A hacker called up T-Mobile and convinced the customer service representative that he was Jared Kenna. T-Mobile believed the hacker and transferred Kenna's phone number from T-Mobile to another carrier. Once the hacker had Kenna's phone number he took over about 30 of Kenna's accounts, which had been protected with 2-factor authentication. The accounts included "two banks, PayPal, two bitcoin services — and, crucially, his Windows account, which was the key to his PC." In short order the hacker stole "millions" of dollars worth of Kenna's bitcoin.
Kenna was so early in bitcoin that he remembers when he would plug his computer into the network and see only four other computers running it. Now, there are more than 5,000. Computers supporting the network are slated into a competition to win bitcoin roughly every 10 minutes. In the early days, the payout was 50 bitcoin each time; now it’s 12.5. Kenna recalls that at a certain point, when he was “only” winning 50 bitcoins a day, he stopped supporting the network, thinking it wasn’t worth it. At today’s price, he was giving up on $40,000 a day.
Though he did have some bitcoins in online services, particularly since his businesses accept bitcoin as payment, he kept almost all his bitcoins on an encrypted hard drive. “It was essentially my never-sell-this-until-it-goes-to-a-billion-dollars nest egg,” he says. He had kept it offline for most of the past several years, but had connected that device in recent weeks to move them somewhere more secure and sell some. Though he had locked it with a 30-character password, the hackers moved the coins off. And unlike a credit card transaction, a transfer of a cryptocurrency is irreversible.
When asked how many bitcoins he lost, Kenna laughs. Confirming only that it was millions of dollars’ worth, he says, “I was one of the first people to actually do anything in bitcoin and I no longer have any bitcoin to speak of,” he says. “I’ve got, like, 60 coins or something, which is nothing compared to — it’s a fraction.”
Dan Ozzi, over at Vice, took the fan theory that Elvis made a cameo in near forgotten holiday classic Home Alone and ran with it. Ran and ran.
Seems a fan spotted someone who looks like an older Elvis in the background of one of the scenes in Home Alone. A lot of theorizing has since taken place...
So why do people think this uncredited background extra with only a minute of screen time and no speaking lines is Elvis? Well, strap on your blue suede shoes, mama, because we are about to dig in deep here, and we don't plan on coming out until we have answers or have LOST OUR FUCKING MINDS.
For starters, appearance. Were Elvis alive in 1990 when the movie was filmed, he would have been 55, making him age appropriate to be the man in this scene, roughly. There is some resemblance between the two around the eyes, for sure. The man also has a full head of brown hair that, from the looks of it, has likely felt the touch of a bottle of Just for Men. "But Elvis had jet black hair," you're saying, very naively. WRONG. Elvis had dirty blond hair which he dyed black.
This is a fun read. Whenever I think of Elvis, however, I think of my old friend Jay Leggett.
I've not read Wuthering Heights but Carla read it twice and keeps telling me too. I found out Amazon has the Kindle edition for free, which isn't a big deal because you can get it on Gutenberg for free, but it also includes the free Audible audiobook, too.
My daughter and I are planning a road trip to Yellowstone this summer in our VW Westy. When I asked her what would make it more fun, she said a fan.
I saw the $84 Happy Camper fan and passed as it was far too expensive (even for 2.) Just a few products down the list I found what appeared extremely similar for a mere $13 shipped. I decided to take the risk on this "Image Portable" version.
It arrived in a Happy Camper box, with Image as the manufacturer.
The fan is great. Takes 2 D cell batteries and should run for a long time. The LED lamp is bright enough to be used to light up the whole cabin when hung from the Westy's tent frame. With the pop-top down you might be banging your face into the fan, but the hanger/stand is really adjustable. You can turn it into a table top fan in seconds.
I showed it to my daughter, she sighed and she told me she meant a hand fan, the kind we get in Chinatown.
Way back in the early 1970s, during the prior “pre-Photoshop” millennium, my fellow industrial design students and I labored to create photo-realistic renderings of products and cars with old-school, analog materials. Air-brushed gouache paints created super-smooth graduations of color, magic markers made deep shadows, and razor-sharp details like sparkling highlights and chrome reflections were added precisely with colored pencil.
Our shining inspiration was a series of print ads by Pontiac, which appeared in popular magazines like National Geographic. Exaggerated perspectives made for dynamic views of the “Wide Track” Pontiac cars, and the far-flung settings included romantic, young couples doing exotic things like surfing or rally racing in Europe. These dramatically lit and staged renderings of cars and people were totally believable and more glamorous and compelling than any photograph ever could be. And who were the artists? Each of fantastic renderings was signed only with the mysterious initials: “VK AF.”
VK was Van Kauman, a former Disney animator who painted the wonderful figures and background settings. AF was Art Fitzpatrick, a long-time automotive illustrator. Together they created 285 of these magical masterpieces for Pontiac.
This book brings you the art of Art Fitzpatrick, featuring new paintings of many of the muscle cars and other “Wide Track” Pontiacs. The large format is fitting — the square book opens up to a wide, two-page layout and the car renderings are reproduced in the eye-popping panoramas. The exaggerated perspective of AF’s early work is best appreciated at this big scale and even at that, some of the cars literally burst out of the layout frames.
But wait — there’s more! The text contains the stories behind the cars from the time when Detroit ruled the roads (and showrooms). Automotive marketer Jim Wanger’s remembrances will be of interest to any fan of muscle cars. The competition for bigger and bigger engine displacements, competitive racing sponsorships, even pop culture cars like the customized Monkeemobile GTO and the Smokey and Bandit Firebird are all included. Come for the art — stay for the stories.
Pontiac Pizazz! by Jim Wangers, Art Fitzpatrick
Dave Anderson
2007, 64 pages, 12.4 x 0.6 x 12.2 inches, Hardcover
$39 Buy one on Amazon
This website shows you all the data any website you visit can find out about you: your location, operating system, browser plugins, previously visited web page, local and public IP, service provider, social media networks you are logged into, devices on your local network, and more. The site also shows you how to hide any of this information that you don't want to reveal.
Unpleasant logorrheic Alex Jones removed one of his videos in which he claimed "Pizzagate is real," and that “it needs to be investigated” after one of his fans went to DC's Comet Ping Pong and fired his gun inside the restaurant.
Show here: "Franz Reichelt (d. 1912), who attempted to use this contraption as a parachute. Reichelt died after he jumped off the Eiffel Tower wearing his invention, which failed to operate as expected."
This Wikipedia article lists other inventors who were killed by their own inventions.
UPDATE: Think Progress updated their story: "[Ambassador of Kuwait] Al-Sabah denied that he received pressure to move the event or discussed the event with the Trump Organization. He said he moved the event because the Trump Hotel is a new venue and 'why not?'" Think Progress stands by its story that it has "documentary evidence confirming the source’s account" that the Embassy of Kuwait "abruptly canceled its reservation after members of the Trump Organization pressured the ambassador to hold the event at the hotel owned by the president-elect."
The Embassy of Kuwait cancelled a contract for a major event at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington D.C. a few days after the presidential election, "citing political pressure to hold its National Day celebration at the Trump International Hotel instead," reports Think Progress.
A source tells ThinkProgress that the Kuwaiti embassy, which has regularly held the event at the Four Seasons in Georgetown, abruptly canceled its reservation after members of the Trump Organization pressured the ambassador to hold the event at the hotel owned by the president-elect. The source, who has direct knowledge of the arrangements between the hotels and the embassy, spoke to ThinkProgress on the condition of anonymity because the individual was not authorized to speak publicly. ThinkProgress was also able to review documentary evidence confirming the source’s account.
People who use the encrypted messaging app Signal on Egyptian IP addresses have reported that it stopped working. Open Whisper Systems, which makes Signal, confirmed the problem, promising a solution in a few weeks.
This isn't the first time Egypt has restricted access to websites and apps. It shut down the internet and even texting and BlackBerry messaging in 2011, and it reportedly blocked access to VOIP services Skype, Viber and Whatsapp in 2015. Since it can take some time before Open Whisper Systems can issue a fix, it's advising anyone who wants to continue communicating through Signal in Egypt to use Tor or a VPN service.
We've been investigating over the weekend, and have confirmed that Egypt is censoring access to Signal.
Numerous residents of a Spokane, Washington suburb reported hearing unsettling trumpet sounds overnight on December 14. Listen to a recording of the noise below. Non-believers suggest that it may have been the sound of many snowplows scraping the concrete roads or train rails creaking in the cold. One news outlet's "science expert" commented that "temperature does affect the speed of sound, which can make certain things sounds different than what we are used to hearing."
Of course, we all know the truth: It is the seven trumpets as described in the Book of Revelation. The apocalypse is nigh, and it's starting in Spokane.
Around Christmas, many KFC restaurants in Japan see 10 times their average daily sales. Customers order their KFC special Christmas dinner weeks in advance or wait in line for hours to score a Kentucky Christmas dinner package including chicken, side dishes, cake, and even wine. WTF??! Marketing, that's what. From the BBC:
According to KFC Japan spokeswoman Motoichi Nakatani, it started thanks to Takeshi Okawara, the manager of the first KFC in the country. Shortly after it opened in 1970, Okawara woke up at midnight and jotted down an idea that came to him in a dream: a “party barrel” to be sold on Christmas.
Okawara dreamed up the idea after overhearing a couple of foreigners in his store talk about how they missed having turkey for Christmas, according to Nakatani. Okawara hoped a Christmas dinner of fried chicken could be a fine substitute, and so he began marketing his Party Barrel as a way to celebrate the holiday.
In 1974, KFC took the marketing plan national, calling it Kurisumasu ni wa Kentakkii, or Kentucky for Christmas. It took off quickly, and so did the Harvard-educated Okawara, who climbed through the company ranks and served as president and CEO of Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan from 1984 to 2002.
The Party Barrel for Christmas became almost immediately a national phenomenon, says Joonas Rokka, associate professor of marketing at Emlyon Business School in France. He has studied the KFC Christmas in Japan as a model promotions campaign.
“It filled a void,” Rokka says. “There was no tradition of Christmas in Japan, and so KFC came in and said, this is what you should do on Christmas.”
My enormous head is about 62 centimeters around. That's 24 inches. This has had two consequences for my life. Firstly, no matter what I do, I look vaguely like a bobblehead doll. Secondly, hat acquisition is a problem. (more…)
Stephen McMennamy created this brilliant and delightful series of montages that he calls "Combophotos"! You can see more on his Tumblr and Instagram. Also below, a CNN interview with the artist!
Radical librarian Jason Griffey (previously) wants librarians to continue their 21st century leadership in the resistance to surveillance and persecution -- a proud record that includes the most effective stands against GW Bush's Patriot Act -- by pledging to make libraries safe havens from trumpism and its evils: electronic surveillance; racial and gender-based discrimination; and the assertion that ideology trumps empirical reality.
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...and the result is oddly satisfying.
