So maybe you’ve seen it, and maybe you haven’t. Tool’s new CD, 10,000 Days came out this year, and it’s pretty damn good. There’s been talk around the internet about how you can combine three tracks - Wings for Marie, 10,000 Days, and Vigniti Tres - and make a whole new song. Some people think it was deliberate, and others say it’s just a coincidence. You decide.

In a May 5 post on the band’s official website, it is hinted that “the four individual photos [of the band members] can be used as the pieces of a kind of puzzle”, but the puzzle and its meaning “will just be another nut to crack.”

After an hour of looking and researching, I think I’ve solved the puzzle. Here we go…

Beneath the picture of Danny Carry (the one with the long hair and all the plants), there are four mandalas, each with 16 points. Add the points together and we get 64.

The Beatles wrote a song called, “When I’m Sixy-Four” on their album with lots of hidden imagery, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band.

From the lyrics of the song:

When I get older losing my hair
many years from now
will you still be sending me a valentine
birthday greeting, bottle of wine
If I’d been out till quarter to three
would you lock the door
Will you still need me
Will you still feed me
When I’m sixty-four

You’ll be older too
And if you say the word
I could stay with you

Look at the picture of Maynard. He’s sitting in front of a mirror, and in the mirror he has no hair. He is holding a glass of wine and has a wine bottle on the table with him. The woman behind him is coveting the phallic tower, and behind him in the mirror a ghost of a woman holds him. There is also a note and a clock on the table.

Next verse:

I could be handy mending a fuse
when your light have gone
You can knit a sweater by the fireside
Sunday mornings, go for a ride
Doing the garden, digging the weeds
Who could ask for more
Will you still need me
Will you still feed me
When I’m sixty-four

Look at the picture of Danny Carry. He’s sitting surrounded by plants, with a picture of the tree of life in the background. He’s lifting a cup of some sort and a light is flying out of it.

Next verse:

Every summer we can rent a cottage on the
Isle of Wight, if it’s not too dear
We shall scrimp and save
Grandchildren on your knee
Vera, Chuck, and Dave

Look at the picture of Adam Jones. He’s surrounded by tiny nick nacks and containers. He’s got three biological somethings in containers in front of him. One looks like a skull and the other two, maybe fetuses. They’re over his knee.

Final verse:

Send me a postcard, drop me a line
stating point of view
indicate precisely what you mean to say
yours sincerely wasting away
Give me your answer fill in a form
mine forever more
Will you still need me
Will you still feed me
When I’m sixty-four

Look at the picture of Justin Chancellor. He’s got that massive bird on his arm, and although I have no idea what type it is, I’m pretty sure it’s used to send messages. The candles are all slowly burning away.

So that’s it! The secret’s been solved to the Tool puzzle. A whole lot easier than it should have been…

samech daled…

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It’s a fact, winner takes all. The top three megasites on the internet (Yahoo, Google, and MSN) each get seen by about 30% of all web vistors. Between the three of them, they control what the vast majority of internet users see, their browsing information, and their email accounts.And that is a recipe for trouble.

Each of these companies are building and run massive datacenters. They’re investing millions (billions…?) in the future of a centralized internet. Each wants to provide your email service, your scheduling service, your office experience, and basically every service possible over the internet. In order for this to be possible, they’re buying up and creating supercomputers capable of storing every document you’ll ever create, every email you ever write, and every video or picture you post to the net. Do you see a problem?

The biggest problem is the one most people refuse to look at. With government’s history of illegal wiretaps, illegal internet backbone snooping, and just all around disregard for the law, a datacenter containing millions of people’s every document ever written or photo ever taken is just too good for them to pass up. And they don’t even have to go through the process of signing a law to force everyone’s every word written into a mega database. All they need is a homeland security wiretap from a judge on Google’s datacenter, and wham!, they’re snooping legally on millions of users. Scary.

Or, just as dangerously, a government entity decides a certain segment of information (democracy, for instance) is dangerous to its citizens. It blocks the big sites from presenting any news unapproved by the government and creates a firewall to stop any other potentially threatening sites. This is already happening. (China)

In the coming years, there’s going to be a huge need for decentralization of information on the internet if freedom of thought is going to persist. The internet was built on Open Source and freedom of information via peer to peer software. If it’s to remain a beacon for freedom of speech and expression, we’ve got to start supporting smaller search engines, and build a more distributed internet. The concentration of information can only lead to abuse.

There are solutions out there, like the Freenet, but what do you think is the best way to combat the centralization of information on the internet?

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