Silicon Valley thinks the U.S. Postal Service is a joke. Tech investor Tim Draper called it a classic example of a "fat and lazy" industry. They tried, but failed to put it out of business. "Paper" itself is a dirty word. But when there's inventory to move, the old ways will do.

Airbnb is the best friend of Hurricane Sandy victims, single mom entrepreneurs trying to make ends meet, and, of course, high-class Manhattan slum lords who reserve the right to search your bags while you sleep.

The Startup Swindlers have a long history of running scams. A Valleywag tipster alerted us to another lawsuit filed against the Pashanin brothers. This time, it's a 2009 lawsuit in which pair were accused of squatting a San Francisco SRO hotel room for three months, once again refusing pay rent or vacate the premises.

The Airbnb squatters want to make sure their "10/10, would squat again" experience lasts as long as possible. Forcing their "host" to undergo months of expensive legal work to evict them was only the beginning. Now the startup swindlers are reportedly wearing disguises to avoid being served an eviction notice.

San Francisco already fought off the scourge of predatory parking apps, successfully getting MonkeyParking and ParkModo to suspend their parking spot auctioning services. But the Street Parking Arbitrage Revolution is just gaining steam on the East Coast, and Bostonians are fucking pissed.

The two brothers that have been squatting on an Airbnb rental since May have a history of exploiting peer-to-peer startups. Before exploiting California tenant laws to secure months of free rent, they managed to milk nearly $40,000 out of gullible Kickstarter donors. And they're pleased with their racket, saying they "would squat again."

Everyone is saving a buck with Airbnb, from New York sex workers turning apartments into brothels to "XXX Freak Fest" promoters locking down their next venue. Now a pair of Texas brothers have found a new exploit: squatting on vacation rentals.

Lyft has already been declared illegal in New York City. The city's taxi commission is threatening to impound driver's vehicles, saying the e-hailing startup hasn't complied with "safety requirements and other licensing criteria."

Uber and Airbnb should "pay zero attention to government regulations," because "built into these platforms is a far better regulatory system than the government could ever wish to concoct," argues Estimize CEO Leigh Drogen, who missed a few news cycles.

New York City Council wants to join the fight against illegal Airbnbs, prompted by data from the hotel lobby. Earlier "a trio of well-connected San Franciscans" backed a ballot that might reward neighbors for reporting law-breaking hosts. You know how tech millionaires don't realize they're not the underdogs anymore. . .

The gig economy seems a lot less cuddly come tax season, especially for the underemployed who provide raw material and have come to depend on startups like Airbnb for income.

You have to hand it to Startupland. Where else could a company figure out its tax obligations only after the market says it's worth $10 billion? An even better trick is chanting "sharing" all the way to an IPO.

Airbnb has been a blessing in disguise for San Francisco landlords itching to evict their tenants. The Chronicle says three-day eviction notices for Airbnb use are on the rise. Other landlords claim illegal Airbnb activity to skip the 72-hour "cure or quit" period.

How did Bloomberg arrive at the block-headed conclusion that New York HATES the sharing economy? Maybe because they polled a very skewed sampling of your average citizen: "Ask a bunch of New Yorkers where they spend their money: apartments, cars, vacation lodgings, maybe designer handbags."

The kumbaya sound of the "sharing economy" hums right by the fact that the irresistible middlemen who make it easy to find a place to stay or a cab at your fingertips do so for a hefty profit. And when profit and public infrastructure like housing and transportation collide, regulators are bound to follow.

While Airbnb funneled some of its $326 million in venture capital toward movie replica conference rooms, a skee ball machine, and corporate myth-making at its shmancy new Soma headquarters, the company's non-profit partner is soliciting non-tax deductible donations from regular shmoes to keep the sharing economy in the margins to which it has become accustomed.

To explain the rise of "the sharing economy" made of startups like Airbnb, Uber, and TaskRabbit, The Verge looks to . . . the decline of serial killers. The two would seem to correlate about as well the growth of location services and the decline of horse-driven buggies. This has been a gentle reminder that regular killers can kill too.