peace

WikiLeaks, Net nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

WikiLeaks and the Internet are among the 241 nominees for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize.

The Nobel nomination comes as Julian Assange, the spokesman for the secret-sharing site, is facing possible extradition to Sweden on sex-related charges, and a criminal probe on likely espionage charges is underway in the Washington, D.C., area.

Nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize may come from any professor of "social sciences, history, philosophy, law and theology," in addition to national governments and former Nobel Peace Prize recipients, under the rules of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

Previous Nobel Peace Prize winners have included … Read more

The 404 744: Where we make our own leaked photos (podcast)

Remember the dream of the Concorde? It was that supersonic passenger jet that would ferry passengers from New York to London in less than 3 hours, but supersonic travel never took off because of the loud sonic booms that the planes would generate as they broke the sound barrier.

NASA is working on new technology that would dampen or eliminate those booms, and the space agency is hoping that this will usher in a new era of supersonic travel.

Early experiments add a 24-foot-long spike to the plane mounted on the nose of the aircraft that creates three smaller shockwaves to greatly reduce the noise as the aircraft hits Mach 1. It could mean shorter travel time for consumers, but Jeff is more excited to wean himself off the sleeping pills he takes every time he boards an aircraft.

In less exciting historical innovations, New Yorker Till Krautkraemer is touting a beverage that offers a new way to supplement your protein intake: drink it! MeatWater is intended as a meal supplement with flavors like Peking Duck, Beef Stroganof, and Fish'n Chips; but the liquid contains zero animal byproducts, so vegans and vegetarians are encouraged to consume it for their daily dose of protein.

This is not a joke. According to the Web site, MeatWater has 22 amino acids that aid in performance recovery and decrease body fat when ingested with liquids, and it's recommended that you drink MeatWater warm, as the flavors and aromas are heightened this way.

And while we're solving first-world problems with technology, check out this double USB concept that hopes to save precious microseconds and the frustration you experience from "plug rejection."

Finally, Intel is following in the footsteps of Polaroid and Lady Gaga by introducing its own celebrity employee: Black Eyed Peas' Will.i.am has been appointed director of creative innovation, a role that places him as an ambassador to the company and collaborator in "new technologies, music and tech advocacy."

There's not much to say about this should-be joke, so we're just waiting to hear the BEP single that samples the Intel Inside chime. Wait, he's already doing that.

Episode 744 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Subscribe in iTunes video | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

PSP: I'm not dead yet

It was hard not to be reminded of Monty Python's famous sketch when Sony took the stage Tuesday during its E3 press conference, assuring the public that the PSP platform was still alive, kicking, and very much a viable platform. The company is right, to a degree: millions still play PSP games and own systems, and the platform is far from a failure. On the other hand, the PSP has still never materialized into the superior do-everything portable Sony once dreamed of it becoming.

Though at last year's E3 Sony focused on the expensive and disc-free PSP Go … Read more

Facebook: Give peace a poke

Facebook's executives have been saying for a long time that they believe they've built something that can make the world a better place. And now they've launched a hub for that, called "Peace on Facebook."

"Facebook is proud to play a part in promoting peace by building technology that helps people better understand each other," the site explains. "By enabling people from diverse backgrounds to easily connect and share their ideas, we can decrease world conflict in the short and long term."

It appears to be part of something launching from … Read more

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for PSP

Announced at E3 2009 and coming in 2010, the Hideo Kojima-written and produced Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is a true sequel in the main Metal Gear Solid series, and looks like the portable Metal Gear experience fans have been looking for. Set in Latin America in the 1970s, it takes place years after events in Metal Gear Solid 3.

Check out the gallery of screenshots below.

PSP game lineup announced: Gran Turismo, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, and more

Gran Turismo, launching October 1 with the PSP Go, was the headlining PSP game during Tuesday's E3 Sony press conference. It wasn't the only ammo Sony had. However, it seems like the biggest in terms of holiday 2009 impact. Polyphony Digital announced a "full game" with 800 cars, 35 tracks, 60 track layouts, and four-player play over local ad-hoc along with car trading, almost like Pokemon.

The other big announcment, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, was called a "true sequel" to the Metal Gear Solid series by Hideo Kojima, who appeared onstage to show … Read more

Puerto Rico sites redirected in DNS attack

An attack on the main domain name system registrar in Puerto Rico led to the local Web sites of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Coca-Cola, and other big companies being redirected for a few hours on Sunday to sites that were defaced, according to security firm Imperva.

Those sites and others including PayPal, Nike, Dell, and Nokia, were redirected to sites that were black except for messages in hacker lingo saying that the sites had been hacked. However, the sites themselves were not hacked, Amichai Shulman, chief technology officer at Imperva, said on Monday.

A group calling itself the "Peace Crew&… Read more

Blues while you browse

Not only does this free toolbar come jam-packed with all things blues-related, but it also manages to thrown in standard features to enhance your browsing experience.

Blues for Peace Toolbar adds a slim toolbar to your browser window. All the standards are there--e-mail notification, pop-up blocker, weather forecast--and they all worked very well. The toolbar can be customized to remove buttons and to include shortcuts to your favorite applications. While this is all pretty standard toolbar fare, the blues musician in you will appreciate the stellar radio feature. It comes loaded with blues stations that play without a hitch. There … Read more

Give peace a chance

We've all been asked what we would do if we could change one thing about the planet. In my experience, answers to this question have ranged from simple requests, like making the grocery store down the street stay open 24 hours, to impossible, but virtuous, desires like undoing the invention of nuclear warheads. When I was growing up, my answer was always that I would eliminate war. Naturally, though, as I got older and more experienced in the ways of this life, I realized a world without war is next to impossible.

For as long as we've lived … Read more