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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 127 declined, 51 accepted (178 total, 28.65% accepted)

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Submission + - Activists Discover Evidence of St. Petersburg's River of Poop (globalvoicesonline.org)

Okian Warrior writes: Two weeks ago, a group of St. Petersburg ecologists conducted a test in Novoye Devyatkino, a suburb about 12 miles outside the city, of the local sewer system. In a study they titled “Feces Travel,” the activists dropped ten miniaturized, waterproofed GPS-tracking units down the toilet of a single apartment home and began mapping the devices’ signals.

On their website, the ecologists claim the trackers spilled out directly into the open-air waterways outside the building, without encountering even the most rudimentary sewage filtration. From Novoye Devyatkino, five of the devices reached the open waters of Neva Bay, where the units’ batteries appear to have died.

Submission + - AltSlashdot is coming (altslashdot.org) 3

Okian Warrior writes: I've registered "AltSlashdot.org". I intend to run a site much like Slashdot used to be — better articles, less decoration and less "in your face" functionality. I'm reviewing and getting comfortable with slashcode right now. I'm looking for volunteers to help with setup and running the site. If the site becomes profitable, I intend to hire from the pool of volunteers. If you've ever wanted to participate in a site like Slashdot, here's your chance! I'm particularly in need of people who can:
  • Set up and manage a high-traffic site (servers, load-balancers, data sites, &c)
  • Edit story submissions
  • HTML, CSS, and script creation/bugfix/repair

Contact me if interested John (at) AltSlashdot (dot) org

Submission + - AltSlashdot is coming (altslashdot.org) 2

Okian Warrior writes: I've just now registered "AltSlashdot.org".

I intend to run a site much like Slashdot used to be — better articles, less decoration and less "in your face" functionality. I'm revewing and getting comfortable with slashcode right now.

I'm looking for volunteers to help with setup and running the site. If the site becomes profitable, I intend to hire from the pool of volunteers. If you've ever wanted to participate in a site like Slashdot, here's your chance!

I'm particularly in need of people who can: .) Set up and manage a high-traffic site (servers, load-balancers, data sites, &c) .) Edit story submissions .) HTML, CSS, and script creation/bugfix/repair

Contact me if interested

John (at) AltSlashdot (dot) org

Submission + - Judge orders professor removed from no-fly list (seattletimes.com) 1

Okian Warrior writes: In a followup to Slashdot's previous article, a federal judge has ordered Rahinah Ibrahim removed from the U.S. government's no-fly list.

Rahinah Ibrahim eventually won the no-fly list ruling after her daughter, a US citizen, was prevented from returning to the country to testify at the trial.

Here's hoping this is the first of many successful challenges to the no-fly list.

Submission + - James Bond Likely To Die An Early Death Of Alcoholism, Study Finds (forbes.com)

Okian Warrior writes: Forbes magazine reports that three British scientists studying drinking habits have concluded that James Bond was indeed a raging alcoholic.

The study further notes: "Bond’s drinking would have led some serious long-term ramifications since it puts him into the level-3 category, “the highest risk group for malignancies, depression, hypertension, and cirrhosis. He is also at high risk of suffering from sexual dysfunction, which would considerably affect his womanising.” They give him a life expectancy of just 56 years."

Submission + - Facebook mocks 'infection' study, predicts Princeton's demise (facebook.com) 1

Okian Warrior writes: In a followup to our earlier story about Princeton researchers predicting the end of Facebook by 2017, Facebook has struck back with a post using similar statistical techniques to predict that Princeton itself may be facing irreversible decline.

By using similar methods ("likes," mentions in scholarly papers, Google searches) Facebook creates convincing-looking graphs that indicate Princeton is losing ground compared with its rivals and may have no students at all by 2021.

Submission + - Can an App Improve Vision? (wsj.com)

Okian Warrior writes: A 12-week, scientifically tested training program, newly available as an iPhone app, uses a technique called perceptual learning to reduce—or even eliminate—the need for reading glasses.

A 30-person study published in February 2012 in the journal Scientific Reports found that after trying [an iPhone app called GlassesOff] participants on average could read letters 1.6 times smaller than they could previously. The program is much more likely to show improvement in adults 40 to 60 years old, scientists say.

Submission + - ScareMail Tries to Disrupt NSA Email Surveillance (hackaday.com)

Okian Warrior writes: "Are you on the NSA’s email watchlist? Do you want to be? The ScareMail project is designed to mess with the NSA’s email surveillance programs.

Benjamin Grosser has written a plugin for many popular web browsers that uses an algorithm to generate a clever but ultimately useless narrative in the signature of your email using as many probable NSA search terms as possible. The idea behind this is if enough people use it, it will overload the NSA’s search results, ultimately making their email keyword tracking useless.

Ben has a video describing the project."

Submission + - Elsevier retracts study on roundup toxcicity (marketwatch.com)

Okian Warrior writes: "Long term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize," by Gilles Eric Séralini et al. has been retracted by the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology.

Very shortly after the publication of this article, the journal received Letters to the Editor expressing concerns about the validity of the findings it described, the proper use of animals, and even allegations of fraud. Many of these letters called upon the editors of the journal to retract the paper.

Unequivocally, the Editor-in-Chief found no evidence of fraud or intentional misrepresentation of the data. However, there is a legitimate cause for concern regarding both the number of animals in each study group and the particular strain selected.

"Ultimately, the results presented (while not incorrect) are inconclusive, and therefore do not reach the threshold of publication for Food and Chemical Toxicology. The peer-review process is not perfect, but it does work."

Submission + - ScareMail Tries to Disrupt NSA Email Surveillance (hackaday.com)

Okian Warrior writes: Are you on the NSA’s email watchlist? Do you want to be? The ScareMail project is designed to mess with the NSA’s email surveillance programs.

Benjamin Grosser has written a plugin for many popular web browsers that uses an algorithm to generate a clever but ultimately useless narrative in the signature of your email using as many probable NSA search terms as possible. The idea behind this is if enough people use it, it will overload the NSA’s search results, ultimately making their email keyword tracking useless.

Ben has a video describing the project.

Submission + - Google doodle pays tribute to Dr. Who (usatoday.com)

Okian Warrior writes: The 50th anniversary of the legendary sci-fi series Dr. Who is receiving special love from Google. The tech giant is devoting its home page logo to Dr. Who, in the form of a game starring all 11 versions of the time-traveling icon. The doodle goes live in the U.S. on Saturday.

Submission + - What will the future bring? (Ask Slashdot) (slashdot.org)

Okian Warrior writes: Slashdot's recent article about Andrew Marshall (the pentagon's predictor of future events) got me wondering about about the future in general.

What major changes do you think will happen within the next 5 years or so? What problems do we face today that will become non-issues, what little-known problems will become big, and which problems of today are non issues?

Submission + - 5 Year Mission Continues After 45 Year Hiatus (hackaday.com)

Okian Warrior writes: Hackaday brings us news about a continuation of the original Star Trek series. The Kickstarter-funded project is attempting to complete the original 5 year mission, which ended after only three seasons on the air. The fan based and fan supported reincarnation is cleverly titled “Star Trek Continues” and has CBS’s consent.

Check out the first episode "Pilgrim of Eternity". For being fan-made, it's actually pretty good.

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