Hope you’re all set with your storage needs.

The heavy rains that fell in Thailand this fall have led to serious flooding. The floods forced many of the world’s hard drive-producing factories to temporarily shut down.

The factory closures have affected several companies, including Western Digital and Seagate and some 40 percent of world hard drive manufacturing.

You can expect hard drive shortages. A few of the hard drives we’re tried to review this month — or include in gift guides — could not be sent to us because some companies have suspended their review programs.

With PC sales already slowing, this could have huge implications for the industry.

Interestingly, solid-state hard drive manufacturing was not affected, which may also lead to this medium taking off more and more.

Two men pleaded guilty to ‘sex tourism’ charges in an Alabama Federal Court Thursday, admitting they traveled to Thailand between 2000 and 2002 with the intent to sexually abuse children under the age of 10, the Department of Justice reports.

The report states that Burgess Lee Burgess, 44, of Mobile, Ala., and Mitchell Kent Jackson, 31, of Pensacola, Fla., were involved in an Internet chat group, boyhoodparadise.com, dedicated to men who had an explicit sexual interest in young boys.

Through the chat room the men corresponded with a New Jersey man, Wayne Richard Corliss, and a contact of his who lived in Thailand, John Wrenshall, who invited the three men to rendezvous with him in the Asian country.

Wrenshall, a Canadian living in Thailand, also told the men that for a price of $400, they could have unlimited ‘access’ to one boy throughout the trip.

Thailand has long been one of the sex trade capitals of the world, a country where child prostitution and sex trafficking is prominent.

The report also states that on the last of the three trips that were made, the four men photographed and videotaped the boys while engaging in sexual activity.

Corliss, who was arrested in May, pleaded guilty in a New Jersey Federal Court in late October.

Burgess and Jackson will be sentenced on April 3, 2009.‚  The DOJ reports the men face a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, with the possibility of lifetime supervised release and a fine of $250,000.

The investigation was carried out by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Interpol, with help from the Attorney’s Office in Alabama and New Jersey.

A Buddhist temple in Thailand is offering the ultimate in soul cleansing rituals–rebirth.

Customers lay in a coffin while a Buddhist monk recites a dirge. The monks then tell the visitors to emerge from the coffin, having supposedly cleansed them of past sins. The visitors are then metaphorically reborn and ready to start fresh, in just a minute and a half.

All of this comes at a price of course; 180 baht, equal to about $5. Entrepreneurial monks are complaining about the state of the economy, which is the reason behind their charging money for the ceremonies.

Temples are starting to sell goods along with services, amulets and good luck charms run customers from 50 baht upward. Sometimes, monks auction off “limited edition” amulets to customers visiting the temple.

Doesn’t all this take away from the degree of spirituality in the temple?

I know they need money to keep the place running and all that, that’s fine. But paying for a ceremony that supposedly cleanses your soul probably shouldn’t have a price tag attached to it.

Paying for the amulets is fine, they are charms, people expect to pay for those, I’d pay for an amulet from a Buddhist temple in Thailand in a second.

It just seems like paying for the ritual would take some of the authenticity out of it. I know it doesn’t technically, but if it were me having my soul cleansed, I’d feel like it was a service more than a religious ceremony.