geekgirl

Julian Assange sues the US military [#geekgirl]

[Image of Bradley Manning and Captor via RT.com]

“Julian Assange and a coalition of activists and journalists filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the military judge overseeing Army Pfc. Bradley Manning’s trial in a bid to open access to the secretive proceedings.

During the trial both access to transcripts and prosecution and defense motions have been virtually inaccessible.

Bradley, who faces a life sentence over the leaking of more than 700,000 sensitive military documents published by Wikileaks, is currently being tried by a military tribunal. The trial is expected to begin on June 3, 2013.

The judge overseeing Manning’s court-martial announced this week that she will close portions of the trial to the public in order to protect classified material. Prosecutors are expected to call 150 witnesses to testify against Manning, while two dozen witnesses may be able to provide their testimony in closed sessions.”

1927 Colour Film Footage of “Ye Olde” London Town [#geekgirl]

Finding Balance : Mura Gadi Exhibition Pozible Campaign [#geekgirl]

An Image To Be Shown in the Upcoming Mura Gadi Exhibition

“Finding Balance: Mura Gadi evokes the geographical region surrounding Canberra, especially Namadgi National Park. ‘Mura Gadi’ translates from the Ngunnawal language as ‘pathways for searching’.

The work explores a connection to place on a personal level, considering the human relationship to the landscape and natural environment with need to be aware of our imprint upon the land and its affect on climate, estuarine and terrestrial environments.

Finding Balance: Mura Gadi is a meditation on experiencing the landscape by walking and inhabitation. It combines a range of media gathered via a hand held device, including photographs, audio, GPS coordinates and video.

In late August I am having an exhibition at the Belconnen Art Centre, titled “Finding balance: Mura Gadi”. I am seeking some financial support to help pay for the exhibition and publication costs associated with the show.”

Stand up to Save Your Say [#geekgirl]

Stop Campbell Newman

“The LNP government wants to close down free speech in Queensland. Extreme new laws will make it practically impossible for workers to speak out on important workplace and community issues. Stand up to Save Your Say and defend democracy in Queensland…This television advertisement may hold the key to saving your say. Your donation – small or large – can help put this ad on air so everybody knows what’s at risk from these extreme new laws threatening free speech.”

3D Printing Geometric #Sculptures Using Sugar [#geekgirl]

[Image Via 3ders.org]

“Now the process of 3D printing sugar has been perfected and Kyle and Liz have started their micro-design firm Sugar Lab for custom 3D printed sugar. With their background in architecture and their love for complex geometry, they took advantage of 3D printing to bring custom sugar to the genre of mega-cool cakes. “3D printing represents a paradigm shift for confections, transforming sugar into a dimensional, structural medium.” said Sugar Lab.”

“Change This Train’s Direction With Your Mind” [#BrainFrack] [#geekgirl]

[Via CubicleBot]

#ShockHorror! Women Scientists Who Have Been Screwed by The #Phallocentric System [#geekgirl]

Rosalind Franklin

“In April, National Geographic News published a story about the letter in which scientist Francis Crick described DNA to his 12-year-old son. In 1962, Crick was awarded a Nobel Prize for discovering the structure of DNA, along with fellow scientists James Watson and Maurice Wilkins.

Several people posted comments about our story that noted one name was missing from the Nobel roster: Rosalind Franklin, a British biophysicist who also studied DNA. Her data were critical to Crick and Watson’s work, but as several commenters noted, Franklin was robbed of recognition. (See her section below for details.)

She was not the first woman to have endured indignities in the male-dominated world of science, but Franklin’s case is especially egregious, said Ruth Lewin Sime, a retired chemistry professor at Sacramento City College who has written on women in science.” – From 6 Women Scientists Who Were Snubbed Due to Sexism

Daft Train [Soul Train Meets Daft Punk's "Get Lucky"] [#geekgirl]

[Can it conceivably get any better than this? I think not...]

#Abbott Schmabbott: Playing Politics with #Sick #Children [#geekgirl]

It’s not often I take to my high horse and let loose with political-based criticism here on Geekgirl [at least not directly]. I’ll make an exception for the case outlined below, as it illustrates the exact duplicitous nature of the Liberal Party  – one part of Australia’s aggressively-regressive Federal Opposition Coalition Party – which is headed up by the hypocritical master of back-peddling and slimy media manipulator, Tony Abbott.

As ABC News Australia reports:

“The Federal Opposition has agreed to grant a Labor MP leave to return to Sydney to look after her sick child, after initially turning down the request.

Michelle Rowland says she asked the Opposition for a pair on Tuesday and was knocked back yesterday with no reason given.

“Quite frankly I think we’ve become a bit mean,” she said.

“When people are ill or they have legitimate reasons for why they need to take leave I would have hoped that a bit of common sense would have prevailed.

“I’m a regular contributor to Parliament. I’m not a slacker. I simply wanted to leave at the suspension.”

This morning Coalition frontbencher Christopher Pyne said the request for a pair simply said Ms Rowland has a sick family member.

But the ABC has a copy of a letter which shows the Coalition whip knew she had a sick child.

Mr Pyne insists the Opposition did not have enough information.”

What makes me gag about this particular incident is the u-turn by the Opposition [Liberal Party] only *after* the media had taken the story and run with it [nothing new about this in terms of the general political sphere, but it does highlight the see-through flimsiness  of such a backflip]. If the story had languished behind the Federal Budget media frenzy that the Liberal Party has been frantically churning instead of anything akin to an actual workable policy agenda, then it’s possible no further action would have been taken and Ms Rowland would have been forced to sit through Abbott’s election-year-faux-sweetner-laden Budget Reply Speech, rather than looking after her unwell daughter.

As the Daily Telegraph further reports:

[Ms Rowland says] “The only item of business I would have missed on Thursday night was Tony Abbott’s Budget reply speech.

“It’s disappointing that the so-called party of family values wouldn’t grant this very reasonable request for a mother to be with her baby.”

The Daily Telegraph has obtained the letter Mr Entsch sent to the government chief whip Chris Hayes, giving no reason for not granting the pair.

Last night the Opposition was accused of lying about one of its own MPs. Alex Somlyay – reportedly absent from Parliament due to an illness – was seen in the parliamentary corridors before a vote.”

[The above-mentioned letter - click the link to see what the Daily Telegraph says is an image of the original - clearly states that the Opposition was aware that the "pair", or leave of absence, was requested to look after her sick child despite Christopher Pine, the Liberal Party's "chief strategist", stating otherwise.]

Tony Abbott and Christopher “Spineless” Pine: you may think you have the Australian Public fooled, but beware: come the 2013 Federal Election in September, working mothers will *actually* be able to vote against you and your sham rhetoric.

“#Skype with care – #Microsoft is reading everything you write” [#geekgirl]

Bad Skype!

The H Security reports that:

“A spokesman for the company confirmed that it scans messages to filter out spam and phishing websites. This explanation does not appear to fit the facts, however. Spam and phishing sites are not usually found on HTTPS pages. By contrast, Skype leaves the more commonly affected HTTP URLs, containing no information on ownership, untouched. Skype also sends head requests which merely fetches administrative information relating to the server. To check a site for spam or phishing, Skype would need to examine its content.

Back in January, civil rights groups sent an open letter to Microsoft questioning the security of Skype communication since the takeover. The groups behind the letter, which included the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Reporters without Borders expressed concern that the restructuring resulting from the takeover meant that Skype would have to comply with US laws on eavesdropping and would therefore have to permit government agencies and secret services to access Skype communications.

In summary, The H and heise Security believe that, having consented to Microsoft using all data transmitted over the service pretty much however it likes, all Skype users should assume that this will actually happen and that the company is not going to reveal what exactly it gets up to with this data.”