VentureBeat

Here’s the latest action:
1) Wikileaks judge restores restores site, slaps self on wrist
2) AllPeers’ peer-to-peer scheme fails to capture users
3) Chevron, Weyerhaeuser join up for cellulosic ethanol
4) Saudi Arabia and IBM partner to develop green nanotech
5) Akamai wins patent fight, but not happy with ruling
6) Woz points out flaws in Apple’s latest products
7) Global warming, now with double the lethality
8) LinkedIn’s new features look a little more like Facebook
9) Fastcompany.tv launches with Robert Scoble
10) Fortune tops “Most Admired” list with Valley companies

Wikileaks judge restores site, slaps self on wrist — A federal judge who ordered that whistle-blower site Wikileaks be scrubbed from the web not only reversed his own order, but has since released a statement suggesting that he overstepped his bounds and possibly violated the First Amendment, acknowledging that free speech on the Internet is a tricky issue.

AllPeers’ P2P sharing extension fails to capture users, closes — AllPeers, a clever Firefox extension that allowed the peer-to-peer sharing, is dead. The prognosis: Not enough users to satisfy the investors, Mangrove Capital Partners and Index Ventures. There’s a brief obituary at TechCrunch.

Chevron and Weyerhaeuser join forces for cellulosic ethanol — Ain’t green great? Take Chevron and Weyerhaeuser, two giant companies known for environmental damage — the first for oil exploration, the latter for logging and creating Superfund sites — add an impending global crisis, and come up with Catchlight Energy, a new joint venture to research cellulosic ethanol. The company will employ up to 40 researchers, making it one of the larger cellulosic efforts.

Saudi Arabia and IBM partner to develop green nanotech — Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is keeping up with the Joneses by setting up its own nanotech research lab, which will put most of its efforts toward solar energy. The Jones here, in case you missed it, is Abu Dhabi with its $15 billion Masdar City initiative.

Akamai prevails in patent fight, but unhappy with the winnings — Akamai won a patent battle with rival content distribution network Limelight, but the amount — $45 million — was less than half of the $100 million the company thought it deserved, according to Xconomy. Limelight, for its part, would prefer to multiply the amount by 0; it’s appealing the case.

Woz points out the flaws with latest Apple products — Acting as the super-ego to the ego of Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak spent some time criticizing the Apple Air and iPhone to the Sydney Morning Herald. (The id, we’ll assume, is represented by Apple fanboys.) The brief version: He thinks that some fairly vital features were unnecessarily left out of the two devices.

Global warming, now with double the lethality — According to a study cited by the New Scientist: “A rise in CO₂ increases the temperature and water vapour content of the atmosphere, which in turn accelerate ozone production and encourage particulates to hang around in the air.” That means more lung damage, and ultimately, more deaths.

LinkedIn’s new features make it more like Facebook — Unfair perhaps, but the business networking site will inevitably be compared to Facebook. Web Worker Daily explains why new LinkedIn features like status updates make it more like its chattier rival.

FastCompany.tv launches entrepreneur-focused web shows — Robert Scoble has the first two shows on the new video portal, Fastcompany.tv.

Fortune ranks “Most Admired” companies, tech firms top list — Apple is number one and Google is number four on Fortune’s new list of the 20 most admired companies, which doubles as a clever way for Fortune to get 20 pageviews from a single article.

It’s a holiday today, and so slower posting. Here’s the latest.

1. Virgin’s Branson wants “environmental war room”
2. U.S. media employment plunges
3. Why Google’s culture works, and Yahoo’s doesn’t
4. Creating fuel from carbon dioxide
5. Solar cells a better way to make hydrogen
6. Google has new head of Google corp dev
7. Whistleblower site WikiLeaks shuts down

Virgin’s Richard Branson offers to set up an “environmental war room” to combat climate change — Branson, already motivated to find alternative fuels for his airline business, is advocating an independent office affiliated with the United Nations that would promote climate change mediation. Details here.

U.S. media employment plunges — Employment in the U.S media sector in December fell to a 15-year low (886,900), led by the shriveling newspaper industry, according to Adage. But employment in advertising and marketing services broke a record in November (769,000). Marketing consulting led the growth, according to the report.

Why Google’s management culture works, and Yahoo’s doesn’t — Google’s culture has worked today because the company is still directed by the vision of the leading Troika, a vision which through regular meetings is then manifest coherently through the ranks. At Yahoo, decision-making has been disbursed to hundreds of vice presidents. At least that’s the view of Chris Sacca, a former Googler, and it’s a perspective that makes sense. However, with Google now hiring thousands more workers, how long with the coherence last?

Creating fuel from carbon dioxide — Lots of chatter about this, but can it be done? Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory say they have developed a way to produce such a carbon-neutral fuel. But there’s a catch: The process would require nuclear power.

Solar cell made in university labs could provide a better way to make hydrogen — Penn State researchers have made a proof-of-concept device that uses solar hydrogen cells to split water and produce recoverable hydrogen.

Google has new head of Google Corporate Dev — David Lawee is the new head of the division that invests in start-ups, buys them or otherwise cuts deal with strategic companies to push forward Google’s business interests, Techcrunch reports. This comes after predecessor Salman Ullah left the company to form Merus Capital, which we covered here.

Whistleblower site WikiLeaks shuts down — The site was supposed to let people anonymously post government and corporate documents, which can be a good thing if people want to squeal about corruption or some other ethically or legally abusive government maneuver. However, a California court ruling has shut it down. The case was brought by a Swiss bank after “several hundred” documents were posted about its offshore activities.