Politics

Sexiste et beauf : voici Tony Abbott, nouveau premier ministre australien

C’est ce qu’on appelle un tour de magie politique. Ce samedi, Tony Abbott a conduit à la victoire sa coalition conservatrice, et devient premier ministre de l’Australie à l’issue des élections législatives.

S’il n’avait pas eu face à lui des travaillistes divisés, cette victoire n’aurait pas été si simple. Dans le passé, il avait même été surnommé « Monsieur Inéligible » par l’un des cadres du parti libéral.

Et en 2007, un ancien ambassadeur américain l’avait aussi critiqué dans une note publiée par WikiLeaks. Il disait que c’était un « homme marqué très à droite et qui polarise » et qu’il avait une « forte propension à se montrer insensible et à provoquer la controverse ».

Pour dire les choses plus clairement, à lire les sorties d’Abbott, on a parfois simplement l’impression d’avoir à fait à un gros beauf. Retour sur lesdites controverses

via Google Translate:

This is called a tower political magic. Saturday, Tony Abbott led to his conservative coalition victory and became prime minister of Australia’s parliamentary elections.

If he had not had to face him Labor divided, this victory would not have been so simple. In the past, he had even been nicknamed Mr Ineligible by one of the executives of the Liberal party.

And in 2007, a former US ambassador had also criticised in a note published by WikiLeaks. He said it was a marked man very right and biases and had a strong tendency to be insensitive and provoke controversy.

To put it more clearly, read Abbott outputs, sometimes simply seem to have quite a big redneck. Return on such controversies

— via redwolf.newsvine.com

Entertainment

Beans / Cinesite

Written and directed by Animator Alvise Avati and produced by Animation Director Eamonn Butler. Beans, a short film with an unexpected ending, showcases Cinesite‘s creature animation skills — via Youtube

Technology

How Anti-Piracy Trolls Tried and Failed to Ruin Christmas

Copyright trolls do not care about people. Copyright trolls do not care about family life. Copyright trolls do not care if they ruin someone’s reputation. What copyright trolls care about is money, as much money as they can get their greedy hands on. Nevertheless, some people have been standing up to them and today they will enjoy the fruits of their patience, sharing Christmas day with family and spending their money on those who matter.

For the last couple of years TorrentFreak has run semi-regular articles on the efforts of GoldenEye International, an adult movie outfit affiliated with the Ben Dover porn brand and one that realized there’s money to be made from the bullying game.

Just like most other trolls their business model is simple. Send threatening letters to ISP account holders telling them that they have been caught watching some pretty embarrassingly titled movies and inform them that paying a cash settlement is the only way to remedy the situation.

TorrentFreak invited people targeted by the company to contact us and over the past year we’ve had a steady stream of terribly worried individuals email us with requests for information. The more of these emails you read, the more you appreciate the scale of the heartbreak for all of those involved.

At this point we should be clear — some people we spoke with clearly knew more than they were prepared to admit and some probably did download some content without permission. However, many others obviously did not and when you come across these cases you can see that companies like GoldenEye really do not give a damn about who they hurt, and they will brush off collateral damage like it doesn’t exist — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Art

AR Edition / Chris Bathgate

I had talked about expanding my original AR645452222344 prototype into an edition using various metals and finishes, and now here we are with a completed six piece set. Each is an inverse pair using the three main red metals in my Pallet — via Chris Bathgate

Art, Wildlife

My head is an octopus tote bag / Huebucket

Our quality crafted Tote Bags are hand sewn in America using durable, yet lightweight, poly poplin fabric. All seams and stress points are double stitched for durability. They are washable, feature original artwork on both sides and a sturdy 1” wide cotton webbing strap for comfortably carrying over your shoulder — via Society6

History, Technology

Royal pardon for codebreaker Alan Turing

Computer pioneer and codebreaker Alan Turing has been given a posthumous royal pardon.

It overturns his 1952 conviction for homosexuality for which he was punished by being chemically castrated.

The conviction meant he lost his security clearance and had to stop the code-cracking work that proved critical to the Allies in World War II.

The pardon was granted under the Royal Prerogative of Mercy after a request by Justice Minister Chris Grayling — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Craft, Wildlife

Tentacle Gauges / Walking Squid

I get asked a lot about real gauge earrings~ I do make them! If you’re between a 2 and 00 you can order a pair of my custom fake gauges, then specify that you need real gauges and what size you need. I wish I wore real gauges so I understood them better. I see some really amazing polymer clay gauges and want to start applying more intricate designs to my tentacle gauges — via Walking Squid

Rights, Technology

How much did NSA pay to put a backdoor in RSA crypto? Try $10m

The mystery of why RSA would use a flawed, NSA-championed algorithm as the default random number generator for several of its encryption products appears to be solved, and the answer is utterly banal, if true: the NSA paid it to.

Reuters reports that RSA received $10m from the NSA in exchange for making the agency-backed Dual Elliptic Curve Deterministic Random Bit Generator (Dual EC DRBG) its preferred random number algorithm, according to newly disclosed documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

If that figure sounds small, that’s because it is. Tech giant EMC acquired RSA for $2.1bn in 2006 — around the same time as the backroom NSA deal — so it seems odd that RSA would kowtow to the g-men so cheaply.

But according to Reuters, at the time, things weren’t looking so good for the division of RSA that was responsible for its BSafe encryption libraries. In 2005, those tools brought in a mere $27.5m of RSA’s $310m in annual revenue, or just 8.9 per cent.

By accepting $10m from the NSA, as Reuters claims, the BSafe division managed to increase its contribution to RSA’s bottom line by more than a third — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Science

The Power of Empathy / Brené Brown

What is the best way to ease someone’s pain and suffering? In this beautifully animated RSA Short, Dr Brené Brown reminds us that we can only create a genuine empathic connection if we are brave enough to really get in touch with our own fragilities — via Youtube

Business

Ellis rejects REA rumours

Outgoing REA Group chief executive Greg Ellis has dismissed claims his surprise exit from the company may have anything to do with the recent departure of chief financial officer, Jenny Macdonald, according to The Australian.

Speculation of board tensions came after Mr Ellis announced his departure yesterday, just three weeks after Ms Macdonald, but the outgoing boss has labelled it mere coincidence.

It is unfortunate that there are two senior positions that have left the company in quick succession, but they are unrelated to each other, Mr Ellis told The Australian.

It’s a pure coincidence and my decision is opportunity-based — via redwolf.newsvine.com