Evidently Apple uses computed tomography to scan the insides of their devices when they are undergoing testing. Seeing as how I also use CT to scan cargo containers, I thought that was pretty  damn cool.

Dr. Moreno, Chief Researcher for the College of Shit We Already Knew

The Beast talks about sex on MySpace

There’s really not much more I can say about this.  People (including teens) talk about sex everywhere.  In church, on TV, on Twitter, on their pointless blog, wherever.  God, I hate stupid research reports. Maybe she can continue her work in this field and see if teens talk about the same things on, say, Facebook?  You’re welcome, Dr. Moreno–I better get some of the research grant money.

They may instead talk about sex, substance use, or violence because they are contemplating doing those things, or because they want to brag without actually doing what they say, Moreno said.

Seriously?  You mean teens may lie to their peers in order to artificially influence the way they are seen in their social circles?  Honestly, I’m just waiting for the next revolutionary survey to come from this fine researcher.  Can I go ahead and place a bet on a survey that says almost all teenage boys masturbate frequently?  That’d be real groundbreaking research for our tax money to fund.  Luckily, our tax money went to this amazing study instead of funding something potentially useful to society.

If you’re interested in hearing the evolution, as well as a few covers, I recommend checking out Coverville Episode 535: Mbube to Wimoweh.  It’s an amazing podcast in general and I found this really interesting now that I’ve been to South Africa and experienced a tiny bit of the culture there.  That episode of Coverville features an original Mbube (well, as original as you can get) as well as multiple evolutions as the song tranformed from Mbube to the popular “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” that we all know and love.  Check it out–it’s pretty cool to see how traditional songs morph into popular songs.

* An automatic file system check (fsck) of the root filesystem failed.  A manual fsck must be performed, then the system restarted. The fsck should be performed in maintenance mode with the root filesystem mounted in read-only mode.

So, basically, my main filesystem was broken somehow.  Adding insult to injury, of course, was the fact that the thing that was shown as causing the problem was S01E02 of Firefly, which I was considering watching soon.  Great. On a strange note, the other place that was giving me trouble was on /etc/acpi/suspend.d/10-thinkpad-standby-led.sh. As for the problem itself,  I know why it happened, of course–this server only goes down when the power goes out and I would imagine that the file reference didn’t get correctly written to the journal before the server crashed. So, after multiple “Multiply-claimed block(s) in inode: x: xxxx xxx” errors, it finally told me to reboot.  After doing so, it fscked the disk again and then had me reboot AGAIN.  Awesome.  That finally let it work though, so I can’t complain.  Now to get a new CMOS battery…

This surgery seems to be happening for two main reasons–Either a woman wants her hymen reinserted to restore her feeling of ‘virginity’ or she wants it to avoid potential violence.  The first point, to me, makes very little sense.  I never understood why so many people focused so much on virginity.  If you have had sex by your choosing (meaning that you weren’t raped) then you’re not a virgin anymore.  Sorry, but you lost that one.  Many people get incredibly bent out of shape about this, but what does it really affect?  If you’re not a virgin you have lost the ‘first time’ feeling when you have sex and, as far as I can tell, that’s it.  Now, I understand the thought process of those who were staunchly waiting for marriage and then were raped–I find nothing at all silly or pandering in their usage of this surgery.  But if someone made the decision to have sex, then they’re not a virgin and it’s as simple as that.  Most importantly, however, it’s not that big of a deal.

This unfortunately leads to the main purpose of hymenoplasty, as reported by this article.  Many women, specifically (in this article) Muslim women, are using this surgery as a way to please their new husbands and, at the same time, ‘prove’ to them that they are virgins.  It’s sad that women are having to have their virginity artificially restored just to avoid being beaten or divorced because they aren’t virgins.  This is absolutely one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard.  If the relationship was a real relationship forged on the basis of trust and mutual attraction, instead of a relationship based on a decree from the couple’s parents, then this should never be an issue.  The woman should inform the husband of her past and the same goes for the husband.  Unfortunately, in addition to being the ‘head of the household,’ men are also generally more aggressive and are historically more interested in ‘owning’ their women and their actions.  This obviously leads to trouble when a society turns a blind eye to men being abusive in relationships.  It truly is a sad thing that women are turning to this surgery for those reasons.  Of course, if the surgery helps even one woman not get beaten on her wedding night, then it’s a worthwhile endeavor and one that should continue to be offered by those surgeons that do.

The Time article that I linked to is quite an interesting article and I recommend that you take a second or two and read it.  It provides an insight into a part of the world that I personally have never been exposed to and I feel that it really is a thought-provoking article.

You have to admit–that’s awesome.  Also, it’s something I have done more than once (either the timing of the clothes or the ’seize the day’ mentality works).  Anyhow, nice work for whoever does JC Penney’s advertising.  It’s pretty hilarious, if not overly great at targeting middle age moms who are, I would imagine, their main target. Thanks to digg and dropkickmonkey.com for the link.