blackbeak (1227080) writes The Washington Post reports that the Journal of Vibration and Control’s review system was hijacked by a ring of reviewers. 60 articles have been retracted as a result. “After a 14-month investigation, JVC determined the ring involved “aliases” and fake e-mail addresses of reviewers — up to 130 of them — in an apparently successful effort to get friendly reviews of submissions and as many articles published as possible by Chen and his friends.’On at least one occasion, the author Peter Chen reviewed his own paper under one of the aliases he created, ‘ according to the SAGE announcement.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Pity the poor mapmaker assigned to the South China Sea. The hotly disputed waters in the Pacific are torn between competing claims from all the countries that surround it. China, especially, has been aggressive and sly. It’s now dumping sand onto small reefs and shoals, building whole new islands to bolster its territorial claims . Read more… 
Whether you’re traveling to Tanzania, Taiwan, or Tokyo, you’re likely going to run into situations where English is not the primary language. But rather than blow hundreds of dollars on Rosetta Stone or fumble through archaic paperback phrasebooks, drop one of these helpful real-time translation apps on your phone instead. Read more… 
itwbennett writes “Taiwan is demanding Apple revise its mapping software and remove a label that describes the island as a province of China, rather than as a sovereign state. The complaint was lodged after local media reports said that users on the island had noticed the change in Apple’s latest iOS and Mac OS versions. ‘The maps don’t acknowledge Taiwan as its own nation. We voiced our disapproval, and hope Apple will make the change, ‘ an official with Taiwan’s foreign ministry said Wednesday. This isn’t the first time such a mistake was made. Google also labeled Taiwan as a Chinese province in 2005.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.