If only Microsoft and Google combined their efforts in battling H1N1, we'd have this problem solved.

The swine flu is causing the worst flu season in the United States since 1997, when current measurements started. So far the virus has killed an estimated 3,900 people, according to a Reuters story.

In this "Your Job Will Come" podcast, WalletPop's Aaron Crowe talks with Abraham Twerski about his new book, "Without a Job, Who Am I?" and how to get back your self esteem after being laid off.

Among the tips he gives are to spend some time mourning after a job loss and to not let your job define who you are.