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archatlas:

Toby Melville-Brown

Toby is in love with civilization. All his works are a curious response to the complex panorama that surrounds us. Subjects range from disease to international politics but all share an aesthetic that was born from our synthetic landscape.

Kevin Hart is everywhere.

You can't watch an NBA game on national television these days without seeing a Kevin Hart movie trailer, so it's no surprise the actor/comedian is headlining the Sprint NBA All-Star Celebrity Game 2014 at 7 p.m. ET Feb. 14 in New Orleans. Hart will be going for this third straight celebrity game MVP.

Joining Hart are some familiar faces as well as some new names. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is back again, as are "America's Got Talent" host Nick Cannon, former NBA player and current ESPN analyst Bruce Bowen, and "E! News" host Terrence Jenkins.

Michael Jordan will be playing in the game, but not the Michael Jordan NBA fans are familiar with. This is actor Michael B. Jordan of "Friday Night Lights" fame.

Some other notable participants include actress/model Erin Heatherton, ESPN's Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg, and WNBA stars Skylar Diggins and Elena Delle Donne.

ESPN's Bill Simmons and Jalen Rose will select and coach the teams. Here's the full roster of participants via NBA.com:

Kevin Hart

Erin Heatherton

Nick Cannon

Mike Golic

Mike Greenberg

Jesse Williams

Columbus Short

Michael B. Jordan

Arne Duncan

Bruce Bowen

Terrence Jenkins

Kristen Ledlow

Stan Verrett

Syklar Diggins

Elena Delle Donne

More from SB Nation NBA:

• Mission Improbable: How do you score on the Pacers?

• The Hook: Cap space is the pit of despair

• Watch LeBron, Wade and the Heat sing karaoke for charity

• Flannery: Kevin Durant has taken over

• Ziller: The 30 biggest moments of David Stern's career

And now I'm hungry for a gyro. Thanks, Peeta. (via: /Film) Are you following The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?

Soul Fjord is now available on the Ouya store. Developed by Airtight Games, the rhythm-action game stars an afro-sporting viking named Magnus Jones, who is hacking through enemies to get to the afterlife nightclub Valhalla. The developer describes ...

An extraordinary journey down a river in France, with 114 victims of the Boston Marathon Bombing.

"South Beach Tow" is a show that manages to be entertaining — in the trashy way reality TV shows are — while also exploiting racist stereotypes. And Tumblr, even the users who value things like standing up to the patriarchy and oppression, is eating it up.

submitted by Parkwoodian [link] [5 comments]

At universities across the nation this spring, chirpy tour guides will paint an idyllic, PG-rated picture of collegiate life. Here’s the unedited version.

’The Road of Bones’ - aka the highway built with Gulag labor, literally. Here, prisoners who died at work were interred into the fabric of Stalin’s Kolyma Highway. Without a rail link to the city, the highway is the only major land route into and out of Yakutsk.

Photo by Amos Chapple, caption by Mee-Lai Stone, for The Guardian.

"The shift to a cleaner energy economy won't happen overnight, and it will require tough choices along the way," said President Obama last night in his State of the Union Address."But the debate is settled," he added emphatically. "Climate change is a fact."

Read more...

SmartAboutThings writes "Edward Snowden has a chance of getting the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, as two Norwegian members of the Parliament have nominated him — Baard Vegard Solhjell (a former environment minister) and Snorre Valen. So, the fact that members of the Norwegian Parliament have proposed him for the Nobel Peace Prize could improve his chance of winning. After all, if Obama got this prize, why wouldn't Snowden get it?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Biden says he could be president, 'in my heart' Charlotte Observer President Barack Obama delivers the State of Union address before a joint session of Congress in the House chamber Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2014, in Washington, as Vice President Joe Biden, and House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, applaud. Buy Photo ... and more »

Washington Post

Atlanta area slowly rebounding from winter storm Seattle Post Intelligencer ATLANTA (AP) — Hundreds of drivers were reunited with their abandoned cars and Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal ordered state employees back to work Friday as the metro Atlanta region rebounded from a winter storm that coated the area with snow and ice. GEORGIAPhilly.com Caught off guard: After paralyzing snow, Atlanta mayor and Ga. gov play delicate ...Minneapolis Star Tribune Mayor Unapologetic as Questions Fly in Storm That Stopped AtlantaNew York Times all 2,291 news articles »

Marshawn Lynch was never going to open up, or do more than the bare minimum, at Super Bowl Media Day. Expecting him, or anyone else, to give more than canned answers and lip service was never realistic.

Perhaps the least surprising story of Media Day was Marshawn Lynch doing the bare minimum, and perhaps less than that, to fulfill his media obligations ahead of the Super Bowl. One of the bigger stories leading up to the circus that is Super Bowl Media Day was whether or not Lynch would even show up. It's no secret that he hates doing media work, and hates scrums even more.

The reaction was as expected: indignant responses, a statement from the Pro Football Writers Association and plenty of debate over whether Lynch should be fined. He's been fined once, only to have the fine rescinded so long as he plays by the rules and does media (if he doesn't, the fine doubles to $100,000).

Reacting to Lynch's unwillingness to participate, beyond a few small token quotes and an interview with Deion Sanders on NFL Network, is easy. The root of the story, though, is trying to figure out why Lynch is so averse to interviews, especially in groups. It's not as though he's never sat down to talk, but often Lynch gives short answers, if anything at all, in a group setting. And that frustrates reporters.

Lynch is an interesting guy; in part, because he is so guarded. But there are bits and pieces of information that help explain why he is how he is. This E:60 interview provides a lot of insight, both from Lynch himself and from his high school coach (start at about 2:30):

Delton Edwards, Lynch's high school coach, explains that Lynch keeps his guard up, but holds grudges if people let him down. Lynch explains that he keeps his guard up because his dad used to walk out on him all the time and was rarely in the picture, and as a result he started to expect the worst out of people.

If you look at who Lynch has opened up to in the media, especially as of late, there's a pattern. He gave a wide-ranging interview to Mike Silver, a Cal guy (like Lynch). Silver has known Lynch for a long time, and there seems to be a level of trust there, so the quiet running back gives the national reporter the in-depth interview.

This is frustrating to the reporters who cover Lynch on a day-to-day basis, and I get that. They spend months, even years, trying to pry the tiniest bit of information out of him, or just one good quote, and a national reporter swoops in and gets all the money quotes. This is also what makes covering Lynch such a difficult exercise.

Beyond trusting those around him, though, Lynch had an interesting take on media and Media Day that explains a lot:

"If you're forced to do something, it's not as good as if you choose to do it," Lynch told NFL Media last week during an expansive interview, making an exception to his three (words) and out approach to answering questions from reporters. "So no, I won't have a lot of interesting things to say. When you're forced to do something and you know it, it kind of just takes away from the whole experience of what it could be if (it were) natural. So, I'll probably give forced answers."

He's not wrong, frustrating as it might be to those who cover him on a daily basis, or those who drop in for the Super Bowl. There's little to glean out of a Super Bowl Media Day, besides the circus, personalities dressed as all sorts of characters, and silly questions meant to try and shape a "unique" story. In a scrum of hundreds of reporters, all chasing the same angles, nobody was going to get anything worthwhile or long-lasting anyway.

Think about Media Day and what the consumer gets out of it every year. Large swaths of reporters descend on a bunch of podiums, and they have an hour with each team to try to pull out something meaningful, all the while surrounded by people angling for the same story, the same quotes. Players humor the media, but give the same canned answers we've heard year after year. There are exceptions, but typically these are silly sideshow stories that are blips on the radar in the scheme of things.

Yet every year, the media shows up in droves and we expect players to give genuine answers to both serious, probing questions and silly gimmicks (is this game a must-win?). It's an odd expectation, and Media Day is an odd time to take a stand against uncooperative players.

Lynch makes the job of media members covering him harder; that's no secret. Trying to wring information out of him is like pulling teeth. Crafting a meaningful story about him is one of the more difficult things a journalist assigned to the Seahawks beat faces. Local reporters in Seattle have the biggest right to complain: They spend all year trying to get something -- anything -- yet have been basically stonewalled at every turn.

Expecting Lynch to come to Media Day or any other Super Bowl week event, open up, and share some deep insight, or anything beyond skin-deep answers, is a fantasy. In the middle of a massive media circus, ahead of the biggest game of most of these players' lives, the media obligations are a buzzing mosquito, an obligation that has to be fulfilled even if the real show is Sunday (and people will tune into that show no matter what is said or not throughout the week). The columns chastising him are just more noise in the middle of the rock concert that is Super Bowl week.

Marshawn Lynch is an interesting, complicated person, and it's no wonder that every media member -- and there are lots -- in New York wants to write the story. But it was never going to happen at Media Day, or during Super Bowl week for that matter. Lynch is in his Beast Mode already, focused on the game and playing football -- the part of the job he enjoys -- not the attention.

Why? Because in his own words, words he said at Media Day in what was the best quote of the day, he's "just bout that action, boss."

More from SB Nation NFL

• SB Nation's complete coverage of Super Bowl XLVIII

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• Bed, breakfast and beyond: The AirBnB guide to Super Bowl tourism

• Floyd Mayweather makes $10M wager? | Super Bowl prop bets

• NFL mock draft: Blake Bortles is the new No. 1 pick

• The sordid end of David Meggett: From All-Pro to prison

Jonathan M. Guberman made a set of alphabet blocks featuring iconic images of the things he and his wife were looking forward to sharing with their newborn son. Though Guberman started before his son was born, it took until his son was nearly a year old to finish these 36 1.5″ blocks. Here’s the full set of blocks on Flickr and the full list of references included on the blocks.

There are 36 blocks — the English alphabet and ten digits — showing 134 images of people, animals, monsters, robots, vehicles, organizations, devices, tools, and objects from some of our favourite movies, TV shows, books, comics, video games, poems, and sculptures, as well as a few from the real world for good measure (and a couple not-so-favourites for comic relief/alphabetical exigency; I’m looking at you, Zardoz). The only real rule I followed in choosing subjects was trying to maintain an even gender balance.

Narwhal/Nintendo Entertainment System

Icosohedron (sic)/Indiana Jones

C-3PO/Companion Cube

EVE/Enterprise NCC-1701

images via Jonathan M. Guberman

via CNET Crave

SofaPlay:

SofaPlay allows you to play media files directly from your Mac on the TV. It connects your Mac to your Smart TV and takes care of the streaming. Just drag any movie file onto SofaPlay and it will appear instantly on the big screen in front of you.

SofaPlay is essentially a UPnP/DLNA server, so it should work with lots of tellys, PVRs, gaming consoles, &c..

App Store

Left Behind the book series (and Kirk Cameron relevance generator) is getting a full-blown feature film (sans Kirk Cameron). Instead, it features Nic Cage as the pilot whose wife leaves him for Jesus, and here is your first clip.

Read more...

Naoki Hiroshima is the creator of Cocoyon and a developer for Echofon. This post originally appeared on Naoki’s Medium blog and has been republished with permission.

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Update: PayPal has denied that its customer service representative divulged credit card information over the phone.

I had a rare Twitter username, @N. Yep, just one letter. I’ve been offered as much as $50,000 for it. People have tried to steal it. Password reset instructions are a regular sight in my email inbox.

As of today, I no longer control @N. I was extorted into giving it up.

While eating lunch on January 20, 2014, I received a text message from PayPal for one-time validation code. Somebody was trying to steal my PayPal account. I ignored it and continued eating.

Later in the day, I checked my email which uses my personal domain name (registered with GoDaddy) through Google Apps. I found the last message I had received was from GoDaddy with the subject “Account Settings Change Confirmation.” There was a good reason why that was the last one.

From: GoDaddy
To: Naoki Hiroshima
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 12:50:02 -0800
Subject: Account Settings Change Confirmation

Dear naoki hiroshima,

You are receiving this email because the Account Settings were modified for the following Customer Account:

XXXXXXXX

There will be a brief period before this request takes effect.

If these modifications were made without your consent, please log in to your account and update your security settings.

If you are unable to log in to your account or if unauthorized changes have been made to domain names associated with the account, please contact our customer support team for assistance: support@godaddy.com or (480) 505-8877.

Please note that Accounts are subject to our Universal Terms of Service.

Sincerely,
GoDaddy

I tried to log in to my GoDaddy account, but it didn’t work. I called GoDaddy and explained the situation. The representative asked me the last 6 digits of my credit card number as a method of verification.

This didn’t work because the credit card information had already been changed by an attacker. In fact, all of my information had been changed. I had no way to prove I was the real owner of the domain name.

The GoDaddy representative suggested that I fill out a case report on GoDaddy’s website using my government identification. I did that and was told a response could take up to 48 hours. I expected that this would be sufficient to prove my identity and ownership of the account.

Let The Extortion Begin

Most websites use email as a method of verification. If your email account is compromised, an attacker can easily reset your password on many other websites. By taking control of my domain name at GoDaddy, my attacker was able to control my email.

I soon realized, based on my previous experiences being attacked, that my coveted Twitter username was the target. Strangely, someone I don’t know sent me a Facebook message encouraging me to change my Twitter email address.

I assumed this was sent from the attacker but I changed it regardless. The Twitter account email address was now one which the attacker could not access.

The attacker tried to reset my Twitter password several times and found he couldn’t receive any of the reset emails because it took time for the change of my domain’s MX record, which controls the email domain server. The attacker opened issue #16134409 at Twitter’s Zendesk support page.

N, Jan 20 01:43 PM:

Twitter username: @n
Your email: *****@*****.***
Last sign in: December
Mobile number (optional): n/a
Anything else? (optional): I’m not receiving the password reset to my email, do you think you could manually send me one?

Twitter required the attacker to provide more information to proceed and the attacker gave up on this route.

I later learned that the attacker had compromised my Facebook account in order to bargain with me. I was horrified to learn what had happened when friends began asking me about strange behavior on my Facebook account.

I received an email from my attacker at last. The attacker attempted to extort me with the following message.

From: SOCIAL MEDIA KING
To: Naoki Hiroshima
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 15:55:43 -0800
Subject: Hello.

I’ve seen you spoke with an accomplice of mine, I would just like to inform you that you were correct, @N was the target. it appears extremely inactive, I would also like to inform you that your GoDaddy domains are in my possession, one fake purchase and they can be repossessed by godaddy and never seen again D:

I see you run quite a few nice websites so I have left those alone for now, all data on the sites has remained intact. Would you be willing to compromise? access to @N for about 5minutes while I swap the handle in exchange for your godaddy, and help securing your data?

Shortly thereafter, I received a response from GoDaddy.

From: change@godaddy.com
To: Naoki Hiroshima
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 17:49:41 -0800
Subject: Update [Incident ID: 21773161] — XXXXX.XXX

Unfortunately, Domain Services will not be able to assist you with your change request as you are not the current registrant of the domain name. As the registrar we can only make this type of change after verifying the consent of the registrant. You may wish to pursue one or more of the following options should you decide
to pursue this matter further:

1. Visit http://who.godaddy.com/ to locate the Whois record for the domain name and resolve the issue with the registrant directly.

2. Go to http://www.icann.org/dndr/udrp/approved-providers.htm to find an ICANN approved arbitration provider.

3. Provide the following link to your legal counsel for information on submitting legal documents to GoDaddy: http://www.godaddy.com/agreements/showdoc.aspx?pageid=CIVIL_SUBPOENA GoDaddy now considers this matter closed.

My claim was refused because I am not the “current registrant.” GoDaddy asked the attacker if it was ok to change account information, while they didn’t bother asking me if it was ok when the attacker did it. I was infuriated that GoDaddy had put the burden on the true owner.

A coworker of mine was able to connect me to a GoDaddy executive. The executive attempted to get the security team involved, but nothing has happened. Perhaps because of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Then I received this follow-up from the attacker.

From: SOCIAL MEDIA KING
To: Naoki Hiroshima
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 18:50:16 -0800
Subject: …hello

Are you going to swap the handle? the godaddy account is ready to go. Password changed and a neutral email is linked to it.

I asked a friend of mine at Twitter what the chances of recovering the Twitter account were if the attacker took ownership. I remembered what had happened to @mat and concluded that giving up the account right away would be the only way to avoid an irreversible disaster. So I told the attacker:

From: Naoki Hiroshima
To: SOCIAL MEDIA KING
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 19:41:17 -0800
Subject: Re: …hello

I released @N. Take it right away.

I changed my username @N to @N_is_stolen for the first time since I registered it in early 2007. Goodbye to my problematic username, for now.

I received this response.

From: SOCIAL MEDIA KING
To: Naoki Hiroshima
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 19:44:02 -0800
Subject: RE: …hello

Thank you very much, your godaddy password is: V;Mz,3{;!’g&

if you’d like I can go into detail about how I was able to gain access to your godaddy, and how you can secure yourself

The attacker quickly took control of the username and I regained access to my GoDaddy account.

PayPal and GoDaddy Facilitated The Attack

I asked the attacker how my GoDaddy account was compromised and received this response:

From: SOCIAL MEDIA KING
To: Naoki Hiroshima
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 19:53:52 -0800
Subject: RE: …hello

- I called paypal and used some very simple engineering tactics to obtain the last four of your card (avoid this by calling paypal and asking the agent to add a note to your account to not release any details via phone)

- I called godaddy and told them I had lost the card but I remembered the last four, the agent then allowed me to try a range of numbers (00-09 in your case) I have not found a way to heighten godaddy account security, however if you’d like me to
recommend a more secure registrar i recommend: NameCheap or eNom (not network solutions but enom.com)

It’s hard to decide what’s more shocking, the fact that PayPal gave the attacker the last four digits of my credit card number over the phone, or that GoDaddy accepted it as verification. When asked about this, the attacker responded with this message:

From: SOCIAL MEDIA KING
To: Naoki Hiroshima
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 20:00:31 -0800
Subject: RE: …hello

Yes paypal told me them over the phone (I was acting as an employee) and godaddy let me “guess” for the first two digits of the card

But guessing 2 digits correctly isn’t that easy, right?

From: SOCIAL MEDIA KING
To: Naoki Hiroshima
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 20:09:21 -0800
Subject: RE: …hello

I got it in the first call, most agents will just keep trying until they get it

He was lucky that he only had to guess two numbers and was able to do it in a single call. The thing is, GoDaddy allowed him to keep trying until he nailed it. Insane. Sounds like I was dealing with a wannabe Kevin Mitnick—it’s as though companies have yet to learn from his Mitnick’s exploits circa 1995.

Avoid Custom Domains for Your Login Email Address

With my GoDaddy account restored, I was able to regain access to my email as well. I changed the email address I use at several web services to an @gmail.com address. Using my Google Apps email address with a custom domain feels nice but it has a chance of being stolen if the domain server is compromised. If I were using an @gmail.com email address for my Facebook login, the attacker would not have been able to access my Facebook account.

If you are using your Google Apps email address to log into various websites, I strongly suggest you stop doing so. Use an @gmail.com for logins. You can use the nicer custom domain email for messaging purposes, I still do.

In addition, I also strongly suggest you to use a longer TTL for the MX record, just in case. It was 1 hour TTL in my case and that’s why I didn’t have enough time to keep receiving emails to the compromised domain after losing the DNS control. If it was a week-long TTL for example, I would have had a greater chance to recover the stolen accounts.

Using two-factor authentication is a must. It’s probably what prevented the attacker from logging into my PayPal account. Though this situation illustrates that even two-factor authentication doesn’t help for everything.

Conclusion

Stupid companies may give out your personal information (like part of your credit card number) to the wrong person. Some of those companies are still employing the unacceptable practice of verifying you with the last some digits of your credit card.

To avoid their imprudence from destroying your digital life, don’t let companies such as PayPal and GoDaddy store your credit card information. I just removed mine. I’ll also be leaving GoDaddy and PayPal as soon as possible.

Editor’s Note: The Next Web has reached out to GoDaddy, PayPal, and Twitter for comment.

– PayPal says it did not release any credit card, personal or financial information for the account in question.

– A Twitter spokesperson tells us: “While we don’t comment on individual accounts, we are investigating the report.”

– A statement provided to us from GoDaddy reads: “We take customer security very seriously and are investigating this issue.”

Don’t miss: How to stop giving a f@$% what people think

And: Four months ago I completely quit lying. Here’s how it dramatically and positively transformed my life.

Jessica Jones and Luke Cage by Michael Gaydos (Alias #28, 2003)

new yorker cover “All Together Now,” by Chris Ware

Well I guess it was bound to happen eventually.

Read more...

Information Technology, University of West-Hungary

Kshama Sawant to Take Home $40,000 in Pay out of her $117,000 City Council Salary:

glitterlion:

During her successful campaign for Seattle City Council, Socialist Alternative candidate Kshama Sawant repeatedly promised to take accept no more salary than the average Seattle worker. Today, in a press release, she announced what that specifically means—$40,000 a year after taxes—and what she plans to do with the remainder of her $117,000-plus salary:

“The people of Seattle elected me as a socialist on the platform of a $15/hour minimum wage, for affordable housing, and to tax the rich to pay for public transit and education. In addition, I strongly support all efforts to increase wages. Data shows Seattle median wages for men at $60,000 while only $51,000 for women; and people of color earn only 45% of the median income of white workers. I will fight to close the gender pay gap and to overcome the structural racism in working and living conditions.

“Seattle City Councilmembers receive over $117,000 a year – the second highest of any city council in the country. Inevitably, such a salary removes Councilmembers from the realities of life for working people. I will only take home $40,000 per year. This amount is roughly the full-time take-home pay of a Seattleite.

“After paying taxes, the remainder of my salary will go to a Solidarity Fund to help build social justice movements. Throughout the year I will be making donations from this Solidarity Fund to causes such as workers’ strike funds, and environmental, civil rights, and women’s rights campaigns.

Sawant promises “regular and transparent accounting” of her Solidarity Fund, and has already pledged two donations: $500 to Puget Sound SAGE and $15,000 to15Now.org.

So there you go, Sawant-hating comment trolls: Promise made, promise kept.

This is pretty amazing and very very rare.