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DAILY HELMSMAN Wednesday 02.13.13
The
Vol. 80 No. 070
Culture shock Independent Student Newspaper of the University of Memphis
www.dailyhelmsman.com
West Memphis 3’s Damien Echols speaks on perseverance and change
By Joshua Cannon
news@dailyhelmsman.com In 1994, Mark Zuckerberg was only nine or ten years old. Michael Jackson would marry Lisa Marie Presley, and Kurt Cobain would end his life. It was years before the release of the DVD, four years before Google, and nobody would be creating a MySpace profile until 2003. iPhones were a long way from being a reality. Justin Bieber would be born, and three teenagers from West Memphis would start to serve 17 years in prison after being convicted of murder. On Monday, Damien Echols returned to Memphis for the first time since being released from prison in 2011 to speak at a startup conference about how technology, along with the world, had changed while he had been in prison. “I remember my parents always talking about it,” said David Creech, a sophomore English major. “During my sophomore year of high school, I did my own research on it. I became enraged that the ‘West Memphis Three’ were borderline tortured.” Damien Echols spent 17 years on
news@dailyhelmsman.com Ah, the junk email folder — the place where bad messages go to die. This terrible land is rarely visited unless an important email has not made its way through the web to its destination. Occasionally, a little mess slips through the security cracks of cyberspace, only to be greeted by the humble victor of the delete button. Seen as a nuisance, these little devils seem to have no place in the safety of inboxes. Scam emails victimize people daily, but for junior history major Nick Wiggins, receiving a new fake offer only brought back bad memories.
Alternative Spring Break offers “staycation” By Crystal Welch
news@dailyhelmsman.com
teristics of a valid, university-sent email, including logo and contact information. “I don’t feel like my email’s security is in danger,” said Nathan Crumley, U of M alumnus and current nursing master’s student at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. “I don’t click links from senders that I don’t know. Since I only use my U of M email for academic correspondence, it is troubling to receive the ‘spammy’ emails.” Exactly how third-party scammers get email addresses is a mystery. “I don’t know exactly where they come from — that’s creepy,”
Sand, water and lounging about — that’s what many students imagine when thinking of their spring break activities. Fun, community and volunteering — that’s what students could experience this spring break with the university’s Alternative Spring Break experience. The 2013 Alternative Spring Break will take place the week of March 9-16 during the University’s scheduled spring break. This year, students have two ASB options: a destination trip servicing communities in Atlanta, Ga. or a “staycation” here in Memphis. Sponsored by Students Advocating Service and the Office of Student Leadership and Involvement, ASB is a sixday community service experience offering students the chance to commit the week to service, cultural immersion and personal growth. Volunteers spend the week working with nonprofit agencies and the people they serve while also discovering different parts of the country or city. Service that students perform will match the program’s mission, “Building Tomorrow One Break at a Time.” The service done in Atlanta will primarily focus on poverty, homelessness and various aspects related to the two. Choosing to be a part of the destination trip to Atlanta gives students the opportunity to travel with a purpose beyond the usual scope of spring break partying. ASB also offers free time for students to explore the city outside of the service activities. Volunteers will all stay together in a location allowing for greater fellowship and friendship building. In Memphis, the service will
see sCaM on page 6
see BREaK on page 4
photo By nathanael pacKard | Staff
Monday feb. 11, Damien Echols poses with Jamie Harmon, creator of the amurica Photo Booth, at the startup Conference, hosted by everywhereelse.co after participating in a fireside chat with Commercial appeal business reporter James Dowd. death row, 10 of those being in complete solitary confinement. “It causes you to look at yourself in a way most people never have to,” Echols said. His TV became his “com-
panion.” It served as a “monotonous, constant noise” to drown out the chaos in the prison. After a man told him that he could “choose to have life or go stark-crazy
insane,” he began a routine of physical exercise, educating himself and meditating for five to seven hours a day. “I didn’t have much of an opinion
see WM3 on page 3
Email scams bypassing university filters By Jennifer Rorie
For a preview of tonight’s game, see page 8.
In 2008, shortly after his return to the University of Memphis, Wiggins became a victim of a scam that made its way past the junk email filter and into his university email account. “The email was advertising for a student-only deal on a Nikon eight megapixel camera,” Wiggins said. Since his camera had recently broke, he went to the website to check out the product. After looking into the features, he decided to purchase it without questioning the integrity of the website because he was linked to it through his university email. Most offers similar to the ones Wiggins received are blocked, but some still make their way through to unsuspecting students.
The Daily Helmsman is a “designated public forum.” Students have authority to make all content decisions without censorship or advance approval. The Daily Helmsman is pleased to make a maximum of 10 copies of each issue available to a reader for free. Additional copies are $1. Partial printing and distribution costs are provided by an allocation from the Student Activity Fee.
Common targets for scamming the college market include discounted electronic sales and easy jobs for students. The five most common email scams are imitator websites, urgent offers, “official” notices, lottery win claims and surveys, according to the Washington State Office of the Attorney General. The Web Wise Washington campaign describes the various email scams and what to look for to determine the validity of offers. In mid-January, the Indiana Daily Student reported an email circulating throughout University of Indiana students’ accounts. The message, known as a phishing scam, requests personal information and has all the charac-
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