strace from broken mogrel_rails process:
======================================================
Process 12686 attached - interrupt to quit
select(0, NULL, NULL, NULL, {0, 339000}) = 0 (Timeout)
time(NULL)                              = 1186149691
sigprocmask(SIG_BLOCK, NULL, [])        = 0
time(NULL)                              = 1186149691
select(0, NULL, NULL, NULL, {1, 0})     = 0 (Timeout)
time(NULL)                              = 1186149692
sigprocmask(SIG_BLOCK, NULL, [])        = 0
time(NULL)                              = 1186149692
select(0, NULL, NULL, NULL, {1, 0})     = 0 (Timeout)


strace from working mongrel_rails:
=====================================================
gettimeofday({1186149819, 156607}, NULL) = 0
gettimeofday({1186149819, 156695}, NULL) = 0
select(4, [3], [], [], {0, 59912})      = 0 (Timeout)
gettimeofday({1186149819, 216222}, NULL) = 0
select(4, [3], [], [], {0, 385})        = 0 (Timeout)
gettimeofday({1186149819, 217217}, NULL) = 0
select(4, [3], [], [], {0, 0})          = 0 (Timeout)
flock(6, LOCK_EX|LOCK_NB)               = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
gettimeofday({1186149819, 217487}, NULL) = 0
gettimeofday({1186149819, 217574}, NULL) = 0