You gotta fight for your right to Potter.
Which Harry Potter Book Is Your Favorite?
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10 Signs You're A Total Scorpio
You were born between October 23 and November 21.
The one word people use to describe you most often is "intense."
You're just INTENSE, you know?? You're just A LOT.
Nobody's better with the quick, cutting comeback than you.
Scorpios have a "stinger" which they sometimes use in self-defense, to great effect — though you may sometimes regret just how good at insults you are.
Warner Bros. / Via chels725.com
You have a strong, natural magnetism.
Many people are drawn to Scorpios' intensity, mystery, and passionate charm. Liking you is EXCITING.
But you also can be somewhat secretive and guarded.
Scorpios often feel that their intensity overwhelms people, and attempt to compensate by building a wall. You can become quite withdrawn.
NBC / Via compliancex.com
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18 Outrageously Cute Photos Of Dogs Being Celebrated At Nepal’s Wonderful Dog Festival
Kukur Tihar is the second day of the Hindu festival Tihar, and it’s devoted to pampering our furry best friends. Unsurprisingly, it’s pretty much the most adorable festival ever.
Kukar Tihar happens on the second day of Tihar, also known as Diwali or the Festival of Lights.
It's basically the best day ever because it celebrates one of best beings on earth: dogs!
The dogs get covered in colored powder and adorned with garlands.
Navesh Chitrakar / Reuters
And obviously get tons of treats!
Navesh Chitrakar / Reuters
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32 Cool And Colorful Tattoos That Will Inspire You To Get Inked
Ink-spiration.
Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed
Reveal your inner mermaid with green and teal fish scales.
Get a set of blue and red notebook lines.
Perfect for a grocery store to-do list.
Go graphic with red and blue swirls.
Tattoo by Amanda Wachob
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Clinton Shows Warren Love, But Doesn't Get Much In Return
Two of biggest names in Democratic politics did their first ever event together on Friday.
Stephan Savoia / AP
Stephan Savoia / AP
BOSTON — They did not appear on stage at the same time. They delivered their remarks one speaking slot apart. One did not introduce the other. And there were no photo-ops to speak of on Friday for Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren.
At their first joint campaign showing, the two Democrats kept a notable distance.
Clinton, the former secretary of state, and Warren, the U.S. senator from Massachusetts, didn't cross paths in public view at the rally for Martha Coakley, the flagging candidate for governor in this state. But the scene and speeches at Boston's Park Plaza Hotel, where hundreds came to support Coakley, afforded a rare glimpse at the personal and political shades of the Clinton-Warren relationship.
They are two of the party's biggest names, often cast as adversaries in a presidential race to which neither has committed. But before the Coakley event on Friday, the two leading Democrats had never appeared at a public political event together.
The dynamic at the rally would best be described as one-sided.
Light on Clinton, heavy on Warren.
From the beginning of her prepared speech — a 25-minute outline of Coakley's record and a personal appeal for higher wages, better support for working families, and equal pay legislation for women — Clinton went out of her way to praise Warren.
In a series of nods to other officials headlining the rally, including Sen. Ed Markey and Gov. Deval Patrick, Clinton gave a line or two to each person. The last attendee she mentioned was Warren. "And I am so pleased to be here with your senior senator," Clinton said, her voice louder, hitting every word almost too hard, "the passionate champion for working people and middle-class families…"
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Reminder: Mindy Kaling And Malala Yousafzai Are Not The Same Person
Although apparently not everyone quite understands that fact.
This is Mindy Kaling. Comedian, actress, writer. Currently the star of The Mindy Project, her very own TV show.
Lucy Nicholson / Reuters
This is Malala Yousafzai. Teenage women's rights activist, and recent Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
Tom Mihalek / Reuters
Getty Images for The New Yorker Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images William Thomas Cain
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Poll: What New TV Shows Are You Watching?
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27 Of The Greatest Places In The World To Get Hot Chocolate
Winter is coming. These hot chocolates can help get you through it.
Getty Images/iStockphoto Elise Gravel / BuzzFeed
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Which Movie Girlfriend Stereotype Are You?
Behind every great male character is some chick, I think.
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15 Delicious Things You'll Find In The BuzzFeed Food Newsletter
Looking for amazing new recipes? Then the BuzzFeed Food newsletter is for you!
Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed
Nourishing ways to start your day.
Easy weekday lunches that are way better than anything you’d buy.
All kinds of incredible dinner ideas, ranging from super-simple recipes for nights when you’re too tired to think…
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What Kind Of Creep Sells A Celebrity's Naked Photos On The Internet?
Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed
By his own account, Bryan Hamade was asleep when he became the internet’s primary suspect in the last month’s celebrity nude-photo hacking scandal.
At the time Bryan, 27, was living in his mother’s basement and resting after a particularly busy day online, while anonymous Reddit and 4chan users were hard at work reverse engineering his identity with a brand of vigilante online detective work that’s now become a hallmark of internet conspiracy theories. Their investigation didn’t take long and, in a matter of hours, Hamade’s Reddit username, BluntMastermind, was successfully traced to his real identity. That’s when the calls started.
According to archived chat transcripts, Bryan awoke sometime in the middle of the night to calls from 4chan users who’d found his name and number online, along with most of his social media accounts. After scrubbing a few accounts like his Twitter page, Bryan entered a 4chan IRC chatroom around 4:15 a.m. and, according to the archived chat logs, spent an hour in the room berating himself and refuting claims he was the man who leaked the first illegally obtained thumbnails and nude phone pictures of actress Jennifer Lawrence:
[04:19] <+bh> I will send you the same thing I sent the others. The truth. I lied on the internet to try and scam bitcoins out of people wanting naked pictures. I am a fucktard and a fag. I never had anything at all except what was already posted on another imageboard, and I reposted it. No one even sent me BTC anyways, so it was all for naught. Please leave us alone. I apologize and won't ever go on 4chan again because you guys are definitely far
[04:19] <+bh> superior to my stupidity. The real dude is here apparently:http://www.reddit.com/r/TheFappening/comments/2f5oq1/email_leak/
[04:19] <+bh> I haven't even been on my PC for the last 8 hours because I was sleeping until you guys woke me with your calls. The fact that there's more shit being posted proves it's not me and I don't have shit. I am not the hacker nor is my little brother. We are not based. We are not cool. We are not interesting. I only wanted the BTC to trade in for cash to give my mom money I owe her because I currently live in her basement. I am just a
[04:19] <+bh> loser, and no one of note, period. I apologize for my indiscretions. Please let everyone else know I am just a fag and to please let us be. Our lives are shitty enough as is.
But it was too late. In a few hours, Bryan's name would be plastered across the internet linking him, justly or not, to the biggest leak of hacked celebrity nude photos in recent memory. And now, according to two sources, Bryan is being investigated by the FBI, though the agency would not confirm an investigation.
Yet, “hacking scandal” feels like a bit of a misnomer. The modern version of a computer hack isn’t really a “hack” at all. There are no cascading green screens of numbers; no sophisticated mainframes; no secret coding languages. Instead, the modern hack is little more than a scam executed under the cover of the internet: a series of small lies, an impersonation, a fake Gmail account, access to public information on a person’s Facebook page, some simple web design, and, in the most aggressive cases, a reasonably priced piece of Russian software.
The same can be said of the “hacker.” Far from the film stereotypes, the individuals behind most “hacks” aren’t technically skilled cyberpunk programmers — they are confidence men and creeps. More web savvy than technical geniuses, modern internet criminals often lead mundane lives in the physical world, at least compared with their lives online. While occasionally fueled by a particular brand of hate or misogyny or a rogue political cause, even their motives are often dull, born frequently out of boredom.
Chris Ritter/BuzzFeed
The man who destroyed Wired writer Mat Honan’s digital life in 2012 by hacking and wiping his iCloud and social accounts had little in the way of motive. “I honestly didn’t have any heat towards you before this. i just liked your username like I said before,” he told Honan, adding, “yea i really am a nice guy idk why i do some of the things i do.” The man serving a 10-year sentence for obtaining and distributing nude photos of Scarlett Johansson and dozens of other celebrities, Christopher Chaney, also blamed idle time. According to his half brother in a 2012 profile, “he was bored.” Chaney’s half sister also agreed that the act was not malicious. “I don't think he was trying to be a creep or a perv ... he was just curious,” she told GQ.
Just as quickly as they inflict damage on their victims, these hackers can also disappear into the folds of the internet, leaving the truth guarded by deleted web pages and social media accounts, burner email addresses, anonymous identities, and the volatile personalities of internet trolls. Despite causing global, high-profile news, with numerous and very real victims, there often seems to be few answers.
Bryan Hamade took just one day to erase his footprint online and off. Twenty-four hours after his alleged leak blew up the internet, he had all but vanished. In his hometown of Lawrenceville, Georgia, local news trucks staked out his family’s front lawn, but Bryan wasn’t there.
Some of the first evidence against Bryan appears to have come from an anonymous 4chan poster just after midnight on Sept. 1. “I’m pretty sure I figured out the identity of the leaker, or at least ONE of them,” the poster said. The anonymous user followed Bryan’s Reddit username, BluntMastermind, which, just hours earlier, had taken to Reddit to brag about and defend being the first to post evidence that he had a cache of nude photos of actress Jennifer Lawrence.
“The leaker was posting censored screenshots on 4chan of his desktop folder with the thumbnails,” the 4chan poster said. “In this one he forgot to block out the labels on his homegroup and his network. His homegroup: Tristan. Other computers on his network: BARTANDJENNA and BH. So after a bit of Google searching, I found this site for southern digital media. And check out the names of the team: Jenna, Bart, Bryan Hamade (BH) and Tristan, the 15 year old intern.”
It took just minutes for yet another anonymous user to put the pieces together on the plain-text archive site Pastebin, where an interested party was able to successfully link Bryan to the Reddit username through Bryan’s account on the video game site Steam, in which BluntMastermind lists his name as “Bryan Hamade” in his bio.
Early the next morning, a hastily photoshopped image started circulating on the photo-sharing site Imgur that laid out the case against Bryan: the exposed network drives and the link between BluntMastermind and his real identity, along with a picture of the accused.
Imgur
Shortly after seeing the image, I spoke with Bryan via email and then on the phone for what would be the first and last time. “Please leave me be. I am a nonstory. I would never in a million years try to hack into anything,” he’d written.
On the phone Bryan seemed calm. In between bouts of nervous laughter he claimed the “witch hunt” was all a misunderstanding. “I am not behind this. It was so stupid — I saw a lot of people posting the actual leaks and bitcoin addresses and I’ve read a lot about bitcoin and how they are valuable and I thought, Oh cool, I’ll get free bitcoins,” he assured me.
Bryan sounded concerned only at the mention of hiring an attorney. “I'm driving around the area where there are a lot of lawyers offices hoping one will be open so I can go in and talk to one to get ahead of this thing,” he said. “I don't want to wait until they knock on my door or kick it down if they think I'm a guilty party. I'm not the only dude who reposted photos, and I only reposted one or two folder photos [by which he means computer desktop screenshots of file folders containing censored pictures of nude celebrities like Lawrence].” At the end of the call, Bryan defended his innocence one final time. “I know my name will be cleared when they find the IP address. It just sucks that my name is out there right now.”
Chris Ritter/BuzzFeed
And Bryan had reason for concern. Past arrested celebrity hackers have been swiftly brought to justice and, according to one former federal prosecutor, the individual responsible for the Aug. 31 leaks could be subject to a 20-year sentence, given that Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney has publicly stated she was underage in some of the nude photographs.
As is the case with most ventures into the murky, pseudo-anonymous worlds of internet communities like 4chan, Reddit, and AnonIB, irrefutable facts are remarkably hard to come by. In the hours after the above interview with Bryan, dozens of tips from anonymous email accounts and security researchers poured into my inbox, many with screenshots that were equal parts compelling and conspiratorial. Some claimed Bryan Hamade had lied to me — that he’d received bitcoin for ransoming the photos.
“He is downplaying his knowledge. He can't claim to not know how to guess a password and also be a systems administrator and a developer,” one tipster noted. “He also won't be able explain how the screenshot he posted contains 85 items of mckayla manoney (sp?)[sic] pictures and videos which leaked nowhere else. He says he got them from 'somewhere else', but there is no somewhere else - that somewhere else is either he stole them or obtained them privately from the person who did.”
Theories aside, the story dried up quickly. It was Bryan's word against the internet’s. Even more remarkable, however, were how few details of his life emerged in the hours after the online manhunt.
Of his neighbors, past and present, only one would speak about Bryan. Ann Britz, a 59-year-old woman who’d lived near the Hamade family at their previous residence, said her son and Bryan had been friends (her son declined to comment for the story except to say that Bryan was maintaining his innocence) but that she didn’t know him well. "My general impression is that he's very, very intelligent. He built a PC for my husband and helped my son build computers. He was kind of a loner, though. He had friends, but they never really got to know him. There was no depth to the friendships, it seems like," she said, noting that the family was quiet but they were good neighbors.
Outside of attending high school and the University of Georgia, Bryan barely seemed to exist outside the internet. A cousin, Jad Zeidan, spoke highly of Bryan, though, describing him as “very social and really interested in comedy,” even he couldn’t provide key details of Bryan’s life. “I'm not sure exactly what his job is. I heard he was building a website for his mom to help her out,” he said.
Others offered a bleaker depiction of Bryan’s life. One source close to the family who wished not to be identified said, “He’s always lived in his mom’s basement in Lawrenceville since he graduated and not to sound mean, but he really had no friends at all. He literally was a dude who sat in the basement and played world of war craft [sic] and shit like that. His friends were all online and I really have no clue who any of them are or were.”
But perhaps the most conflicted portrait of Bryan Hamade came from his brother, Andrew, who, over five days of on-and-off calls and texts, wavered between defending and incriminating Bryan — more than once, hinting that he knew more about his brother’s involvement in the photo leaks than he could say.
At 2:15 a.m. on Sept. 8, Andrew woke me in the middle of the night with an unsolicited text:
“He still hasn’t made a statement, correct??? Okay, if he doesn’t tomorrow then I have some stuff to tell you that will blow your mind. I’m starting to get annoyed with him he’s leaving his whole family in the wake of his bs and not doing anything to fix it at this point so I’m going to fix it of [sic] he doesn’t by tomorrow."
“I didn’t want to [reach out] because my family was mad I said anything the first time we spoke but now they have all practically screwed me over 100% and I don’t even like my brother he’s been terrible to me all my life yet he and my dad got angry with him for talking to you and defending him. So at this point I’m over it all but I also have something,” he urged.
At Andrew’s insistence, I traveled to Lawrenceville to meet in person. Once in Atlanta, Andrew had a change of heart, wanting instead to meet a day later. “The FBI is involved now so I’m a bit apprehensive to talk to anybody,” he texted, also saying that his family finally wanted to bring him back into their circle.
Andrew finally agreed to meet nine hours later at the Bonefish Grill outside the Mall of Georgia. I walked in as the servers and busboys were clearing and wiping down their final tables. When he first arrived, the man claiming to be Andrew approached quickly and shook my hand. He bore little resemblance to the photo I saw online, and his voice didn’t match the one I’d heard a week earlier on the phone. He avoided eye contact, opting instead to look at his phone. After an awkward introduction and assurance that I wasn’t recording anything, he swiveled his bar stool toward me. “I have a confession to make. I’m not Andrew,” he said, pointing to the door of the restaurant. “That’s Andrew.”
His friend gestured and Andrew walked in and sat down next to me. Tall and fit, he had a cast on one of his hands. He politely ordered a beer and told me he was sorry for all the confusion. “I wanted to be careful. It’s been a wild week, man,” he said with a sheepish smile.
During the meeting, Andrew refused to disclose the information that would “blow my mind.” Andrew said that the FBI’s new involvement with Bryan had him and the family worried. Andrew waited a considerable amount of time weighing each of my questions about Bryan before offering a response and often apologetically offered a “no comment.” His silence wasn’t without a noticeable frustration, though, which bubbled to the surface more than once. Throughout the 45 minutes, Andrew took pains to assure me he knew “plenty of shit.” He explained that he had planned to take matters into his own hands by talking to me before the FBI’s involvement. At one point he admitted, “My brother is a real asshole, but he’s innocent. I wish you could have that as your next headline,” he said.
Despite Andrew’s assurances, Bryan’s innocence — at least as told by his brother — felt, at best, complicated.
A trip to Bryan’s hometown of Lawrenceville did little to help abate the feeling. By late September, the scandal was largely forgotten by the Lawrenceville locals, if known at all. Andrew stopped returning calls, emails, and texts; I later found he had been arrested for criminal trespass and simple assault and, as of this writing, is being held in Gwinnett County’s correctional center. Most residents I spoke to in the strip mall just a half mile from Bryan Hamade’s family home could barely recall the scandal; one teenage girl I spoke to — wearing a Collins Hill High School T-shirt (Bryan’s high school) — didn’t recognize his name, though she had heard of the nude photo scandal.
Only those inside or near the Hamade family's circle seemed to know of Bryan or his potential involvement. McKenzie Smith, the girlfriend of Bryan’s brother Andrew, described Bryan over a Facebook message as “really not that interesting of a person. There's not much to tell about him except he's always been a creep, weird, very childish, and immature. The only reason I've even come In contact with Brian[sic] is because I have a child with his deadbeat egotistical brother Andrew,” she said.
Chris Ritter/BuzzFeed
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40 Instagram Accounts You Need To Follow If You Love Color
The brighter the better.
Kimberly Genevieve
This wall is amazing and so is Kimberly's entire account. She's a photographer based in Los Angeles and even her food photos are vibrant.
Alice Oehr
Have you ever received such an adorable piece of mail? Befriend illustrator and designer Alice Oehr and maybe you will.
Matt Lyon (c86)
Follow Matt and eagerly wait for him to post one of his wonderful shape-filled illustrations.
Kitiya Palaskas
Kitiya is a "craft-based designer with big hair" and one of the most vivid accounts around.
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17 Beautiful Bread Bowls To Warm Your Soul
Never give your money to Panera again.
The easiest way to become the proud owner of a bread bowl is, of course, to buy a nice spherical loaf of bread, cut the top off, and dig out the squishy middle. HOWEVER, for a great deal of extra credit, you can bake your own. Here are five recipes to try out.
Ham, Egg & Cheese Bread Bowls
The best kind of breakfast is the breakfast where there are literally no dishes to wash. Get the recipe.
Mini Garlic Mozzarella Bread Bowls
You can turn literally any roll (EVERY roll!) into a tiny bread bowl. Get the recipe.
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Get A Helping Hand From The BuzzFeed Parents Newsletter!
Looking for ways to make parenting easier? Then the BuzzFeed Parents newsletter is for you!
Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed
Who it's for: Parents or parents-to-be looking for a little help figuring things out. Anyone who could use a laugh about what it's like to raise another human. Everyone who knows that being a parent is the hardest job in the world — but also the best.
What you'll get: Real talk about what it's like to become a parent, from the earliest days of pregnancy to the very end of the school year. Brilliant tips that will make every day easier. DIY projects and recipes your kids will love, and inspired activities to keep them busy. Hilarious proof that it's OK not to have all the answers, heartwarming reminders of how wonderful kids really are, and much more!
When you'll get it: Every Tuesday.
Enter your email address to sign up for the BuzzFeed Parents newsletter!
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13 Disappointing Facts About The Kardashians
Ugh, let’s all change our careers to “reality TV personality.”
Kim Kardashian has an estimated net worth of $65 million.
Kendall Jenner already has a net worth of $3 million.
Kim's minimum rate to endorse a product is $750,000 - $1 million.
Khloe reportedly sold the rights to her wedding photos with Lamar Odom to OK! for $300,000.
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31 DIY Projects That Will Make Pregnancy So Much Easier
Make more than a baby.
DIY a full-body, contoured maternity pillow.
It may be big, but it'll work wonders on your aching back and help you get some sleep. Find the tutorial (and PDF pattern) here.
You can also make your own regular-sized maternity pillow.
Learn how here.
Sew a two-seam maternity dress.
This chic number is very easy to make. Learn how here.
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How Obsessed With Pinterest Are You?
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22 Facts About The Human Body You'll Never Be Able To Forget
Your body is a wonderland. A horrifying, beautiful wonderland.
Your heart can keep beating outside of your body.
TransMedics has developed a system to keep donor hearts pumping blood while it's transported, and it is amazing.
Speaking of your heart, it pumps with enough pressure to squirt blood 30 feet across a room.
There are mites living in your eyelashes.
They're called Demodex, and they embed their heads into your hair follicles.
Alan Walker / Via commons.wikimedia.org
The average adult has ten times more bacteria than human cells living in their body.
(In other words, 90% of the cells in our body don't even belong to us.)
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Watch A Bunch Of Little Girls Curse Like Sailors To Promote Feminism
“What’s more offensive? A little girl saying ‘fuck’ or the fucking unequal and sexist way society treats girls and women?” NSFW language (obviously).
"What the fuck? I'm not some pretty fucking helpless princess in distress," they shout.
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21 Bobby Pin Hairstyles You Can Do In Minutes
Pin up, girl.
Six Sisters Blog / BuzzFeed
First things first:
Remember that bobby pins are meant to be used with the wavy side facing your scalp — the ridges are there to grip your hair and lock everything in place.
Michelle Phan / michellephan.com
Kathleen Kamphausen / cosmopolitan.com
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More Pages to Explore .....
