±«Óãtv

[updated] (±«Óãtv News, Friday 31 July)

Gary McKinnon is the 43 year old man waiting to find out if he is to be extradited to the US on charges of hacking into military computers in the USA. On Friday, the next chapter in the story will open, or close, as we find out the results of a judicial review into his extradition to the US to face trial.

Mr McKinnon admits hacking into 97 US government computers, including those of Nasa and the Pentagon, during 2001 and 2002.

The judicial review focuses on whether Mr McKinnon should have been allowed to face trial in the UK and whether the decision to extradite him should have been reconsidered in light of a diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome last year.

If found guilty, McKinnon could be facing a 70 year prison sentence.

It is said that his autism spectrum disorder will lead to him suffering acutely if removed from his own country, friends and family. Further, McKinnon and his supporters say he is not a malicious cyber criminal and that his hacking is a symptom of his neuro untypical behaviour and obsessions. One US prosecutor accused him of committing "the biggest military computer hack of all time" and it is felt that the US government is likely to be hard on him in order to deter others.

Mr McKinnon recently told ±«Óãtv 5 Live's Victoria Derbyshire that he was on a "moral crusade" to prove US intelligence had found an alien craft run on clean fuel.

A user called Knellerman posted the folllowing on Victoria's blog during the show:

How Asperger's works.

My son has it. One day at end of school he pulled out a fence post and ran across the field. The head saw this and called it vandalism.

I asked him what he thought he was doing. He said he had spotted some dog poo and wanted to move it so younger children would not fall into it.

The head's heart melted. Welcome to Asperger's: Right motive, wrong action.

Gary was looking for UFOs, not hacking into military secrets. My son's behaviour was impulsive but that impulsive behavior can become obbsessive, as in Gary's case. What do I know? I was diagnosed with AS at the age of 50.

. He talks to the ±«Óãtv's Spencer Kelly about and antigravity and other technologies that are being hidden from us and which he was hoping to uncover. Also discussed is the lack of security in the US department of defence and details of his hacking exploits across two years.

.

Earlier this month, Ouch! upped sticks and headed to Hampshire. We were taking part in Beyond Boundaries Live, an annual event which highlights sports and leisure options suitable for people with various disabilities.

For the duration of BBLive, Ouch! ran a stand, giving out sweets, memory sticks and slightly darkly humoured postcards to an unsuspecting public. This was really fantastic, because instead of being stuck at our desks in west London, we got to sit in a big tent, known to the organisers as the second hall, chatting to random disableds. We waxed lyrical about the website we love all day and they told us what they were interested in and what they would like to see on Ouch. Hopefully we all came away with something good.

As well as the formal stand area, Rob Crossan and Liz Carr presented a live version of the Ouch! Talk Show at lunchtime each day. An interactive quiz show complete with bad puns, silly games and lots of audience participation, this went down a treat. On day one, the amazing blind pianist Derek Paravacini took the stage to help Rob and Liz out, playing endless game show theme tunes and even a couple of Michael Jackson numbers. On day two, Heavy Load, the punk band with and without learning difficulties, did the honours. They shook the tent we were housed in to its very core and put everyone in top form for the rest of the afternoon.

Here are some of the best bits from the weekend in the form of a slideshow. Unfortunately Heavy Load don't feature, but we hope to have some video to put up shortly. It is definitely worth waiting for.

Your next opportunity to meet the Ouch! team and to experience the wonder that is the live talk show will be at Liberty Festival, a one day disability arts event taking place on the fifth of September in Trafalgar Square. We look forward to seeing you there.

It's Wednesday - middle of the week, not a trough, it's a peak. But today also sees the middle day at the - the blindie tech exhibition in Birmingham. The website more properly refers to it as: "... the premier European event showcasing technology, support and services for people who are blind or visually impaired". It's at a new venue this year, The New Bingley Hall, Hockley.

Blind people love their tech. Maybe it's cos the Ouch team sports two blind members of staff, we don't know, but we reckon blindies get all the best gizmos. I mean, grab sticks? Hoists? We know they're important but you wouldn't get them out and show them off in the office, would you. Not like, say, a talking colour detector that tells you if your clothes are blue, red or dark olive? Woah I'm salivating just thinking about it. Don't go feeling bad if you're not blind, though.

Anyway, cutting to the chase now. We dispatched gizmo crazy Emma Tracey to the event today so visit Ouch's home page in the next couple of days to see what grabbed her attention most of all.

Personally speaking, I'm quite happy with my talking basket weaver kit.

If you went to the event, tell us about what you saw in the comments space below. Or maybe you have a fave gizmo you're dying to tell us about.

Are you 'in the fashion' as my mum used to say? Care about how you look? And why shouldn't you, bless your heart.

Louisa Summerfield from WheelieChix-Chic - an online clothes retailer for 'wheelechair women' joins Mat and Liz on this month's Ouch Talk Show to discuss your clothing highs and woes. They're joined also by Human Hi colimnist Claire Jennings, a blind journalist with lots to say about image.

Click here to listen to the Ouch Talk Show #41

Our 'Clothes Clinic', as we're calling it, starts about 10 minutes into the show and features several disabled people who came forward with a wide range of really interesting questions for our panel. There's more to this disability clothes thing than meets the eye.

Were the panel able to send our callers home happy? Tune in and find out.

And if you know nothing about clothes, clevages seemd to get an awful lot of mentions. Accentuate the positives, ladies. Apparently. But be careful you're fastened up properly, won't ya.

Plenty of other stuff on the show besides, including: disabled pigeons, our Vegetable Vegetable or Vegetable quiz and the usual unsigned disabled artist.

You can podcast the show or listen to it on the web by clicking our play button.

and if you want to hear or read more about clothes on Ouch, drop us a line: ouch@bbc.co.uk.

Just a quick message to say hi to everyone who turned up at the ±«Óãtv Ouch! stand at Beyond Boundaries Live in Farnborough at the weekend.

If you weren't there, you missed out on a live quiz version of our Talk Show presented by Liz Carr and Rob Crossan.

On stage with us was musical genius - playing keyboards for us on Saturday. And the legendary not-so-musical punk geniuses of on Sunday. If you weren't there, you missed something pretty special!