Soundgarden has resurfaced to perform at Lollapalooza and to announce Telephantasm, a retrospective due on September 28th. This will include many alternative versions of songs as well as several unreleased videos on DVD. It also includes “Black Rain,” a previously unreleased track recorded during the Badmotorfinger sessions. It sounds great!

You can listen to it right here:

The artwork for Telephantasm is also incredible, I might add! You can see full-sized images by clicking on either banner in this post. It’s also my new desktop background.

Soundgarden’s appearance at Lollapalooza marks their third performance since their return, including the one at the Showbox which I talked about in a previous post. They have exceeded my expectations with each performance. Chris can still sing, Kim can still make his crazy sounds, Ben can still manage to reach the floor, and Matt is perfect.

I’ve already pre-ordered the Super Ultra Deluxe edition of Telephantasm. Now I wait…

Just pointless (cool effect at the end though)…

Playing with time remapping…

Telling a story (I guess)…

Just cool stuff that happens…

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Some of this technology has, for a long time, been able to compensate for undesirable traits to allow more individuals to survive, and the effect of this technology is constantly increasing. So individuals who would otherwise not survive the environment, are able to live long enough to reproduce. It would appear that this is working against natural selection.

I see two ways to look at this. One is that modern technology is nullifying natural selection, and preventing evolution from continuing. The other is that technology is a direct result of our intelligence gained through the process of natural selection, and therefore is part of evolution. I think both of these are valid.

There is also a potentially devastating long-term effect of modern medicine. As we develop more and more potent antibiotics and disinfectants, we kill off the majority of bacteria species. This leaves the most resistant species and removes their competition. This effectively accelerates natural selection and creates stronger and stronger bacteria at an unnatural rate. This is evident in the existence of “super bugs” in sterile environments like hospitals.

The only real conclusion I can come up with is that technology plays a large part in the survivability of individuals. I’d say it’s the same exact effect of a less hostile environment. The question is, are the long-term effects of this good or bad for us as a species?

I followed the link to some tech forum and found my tutorial posted there in its entirety, without any mention of the source. I was a little shocked by the blatant plagiarism of content, so I registered and posted my displeasure in a reply. Curiosity then had me searching my other tutorials to see what else may have been ripped off.

I found that this same site had copied several other tutorials without giving credit. So I replied to each one with an increasingly harsh tone. In that process I also found some other sites that had done the same thing, but I didn’t feel like going through the trouble of pursuing each one.

After a little bit, I received a message from the site owner (who was the poster of most of the offending posts):

“Hi

[redacted] is a 100% non-profit (non-advertising) organisation formed to help the engineering community. Hosting for the site and every other expense is covered within our team. We do not earn monet form the site in any mean.

However, I apologise for the misbehaviour. We might have missed the copyright status of your articles. Forgive us for that. Link to your site is added at the end of every page that was copied.

I would like to welcome you to work with [redacted] to share knowledge beyond borders, limits, etc….

Best Regards,

[redacted]“

That last part is funny. The rest is just bullshit. It doesn’t matter if you make money, you don’t just copy someone’s work without attribution or permission. I thought this was just common knowledge or at least common decency, but I guess I was wrong…

Sharing knowledge is great, and there’s nothing getting in the way of doing that without committing plagiarism. I think the standard excepted method is to post a short excerpt along with a link to the source. Remember those tutorial listing sites I mentioned? That’s exactly what they do.

Anyway, I write tutorials primarily to share knowledge. I also do it to gain exposure, which of course requires that people know that I was the one who wrote it. The positive side of this is that someone found value in my writing, so I must be doing something right. I just think that people should respect the author when they find something useful.

When land is originally purchased or granted, it makes sense because it comes from the government. What doesn’t have a solid explanation is how the government can claim ownership of the land in the first place. I guess it basically comes down to calling dibs on an area.

The only thing allowing us to safely claim our territory is the ability to enforce the claim with force from the military. On a moral standpoint, one can choose not to recognize the borders that separate nations. Obviously, the real world is a different story.

In an ideal world, any person should be allowed to move to any part of the planet as they wish, restricted only by what is physically possible. It shouldn’t matter where they happened to be born. But in reality, we are all restricted by some invisible hypothetical lines dividing the earth.

It’s also interesting to note that many other species of animals have the same tendency to claim territory and protect it with force.

On Immigration

I find it silly that we go to such great lengths to control who can cross the border. We put up these massive walls and devote a lot of resources to patrolling those walls (mostly talking about the US/Mexico border; I don’t know much about the Canadian border). I think it sends a really negative message to put up walls to keep people out.

I understand the need to control the flow of people into the country, but it should be for the right reason. The only reason I support is the protection of the citizens from criminals and terrorists. Since this is far from an ideal world and people want to do bad things, protecting the borders is a necessary evil.

An example of a reason I don’t support is that the immigrants will “take our jobs.” I just think this comes from an unfounded sense of entitlement. And I obviously strongly disagree with any racially motivated reasons.

So what are the possible interpretations of randomness? I can see two main sides to this question. One could argue that it is the work of a divine force (God), and is the vehicle with which it interacts with the physical world. Others would counter that there is no evidence of this, and that randomness is just what it is (arbitrary). I argue that either of these arguments is valid, since the truth is unknown and unknowable.

This is something people need to understand when it comes to arguments between science and religion. For example, it is because of the above statements that evolution and creationism are not mutually exclusive. It is pretty obvious that every animal didn’t just appear out of nowhere as they are today, and that evolution does in fact occur.

The question that remains is whether the initial series of random events that created the first organism was under the control of some form of intelligence. This is something science is unable to answer.

So what is your interpretation?

Today is the day to remember all of the fallen US soldiers. Let’s not forget also those who are currently risking their lives right now.

To all of these people I’ve mentioned: Thank You

You don’t have to support the war or the politics behind it, but you have to support the men and women who fight in them so others don’t have to. There are few things that anger me me more than to see so-called “anti-war” protesters direct their contempt toward the soldiers that have to fight in those wars. They’re doing it wrong.

I’ve been using Pandora on and off for a few years and it works pretty well. I’ve discovered some great bands I never knew I liked or even heard of. It’s a great way to discover new music. Of course it also plays a lot of your favorites, too.

You can even further customize your stations by mixing them together or manually adding bands for more variety.

The free version has some short ads and a few limits on usage, but it isn’t too bad. I’m actually thinking of getting the paid version that removes the ads and limits, as well as gives higher quality and a desktop application. Right now it’s only $36/year.

It’s not really a bad thing in and of itself, since voters want two choices. So having two main groups to pay attention to makes it more likely that voters can make an informed decision. So the way the process works for electing government officials seems to work alright.

The problem lies in the way laws are created. It seems that the people in congress are disconnected with reality, so all they have is the game. Their goal is to keep their team in the lead by any means necessary. This is usually a good thing because it means they’re making the decisions that they think most people want, which is their job as a representative of the public.

It’s when the game has nothing to do with what is good for the public, that the game is a bad thing. Like when they add in some extra, unrelated crap to a bill just to sneak it into law.

Anyway, the real point I’m trying to make is that politics are a little silly.

The band performed all of their classics as well as a cover of The Doors’ “Waiting for the Sun.” They still sound amazing by the way, especially for their first live performance in about 12 years. Looking for more from this show on YouTube, I found this awesome channel which has audio of the whole set.

Here’s a playlist I put together that has them in order according to the set list. Enjoy: