Portuguese businessman Orico Silva chose the latter route when his in-court financial dispute ended in bloodshed. Silva, who owns a 50-acre farm in the town of Figueira da Foz, was sued by a title company for holding onto a cash deposit on a land deal that had fallen through.

When Silva refused to pay off his $217,000 debt, a judge declared that part of his farm needed to be sold. That’s when Silva removed a butcher’s knife from his briefcase and cut off one of his fingers.

“My intention was to tear up all the case papers and splatter them with blood so I could prevent the expropriation order for my land,” Silva was quoted as saying. After shocking the judge and lawyers, he proceeded to cut his severed finger into three pieces to further protest the sale.

“I didn’t feel anything, I could even have cut off all my fingers,” said Silva. “It was an act of despair.”

A clerical error on a federal grant application has cost the city of Denver nearly $2 million in funds that would have financed the “Lead Safe Denver” program for another year. Officials at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) say they never looked at Denver’s grant application because a city staffer used an incorrect DUNS number (a nine-digit number used to track where federal grant money is sent) on the paperwork.

Lead Safe Denver, a 9-year-old program that tests low-income children for lead exposure and offers assistance and info on lead poisoning to needy families, nearly collapsed from the financial loss. The city had identified $360,000 shifted from other programs that will be used to keep the program alive for another year. At that time, the city can apply for another federal grant.

HUD is quick to point out there was no guarantee Denver would have received the funds, but it had received similar grants for the three previous years before the clerical error incident.

Officials say the mistake was made by a “pretty well-seasoned” city employee, but that staff shifts have been made since to prevent similar errors from happening again in the grant application process.

Yakima Washington (yes, like the city) claimed that her former boss asked her to run personal errands on several occasions during her employment.

Once Washington let Detroit City Council President Monica Conyers know she intended to file a formal complaint against her, the president responded by swiftly terminating her assistant.

The city council’s Internal Operations Committee originally approved an offer to pay Washington $90,000 through its claims process, but the city soon reneged on the deal. Soon after, Washington sued for breach of contract, and a new proposal was approved by a seven-to-one vote to pay Washington a $90,000 settlement.

There are right and wrong questions to ask when applying for a job. The right ones show how ready people are to tackle a job head-on. The wrong ones put them out of an interview so fast their heads spin.

Most potential hires spend so much time preparing and honing their answers for any question you might ask them that they don’t put any thought into what they’d like to ask your company.

According to Yahoo! HotJobs, a lack of preparedness for that part of the interview usually leads to someone asking one of these unsuitable interview questions:

1. “Are you going to perform a background check?” — Whether an applicant has credit issues or is worried about how solid their previous job references are, asking this question on a first interview usually makes it look like they have something to hide.
2. “How soon can I move to another position?” — Almost all employers want to keep new hires in their position for at least a year before moving them around, so a bait-and-switch isn’t likely to pan out anytime soon.
3. “Is [my medical condition] covered by your insurance plan?” — This one’s doubly wrong. Not only is it sharing private medical information with a complete stranger, but not all interviewers — especially if they’re not exclusively HR — will know what’s covered under the company’s health plan on a condition-by-condition basis.
4. “Can you tell me about the public transportation around the office?” — If you’ve got access to the Internet or a telephone, you can figure out the bus route to the office.
5. “When will I be eligible for a raise?” — Now more than ever, salary’s a difficult topic to handle. A better idea is to wait until the second interview and ask if a company holds one-year performance and salary reviews.
6. “Can I wait for [three or more] weeks before I start?” — Most employers expect a person to give two weeks’ notice. When an applicant asks for extra time off without a good reason, it begs the question: “How serious is the candidate about working here?”
7. “Do you have smoking breaks?” — If needing to run out and smoke impedes on your ability to work — or at least get through an interview — it’s time to drop the habit.

Are there any questions you absolutely want a Finance applicant to ask? Share your experiences in the comments section below.

The “Careereoki” contest, sponsored by Workforce Central Florida and the Orange County Board, is going to give one lucky singer a career training scholarship, personal and resume makeovers, and a $100 gas card.

Dreamed up by the Orlando-area establishments, the contest requires people to videotape themselves singing about their dream career, karaoke-style. Most of the entrants are from Central Florida, because the grand prize includes tuition for a certificate program at Orange County Technical School.

Judges have the competition pared down to the final five, including takes on Robert Palmer’s “Bad Case of Loving You” and “Summer Nights” from the musical Grease.

The final winner will be decided by looking at three categories. Originality earns up to 50% of a contestant’s total score, while creativity and overall humor are worth 25% each.

Businesses and residents alike on Steve Padgett’s mail route in Apex, NC, couldn’t be happier with his service. For at least seven years, he’s refused to deliver junk mail to any of the residents. He says he started hiding the mail in his garage and burying it in his yard because he was overwhelmed by the amount of direct advertising he was supposed to deliver.

But Padgett, who has diabetes and heart problems, has never received a single complaint about any missing junk mail. After a utility worker noticed bins of mail stacking up in his yard, Padgett was given probation in federal court.

His customers may be rallying to his cause and calling him a hero, but the Direct Marketing Association, representing more than 3,400 advertisers, wasn’t pleased with his actions.

What do you think? Is Padgett a hero, or just an employee who found a way to slack off on the job?

The slip-up happened in November 2007, when two new workers in Maryland’s state assessments office were inputting the value of taxable real estate in Montgomery County. They mistakenly entered $179 billion, when the real number was closer to $163 billion.

But the error wasn’t unearthed until late summer of 2008, when workers in the state’s budget and treasurer offices figured out that Montgomery property taxes were more than $18 million below their projected level.

By then, the error had found its way through at least 18 counties and wreaked havoc on many budgets — including the State Department of Education. The Department uses a sophisticated formula which shifts money from school systems with more wealth to those that are less well off.

Because of the Montgomery Country overstatement, $4.5 billion in state education fund was misallocated among Maryland’s school systems.  Schools in Montgomery (which appeared to be flooded with property wealth) were denied funds, while schools in other districts were given too much money.

State officials claim the workers responsible for the error have been disciplined, but are calling for further audits of a system that would allow such an error to remain unnoticed for months.

Sometimes, there’s a big difference between what your job responsibilities are on paper and what you actually do.

No one knows that better than cartoonist Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert. On his Dilbert Blog, he gave readers a creative assignment: “Describe your own job in one sentence, preferably in a humorously derogatory way.”

Although there were hundreds of responses, Adams was able to narrow it down to these ten job descriptions:

1. Fast food worker — Making food that is as healthy when it goes into someone’s body as it is when it comes back out.
2. Technical writer — Writing words that no one wants to read.
3. Assistant horse trainer — Cleaning up after an animal that makes more money than I do in a year.
4. IT director — Repeatedly fixing what employees repeatedly break.
5. Quality Assurance tester — Making people feel bad about their work.
6. Landscape photographer — Showing people how beautiful the Earth would be if they didn’t live on it.
7. Incident manager — Calling people who know what they’re doing — and then asking them what they’re doing.
8. College professor — Talking in other people’s sleep.
9. Baseball umpire — Standing on a field and getting yelled at for hours.
10. Divorce lawyer — Helping people hate one another.

Does summing up your job in one sentence make it sound different — or funny? Share your own descriptions in the comments section below.

Kelly Kinney, a former marketing manager for Rexarc International, is in dire need of a job. She’s only been unemployed for a few months, but a lack of jobs in the Los Angeles area has forced her to take a unique approached to getting noticed: She’s printed her resume on a t-shirt.

Kinney says the idea came to her after she was in line at the American Music Awards: “People pay attention to things they read on t-shirts,” said Kinney. She wears the experience-detailing apparel to the supermarket, mall, on job interviews — anywhere she might receive a job tip.

She claims that putting her resume on a shirt is a “pretty slick marketing ploy,” but doesn’t expect her stunt to land her the job of her dreams. “I just want to work,” said Kinney. “I don’t care about the money.”

Wang Zhendong, former chairman of Yingkou Donghua Trading Group Co., was found guilty of fraud and executed for bilking $416 million out of investors. In China, the death penalty is used for violent crimes, but it can also be applied to nonviolent offenses that involves large sums of money or if crimes threaten the social order.

The Xinhua News Agency reported that Wang had promised returns of up to 60% for more than 10,000 investors who purchased ant-breeding kits from his company. Many species of ants that are used in Chinese medicinal remedies can go for a high selling price.

Wang had purchased the kits for only $25 each, but sold them to investors for at least $1,300 per kit.

Of the estimated $416 million, only $1.28 million has been recovered by authorities.