Burnout Paradise Coming to the PC with Mods

"REDWOOD CITY, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Criterion Games, a studio of Electronic Arts, (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced that the award-winning driving game Burnout™ Paradise is being rebuilt specifically for the PC. Burnout Paradise will be the first Burnout title ever made for the PC, customized with expanded multiplayer, enhanced online features, and community driven content."

Community driven content is a euphemism for mods.

Wow. I cant believe they finally made the decision to bring Burnout to the PC, and they are giving users the tools to create new content right out of the box. I have to say the potential for modding in this game is incredible. Dont like the vehicle physics? Change them to your taste. Dont like the way the city is layed out? Revamp it. Want tractor trailers and more cross traffic? Add it. Want to add a huge jump over the lake? Just mod it right in. The mind reels at the possibilities. Find racing a bit boring? Create your own new mode. Sneak attack air raid takedowns giving you trouble? Install an Air Raid alarm on your car and rear fired Anti-Bender Homing Missles. Perfect.

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Nine Inch Nails - The Slip

The new Nine Inch Nails album is out, its totally free for download, and its awesome.
What more needs to be said? Go download it now right now in MP3, FLAC, or 24/96 WAV.
Nine Inch Nails - The Slip

Stick a Fork In Her

Hillary is done. D-O-N-E done. She needs an impossible 69% of the remaining delegates to win. They put up quite a fight, but aside from a few death spasms from the Clinton campaign corpse, this race is over, and Barack Obama is the democratic nominee for President of The United States.

The math is clear: she cannot win.

Now, can she swallow her pride and make a graceful exit before tearing the party further in two with more negative ads and divisive rhetoric?

Only time will tell, but I have a terrible feeling she will fight until the bitter end, even if it means bringing the whole party down with her. I just hope the people around her, and the eggheads of the democratic party can convince her that the best thing to do for the country is drop out now and take a long vacation, rather than jeopordize the best shot the party has had at the White House in 50 years. At this particular juncture of time and space in US history, we cannot afford to gamble with our leadership, or we may very well go broke.

McCain and Bush: True Colors

Bob Herbert New York Times Op-Ed May 6 2008

"At the top of the list of no-brainers in Washington should be Senator Jim Webb’s proposed expansion of education benefits for the men and women who have served in the armed forces since Sept. 11, 2001.

It’s awfully hard to make the case that these young people who have sacrificed so much don’t deserve a shot at a better future once their wartime service has ended.

Senator Webb, a Virginia Democrat, has been the guiding force behind this legislation, which has been dubbed the new G.I. bill. The measure is decidedly bipartisan. Mr. Webb’s principal co-sponsors include Republican Senators Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and John Warner of Virginia, and Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey.

(All four senators are veterans of wartime service — Senators Webb and Hagel in Vietnam, Warner in World War II and Korea and Lautenberg in World War II.)

Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are on board, as are Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, and Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House.

Who wouldn’t support an effort to pay for college for G.I.’s who have willingly suited up and put their lives on the line, who in many cases have served multiple tours in combat zones and in some cases have been wounded?

We did it for those who served in World War II. Why not now?

Well, you might be surprised at who is not supporting this effort. The Bush administration opposes it, and so does Senator John McCain.

Reinvigorating the G.I. bill is one of the best things this nation could do. The original G.I. Bill of Rights, signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1944, paid the full load of a returning veteran’s education at a college or technical school and provided a monthly stipend. It was an investment that paid astounding dividends. Millions of veterans benefited, and they helped transform the nation. College would no longer be the exclusive preserve of the wealthy and those who crowned themselves the intellectual elite.

As The New York Times wrote on the 50th anniversary of the G.I. bill: “Few laws have done so much for so many.”

“These veterans were able to get a first-class future,” Senator Webb told me in an interview. “But not only that. For every dollar that was spent on the World War II G.I. bill, seven dollars came back in the form of tax remunerations from those who received benefits.”

Senator Lautenberg went to Columbia on the G.I. bill, and Senator Warner to Washington and Lee University and then to law school.

The benefits have not kept pace over the decades with the real costs of attending college. Moreover, service members have to make an out-of-pocket contribution — something over $100 a month during their first year of service — to qualify for the watered-down benefits.

This is not exactly first-class treatment of the nation’s warriors.

The Bush administration opposes the new G.I. bill primarily on the grounds that it is too generous, would be difficult to administer and would adversely affect retention.

This is bogus. The estimated $2.5 billion to $4 billion annual cost of the Webb proposal is dwarfed by the hundreds of billions being spent on the wars we’re asking service members to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. What’s important to keep in mind is that the money that goes to bolstering the education of returning veterans is an investment, in both the lives of the veterans themselves and the future of the nation.

The notion that expanding educational benefits will have a negative effect on retention seems silly. The Webb bill would cover tuition at a rate comparable to the highest tuition at a state school in the state in which the veteran would be enrolled. That kind of solid benefit would draw talented individuals into the military in large numbers.

Senator Webb, a former secretary of the Navy who specialized in manpower issues, said he has seen no evidence that G.I.’s would opt out of the service in significantly higher numbers because of such benefits.

Senator McCain’s office said on Monday that it was following the Pentagon’s lead on this matter, getting guidance from Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Under pressure because of his unwillingness to support Senator Webb’s effort, Senator McCain introduced legislation with substantially fewer co-sponsors last week that expands some educational benefits for G.I.’s, but far less robustly than Senator Webb’s bill.

“It’s not even close to the Webb bill,” said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, an advocacy group.

Politicians tend to talk very, very big about supporting our men and women in uniform. But time and again — whether it’s about providing armor for their safety or an education for their future — we find that talk to be very, very cheap."

Thom Friedman New York Times Op-Ed May 04 2008

Traveling the country these past five months while writing a book, I’ve had my own opportunity to take the pulse, far from the campaign crowds. My own totally unscientific polling has left me feeling that if there is one overwhelming hunger in our country today it’s this: People want to do nation-building. They really do. But they want to do nation-building in America.

They are not only tired of nation-building in Iraq and in Afghanistan, with so little to show for it. They sense something deeper — that we’re just not that strong anymore. We’re borrowing money to shore up our banks from city-states called Dubai and Singapore. Our generals regularly tell us that Iran is subverting our efforts in Iraq, but they do nothing about it because we have no leverage — as long as our forces are pinned down in Baghdad and our economy is pinned to Middle East oil.

Our president’s latest energy initiative was to go to Saudi Arabia and beg King Abdullah to give us a little relief on gasoline prices. I guess there was some justice in that. When you, the president, after 9/11, tell the country to go shopping instead of buckling down to break our addiction to oil, it ends with you, the president, shopping the world for discount gasoline.

We are not as powerful as we used to be because over the past three decades, the Asian values of our parents’ generation — work hard, study, save, invest, live within your means — have given way to subprime values: “You can have the American dream — a house — with no money down and no payments for two years.”

That’s why Donald Rumsfeld’s infamous defense of why he did not originally send more troops to Iraq is the mantra of our times: “You go to war with the army you have.” Hey, you march into the future with the country you have — not the one that you need, not the one you want, not the best you could have.

A few weeks ago, my wife and I flew from New York’s Kennedy Airport to Singapore. In J.F.K.’s waiting lounge we could barely find a place to sit. Eighteen hours later, we landed at Singapore’s ultramodern airport, with free Internet portals and children’s play zones throughout. We felt, as we have before, like we had just flown from the Flintstones to the Jetsons. If all Americans could compare Berlin’s luxurious central train station today with the grimy, decrepit Penn Station in New York City, they would swear we were the ones who lost World War II.

How could this be? We are a great power. How could we be borrowing money from Singapore? Maybe it’s because Singapore is investing billions of dollars, from its own savings, into infrastructure and scientific research to attract the world’s best talent — including Americans.

And us? Harvard’s president, Drew Faust, just told a Senate hearing that cutbacks in government research funds were resulting in “downsized labs, layoffs of post docs, slipping morale and more conservative science that shies away from the big research questions.” Today, she added, “China, India, Singapore ... have adopted biomedical research and the building of biotechnology clusters as national goals. Suddenly, those who train in America have significant options elsewhere.”

Much nonsense has been written about how Hillary Clinton is “toughening up” Barack Obama so he’ll be tough enough to withstand Republican attacks. Sorry, we don’t need a president who is tough enough to withstand the lies of his opponents. We need a president who is tough enough to tell the truth to the American people. Any one of the candidates can answer the Red Phone at 3 a.m. in the White House bedroom. I’m voting for the one who can talk straight to the American people on national TV — at 8 p.m. — from the White House East Room.

Who will tell the people? We are not who we think we are. We are living on borrowed time and borrowed dimes. We still have all the potential for greatness, but only if we get back to work on our country.

I don’t know if Barack Obama can lead that, but the notion that the idealism he has inspired in so many young people doesn’t matter is dead wrong. “Of course, hope alone is not enough,” says Tim Shriver, chairman of Special Olympics, “but it’s not trivial. It’s not trivial to inspire people to want to get up and do something with someone else.”

It is especially not trivial now, because millions of Americans are dying to be enlisted — enlisted to fix education, enlisted to research renewable energy, enlisted to repair our infrastructure, enlisted to help others. Look at the kids lining up to join Teach for America. They want our country to matter again. They want it to be about building wealth and dignity — big profits and big purposes. When we just do one, we are less than the sum of our parts. When we do both, said Shriver, “no one can touch us.”

GTA IV: First Impressions

I think Im getting older. I noticed this the other day when I was driving around NYC (the real one). Im just not jamming on the gas like I used to when I see a yellow light ahead. Im braking. My destination is still gonna be there 5 minutes from now. The guy who just switched lanes right in front of me, well, he might have had a bad day. Maybe hes in a hurry. Let it slide. Last night I was playing poker, and I hit a Jack on the turn to make Broadway for the nut straight (AKQJ10). I couple of guys raised in front of me, and I just called (there was no flush draw). I think even a year ago, I just would have pushed my whole stack into the pot instantly. Now, Im content to slowplay. Im keeping the pot smaller. I might make more or less of a profit by jamming my stack, but I know by slowplaying Im going to at least get decent value for my hand, and I dont feel the need to try to constantly double up. Basically, Im getting older, possibly wiser, definitely slower. Im fine with it, because for years I could just never go fast enough, in everything. Patience, Ive learned, actually is a virtue.

So how does this all relate to GTA IV? Well, Im playing the game slowly. The achievement for beating the game in under 30 hours, which some of my friends like Blank Void could quite possibly earn without trying because they race through games so quickly, I wont earn even if I play through the game 5 times. When I hop in a taxi in GTA IV, I usually dont fast travel (A Button) unless the taxi gets stuck, although I often hit the X Button to speed up a bit. I also like to hit the Back Button, and switch to Cinematic Mode, or just look out the window, kick back and enjoy the ride, taking in the wonder that is Liberty City. Sometimes, I'll sit on a street corner and just watch people while I smoke. Seeing as though I dont smoke on the streets of the real NYC anymore due to extremely harsh laws created during the Giuliani administration, this is as close as I can get.

Its tough to describe what GTA IV is like for me, having been born and raised in Manhattan, and having lived and worked in Brooklyn for the past 5 years. When I go to sleep, my dreams are filled with visions of NYC and the people who live here, just as your dreams are filled with images of the towns and cities you live in and the people who live there. When I close my eyes at night, I see endless serpentine subways, docks with workers unloading crates, the projects, busy intersections filled with psychotic cabbies and reckless garbage trucks, neon lights, insane homeless people, transvestites, ambulances and cops cars with their lights perpetually flashing, all types of restaurants, nightclubs, infinite rooftops, supermodels, elevators, trash flying in the air, Hasids, hookers, hookers doing Hasids, labrynth-like sub-basements, the construction workers, the 5 story walk-ups, joggers, abandoned cars, fire escapes, underground poker rooms, burnt out buildings, brand new skyscrapers, and all the people I know - every night these images fill my head in a never ending loop. And then I open my eyes, and its all there - its all in GTA IV.

I can honestly say that a videogame has never before brought tears to my eyes. But upon seeing how fully realized GTA IV is, and witnessing the uncanny resemblence to my home town, I could not stop myself from choking up a bit. Its like seeing an incredible work of art for the first time. Its just so overwhelming, so unexpected, so incredible and mind blowing to see, that your mind does not know how to react so your body takes over. Its beautiful but in an extremely visceral way that is not "pretty." The best description I can give is that its like looking at yourself in the mirror. Everything is there, as you would expect it to be, yet somehow, you look different from how you see yourself in the eye of your own mind. The experience is affirming, unsettling, and extremely powerful. In GTA IV, I am experiencing NYC through the lens of my own dreams.

Niko, as I play him, is not in a hurry either. Hes content to stop at the yellow light, to play for the small pot. He wants to make the correct decisions, and not doing anything else he might regret. Hes not trying to screw anyone over. Actually, all Niko is trying to do is keep himself, his friends and his family from getting screwed over. He will proceed with caution. He will smell the roses when they present themselves. He will go out drinking with Roman and go to the strip club with Lil Jacob. And when its time to do business, time to get the job done, Niko will oblige his friends.

This is the most fully realized game world I have ever experienced, its the dream world I visit every night come to life, its the reality I inhabit everyday in digital form. Its difficult to describe the irony of sitting in traffic on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway driving to Red Hook to go see a friend, and then coming home, getting on GTA IV, driving through traffic on the Algonquin-Dukes Expressway to East Hook and meeting up with Lil Jacob to drop off some Kush. So I am taking my time to really enjoy it, to fully experience it, and so is Niko. We will have plenty of time for multiplayer in the weeks and months to come, and if its as good as I have heard, we wont be leaving Liberty City anytime soon.

As Dumb As We Wanna Be

Thom Friedman
New York Times Op Ed April 30, 2008

"It is great to see that we finally have some national unity on energy policy. Unfortunately, the unifying idea is so ridiculous, so unworthy of the people aspiring to lead our nation, it takes your breath away. Hillary Clinton has decided to line up with John McCain in pushing to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline, 18.4 cents a gallon, for this summer’s travel season. This is not an energy policy. This is money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks. What a way to build our country.

When the summer is over, we will have increased our debt to China, increased our transfer of wealth to Saudi Arabia and increased our contribution to global warming for our kids to inherit.

No, no, no, we’ll just get the money by taxing Big Oil, says Mrs. Clinton. Even if you could do that, what a terrible way to spend precious tax dollars — burning it up on the way to the beach rather than on innovation?

The McCain-Clinton gas holiday proposal is a perfect example of what energy expert Peter Schwartz of Global Business Network describes as the true American energy policy today: “Maximize demand, minimize supply and buy the rest from the people who hate us the most.”

Good for Barack Obama for resisting this shameful pandering.

But here’s what’s scary: our problem is so much worse than you think. We have no energy strategy. If you are going to use tax policy to shape energy strategy then you want to raise taxes on the things you want to discourage — gasoline consumption and gas-guzzling cars — and you want to lower taxes on the things you want to encourage — new, renewable energy technologies. We are doing just the opposite.

Are you sitting down?

Few Americans know it, but for almost a year now, Congress has been bickering over whether and how to renew the investment tax credit to stimulate investment in solar energy and the production tax credit to encourage investment in wind energy. The bickering has been so poisonous that when Congress passed the 2007 energy bill last December, it failed to extend any stimulus for wind and solar energy production. Oil and gas kept all their credits, but those for wind and solar have been left to expire this December. I am not making this up. At a time when we should be throwing everything into clean power innovation, we are squabbling over pennies.

These credits are critical because they ensure that if oil prices slip back down again — which often happens — investments in wind and solar would still be profitable. That’s how you launch a new energy technology and help it achieve scale, so it can compete without subsidies.

The Democrats wanted the wind and solar credits to be paid for by taking away tax credits from the oil industry. President Bush said he would veto that. Neither side would back down, and Mr. Bush — showing not one iota of leadership — refused to get all the adults together in a room and work out a compromise. Stalemate. Meanwhile, Germany has a 20-year solar incentive program; Japan 12 years. Ours, at best, run two years.

“It’s a disaster,” says Michael Polsky, founder of Invenergy, one of the biggest wind-power developers in America. “Wind is a very capital-intensive industry, and financial institutions are not ready to take ‘Congressional risk.’ They say if you don’t get the [production tax credit] we will not lend you the money to buy more turbines and build projects.”

It is also alarming, says Rhone Resch, the president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, that the U.S. has reached a point “where the priorities of Congress could become so distorted by politics” that it would turn its back on the next great global industry — clean power — “but that’s exactly what is happening.” If the wind and solar credits expire, said Resch, the impact in just 2009 would be more than 100,000 jobs either lost or not created in these industries, and $20 billion worth of investments that won’t be made.

While all the presidential candidates were railing about lost manufacturing jobs in Ohio, no one noticed that America’s premier solar company, First Solar, from Toledo, Ohio, was opening its newest factory in the former East Germany — 540 high-paying engineering jobs — because Germany has created a booming solar market and America has not.

In 1997, said Resch, America was the leader in solar energy technology, with 40 percent of global solar production. “Last year, we were less than 8 percent, and even most of that was manufacturing for overseas markets.”

The McCain-Clinton proposal is a reminder to me that the biggest energy crisis we have in our country today is the energy to be serious — the energy to do big things in a sustained, focused and intelligent way. We are in the midst of a national political brownout."

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