How to be nominated for a Nobel Prize

My cousin who blogs wondered recently the value of a Nobel Prize, with all the folks who have been recently described by the media as nominated for a Nobel Prize, particularly the Peace Prize. This was on NPR this week and is worth a listen to understand the mechanics of the nomination process. Basically, anyone can be nominated if they are nominated by a qualified nominator (the radio clip tells you who can do this), but there isn't supposed to be a sure way to know who has been nominated until 50 years after the Prize Year. It is supposed to be secret before that. So in fact, anyone can claim to be a nominee, probably because someone told them they submitted the nomination, but the moeral of the story is not to place too much weight on people being described in the news as a Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, unless they are talking about someone nominated fifty years ago. For instance, the last Pope Benedict was nominatd twice in 1916 for his work towards peace and the humane treatment of POW's.