Here’s an interesting new twist to the Wiki Leaks saga…

A letter is circulating the Web addressed to the Prime Minister of Australia. It asserts the Austrailian government should step in and protect its citizen, Wikileaks head, Julian Assange.

We ask you… Would you sign this letter?

Take the poll below (You must be viewing this post at USDemocrazy.com to vote)

Here’s the letter:

Dear Prime Minister,
We note with concern the increasingly violent rhetoric directed towards Julian Assange of WikiLeaks.
“We should treat Mr Assange the same way as other high-value terrorist targets: Kill him,” writes conservative columnist Jeffrey T Kuhner in the Washington Times.

William Kristol, former chief of staff to vice president Dan Quayle, asks, “Why can’t we use our various assets to harass, snatch or neutralize Julian Assange and his collaborators, wherever they are?”

“Why isn’t Julian Assange dead?” writes the prominent US pundit Jonah Goldberg.

“The CIA should have already killed Julian Assange,” says John Hawkins on the Right Wing News site.

Sarah Palin, a likely presidential candidate, compares Assange to an Al Qaeda leader; Rick Santorum, former Pennsylvania senator and potential presidential contender, accuses Assange of “terrorism”.

And so on and so forth.

Such calls cannot be dismissed as bluster. Over the last decade, we have seen the normalisation of extrajudicial measures once unthinkable, from ‘extraordinary rendition’ (kidnapping) to ‘enhanced interrogation’ (torture).

In that context, we now have grave concerns for Mr Assange’s wellbeing.

Irrespective of the political controversies surrounding WikiLeaks, Mr Assange remains entitled to conduct his affairs in safety, and to receive procedural fairness in any legal proceedings against him.

As is well known, Mr Assange is an Australian citizen.

We therefore call upon you to condemn, on behalf of the Australian Government, calls for physical harm to be inflicted upon Mr Assange, and to state publicly that you will ensure Mr Assange receives the rights and protections to which he is entitled, irrespective of whether the unlawful threats against him come from individuals or states.

We urge you to confirm publicly Australia’s commitment to freedom of political communication; to refrain from cancelling Mr Assange’s passport, in the absence of clear proof that such a step is warranted; to provide assistance and advocacy to Mr Assange; and do everything in your power to ensure that any legal proceedings taken against him comply fully with the principles of law and procedural fairness.

A statement by you to this effect should not be controversial – it is a simple commitment to democratic principles and the rule of law.

We believe this case represents something of a watershed, with implications that extend beyond Mr Assange and WikiLeaks. In many parts of the globe, death threats routinely silence those who would publish or disseminate controversial material. If these incitements to violence against Mr Assange, a recipient of Amnesty International’s Media Award, are allowed to stand, a disturbing new precedent will have been established in the English-speaking world.

In this crucial time, a strong statement by you and your Government can make an important difference.

We look forward to your response.

Dr Jeff Sparrow, author and editor
Lizzie O’Shea, Social Justice Lawyer, Maurice Blackburn
Professor Noam Chomsky, writer and academic
Antony Loewenstein, journalist and author

There are about two hundred more signatures to the letter. You can view the letter in full here.

So our question is this: Would you have signed this letter? Let us know why or why not in the comments.

President Obama has experience a slow but steady decline in his polling numbers since the day he was sworn into office. This is to be expected, it’s kind of like those “you start dying the day your born” sort of thing.

Our friends at Gallup say never fear, this is natural in a presidency. In a new study the Obama’s numbers look strikingly similar to the trends of two other presidents; Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

The study examined polling data for every president since Eisenhower and tracked trends in their first 20 months in office.

Thanks to TPM

Thanks to TPM

All three presidents started off strong but suffered declining poll numbers culminating in big mid-term losses. Obviously President Obama is his own man, but despite a rough two years it history shows us this is only the beginning.

Not that the Presidency is just like high-school, but we would say Obama is coming out of his freshman year. Who was cool in their freshmen year? In this analogy sluggish economy = braces face.

With a new GOP majority in the House, Obama is definitely entering a new phase of his presidency. Where it will go from here is very difficult to predict.

If you are good at solving hard problems and like to program here is something you might do over your winter break: compete in Facebook’s first annual Hackers Cup.

The Hacker Cup will start in Janaury and aims to “bring engineers from around the world together to compete in a multi-round programming competition.” Contestants will work to solve algorithmic-based problem statements to advance and be ranked based on their accuracy and speed in solving them. Winners will get cash prizes and those who do well will probably get invitations to interview for jobs or internships.

Registration begins on Monday December 20 and the first three online rounds will be held in January (7-10, 15-16, and 22). The top 25 contestants after the third round will be flown out to the Facebook campus in Palo Alto for the final competition, which will take place on March 11.

For practice, Facebook suggests you work on some of the problems from their Puzzle Master Page. See http://www.facebook.com/hackercup for more information.

Ari Epstein, a senior at the University of Chicago, is featured in this installment of the AASHE Bulletin Sustainability Student Diary series for his efforts to make the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity function on a greener level. As co-house manager of the fraternity, Ari writes about working with the university’s Office of Sustainability to reform in-house and party practices. AASHE welcomes questions and invites feedback on each Sustainability Student Diary entry. Submit diary entries of your own for consideration to bulletin@aashe.org.

Before I became a SAGE Ambassador*at the end of spring quarter last year, I contacted the Office of Sustainability on behalf of the Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) fraternity. Because of my interest in reforming in-house and party practices to be more environmentally conscious, the fraternity elected me to institute pro-sustainability changes as co-house manager of our South Campus house.

Members of the Office of Sustainability made my task very easy by providing advice on gradually implementing reforms in a large social organization like a fraternity, and gave me information on electronic, print, and city resources. Despite the lack of higher quality of photos in this series, I am pleased to share AEPi's successful sustainability reforms with the university community in order to generate interest among other large social registered student organizations to help reduce our carbon footprint and overall environmental impact, and to streamline existing sustainability measures like recycling.

Beginning shortly after my SAGE training, I introduced small changes to the fraternity by increasing in-house recycling, promoting awareness of electricity and water usage and starting an aerobic composting bin made out of a converted 45-gallon plastic trash can lined with wire mesh.

I now use old deli or produce bags to store fresh food scraps in the refrigerator until I bring down my weekly collection of waste and recyclables. Because I have a continuing ant problem and am cautious to develop a gnat problem, this system seems to work well. 

AEPi Sustainable Practices for Social Gatherings
Once the school year began and more fraternity brothers returned to campus, I shifted my focus to fraternity-wide events like socials, parties, and the like. I often saw tons of aluminum cans and paper cartons lining the floors of rooms in which the fraternity hosted social activities, so I designated an old trash bin to be used only for recycling. I taped one of the SAGE recycling tip sheets to one side of the bin, while the other side has taped-on letters spelling "RECYCLING!"

I also tried to avoid the unpleasant task of resorting recyclables and non-recyclables during party clean-up shifts by placing recycling containers only where they are in highest demand. In order to avoid a space problem, I tried not to place recycling and garbage bins in the same rooms. Therefore, I placed recycling bins in the rooms where refreshments are served in recyclable containers, while I placed only garbage bins in the areas only serving refreshments in disposable cups.

Not only do AEPi members spend less time sorting during clean-up shifts, party patrons generally sorted items without issue in the rooms where I provided garbage and recycling bins without compromising space. Even more, other AEPi members donated old towels to use as mops and cleaning rags instead of paper towels. Since we started using the towels during Orientation Week at the end of September, we have yet to use more than one roll of paper towels during four different cleaning shifts that covered nearly 4,000 square feet of space.

AEPi is committed to being a model for how other campus organizations can become more sustainable. Contact Ari at aepstein11@uchicago.edu to learn more about these efforts.

*From the University of Chicago Office of Sustainability's Katie Anson about the SAGE Program:

The University of Chicago is creating a culture of sustainability on campus through SAGE (Sustainable Actions for a Greener Environment) Trainings. In less than a year, over 100 students, staff and faculty have become SAGE Ambassadors. Armed with sustainability-related information, ambassadors are able to correct common sustainability misconceptions on campus, connect their peers to resources and act as environmental advocates on behalf of the Office of Sustainability. These 90-minute trainings provide a general overview of the university’s sustainability efforts and highlight actions that individuals can take in order to be a little greener in areas like energy and water conservation, alternative transportation, procurement, and sustainable food.

After these trainings, SAGE Ambassadors are charged with raising awareness, spurring dialogue and inspiring action in their dorms, offices and departments. SAGE Ambassadors have implemented numerous changes on campus, including greening the AEPi fraternity.

iOS comes standard with accessibility features that help people with disabilities experience all that iPhone, iPad and iPod touch have to offer including VoiceOver, the world's first gesture-based screen reader. Users can simply touch the screen to hear a description of the item under their finger, then double-tap, drag, or flick to control their device.

All of the built-in views and controls can support VoiceOver automatically, and it's simple to incorporate VoiceOver compatibility in custom views using the accessibilityLabel property. Get all the details on how to add accessibility to your app by reading the Accessibility Programming Guide for iOS. For more details on how VoiceOver works, and other iOS accessibility features, visit the Accessibility webpage.