Author: Marc Perton

Facing mounting criticism that its privacy settings have become overly complex, Facebook is now considering changes “for users who want simplistic bands of privacy that they can choose from.” It’s unclear, however, whether the planned changes will provide more options for users who don’t want to share certain information, or just make the existing choices easier to access.

As shared by Ars Technica:

Facebook public policy head Tim Sparapani said in a radio interview Tuesday that the company was working on simplifying its privacy controls because of user complaints about their complexity. “I think we are going to work on that. We are going to be providing options for users who want simplistic bands of privacy that they can choose from and I think we will see that in the next couple of weeks,” he said.

…

But despite these fixes and potential tweaks to Facebook’s settings, users have found themselves on a very different site than the one they used even a year ago. (And for those of us who have used Facebook since 2004, it may as well be a completely different company.) What happened to Facebook being the only social network to actually protect user information and leave everything opt-in instead of opt-out? Now, Facebook is widely known for putting user information at risk, making too many settings public by default, and for not sufficiently educating users on how to keep their information private.

If you don’t want to wait, here are some guidelines to help you maximize your privacy now. And this tool shows how Facebook’s policies toward sharing your personal information have changed over the years.

Facebook privacy coming to a head, changes may be imminent [Ars Technica]

A worker at a Wendy’s in Daytona Beach, FL, narrowly avoided being zapped with a taser after getting a customer’s order wrong. According to police reports, the alleged assailant, Melane Asia Reid, “brandished a pink stun gun” and chased Jason HIll around the restaurant, until the manager threatened to call the police.

Jason Hill, the drive-thru employee who avoided being tased, told police he was working the window when two women became upset with their order, started an argument laced with profanities, and allegedly took a swing at him, reports CBS affiliate WKMG.

Police say Reid and another woman, 23-year-old Katrina Mari-Alyce Bryant, got out of the car and went inside; Reid allegedly chased Hill around the kitchen while Bryant cheered.

Police tracked the women down after they called Wendy’s — to complain about the restaurant’s service.

Wendy’s Worker Escapes Taser Fired by Dissatisfied Customer, Say Cops [CBS News]

We know how it is. You get to the hotel, turn on the lights in your room, and — gasp — instead of the soothing Rose Dust (14-1307) you expected, the walls are painted a hideous shade of Butternut (18-0830). And those sheets — are they really Fuchsia Red (18-2328)? If this has happened to you, there’s now an alternative, where every aspect of your lodging experience will be perfectly color-matched: The Pantone Hotel in Brussels, designed to “suit your savvy palette and colorful imagination.”

The hotel’s launch announcement bursts with colorful prose:

The guest rooms are works of art – white walls and bedding provide a clean, crisp canvas for saturated pops of vibrant color. Adding to the artistry, rooms feature photographic installations created by renowned Belgian photographer Victor Levy that include a spectrum of vibrant PANTONE Colors to create a unique ambiance in each room. The 59 affordably priced rooms and suites empower guests to transform their travels by selecting a room that complements their mood through color. The rooms and suites are patterned after one of seven distinct PANTONE Color palettes and include inviting bedding, LCD TVs and central air conditioning; many also offer unparalleled views of Brussels.

If that’s not enough, Pantone “color consultants are also available by appointment for informal color consultations or to present educational seminars on color psychology and trends.” But we know that what you really want is to step into that room, turn on the light, and gaze at those perfect Snow White (11-0602) walls.

Brussels Hotel – Pantone Hotel in Brussels Centre – Belgium [Official Site]

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has filed a lawsuit against SmartBuy and a group of related companies that allegedly “scammed members of the military” by selling them electronics and other products at markups of up to 325% of the original retail prices, and then “financed the sales” illegally through undisclosed credit lines linked to the soldiers’ bank accounts. According to the AG, the company aggressively targeted members of the military, and “salespeople were trained to specifically seek out people in uniform and people with military-style haircuts.”

“SmartBuy is part of a national network of companies and individuals that seek to profit by defrauding members of the military,” said Attorney General Cuomo. “Our lawsuit not only seeks to bar them from ever doing business again in the state, but also to vindicate the countless soldiers who were preyed upon and defrauded by SmartBuy and its affiliated companies.”

Cuomo’s investigation found that SmartBuy peddled products that were marked up 225 to 325 percent above the original retail price and financed the sales illegally. The sales were made only to members of the military through monthly direct withdrawals from payroll, known as “allotments,” and backed up with agreements giving the company access to the soldiers’ bank accounts. The soldiers were rarely told the final price of the product up front, nor was it explained that they were really opening a line of credit. If a soldier defaulted, SmartBuy and its affiliates illegally contacted the soldiers’ commanding officers. The tactic put service members in an untenable situation because Army regulations forbid soldiers from putting themselves in a financially precarious situation.

Examples cited by the AG’s office included a soldier getting ready to go to Afghanistan who was “told he could get a ‘really good deal’ by ‘bundling’ a purchase including a laptop, iPod, camcorder, and PSP for a monthly $90 direct withdrawal (allotment) from his paycheck. In reality, the final price SmartBuy charged was at least double the normal retail price for the items. Two days later, he attempted to return the unopened items, but he was told by the manager he could not return them without paying a $400 restocking fee in cash.”

The companies named in the lawsuit are Frisco Marketing of N.Y., LLC, doing business as SmartBuy and SmartBuy Computers and Electronics; Integrity Financial of North Carolina, Inc.; Britlee, Inc., doing business as MilitaryZone; GJS Management, Inc. and Rome Finance Company, Inc. and Rome Finance Co. LLC, all owned and/or operated by Fayetteville, N.C.-based John Paul Jordan, Stuart Jordan, and Rebecca Wirt, and Concord, California-based William Collins and Ronald Wilson.

Attorney General Cuomo Sues Nationwide Network That Scammed Members Of The Military [Press Release]

So, you bought a house right before the property bubble burst? Got out of gold a year ago? Invested in Pets.com back in the 90s? Well, guess what? No matter how many dumb investment decisions you’ve made, they likely pale next to a little mistake Steve Jobs made a few years ago, which cost him about $10 billion. Ain’t schadenfreude grand?

Back in 2003, according to Marketwatch, Jobs traded in some “overpriced” Apple options for a smaller number of shares, in a sort of “bird in the hand” deal that left him with more money, assuming that Apple’s stock price never shot through the roof again.

Stock options they had been granted during the boom now seemed completely worthless. After all, Apple stock would have to climb all the way back up to those giddy heights before the options even started to show a profit again.
…

As for Jobs: He volunteered to cancel all his options in return for a far smaller number of shares, worth about $75 million at the time. The trade made sense — unless Apple boomed again.

Ahem.

The shares Jobs received are worth $2.5 billion at today’s stratospheric prices.

But what would those options have been worth?

Digging through the old proxies reveals a remarkable tale.

Jobs held 15 million options at an exercise price of $9.15, which meant they started to gain value only if Apple stock exceeded that price, and 40 million options at an exercise price of $21.80. Apple at the time was little more than $7 a share. (These prices have been adjusted to reflect the subsequent stock split.)

Total value: $12.8 billion.

In other words, Steve Jobs missed out on $10.3 billion in extra profits.

To be fair to Steve, nobody could have known how high Apple’s stock would go in subsequent years — even the man largely responsible for driving it to such lofty heights. However, this wasn’t the first time the Apple co-founder lost big by betting against his own company. Back in the 80s, when he was booted out of Apple by then-CEO John Sculley, Jobs sold off all of his Apple stock — 6.5 million shares — for about $70 million. You don’t even want to know how much they’d be worth now.

Apple’s Jobs blunders on options swap Brett Arends’ ROI [MarketWatch]
Apple History [Markus Ehrenfried]

A Utah teenager who was arrested after rapping his order at a McDonald’s drive-through was found not guilty of disorderly conduct,after a judge ruled that his behavior was not threatening and didn’t create any unreasonable noise. The judge didn’t rule on the skills of the teen, who was attempting to imitate the YouTube classic “Fast Food Freestyle” (aka “The McDonald’s Drive Thru Rap”).

The teen, Spencer Dewaulder, attempted to place his order for (of course) a “double cheeseburger and hold the lettuce” and was told to order normally or leave.

During the ponderous two-hour trial Tuesday, attorneys presented evidence including surveillance footage at the restaurant, cell phone recordings of the rap, testimony from the officer who cited them and from McDonald’s employees.

The restaurant manager told police that as the teens drove away that night, Dewaulder yelled at her, “I hate this (expletive) McDonald’s anyway.” Prosecutors said he “acted in an angry, threatening, tumultuous manner” and sped recklessly out of the parking lot.

Dewaulder denied using profanity. Defense attorney Ann Boyle said singing an order, whether profanity was used or not, is speech that is protected by both federal and Utah constitutions.

Now that the legal right to sing one’s order has been affirmed, we look forward to hearing voices break out in song at retailers far and wide. We’re already working on our own version of the Picard Song, though we have no idea where we might actually be able to use it.

Rapping order at American Fork McDonald’s not a crime, judge rules [Deseret News]

How much will it cost you to fly from Atlanta to Las Vegas? Don’t bother checking; by the time you do, the price will have already changed. According to a new study from Yapta, the fare for flights between those two cities has changed 2,472,916 times so far this year, or once every six seconds. Better practice hitting that refresh button if you want to get a deal.

Chris Elliott spoke to someone at Yapta (a company that tracks airfares, of course), who told him “pricing is very competitive and therefore more volatile” between certain destinations and that by tracking flights for planned trips way in advance you’re “almost be assured you’ll see a price drop that you can take advantage of.” However, Elliott raises a more fundamental question:

Why is this allowed?

If grocery store prices changed once every six seconds, people would be rioting in the streets. In fact, it’s hard to think of any other consumer product with such volatile prices. Even gas prices don’t change this frequently.

And so I wonder — who is letting this happen, again? And should it be happening?

Good questions, and worthy of some answers. Since it is allowed, though, you may want to keep an eye on prices for the more volatile city pairs. Here are the top 5; the rest are up on Elliott.org.

1. Atlanta (ATL) to Las Vegas (LAS) – 2,472,916 price changes
2. New York (JFK) to Las Vegas (LAS) – 2,412,759 price changes
3. New Jersey (EWR) to Las Vegas (LAS) – 2,377,668 price changes
4. Chicago (ORD) to Las Vegas (LAS) – 2,215,994 price changes
5. New York (JFK) to San Francisco (SFO) – 1,959,873 price changes

If it’s changed 2,472,916 times since January, no wonder we need a site like Yapta [Elliott.org]

Just in case the legendary 7-layer Windows 7 Whopper wasn’t enough for you, Microsoft has introduced “Hot Fried 77,” the Windows 7 restaurant, featuring 7 Windows-themed dishes. And beer. However, if you’re looking to grab a quick bite of hot fried Windows, be prepared to travel fast: The restaurant is in Taiwan, and is only open going to be open for two months.

According to reports out of Taiwan, the restaurant features 7 different dishes, which rotate each day, and go for about T$77 (US$3) each. Unfortunately, the food is apparently fairly standard fare, so if you were hoping for something that would give you the piquant essence of Start Menu, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

Microsoft Opens “Hot Fried 77″ Concept Restaurant in Taiwan? [M.I.C Gadget]

PREVIOUSLY: Man Eats Windows 7 Themed 7-Layer Whopper

Thomas Salme was working in maintenance at Scandinavian airline SAS, when he decided he wanted to move up into the cockpit. So, he did what any clever and ruthless crackpot would: He practiced on a flight simulator until he thought he was ready to fly, and then printed a fake pilot’s license at home. He got a job at European airline Air One, and spent 13 years flying passengers around Europe until being caught in March. The heavy hand of justice: a $2,500 fine and a one-year grounding.

The Sun rises over the story:

Salme said: “I’d train there [on the SAS flight simulator] for two or three hours at a time at least 15 to 20 times over one and a half years.

“The moral point of view is that I feel ashamed that I did lie but I didn’t ever feel, not once feel, that I put passengers in an unsafe position.”

Air One had invited him to take a test flight in their simulator and he passed with flying colours after faking vital documents.

“I got the crackpot idea to apply as a co-pilot at a real airline so I made myself a Swedish flying permit with a logo out of regular white paper.

“It was a fantasy creation. It wasn’t laminated and looked like something I’d made ay home.

“It was surprisingly easy.”

Salme did apparently have a commercial pilot’s license at some point, but had never qualified to fly passenger planes. Judges praised his safety record at his sentencing, and blocked requests for tougher penalties.

Cockpit con was easy, says pilot [The Sun]

Gold prices may be setting new highs almost daily, but to commodity traders, the shiny metal is just another line on a graph. And it’s a line that’s starting to look very familiar to some traders, who see a pattern similar to one that played out recently with hogs. Prices for pigs flew to new highs, and then started drifting back into the mud.

Seeking Alpha sees patterns in the cornfields:

Gold’s new nominal highs against the greenback made headlines this week, but nobody (well, nobody outside the Ag community, anyway) devoted banner space to previously skyrocketing hog prices. This spring, livestock gained ground and rose to new highs for the decade while gold dithered in a consolidation phase.

The commodities’ roles are now reversed. After a 31% run-up since the top of the year, lean hog prices have reached a plateau around their 10-day moving averages, and now seem ready to work the lower half of their volatility bands. Most troubling for longer-term investors is a tightening price range, often indicative of a pending breakout. . Then there’s that March price gap — increasingly appearing to signal exhaustion — between 74.12 cents and 77.80 cents. The gap is becoming a tempting target for bears.

What does all this mean if you’re not a commodities trader? Pretty much just that you shouldn’t put all of your eggs in one basket. Or don’t buy a pig in a poke. Or whatever. Just diversify.

Gold’s Links to Hogs and Corn [Seeking Alpha]

The Seattle’s Best onslaught was just the beginning. Starbucks is ramping up efforts to make sure that, wherever you go, there it is (not that the brand was particularly difficult to come by before, but whatever). This includes making its Via instant coffee more widely available, and selling flavored coffee in supermarkets, all to bump up its share of the brewed coffee market from its current level of just 5%.

AdAge explains how Starbucks woke up and smelled the coffee:

Starbucks estimates that it holds less than 5% of the brewed-coffee market in the U.S. So the company is looking for ways to get in on more of that business, whether it reaches people through fast-food chains, in their homes or at their desks. Even Starbucks’ most loyal customers consume only three of every 10 cups they drink in Starbucks stores, and since there are about 40 billion servings of coffee sold in the U.S. every year, that leaves Starbucks plenty of cups to conquer. And the real action is in grocery: According to NPD Group, four in five cups of coffee are consumed at home.

Starbucks’ flavored coffees will include vanilla, caramel and cinnamon. Sorry; looks like no bacon just yet.

Why You Are Not Drinking Nearly Enough Starbucks [Advertising Age ]

PREVIOUSLY:
Seattle’s Best Coffee About To Be Absolutely @#$@%& Everywhere
Are You Ready For Your Bacon Latte?

It’s deja vu all over again: For the second day in a row, Republicans blocked debate on the financial reform bill. Once more, the vote was 57-41. And, once more, Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska broke ranks and voted with Republicans against the bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to bring the bill up for a vote again tomorrow.

Bill Information and Status [Thomas]

We don’t normally put expletives in our headlines, but when a Senator says the word nearly a dozen times in an open hearing, who are we to argue? And, we have to admit, Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) certainly makes a compelling case when he reads back Goldman Sachs internal emails and concludes that the company’s “top priority was selling that shitty deal.”

The deal in question involved a fund called Timberwolf, which was called “shitty” in internal company emails, and which lost 80% of its value within months of being issued. Despite the apparently accurate characterization of the fund, Goldman told its sales force that pitching Timberwolf to clients was a “top priority.”

In hearings before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Levin pushed Daniel Sparks, the former head of Goldman Sachs’ Mortgage Department, to admit that the company knowingly sold low-quality investments to its clients.

“You knew it was a shitty deal and that’s what your e-mails show. How much of this shitty deal did you continue to sell to your clients?” Sparks declined to answer, and did his best to avoid repeating the term.

In addition to Sparks, today’s hearings included testimony by trader Fabrice Tourre, who vowed to defend himself against the “false claim” that he defrauded investors, and CEO Lloyd Blankfein. Most denied any wrongdoing, echoing Sparks’ claim that the company made some “poor business decisions,” but didn’t do anything wrong. “Regret to me means something that you feel that you did wrong, and I don’t have that,” he said. As Levin might say, “Shitty.”

Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: The Role of Investment Banks [Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations]

With a 57-41 vote, Senate Republicans blocked debate over the White House-supported financial reform bill. The Democrats needed a 60-vote “supermajority” to avoid a Republican filibuster threat. Democrats plan to reintroduce the bill as early as tomorrow.

Senate Democrats believe that anger over financial scandals can turn the tide in their favor, while Republicans see opportunities to force changes to the bill. As put by The New York Times:

Republicans said they were intent on winning substantive changes to the bill and accused the Democrats of rushing the most far-reaching overhaul of the financial regulatory system since the Great Depression. Both sides say they expect the overhaul eventually will be approved.

Democrats charged that Republicans were leaving the country at risk of another financial calamity and siding with wealthy corporate interests. The chief executive of one such firm, Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street powerhouse accused of fraud by federal regulators, is to testify Tuesday before a Senate committee.

Sensing political momentum at a time of deep public anger at Wall Street, Democratic leaders said they would keep the regulatory bill on the floor — and delay the rest of their busy legislative agenda — to ratchet up the pressure on the Republicans.

Republicans argued that the bill leaves open the possibility of new multi-billion-dollar bailouts, and overregulates the financial sector. “We shouldn’t put in place a regulatory regime that overly reacts and, as a result, significantly dampens our capacity to have the most vibrant capital and credit markets in the world,” said Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire.

Democrats, however, warned that the nation remains vulnerable to another financial collapse. “We are as vulnerable as we are today in the waning days of April 2010 as we were in the fall of 2008,” said Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut. “Nothing has changed, except, of course, jobs have been lost, homes have gone into foreclosure, retirement incomes have evaporated, housing values have declined.”

Republican Senators Block Finance Reform Bill [NYTimes.com]

Police on Friday seized several computers from the home of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen, after they were granted a warrant allowing them to confiscate property that “may have been used as the means of committing a felony.” The warrant specifically mentions that officials are looking for information about the iPhone 4G, a prototype of which Gizmodo obtained from a source who found it after an Apple engineer left it behind in a bar.

Gizmodo previously admitted paying $5,000 to acquire the phone, and has stated that they “didn’t know it was stolen.” Gaby Darbyshire, COO of Gizmodo parent Gawker Media, believes any information on Chen’s computers is protected under California’s shield law, which allows journalists to protect anonymous sources. “Jason is a journalist who works full-time for our company,” she wrote in a letter to the officer who executed the warrant. According to Darbyshire, the law protects any “unpublished information” on Chen’s computers, and she requested the “immediate return” of all seized property.

Gizmodo had previously replied to a letter from Apple’s lawyers by saying they were “happy to see [the phone] returned to its rightful owner.”

Update: The case is reportedly on hold as the San Mateo County District Attorney’s office reviews Gizmodo’s shield law defense. According to one report, Chen’s computers haven’t been examined yet, and won’t be until after the DA completes the review. (Thanks, GetEmSteveDave!)

Police Seize Jason Chen’s Computers – Iphone 4 leak – [Gizmodo]
iPhone Leak Investigation Pauses As DA Ponders Gizmodo Shield Law Defense [TechCrunch]

PREVIOUSLY: Apple Loses Next iPhone, Tech Site Reviews It

[Full Disclosure: This site was previously owned by Gawker Media.]

Unlike meatspace malls, you can’t scope out the other shoppers when you’re browsing the online aisles. But thanks to this handy infographic from Permuto Discoveries, the truth is out: virtual malls are dominated by middle-aged white women with household incomes of $65K. Yeah, it’s Paramus without the blue laws.

Actually, the real news in the infographic is that, unlike back in the last century, when online shopping was still considered something geeky, it’s now about as mainstream as Costco. Almost 50% of all Americans shop online, and 88% of online shoppers have bought something online in the last six months. Revenue for online merchants is over $34 billion a year, up 500% from the end of the last century.

Who’s Shopping Online? [Permuto Discoveries]

Want to save a few bucks next time you visit New York City? Pick up one of these handy keys that can open the entrance to every subway gate and turnstile in the city’s transit system for just $27. Just be ready to be locked away without a key if you get caught, since the all-access passes are illegal.

The New York Daily News tried out one of the keys, which are supposed to be used only by transit workers and police.

The Daily News tried out the key at 15 stations across the city, including Yankee Stadium on the B line in the Bronx, Junction Blvd. on the No. 7 in Queens and 68 St. on the Lexington Ave. line.

It worked every time.

Police said scammers are not only riding around for free, they are furtively selling entry to the subways for less than the $2.25 fare at unstaffed entrances.

According to the Daily News, the keys can be purchased from rogue transit workers. “If you find an area that’s not supervised by the police, you’re in. It’s like a key to the city,” one satisfied customer told the newspaper. The NYPD has arrested 15 suspects this year for using the keys.

Get magic keys that open the gates at 468 subway stations for only $27 [New York Daily News]

In a wide-ranging interview, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz spoke with NPR’s On the Media about the agency’s role in protecting consumer privacy, fighting back against deceptive marketing practices — and about Leibowitz’s weekend basketball games with Federal Communications Commission chief Julius Genachowski: “Julius has been schooling me on the basketball court for some time. … He’s very crafty.”

Despite tearing his meniscus defending against Genachowski’s on-court “craftiness,” Leibowitz’s focus in the interview, for the most part, wasn’t actually the DC intramurals. In particular, he raised concerns about major consumer issues like net neutrality and internet privacy.

Imagine that you were walking through a shopping mall and there was someone walking behind you taking notes on everywhere you went and sending it off to anyone who was interested for a small fee. That would be very disturbing to most people. To some extent, we see a version of that on the Internet, because information is taken from consumers. For the most part that information is anonymized, which is good … but not every company has great data security, and beyond that, consumers ought to be informed in a clear way about the choices they make.

Full interview below. No word on whether Leibowitz is training for a rematch against Genachowski.

FTC Chairman on Privacy, Net Neutrality and the Future of News [On the Media]

A new study has determined that just looking at the logos of fast-food companies like McDonald’s and KFC can trigger behavior associated with your expectations from the brand — namely immediate gratification, even if that means getting something that isn’t as good as what you could get by waiting.

Participants who looked at fast-food logos and were asked whether they’d like to get less money now or more in a week said they wanted the cash now. Those who looked at more generic images were willing to wait. “Fast food seemed to have made made people impatient in a manner that could put their economic interest at risk,” concludes the study, from the University of Toronto.

Study co-author Chen-Bo Zhong told the Financial Post that “logos or other situational cues all have the same type of effect of “automaticity” — [triggering] regulatory behaviour that is beyond our control.”

When it comes to logos, a person’s reaction is not dependent on context, the researchers found, and in fact could work against what the individuals may want to be doing at that moment.

The feelings of impatience “will be applied to people’s behaviour whether it is in a productive context or not,” Mr. Zhong said. “You don’t want to have that type of [impatient] behaviour when you are wanting to relax at home or read something. But the activation of these goals will affect people regardless of whether that is their immediate goal or not, even if it works against their happiness at that point.”

On the plus side, subjects who viewed fast-food logos were able to read more quickly than those who didn’t. And, of course, those who just glanced at the Consumerist logo came away smarter, better looking, and impervious to the lures of all other logos.

Fast food makes you think fast [Montreal Gazette]

Forget that musty fallout shelter your grandfather dug in the backyard. If you want to make it through the next zombie attack, earthquake or nuclear war in style, just write a check to Vivos, a California company that’s trying to build a network of swank shelters across the country. For $50K and up, you’ll get an underground home “designed to withstand a 50 megaton blast within 10 miles, a series of force 10 earthquakes, 450 MPH surface winds, a 1,000,000 volt electromagnetic pulse (EMP), and flooding submersion for up to 500 hours.” Of course, you’ll also have to sleep in bunk beds surrounded by 200 of your closest friends, and then deal with survivor’s guilt when you resurface after a year and learn that your less fortunate neighbors have already been eaten by the alien lizard people.

As highlighted by The Guardian, Vivos plans to build 20 underground “assurance of life” centers around the U.S., where up to 40,000 people can survive whatever kills off the other 296 million people in the rest of the country.

Should you have the credentials and the cash, the rewards of a berth in a Vivos shelter seem high. Each staffed complex has a decontamination shower and a jogging machine; a refrigerated vault for human DNA and a conference room with wheely chairs. There are TVs and radios, flat-screen computers, a hospital ward, even a dentist’s surgery ready to serve those who forgot to pack a toothbrush in the hurry. “Virtually any meal” can be cooked from a stockpile of ingredients that includes “baked potato soup” but, strangely, no fish, tinned or otherwise. Framed pictures of mountain ranges should help ease the loss of a world left behind

Vivos claims to have received over 1,000 applications for its network of shelters, though it’s unclear whether the company has built anything more than a prototype near Barstow, CA and a series of slick computer-rendered images of the planned shelters. However, Vivos is apparently hoping to finish its network by 2012, just in time for the Mayan-predicted end of the world.

Bunker mentality: the ultimate underground shelter [The Guardian]