New York City's jobless rate jumped to 8.1 percent last month, up from 6.9 percent in January. It marks the biggest single-month increase in more than 30 years, according to the state Department of Labor. [Crains]

The more users Facebook attracts, the more money it spends — and it's not making it up in volume. That's why Facebook CFO Gideon Yu is reportedly on the hunt for more financing.

[President Obama hosts on online Town Hall meeting today and strikes a pose much like the one in George Washington's portrait; image via Getty]

The New York Times followed Oprah's lead today and sent a reporter to cover the growing number of tent cities—"Bushvilles" or "Obamareas"?—sprouting up around the nation.

Ryan Seacrest's wordsmith can't stand the sight of body hair! Wired's Jason Tanz went to the dentist! And a journalism instructor saw a mouse! It's scary out there in Twitterland:

Eater.com founder Ben Leventhal is going to start blogging on GrubStreet.com—a rival food blog! New York food bloggers haven't been this abuzz since the Great Momofuku Fire of '63. [The Feedbag]

This bounced around a bit on some blogs last month, but we thought it was worth sharing. It's the story of Aeneas' journey toward founding Rome, told via Facebook status updates. Brilliant.

The FBI is taking the "To Catch a Predator" model of crime-fighting to a highly theoretical realm by seeding message boards with fake links to kiddie porn and arresting the people who click on them.

Is Tesla Motors mad that Digg founder Kevin Rose spoiled the launch of its Model S sedan by leaking photos on Flickr? Yes and no, depending on who you ask at the ailing electric-car startup.

Oppressed media freelancers: we stand in solidarity with you. Please continue to send us info on how long publications are taking to pay you. We're also looking for payment success stories! Round two, coming soon.

Coincidentally, the exact same thing happened when I bought and didn't finish The Satanic Verses.

[Jay Baruchel filming a scene for the modern update of 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' at a Brooklyn subway stop today; image via Splash]

Ecko, the hip hop clothing line that morphed over a decade from underground to JC Penney chic, is in danger of going bankrupt. Maybe that 280,000 square-foot fantasyland office was a bit much?

• Things that are trendy at the moment: Mangalitsa pigs, overpriced hamburgers, and desserts made with stout. [NYT, Eater, NYT]
• A roundup of places scheduled to open over the next few days. [Eater]
• Charlie Palmer's Aureole moves to One Bryant Park in a couple of months; here are some renderings of the restaurant's new space. [Zagat]
• Beef sales are down, but you can probably figure out why that is. [WSJ]
• Yet another peek at Sasha Petraske's forthcoming Dutch Kills in LIC. [TONY]
• Pocket Change's list of your 10 best late-night dining options. [PC]
• Metromix reviews the city's collection of all-you-can-eat buffets, those "steam-table terrors filled with gloppy, stiff foodstuffs about as nutritious and delicious as Styrofoam." [Metromix]

Make it official: Google's not immune from the bad economy and plummeting ad market. We've been hearing for weeks that Google would have layoffs. Google is cutting 200 employees today, the company now confirms.

On Tuesday's edition of Jimmy Fallon's late-night laff riot, he used a 'study' about Prague's 'Franz Kafka International Airport' to set up a Hudson River plane crash joke. Trouble is, The Onion made up that 'study.'

An attractive supermodel overcome with meat-induced lust? Where do I, an 18-34-year-old male with disposable income, sign up? At Hardee's! Padma Lakshmi has decided to do one of those Slutburger commercials.

Please be advised that the Freedom Tower at Ground Zero should be referred to from now on as "One World Trade Center." On a related note, please remember there is never any good reason to use the term "Freedom Fries" in conversation. Thank you. [NYP]

The Hotel on Rivington may not be the coolest hotel downtown, but you have to give them points for trying to keep up with the whole name-brand hotel clothing trend. THOR's management is giving every employee a pair of DC LIFE "dress sneakers," so their footwear matches "the scarlet carpeting of the hotel's dramatic entrance." Also: Not a bad way to keep up employee morale when you can't afford to give anyone a raise. [HC]

Executives in AIG's London office called England's Serious Organized Crime Agency to report that they are being extorted out of their bonus money by New York's Attorney General.