Julian Assange has been on the cover of every newspaper in the country recently. Who is he? Why is he the topic of every conversation on every news channel in the country? Let me attempt to explain…

When a guy refers to himself as “87 percent slut,” you know you can expect trouble from him.

There’s no doubt that Julian Assange is brilliant.  A thirty nine-years-old, Assange is not only the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks (a site that leaks private government documents), but also a journalist, computer programmer, and passionate advocate of freedom of the press. Assange has done everything from oversee Wikileaks to being honored by Amnesty International.  He was even this year’s runner-up for Time’s Person Of The Year award.

But if recent news is any indication, Assange is no angel.   For starters, his website’s legitimacy rests in a gray area.  Though technically protected by the First Amendment, Wikileaks divulges confidential information – something that could be considered espionage.  Assange and the Wikileaks team navigate technicalities by altering the flow of information; that is to say, instead of leaking information directly to the press, it is leaked to Wikileaks, which in turn is covered by the press.

Assange’s reputation precedes him.  He’s received at least as much – if not more – criticism as he has acclaim, mostly for his tendency to leak private information.  More recently, Assange was arrested for an even more reprehensible crime – and based on all the drama surrounding Wikileaks, it’s not what we would expect from him.  Julian Assange has recently been charged with rape and molestation. Read More »

WikiLeaks.

I asked one of my roommates what she thought of the controversial website this morning and she responded, “Wait, what’s WikiLeaks?” The site has become huge in the past few months, if not days. Yet, it has slipped past the radar of many educated college students. Even the majority of those that are aware of its existence seem to get confused when the specifics of the site are discussed. But, seeing the impact this site is having on the world, it is definitely something everyone should know about.

Below is a brief guide to WikiLeaks, jam-packed with helpful links to help you understand the goings on of the Internet’s most controversial site (so be sure to click away). Read More »

According to several tech sites, Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin reportedly had her Yahoo email acount hacked into earlier today, with screencaps leaked onto Wikileaks by a “hacking group” known as Anonymous.

From itWorld.com: “Governor Palin has come under criticism for using private email accounts to conduct government business and in the process avoid transparency laws,” Wikileaks wrote in a note accompanying the material. “The list of correspondence, together with the account name, appears to re-enforce the criticism.”"

This post from Gawker has a ton of screencaps of the supposed emails, as well as a few family pictures and a ton of email addresses — should you weirdly wish to punk any of Palin’s pals.

Thank God nobody cares enough to hack my email…there’d be a whole lot more than some possibly incriminating business correspondences in my gmail trash, and I’d really like to keep that trial subscription to Playgirl (RIP!) a secret.