Two months after my laptop was stolen (and I'm still waiting on a replacement) my backup drive, which I've been stupidly using since my laptop went walkies, has now decided to be unmountable. Diskwarrior 3.03 reports that the directory damage is too severe to recover. Data Rescue X will be my next attempt.

Assuming that I cannot recover anything from the drive, I'm getting close to having nothing left to lose (my iPod's firewire connection got fried).

I must be building up a serious backlog of good karma with all the shit I'm getting or (which is scarier) I'm paying back a a big karmic debt. Not sure which.

Fuck me.

Hi!

Israeli researchers say — this is no joke now — they have discovered the part of the human brain which comprehends sarcasm.

[...]

According to the team from the University of Haifa, in addition to picking up social cues like emotions, autistic children have difficulty in interpreting sarcasm.

[...]

According to the leader of the research team, this fits in with what is known about brain anatomy. The left and right sides of the brain combine with the prefrontal area to process literal meanings of words along with the social and emotional context of what is being said.

-- via Plastic. Read the report here... as a pdf.