• Symantec’s Eric Chien on his latest findings
• More on the latest research into Stuxnet
• F-Secure FAQ on Stuxnet
• Reality check by security expert Bruce Schneier
• Iran denies Stuxnet disrupted its nuclear programme (BBC)

Also in this episode, you’ll get a fascinating and in-depth interview with one of the web’s most well-known and well-respected denizens…Joi Ito. It’s a fascinating look (listen, really) at where we’ve been online, and where we might be headed.

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Here’s a question for you: do you think the Internet should win the Nobel Peace Prize? Well, tomorrow you will find out if those prize-giving folks in Sweden Norway think so. That’s right, the Internet has been nominated for the Peace Prize (Don’t tell the trolls and other haterz out there know about this…). The effort is being backed by a group called The Internet for Peace, who say they’ve realized that “the Internet is much more than a network of computers. It is an endless web of people.” This is true. But I guess we should also point out that currently only 1/6 of the world’s population is connected to that web. That said, the BBC’s Jonathan Fildes and I will tackle this as part of our monthly round-up of top global tech stories.

The rest of the podcast is taken up with three very interesting stories that deal with Iran. First, the Stuxnet computer worm, which has suddenly exploded onto the scene. You can start with Jonathan’s story for the BBC, and a good FAQ on Stuxnet from anti-virus firm F-Secure. To go a bit deeper, try Symantec’s Stuxnet blog.

Next, we’ll talk about a piece of software called Haystack, which was heralded by its makers, the press (including this podcast) and the U.S. State Department as a way for Iranians to see and say what they wanted on the web, without the authorities being able to identify them. Turns out that maybe Haystack wasn’t so safe after all. We’ll talk about what other tools might be available, and about the difficulties of creating this kind of software in the first place.

And our third story is more on the 19.5 year prison sentence handed down by the Iranian authorities to Canadian-Iranian blogger Hossein Derakhshan. For thorough and ongoing coverage, I suggest you go over to my friend Cyrus Farivar’s blog.

Remember, you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Well, after all that, what do you think? Do the Interwebs deserve a Nobel Prize? Here’s the elevator pitch:

At right is Hossein Derakhshan, also known by his online name, Hoder. According to sources inside Iran, Hoder might very well be facing the death penalty. He was arrested in Tehran back in November of 2008. The charges, according to Iranian radio, were “cooperation with enemy states, propaganda against the Islamic regime, promoting anti-Revolutionary groups, insulting sanctities, launching and managing vulgar and obscene sites.”

Hoder’s trial finished over the summer. We’ve gotten reports this week that the prosecutor has asked for the death penalty. Here at WTP, we’ve followed Hoder’s story from just about the beginning. He’s widely credited with being the person who created that tools that make it possible to blog in the Persian language. When I first talked to him, he was living in Canada and was convinced that blogging could help undermine the Iranian regime. He became a Canadian citizen. At some point, though, the tone of his writing changed, and he actually became a supporter of Iran. Then, he decided to return to the country. Curt Hopkins at Read Write Web has a good write-up on Hoder’s back-story. Learn more in this week’s podcast.

Also in this episode, we have an update on Google’s woes with Street View in Germany, and we’ll also hear about some whales that are getting high-tech help in the Mediterranean.

We’ll also talk about a Belgian start-up called United Pepper that’s trying to create a line of greener, fairer electronics products, things like webcams made from recycled materials, and put together in Vietnamese factories that reportedly adhere to fair trade guidelines. In the course of the discussion, we hear from Traidcraft, a group that evaluates supply chains based on fair trade principles. We’ll also talk to Greenpeace, who regularly creates a Guide to Greener Electronics.

We’ll also move the discussion of “green electronics” over to the United States, and have a chat with Sarah O’Brien, of the Green Electronics Council. Sarah’s answering your questions over in our World Science Forum for the next couple of weeks, so be sure to stop by and leave your questions or comments!

Remember, you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
(Photo: Hessam M. Armandehi)

We’d like to know where else, in the universe of technology podcasts, you can find an episode that includes Swedish high-tech skiing treadmills, a soccer ball that stores enough energy during play to power an LED light (pictured), a reporter who “embeds” with some tekkies who want to keep information flowing into and out of Iran, and a WTP listener who is running…wait for it…a global project designed to crowdsource design ideas for rebuilding Haiti. I mean, seriously. We’ve got all of this in this episode of The World’s Technology Podcast. Before I give you the links for the episode, let me just take a minute and ask you to spread the word about the podcast. Tell your friends, or enemies. Tweet us, share us on Facebook, and/or blog about us. We need you to help the podcast grow, to help us reach new audiences. We know we’re an acquired taste — tell your friends to nibble a little bit. Who knows? They might even get hooked on us.

Anyway. Here are some relevant links from episode 277:

• Blog: Sweden’s skiers see high-tech training advantage
• Video: Swedish high-tech skiing treadmill
• Pictures: Using RTK GNSS to measure the cross-country course in Whistler
• sOccket homepage
• Jim Witkin’s NYT blog post on the sOccket
• More on Austin Heap
• Mark Dytham, Astrid Klein and Pecha Kucha for Haiti

OK, so here’s also a link to the new Talking Travel podcast with Lonely Planet that I mentioned at the top of the show.

We’re on Twitter and Facebook. You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or RSS.

This week: We explore what different countries are doing to reduce the shortage of organs for transplantation. You’ll hear a story about a new Israeli law that’s trying to encourage people to donate their organs. You’ll also hear an interview with a transplant surgeon from Kuwait about the Iranian system of paying living kidney donors. You can ask him your own questions in this week’s Science Forum. And our weekly guest Elsa joins me on the phone with her favorite stories.

Israel’s New Law: There’s a worldwide shortage of organs for transplantation.To tackle that shortage, many countries are experimenting with new strategies. Israel just enacted a new law to try and increase the country’s extremely low rates of organ donation. When its time to receive an organ, a donor gets preference over a non-donor. The law also offers financial incentives to the families of deceased organ donors.
Report by: The World’s Aaron Schachter.
Photo credit for image above: http://www.flickr.com/photos/un_owen/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Should Buying and Selling of Organs be Legalized? Iran has already legalized the buying of kidneys from living donors. Some say the system is unethical and coercive, while others say its a system worth copying perhaps even in the U.S. We speak with Dr. Mustafa Al-Mousawi, the former president of the Middle East Society for Organ Transplantation about how the system’s faring. Dr. Al-Mousawi is also the guest on this week’s Science Forum. So,  you can ask him your own questions. See link below.
Guest: Dr. Mustafa Al-Mousawi.
Join the discussion with Dr. Al-Mousawi on The World Science Forum.

Elsa’s Favorite Science Stories:

• Really Long Eclipse: You may or may not have missed the solar eclipse on January 15. But we tell you why it was so long. It lasted up to 11 minutes and 8 seconds, and was the longest annular eclipse of the millennium.
  See photos of the eclipse from the BBC, National Geographic, and The Guardian.
  Astronomer Jay Pasachoff posted three blog entries and a podcast about the eclipse.
  More eclipse resources from NASA.
• Charcoal for Climate Change? Biochar—a form of charcoal–was a popular fertilizer in the Pre-Columbian Amazon. It has resurfaced in recent years, not only because of its soil-enriching powers, but also because of its potential benefits on climate. You see, making charcoal out of dead plants takes carbon out of circulation—instead of releasing it back into the atmosphere as CO2. But a new study warns that not all biochar is equal: Profitability and climate benefit both depend on what kind of plants are used to make the charcoal.
  The study.
  More about biochar from Nature.
• Single-Celled Engineers: Slime molds connect the dots just as well as engineers do—but without a brain. Japanese researchers studying the molds’ networking process have come up with a mathematical model that described the organism’s decision making process. The formula could help engineers create self-organizing communication networks.
  The study.
  Read a Smithsonian article about the natural history of slime molds.

  Image: Slime mold (Physarum polycephalum) connects oat flakes overlaid on a map of Tokyo (left). Slime mold networks (top right) often resembled the layout of the real Tokyo rail system (bottom right). Courtesy of Science/AAAS.

Music in Science: Sorry guys! This segment will return next week.

In the United States alone, more than 100,000 people are waiting for new hearts, lungs and kidneys. Many of these patients will die waiting.

Frustrated, some patients turn to a global black market in organs.

To tackle the organ shortage, countries are experimenting with various strategies.

Israel just enacted a new law to boost the number of donors.  The law favors donors over non-donors when it comes to receiving an organ. And some Americans are pushing a controversial solution – legalizing the buying and selling of organs.

Iran is already doing that. The Iranian government gives every kidney donor $1200 and one year of free health care. This system has increased the availability of organs, but at what price?

[player] Download MP3
Listen to a story about Israel’s new law and the interview and our interview with Dr. Al-Mousawi. He’s a transplant surgeon and past president of the Middle East Society for Organ Transplantation. He is also the guest in this Science Forum discussion.

He argues that the Iranian system may have reduced the organ shortage, but it is unfair to the donors, who are often poor and underprivileged.

Now it’s your chance to ask Dr. Al-Mousawi your own questions. Join our discussion.

• Have you signed an organ donor card? If not, what kind of incentive would make you do it?
• Are you in favor of a legalized market for organs? Do you think a regulated system will prevent transplant tourism and a black market for organs?

Happy New Year everyone. The Tech Podcast is back, with bagpipes. The track is Bagpipes From Baghdad, by none other than rapper Eminem. The centerpiece for WTP 272 is a lengthy interview with Tavneet Suri from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. She and William Jack of Georgetown University have authored an interesting paper on M-PESA, a mobile money transfer platform that is catching on in parts of East Africa and beyond. Suri and Jack look specifically at M-PESA’s uptake in Kenya. Get the official scoop on M-PESA here. They’re not the only academics, by the way, who are interested in this topic. Also in this episode, we listen in to two reports that look at the intersection of technology and politics in Iran. Both of them are by Cyrus Farivar, who has been blogging about events in Iran for some time now. By the way, here is Shafaf, the tool that Cyrus mentions which employs a platform you’ve heard about here on the Tech Podcast before, Ushahidi.

We’ve also got an interesting little story about how some 30 million German credit and debit cards are suffering from a glitch in their embedded chips. Folks are calling it a Y2K10 bug! Read more about it here and here.

And we end with an item on one of the most popular video games going right now: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II. Seems that some Russians aren’t too happy about the way they’re portrayed in the game. Not that it stops them from playing it, of course…Here’s some background on the kerfluffle.

Remember, we’re on Twitter and Facebook.

Props to The World’s Patrick Cox for the audio nod to the low tech wonder that is “grit.” I hope you Brits appreciate it.

As promised, this week’s Technology Podcast is devoid of any news, or non-news as the case may be, related to Michael Jackson. Instead, WTP 250 has a heavenly host of stories we hope you’ll find intriguing. At right is a picture of a page from one of the oldest Christian bibles in the world. It’s called the Codex Sinaiticus, and it was written in the 4th century AD. After it was found in a monestary in the Sinai, it’s various pages and fragments were scattered to collections across the world. Now, those fragments and pages have been reunited online. We’ll hear an interview with the British Library’s Head of Collection Care, Helen Shenton. The British Library is one of the partner institutions involved in putting the Codex online. We’ll also have updates on two stories we’ve been following closely in recent weeks. First, the violence in post-election Iran continues, and technology continues to play a critical role. Reporter Cyrus Farivar will update us on the global geeks who are trying to keep the information flowing into and out of the country. We follow that with a look at the violence that has flared in western China, and assess the ways and means that the Chinese government is using to control the way that violence is portrayed. We speak with Xiao Qiang, founder and co-editor of the China Digitial Times. And then we end the podcast with a lovely little story of musical collaboration. The members of Hal and the Big 5 have never actually jammed together. Instead, they’ve traded music tracks in cyberspace, and then mixed it all together. Too cool.

Remember, you can subscribe to The World’s Technology Podcast via iTunes or RSS.

And we end WTP 249 with another story of tech-enabling goodness. An intercontinental couple was running into visa problems. So much so that it was interfering with their wedding plans. So, they’re exchanging vows over Skype. Beautiful — let’s look at some pictures of the happy couple, shall we?

You can listen to the podcast right here, or follow the links to the left to subscribe.

(Photo courtesy of Kiwanja.net)