An anonymous reader writes 'A Houston man wasn't allowed to vote in Tuesday's mayoral election because he refuses to use computers and there were no other options available. No paper ballots? Skynet is taking over.'

In addition to searching for the fastest horse and the best barbecue, the people of Louisville, Kentucky love looking for something else: online porn. BusinessInsider.com conducted a study using Google Trends and found Louisville residents the most likely to search for obscene material online. "You want to be number one in a lot of different things, but you certainly don't want to be number one for obscene searches across the entire country," said Bryan Wickens, president of Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana.

The family of 59-year-old Ademir Jorge Goncalves got a shocking but pleasant surprise at his funeral when Ademir showed up alive. Police and family misidentified the victim of a terrible car crash as Goncalves and as is customary in Brazil, the funeral was held the next day. In reality Goncalves had stayed at a friends house after drinking sugarcane liquor all night. "The corpse was badly disfigured, but dressed in similar clothing. People are afraid to look for very long when they identify bodies, and I think that is what happened in this case," said a police spokesman. I can't wait for this premise to be made into a reality show.

MikeChino writes "How many times have you bit into a piece of fruit only to find that you're also chomping on a sticker label? The small sticky labels have long been the bane of waste-conscious fruit and vegetable eaters, but that might all change thanks to new technology that uses a low-energy carbon dioxide laser beam to etch information directly onto produce. No more peeling those annoying labels! So far the technology is being used on a number of fruits and vegetables in New Zealand, Australia, and Pacific Rim countries, and it's currently going through the final stages of review by the FDA. Once the technology is approved in the US, researchers from the University of Florida and the USDA Agricultural Research Service hope that it will be used in Florida's massive grapefruit industry."

jggimi writes "According to the New York Times, more than fifteen hundred remote sensing devices have been sold to Iraq's Ministry of the Interior, at prices ranging from $16,500 to $60,000 each. The devices are used for bomb and weapon detection at checkpoints, and have no battery or other power source. Sounds great, but according to a retired United States Air Force officer, Lt. Col. Hal Bidlack, they work on the same principle as a Ouija board — the power of suggestion. He described the wand as nothing more than an explosives divining rod. Even though the device has been debunked by the US Military, the US Department of Justice, and even Sandia National Laboratories, the Iraqis are thrilled with the devices. 'Whether it's magic or scientific, what I care about is it detects bombs,' said Maj. Gen. Jehad al-Jabiri, head of the Ministry of the Interior's General Directorate for Combating Explosives."

If you're a al Shabaab insurgent in Somalia with a Mylie Cyrus ringtone you probably have a lot of problems. The newest one is that your organization has formally banned musical ringtones. The official ring is "...to be only a Muslim cleric reading the Hadith or Koranic verse." Terrorist and Bollywood movie song aficionado Sacdiyo Sheeq says. "I used to listen to my favorite Indian songs on my cell phone, but now I have just thrown that memory away."

Uganda's ethics minister, James Buturo, is leading a movement to ban witch-doctors from advertising on the radio. Witchcraft is a major problem in Uganda, particularly in rural areas. Buturo says that radio stations, "...are promoting witchcraft-related activities to the detriment of Uganda's integrity." When asked for comment a witch-doctor spokesman said, "Ooo eee, ooh ah ah, ting tang walla walla, bing bang." Bing bang, indeed.

An anonymous reader writes "Google Latitude has already made headlines for allowing phone users to locate their friends, and there are countless other iPhone and Android phone apps already designed to transmit your location — but could pets be the next big thing in GPS tracking? A number of device manufacturers are marketing GPS technology as a futuristic tool for tracking your cat or dog, and even discovering exactly where they've been. These devices are sold under a number of names and brands, including Sportdog, LoCATor, RoamEO, Petcell, Zoombak and Pettrack."

digitalfever writes 'One of the most celebrated functions of the Internet is an unprecedented ability for people to connect. This has led to social networks, online dating, and, it turns out, a lot of people connecting over really strange things. Here are some of the more interesting clubs that the internet has helped give life to.'

What's made of black and brown leather and a top seller in northeastern Bangladesh? The "Zaidi shoe." The footwear named after the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoe at George W. Bush has become very popular in some circles. "It's the latest fad in Sylhet. Every one wants to be wearing the Zaidi. It looks like your average men's dress shoe but it's been sold for up to 2,200 taka (30 dollars) which is at the very top end of the market in Bangladesh, " shop owner Abdul Awal says.

An unamed man learned how important it is to keep your hands to yourself inside an South African Air Force training plane when he mistakenly pulled his ejection lever. He crashed through the plane's perspex canopy and was propelled 320' by the rockets under his seat. A helicopter was sent to pick up the accidental ejector and he had no reported injuries. Let's hope he got to enjoy the beautiful scenery on the way down.

Callum Cooper won a $3,000 grant from the Parapsychology Foundation to finish his studies in telepathy and clairvoyance at The University of Northampton. Cooper says, ''My interest in the paranormal began growing up in Nottinghamshire where there is a vast amount of history of hauntings. I am constantly involved in the investigation of purportedly haunted locations with my own research team... and more recently I have been researching 'Phone Calls and Text Messages from the Dead'." Callum hopes to begin a PhD Research Degree on apparitions and hallucinations in 2010.

49-year-old Mary Strey feels strongly about keeping drunk drivers off the road, so strongly in fact that she recently called 911 to report herself as one. The dispatcher told Mary to pull over, turn on her flashers and wait for the police. When officers arrived they gave her a field sobriety test which she failed. Mrs. Strey was arrested and was found to have a blood alcohol level of 0.17.

sciencehabit writes "Researchers at Guangdong Entomological Institute in Guangzhou, China, have observed oral sex for the first time in a non-primate. During intercourse, female short-nosed fruit bats lick the genitals of their partner, a possible ploy to increase copulation time. The discovery suggests there may be a biological advantage to fellatio."

nightcats writes "Describing it as a 'limited beta test,' Wal-Mart announced its plans to offer coffins to its shoppers. In the Wal-Mart world, of course, beta comes with a price: $900 for a Mom or Dad coffin, all the way up to $2900 for a bronze sarcophagus. "

9gezegen writes "Pepsi learned that if it wants to continue to 'Refresh Everything,' it needs an extra $1.26 billion. It looks like one of the secretaries forget to inform company lawyers about a trade secrets case in a Wisconsin state court. When nobody arrived to court, the judge gave $1.26 billion default judgement. According to Pepsi lawyers, they were not properly served because the secretary was 'so busy preparing for a board meeting.' One might imagine she was working on the refreshments. Perhaps Pepsi should learn more about the Spamhaus case."

Two9A writes "With the recent introduction of memorial accounts on Facebook, the potential arises for hilarity and abuse. Simon Thulbourn's Facebook page has been marked as 'in memorial' on the word of a report submitted by one of his friends; unfortunately, the closest the report gets to Simon is that the funeral service in question was officiated by 'Revd. Simon Thorburn,' which seems to be enough for Facebook to mark an unrelated user's profile as dead. Questions have previously been raised about the standard of proof required by Facebook for this service; it seems that those questions were pertinent, if the lax attention paid to these reports by Facebook staff continues."

Serenissima writes "Bad drivers may in part have their genes to blame, suggests a new study by UC Irvine neuroscientists. People with a particular gene variant performed more than 20 percent worse on a driving test than people without it — and a follow-up test a few days later yielded similar results. About 30 percent of Americans have the variant. 'These people make more errors from the get-go, and they forget more of what they learned after time away,' said Dr. Steven Cramer, neurology associate professor and senior author of the study published recently in the journal Cerebral Cortex."

An anonymous reader writes "Famous writer and minor television personality John Hodgman posits the end of the culture of Jockdom in favor of a cultural reverence for engineers, scientists and Slashdot readers: 'Jockdom is very noble. It's not deliberative. It's certainly the best way to win wars. It's the best way to motivate teams of people to fulfill a goal — not just war, but getting things done. The most important way to motivate a factory floor. But as you know, we're not as much of a manufacturing society as we were before. China and other big industrial nations are rewarding their nerds and technicians rather than creating a culture that makes fun of them — it would be wise for us to embrace the book-smart as much as our culture has traditionally embraced the street-smart, the jock-smart. I'm not saying nerds must have their revenge; I'm just saying the time for wedgies is at an end.'"

Barence writes "Two weeks after announcing its sponsorship of a special episode of Fox's edgy animated sitcom Family Guy, the computer giant has pulled out, saying the program is 'not a fit with the Windows brand.' Quite why Microsoft thought Family Guy would complement their brand is anyone's guess — the Family Guy special that was to be sponsored by Microsoft was recorded on October 16 and reportedly features jokes about deaf people, the Holocaust, feminine hygiene and incest. Fox plans to air the show on November 8, as scheduled, partnered with a new, as-yet undisclosed, 'integrated' sponsor."