Latest iPad Mini Rumor: Number 18 in a Tortured Chain of Speculation

Rumormongers have been talking about a miniature, 7-inch Apple tablet even before Apple released its first iPad in 2010. Really. And the rumor continues today with news out of a Chinese site called NetEase, which says a pint-size tablet will land in Q3 of this year for sub $300.

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A Texting Hillary Gets Into the Viral Fun

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton invites the bloggers behind a viral "Texts from Hillary" satirical meme to the State Department. Plus, Rick Santorum gets out of the presidential race, Ashley Judd slams the media and the public over body image remarks, Sheryl Sandberg leaves work at 5:30 PM (really!) and Katniss Everdeen the Barbie's coming soon to a store near you.

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Why an Italian lawmaker's phone call trumps Obama's speech

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti's decision to take a call from an Italian lawmaker during President Barack Obama's speech highlights the tentativeness of his claim to authority.

When Barack Obama praised Italian?Prime Minister Mario Monti's?work fighting his country's debt crisis, Italy's leader wasn't there to listen. He was talking on his cell phone.

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According to leaks from Mr. Monti's staff, he had to take an ?urgent call? from Fabrizio Cicchitto, a senior lawmaker from former leader Silvio Berlusconi's Freedom Party, just as the United States president began his speech during yesterday's nuclear energy summit in Seoul. The prime minister's?staff refused to disclose the topic of such an urgent conversation.?

While the world was well-acquainted with Mr. Berlusconi's gaffes (such has his description of Obama as a ?young man with a nice tan?), the new prime minister's faux-pas was quite unexpected.?Of the 52 world leaders at the summit, he was the only one who skipped Obama's speech.?He was also the only leader openly mentioned in the same speech ? a move widely interpreted as a demonstration of Mr. Obama's esteem.

Monti ? a former university headmaster and European commissioner with an understated, professorial manner ? seemed to fit in better than Berlusconi at international summits, making Monti well-suited to the task of restoring Italy's image abroad. It's one of the reasons Monti was chosen by the Italian Parliament to lead a transitional government when Berlusconi resigned last year.?

But while Monti has a better international reputation than his predecessor, at home he is much less respected.

As a crisis-time leader who was appointed, not elected, some view Monti as a lame duck hostage to a Parliament still controlled by Berlusconi's People of Freedom party, and to them the fact that he put a Freedom party lawmaker over Obama confirms this view.

The anecdote became a hit on the Italian blogosphere and reached Twitter's top trends, with many cracking jokes on the newly-acquired status of Mr. Cicchitto, a medium-profile politician.

Among the jokes: ?Pope Benedict had to postpone his meeting with Fidel Castro. He had to take a call from Cicchitto.?

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Report: Dodgy dossiers hurt job-seekers' chances

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Thousands of U.S. job hunters are losing out because employers use faulty background-check data drawn from shoddy records, consumer advocates say in a new report.

Those advocates want the government to make sure people know what information prospective employers see, so that errors can be corrected and abusive companies can be held responsible.

Use of criminal-background data is exploding as the economy struggles back from the worst job crisis in decades, the National Consumer Law Center says in the report, which is being released Wednesday. To meet surging demand, countless dubious companies have sprouted up, it says.

"It's the Wild West for background-screening report companies," says Persis Yu, lead writer of the report. "They're generating billions in revenue, but they have little or no accountability."

Nearly three-fourths of companies conduct criminal background checks for some job applicants, according to a 2010 study by the Society for Human Resource Management. They buy criminal-background data from providers of all sizes, including national names like Lexis-Nexis as well as upstarts that could include "anyone with a computer, an Internet connection and access to records," the report says.

Data providers obtain information from online public records, private vendors, jails and police blotters, it says. Sloppy handling of that data can cause a search on one person to turn up a rap sheet about someone with a similar name, for example.

Other common errors include displaying criminal records that were supposed to be sealed or wiped clean, misclassifying minor offenses as major crimes and listing charges that have been dismissed, the report says.

The information is more widely available in part because local law-enforcement agencies are selling it to raise money, the group says. It says some data providers refuse to correct errors even when people can document inaccuracies.

That's not an option for many people, Yu said, because employers often ignore laws requiring them to let people correct any false, negative information before making a hiring decision.

"It's a source of confusion for many employers," she said, and the law is hard to enforce because it's impossible to know why a person's job application was rejected.

Further muddying the picture, data providers aren't registered with the government, so it's impossible to get a full picture of the industry, Yu said.

The report is the first in-depth survey of consumer abuse by private companies that sell dodgy dossiers. Many of the issues it explores were first described last year in an investigation by The Associated Press.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has the authority to write rules governing data companies under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the law governing credit-report companies, the report says. Advocates want the agency to make data providers update their records annually, prohibit matches based only on name and take other steps aimed at making them more accurate.

The CFPB has proposed adding credit-report companies to the list of companies it will supervise closely. It has not discussed regulating consumer-data providers.

NCLC also wants the Federal Trade Commission to investigate data providers and employers to make sure they are complying with FCRA.

___

Daniel Wagner can be reached at www.twitter.com/wagnerreports.

Associated Press

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Photos: A look back at Mike Wallace's legendary career

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Doomsday shelters line Kansas missile silo

Tucked deep beneath the Kansas prairie, luxury condos are being built into the shaft of an abandoned missile silo to service anxious -- and wealthy -- people preparing for doomsday.

So far, four buyers have plopped down a total of about $7 million for havens to flee to when disaster happens or the end is nigh. And developer Larry Hall has options to retro-fit three more Cold War-era silos when this one fills up.

"They worry about events ranging from solar flares, to economic collapse, to pandemics to terrorism to food shortages," Hall told AFP on a tour of the site.

These "doomsday preppers", as they are called, want a safe place and he will be there with them because Hall, 55, bought one of the condos for himself. He says his fear is that sun flares could wipe out the power grid and cause chaos.

He and his wife and son live in Denver and will use their condo mostly as a vacation home, he says, but if the grid goes, they will be ready.

Hall isn't the first person to buy an abandoned nuclear missile silo and transform at least part of it into a shelter.

[Related: Survivalist singles get their own dating site]

Built to withstand an atomic blast, even the most paranoid can find comfort inside concrete walls that are nine feet thick and stretch 174 feet (53 meters) underground.

Instead of simply setting up shop in the old living quarters provided for missile operators, Hall is building condos right up the missile shaft. Seven of the 14 underground floors will be condo space selling for $2 million a floor or $1 million a half floor. Three and a half units have been sold, two contracts are pending and only two more full units are available, Hall said.

For now, metal stairs stretch down to connect each floor but an elevator will later replace them. The units are within a steel and concrete core inside the original thick concrete, which makes them better able to withstand earthquakes.

He is also installing an indoor farm to grow enough fish and vegetables to feed 70 people for as long as they need to stay inside and also stockpiling enough dry goods to feed them for five years.

The top floor and an outside building above it will be for elaborate security. Other floors will be for a pool, a movie theater and a library, and when in lockdown mode there will be floors for a medical center and a school.

[Related: Doomsday Clock one minute closer to 'the end']

Complex life support systems provide energy supplies from sources of conventional power, as well as windmill power and generators. Giant underground water tanks will hold water pre-filtered through carbon and sand.

And, of course, an elaborate security system and staff will keep marauding hordes out.

The condo elevator will only operate if a person's fingerprint matches its system, Hall said. Cameras will monitor a barbed-wire topped fence and give plenty of warning of possible intruders. Responses can range from a warning to lethal force.

"If they try to climb the fence we can stun them," he said. "If they want to break into the system, we can put an end to that."

Doomsday fears have flourished throughout history, but what once involved isolated pockets of fear now spreads worldwide through the media and Internet.

They have also expanded into the popular culture thanks to the success of dystopian fantasies like the Hunger Games and a National Geographic reality show about those preparing for doomsday.

"Fear sells even better than sex," said John Hoopes, a professor in the anthropology department at the University of Kansas who has studied the spread of doomsday culture.

"Now the entire planet is involved and that's the result of the Internet," he said.

"I think it's mostly a strategy for feeling less alone and helpless," he said. "People don't like to feel they're the only ones fearing the inevitable, which is each individual's personal death."

Those who sign on to prepare for the worst, he said, fall into a salesman's strategy: "Act now, or you're a loser."

Hall says threats from nature and man are increasing and he wants to create a safe communal society where people survive chaos in comfort, with each person doing an assigned job and interacting with others.

A tombstone-shaped sign declaring "This Old Missile Base" leads to a locked fence surrounding the construction site northwest of Salina. Hall insists the exact location be kept secret.

The fence slides open and Hall leads reporters or potential buyers past an opening in the ground to the metal stairs stretching down the silo.

"You can stand here and literally it's like a deprivation chamber -- you can't hear anything," Hall said pointing out the 10-foot high ceilings and a cave-like quiet.

He is working to finish an 1,800 square-foot (167 square-meter) unit for a wealthy businesswoman with two teen children.

Electronic screens will serve as windows, offering views of Paris, New York, a beach, a forest or whatever she decides to see.

The unit itself will have top-end appliances, walk-in closets in the bedrooms, a kitchen and dining area and two living rooms to avoid arguments about what to watch on TV.

So far he has spent $4 million on the entire silo, including $300,000 he paid for it in 2008, when it was flooded with water and locked by giant steel doors. He expects to have all the seven floors of condos sold by August.

Interested buyers have included an NFL player, a racing car driver, a movie producer and famous politicians, he said, but he now requires all the money up front.

Four people who put down $250,000 deposits could not come up with the rest and he returned the deposits, but the economy is getting better and global warming, strange weather and disasters are stoking fears.

The recent earthquakes in Mexico prompted several calls from potential buyers, he said, predicting more bad things will happen and more silos will be waiting.

About 70 Atlas-F silos were built and he has options on three more of them, he said.

"One is an entire silo for one individual, but I won't know that until his check clears the bank," Hall said.

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Santorum's Pennsylvania Resembles States He Lost (WSJ)

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