A galaxy of your own

Last December, we wrote about our immersive Google Earth environment, Liquid Galaxy: eight 55-inch LCD screens showing Google Earth in a unified, surround view.

Liquid Galaxy at TED 2010

Since then, we’ve taken it to a lot of conferences, built Liquid Galaxies in Google offices all over the world and even put one in the Tech Museum in San Jose, Calif. We love watching people try it for the first time. Almost everybody wants to see their own house first; but then they start to explore, and we can never guess where they’ll choose to go next.

But we just couldn’t bring it to enough people—we could only go to so many conferences, and only friends and family of Googlers could try out the Liquid Galaxies in our offices.

So we decided to put the features that make Liquid Galaxy possible into the latest release of Google Earth, and open-source all the supporting work, from our Ubuntu sysadmin scripts to the mechanical design of our custom frames.


Not everyone will have the know-how to network computers together and get view synchronization working, but we tried to make it as easy as possible. If you think you’re up to the challenge, check out our Quick Start page. You can also contact our supplier End Point if you’d rather buy than build (or just need some professional assistance). Here’s a video they made that shows Liquid Galaxy in action:



Liquid Galaxies don’t have to be made from eight big LCD screens; the view sync features scale just fine from two to dozens of screens. And they can run more than just Google Earth; we’ve had success playing video in sync in our Liquid Galaxies, and even modified a Free Software video game for after-hours fun. We’ve daydreamed about making panoramic movies, head tracking or even real-time video from distant panoramic cameras. Read more on the Liquid Galaxy page at earth.google.com, and show off your creations in the liquid-galaxy discussion group. We’re excited to see what you come up with!

Posted by Jason Holt, Software Engineer, Liquid Galaxy 20% Team

Explore the world with Street View, now on all seven continents

(Cross-posted with the Google Lat Long Blog)

Update 12:01PM: To clarify, the Street View imagery for Antarctica includes panoramas of an area called Half Moon Island—such as this view of penguins and this one of the landscape. The blue dots you see throughout the continent when dragging the pegman are user-contributed photos.

We introduced Street View back in May 2007, enabling people to explore street-level imagery in five U.S. cities. We were excited to share a virtual reflection of the real world to enable armchair exploration. Since then, we’ve expanded our 360-degree panoramic views to many more places, allowing you to check out a restaurant before dining there, to explore a neighborhood before moving there and to find landmarks along the route of your driving directions.

Three years later, we’re happy to announce that you can now explore Street View imagery on all seven continents, with the addition today of Brazil, Ireland and Antarctica. You can now see images from around the world spanning from the beaches of Brazil, to the moors of Ireland, to the icy terrain in Antarctica.

We often consider Street View to be the last zoom layer on the map, and a way to show you what a place looks like as if you were there in person—whether you’re checking out a coffee shop across town or planning a vacation across the globe. We hope this new imagery will help people in Ireland, Brazil, and even the penguins of Antarctica to navigate nearby, as well as enable people around the world to learn more about these areas.

For example, as summer winds down here in Mountain View, Calif., the famous beaches of Copacabana, Brazil are an enticing virtual travel destination.

The Ring of Kerry in Ireland, with its picturesque rolling landscape, is another favorite new place in Street View.

Speaking of travel, my wife BethEllyn and I embarked on the Minerva for an expedition to Antarctica in late January. We enjoyed stunning vistas, and I found that any minute not spent on deck was a spectacular view missed. Fortunately, we’d planned to take some Street View photos, and are now able to share with you the incredible visuals from Half Moon Island, Antarctica.

Here is a group of Chinstrap penguins we saw on the island.

And this is one of my favorite views. You can see part of the crescent shape that gives the island its name.

I’m very proud of the worldwide Street View team and thrilled that everyone can now see places from all seven continents, including the amazing landscapes and natural beauty I saw in Antarctica, through the street-level images in Google Maps and Google Earth. To see more highlights from Street View around the world, visit the Street View gallery and start exploring!

Posted by Brian McClendon, VP of Engineering, Google Earth and Maps

Principles of Distributive Justice

As part of one of my current projects, I am trying to get an overview of all the different principles of distributive justice. This post is simply an addition to my own personal notes on the topic. However, I share it here since it may be of interest to some readers. I am working off this article.


The Distributive Problem
Before looking at the different principles of distributive justice, it is necessary to understand why we need these principles in the first place. As I understand it, the need stems from the basic cooperative bargains at the heart of social intercourse. A cooperative bargain arises whenever there is some set of resources, services, opportunities (etc.) that is only obtainable when people work together.

Take a simple example. Suppose you and I really like chocolate cake. It would be great if we could each make our own chocolate cakes for our personal consumption. However, this is not possible since we do not independently have access to all the necessary ingredients: I have access to the eggs and the flour, and you have access to the cocoa and the sugar. If we want the chocolate cake, we will have to work together.

A lot of social interactions have the same structure as this simple example: there is some gain to be made from working together that would not be made by working independently. And it is from these mutually-beneficial interactions that the need for principles of distribution arises.

Consider once more the chocolate cake. After we have made it, who is entitled to what proportion of the finished product? Should we each get half? Or should our share depend on the value of our original contribution? Is the contribution of cocoa somehow more important than the contribution of flour? Principles of distribution should help us to answer these questions.

More generally, the principles of distribution should do two things:

• They must tell us what to do with the cooperative surplus. That is: the surplus that motivates the bargain in the first place must be shared among the parties to the bargain.

• They must tell us what to do with the cooperative burden. That is: no surplus will be realised without some effort being expended by the parties to the bargain, so it is essential to know how much effort each party is expected to expend.

Most discussions of distributive justice focus on surpluses instead of burdens. That makes a certain amount of sense since there would really be no point in talking about distributive justice if there was no surplus to be distributed. However, I think it is worth bearing in mind the existence of burdens as well.

Now we are in a position to look at the various principles of distributive justice. In each case I will describe the principle and look at some of its shortcomings.

1. Strict Egalitarianism

The first, and perhaps most obvious, principle of distribution is that of strict egalitarianism. This calls for all parties to get an equal share of the surplus (and the burden). In modern societies, this might mean equal rights, incomes, access to social services, and so on.

There are two major difficulties with strict egalitarianism and other theories of distributive justice that are based on some preferred pattern of distribution:

• The Measurement (Index) Problem: We can only know that people are getting an equal share if there is some way of measuring the value of the relevant surplus. While money may be a useful measure in some cases, it is likely to useless in other cases (e.g. measuring the value of a legal right). Similarly, if people value resources in different ways over different time periods, it may always be in their interest to exchange their existing entitlements with others.

• The Time Frame Problem: Over what time period must the preferred pattern of distribution be achieved? Is it just a starting point from which people are free to deviate? Or must it be sustained indefinitely?

There are some specific moral criticisms of strict egalitarianism as well. Chief among them would be its tendency to limit freedom, to be insensitive to what people deserve, to fail to achieve the best outcomes for all people and to fail to give best effect to the principle of equal respect. These criticisms will come up again and again.

2. The Difference Principle

This is associated with the work of John Rawls. He argued that a general social distribution is just provided two conditions are met:

• (i) Each person has an equal claim to a fully adequate scheme of basic rights and liberties (e.g. speech, conscience, religion etc.)

• (ii) Any social inequalities such as differences in income, are (a) attached to positions and offices that are open to all under conditions of equal opportunity, and (b) are such that they "raise the floor" (i.e. the position of the least well-off) as much as is possible.

Condition (ii)(b) is the Difference Principle.

The primary criticisms of Rawls are as follows:

• By concentrating on the absolute position of the least well-off, Rawls is inattentive to the injustices arising from the relative positions of the least well-off compared to the most well-off. If the upper echelons of a society are significantly better off than the lower echelons, it may be possible for them to exclude the less well-off from all important public jobs and political offices. This would be an important injustice overlooked by Rawls's theory.

• It does not maximise outcomes (utilitarian objection).

• It involves unacceptable infringements on personal liberty: people are constrained in what they can do with their own resources (libertarian objection).

• It is not sensitive to people's contributions to the social surplus (contribution-sensitivity), nor to their natural endowments (endowment-sensitivity).

3. Resource-based Principles

The third set of principles maintain that equal initial access to resources is the most just distribution. In practice, this means that people are initially granted equal resources to do with as they please. According to Dworkin's metaphor, we are to imagine everyone is given equal purchasing power in a massive auction for all possible social goods. They can choose to spend as they see fit.

Resource-based theorists aim to be sensitive to peoples' ambitions, contributions and endowments. For example, if people suffer from some natural (as opposed to developed) handicap or talent, this will need to be compensated or rectified so that they can start from the same position as others.

Utilitarian and libertarian objections apply to this set of principles. Also, it is not clear how any actual accounting for differences in natural talents or handicaps can be done. Particularly since the dividing line between what is natural and what is developed is unclear.

4. Welfare-based Principles

Welfare-based principles of distribution are utilitarian in form. They are focused on maximising the overall amount of some agreed-upon unit (or units) of welfare. These could range from the subjective preferences of individual actors, to objective measures of welfare such as lifespan, access to education, healthcare, income etc.

Welfare-based principles do not focus on the actual pattern of distribution (e.g. equal shares for everybody) but on the net welfare-outcomes associated with patterns of distribution.

All the standard criticisms of utilitarianism apply. The main problems, especially when it comes to distributional issues, are:

• It is insensitive to the differences between people: if the goal is overall maximisation, then it is possible that a massively unequal society (e.g. with one rich overlord and 99 starving servants) could be more "just" than a society in which the welfare is spread around more evenly.

• Preference-maximisation can give equal weight to preferences that seem wrong e.g. the preferences of racists, homophobes and misogynists.

• Because it cannot automatically rule out particular patterns of distribution, it would rely on highly accurate empirical information about the aggregate of utility in society. Often, such empirical data is absent or impossible to obtain.

5. Desert-based Principles

Desert-based principles try to ensure that distributions are sensitive to the effort or contributions that people make to the social surplus. The idea is that some people deserve certain shares or outcomes because of their previous actions. So distributions should be proportionate to contributions.

The main problems with desert-based principles are:

• The failure to find a good measure of contribution: is it the economic output they produce? the costs they incur? the "effort" they expend?

• Oftentimes, people's ability to contribute is a function of pre-existing inequalities. For instance, those who are better off can contribute more because they have more resources or they have a better education. So a desert-based system may simply perpetuate injustices and inequalities.

6. Libertarian Principles

The classic (Nozickian) libertarian position is that any distribution of resources is acceptable provided it conforms with three principles of liberty: legitimate acquisition, legitimate transfer and rectification.

According to the principle of legitimate acquisition, one naturally owns oneself and by proxy one acquires legitimate ownership over those (previously unowned) features of the natural world with which one mixes one's labour. Once one owns something, one is entitled to freely transfer it to another, whereby they legitimately acquire what is transferred.

Any distribution of resources that is arrived at following legitimate acquisition or transfer is just. However, current distributions may be the product of previously illegitimate acquisitions and transfers. In those cases, some rectification is needed owned.

The major problems with libertarian principles are:

• The practical impossibility of rectification and the consequent potential to perpetuate historical injustices.

• The questionable theory of property ownership that accompanies it. Many would argue that property rights are only possible within a legal and political framework and that this framework requires the cooperation of others. Thus, it is not true to say that you "naturally" acquire ownership simply by mixing your labour with the natural world.

7. Critical Theories

There is a whole suite of theories -- feminist, postmodern, Marxist, race-based -- that criticise traditional theories of justice for their tendency to ignore, silence or suppress certain groups. I don't think any of these theories advance their own principles of justice, they simply tend to argue for expansion or abandonment of existing principles.

C'est tout.

Episode 9 - Divine Evil

Episode 9 of the podcast is available for download here. In this episode I discuss the article "Divine Evil" by David Lewis (and Philip Kitcher) which appeared in the collection Philosophers Without Gods.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.


Some relevant links:

Stanford Encyclopedia entries on David Lewis, and David Lewis's Metaphysics

Neil Sinhababu's paper on Possible Girls

Veni, Vidi, Verba Verti

Update on 10/1/2010: Confused? Learn more on the Google Translate Blog.

Ut munimenta linguarum convellamus et scientiam mundi patentem utilemque faciamus, instrumenta convertendi multarum nationum linguas creavimus. Hodie nuntiamus primum instrumentum convertendi linguam qua nulli nativi nunc utuntur: Latinam. Cum pauci cotidie Latine loquantur, quotannis amplius centum milia discipuli Americani Domesticam Latinam Probationem suscipiunt. Praeterea plures ex omnibus mundi populis Latinae student.

Hoc instrumentum convertendi Latinam rare usurum ut convertat nuntios electronicos vel epigrammata effigierum YouTubis intellegamus. Multi autem vetusti libri de philosophia, de physicis et de mathematica lingua Latina scripti sunt. Libri enim vero multi milia in Libris Googlis sunt qui praeclaros locos Latinos habent.

Convertere instrumentis computatoriis ex Latina difficile est et intellegamus grammatica nostra non sine culpa esse. Autem Latina singularis est quia plurimi libri lingua Latina iampridem scripti erant et pauci novi posthac erunt. Multi in alias linguas conversi sunt et his conversis utamur ut nostra instrumenta convertendi edoceamus. Cum hoc instrumentum facile convertat libros similes his ex quibus edidicit, nostra virtus convertendi libros celebratos (ut Commentarios de Bello Gallico Caesaris) iam bona est.

Proximo tempore locum Latinum invenies vel auxilio tibi opus eris cum litteris Latinis, conare hunc.

Jakob Uszkoreit, Ingeniarius Programmandi

Yabba Dabba doodle!

As a young kid, I drew a lot of dinosaurs. My dad would bring home reams of dot matrix printer paper from work, which I'd take, fold into stapled booklets, and then fill with dinosaurs doing what dinosaurs did—eating, leaping about, facing off in epic combat on top of spewing volcanoes. What I didn't know was that dinosaurs were also quite handy. A brontosaurus tail made an excellent water slide, you could walk up a row of plates on a stegosaurus' back like a flight of stairs and the triceratops’ horns were actually cutting-edge can openers. For these paleontological insights into Stone Aged innovation, I have the Flintstones to thank.

The Flintstones may have lived in the prehistoric town of Bedrock, but their technology was on par with much of what we use today. Everyone drove human-powered vehicles (zero emissions!), composted scraps in a dinosaur under the kitchen sink, and even wore solar powered watches—that is, if you count sundials. In short, Bedrock was the modern city of the past... and I wanted to live in it! Unfortunately, that didn’t quite pan out, but to be able to pay tribute to one of my favorite childhood TV shows in the form of a Google doodle is easily the next best thing.


On the 50th anniversary of its first airing, we gladly salute “The Flintstones” for inspiring our imaginations and encouraging us to think outside of the box, even if it means taking a look back now and then. I hope you’ll join the rest of us here at Google in a little nostalgia to mark this fun occasion!

Oh, and if you know any saber-toothed tigers looking for an internship as a hole puncher, give me a buzz.

Posted by Mike Dutton, Google Doodler

Fly through your Instant search results with keyboard nav

Our aim with Google Instant is to make search faster and easier, and this week we’re rolling out two enhancements to take that a step further. First, we’ve introduced keyboard navigation to help you explore your Instant search results using just your keyboard, with no need for a mouse or touchpad. We’re also making Instant available within many of the search features in the left panel of the results page including Videos, News, Books, Blogs, Updates and Discussions.

Check out our quick video to learn how to use these new features:

Google Instant is already available in domains for seven countries and today we’re excited to announce that it’s rolling out in the domains for 12 new countries, for signed-in users in Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland and Ukraine. We’ll keep improving your search experience and make Instant available in more places internationally in the weeks ahead.

Posted by Jonathan Effrat, Product Manager

R.U.S.E PC

R.U.S.E . . . . . . . . PC Release Date : 07 Sep 2010

R.U.S.E : Screenshot 01

R.U.S.E : Screenshot 02

R.U.S.E : Screenshot 03

R.U.S.E : Screenshot 04

Minimum System Requirements:

Processor : Intel Pentium IV at 2.4 GHz or better

Video Card :128 MB VRAM

DirectX 9.0 compliant (nVidia GeForce 6 Series or better / ATI Radeon X1000)

Memory : 1 GB RAM (XP)

Hard Disk : 5 GB

Operating System : Microsoft Windows XP/Windows Vista/ Windows 7

Sound : DirectX 9.0c compliant sound card

Others :Direct X : 9.0c,Keyboard & Mouse

Installation : DVD-ROM Drive (4x Dual Layer Drive)

Fifa 11

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 Publisher: Electronic Arts

Developer: EA Canada

Release Date: 28/09/2010

Genre: Sport

GAME INFO

Play on until the final whistle with the 2011 edition of EA's officially-licensed FIFA game series. FIFA Soccer 11 delivers a true soccer experience with authentic club and leagues licenses and gameplay refinements and innovations that combine to create the complete soccer simulation. The physics-based, data-driven technology behind the EA Sports soccer engine has been optimized for PC. Experience unprecedented freedom on the pitch with individuality of player control and movement, sophisticated ball touches, and physical interaction between players.

FEATURES

* Virtual Pro: Live out the fantasy of being a real life player by creating yourself in game with a 3D head using Photo Game Face. Play as yourself across any mode. Grow your player attributes through over 200 accomplishments and take your Virtual Pro online to become a global superstar. Also compete in 5v5 Online Team Play with other Virtual Pros from around the world.

* 360º Dribbling: The market-leading true 360° Dribbling system gives players precise control of the ball and next generation animation technology delivers Skilled Dribbling, enabling skilled players to face defenders and use highly responsive lateral dribbling to skip past them.

* Customizable Set Pieces: Design and record your very own free kicks and corners for use on match day. Assign a specific run or movement to every outfield player on your team one at a time, and then combine them for the perfect set piece. Record, test and perfect them in the Practice Arena, then trigger in game.

* LAN Play: New for FIFA 11 PC, you will be able to host your own LAN parties and play friends online without being connected to EA servers. A dynamic server lobby will allow you to see what othergames are currently available. Elect to join a game or host your own. Matches can be played with a variety of game settings in either Classic or Be A Pro mode as well as up to 5v5 team play. Once a LAN lobby room is setup, users can chat with others via text and as well as VOIP (Voice Over IP Chat) in-game.

* PC on Football World: Go to easportsfootball.com to create your Game Face, upload your best FIFA goals, search out rivals on global PC Leaderboards and create a PC-specific Friends Lists.

* PC Specific Tools: Innovations to improve your online

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

 Operating System: Windows XP / Vista / 7

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz / Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5400+

 Memory: 1 GB (2 GB for Windows Vista / Windows 7)

 Graphic: 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 6800, ATI Radeon X1600 or better

Sound Card: Sound device compatible with DirectX ® 9.0

 Hard Disk Space: 6.5 GB available

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What does the future of display advertising look like?

This afternoon, we gave a keynote address at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s MIXX Conference in New York, entitled “Display 2015: Smart and Sexy.”

As you know by now, we’re investing significantly to make display advertising better for users, advertisers and publishers. Display advertising really is at the heart of what we’re doing at Google these days. 99 percent of our top 1,000 clients are now running campaigns on the Google Display Network. And last year, they increased their spending on display advertising by over 75 percent.

Today, we explained why we think display advertising is about to go through the biggest and most important revolution in its history. We made seven predictions about where display advertising will be in 2015:

• 50 percent of ad campaigns will include video ads bought on a cost-per-view basis (that means that the user will choose whether to watch the ad or not, and the advertiser will only pay if the user watches). That’s up from very little today.
• Today, advertisers are starting to deliver ads that are tailored to particular audiences. Many are using real-time bidding technology, so that they can bid on the ad space that they think is most valuable. In 2015, 50 percent of these ads will be bought using this real-time technology.
• With smartphone growth skyrocketing, mobile is going be the number one screen through which users engage with advertisers’ digital brands.
• Today, the “click” is the most important way that advertisers measure their display ad campaigns, but it’s not always the best measure—especially if an ad campaign is designed to boost things like brand awareness or recall. With new measurement technologies emerging, in five years, there will be five metrics that advertisers commonly regard as more important than the click.
• Just like most news articles on the web today can be commented on, shared, discussed, subscribed to and recommended, in 2015, 75 percent of ads on the web will be “social” in nature—across dozens of formats, sites and social communities.
• Rich media formats work. They enable great creativity and interaction between users and advertisers, but today they only represent about 6 percent of total display ad impressions. That will increase to 50 percent, for brand-building ad campaigns.
• All the investments that are making display advertising smarter and sexier will help publishers increase their revenues. Display advertising is going to grow to a $50 billion industry in five years.

We also wanted to visualize the face of the display advertising revolution, so we demonstrated four exciting new technologies:

• We demonstrated some new video ad formats we’ve been testing on YouTube that we’re calling “TrueView.” These will roll out later this year. These ad formats give people the option to skip an ad if they don’t want to watch, or to choose from multiple ads the one they want to watch. Importantly, advertisers only pay if the user chooses to watch their ad.
• We showed some of the things that are becoming possible with our new Teracent technology. This technology can dynamically alter the creative elements of an ad in real-time to make it more relevant and effective, depending on factors like geographic location, language, the content of the website and the time of day.
• You might be familiar with Google Goggles, a way to search the web on mobile devices just by taking a picture. We gave a preview of some experimental uses of Google Goggles that could one day enable advertisers to deliver great display ads to users. Imagine pointing your phone’s camera at an ad for a car in a magazine, and having the car appear in 3D in your mobile device. Or pointing at a movie poster and having the movie trailer play in the device, right in your hand. No QR codes, no downloads!
• We even showed a fun example of what rich media can do—our speech was broadcast live in a number of expandable ad units across the web, and was updated with tweets in real time.

We think that display advertising has a pretty exciting future and we’ll continue our work to make it even better. Thanks to everyone who came along to watch in New York, or who tuned in online. If you didn’t get a chance to see it, our speech will be available here later today.

Posted by Neal Mohan, Vice President of Product Management and Barry Salzman, Managing Director of Media & Platforms - Americas

The End of Skeptical Theism? (Part 7) - Theological and Evidential Skepticism

This post is part of my series The End of Skeptical Theism?. For an index, see here.

I am currently working my way through an article by Mark Piper entitled "Why Theists Cannot Accept Skeptical Theism". As with all entries in this series, this discussion of Rowe's evidential problem of evil is the primary reference point.

Piper's goal is to present a cumulative-case argument against skeptical theism. In the previous entry, we saw how Piper supported his claim that ST leads to unwelcome skepticism about the nature of goodness and God's relation to it. In this entry, we will consider Piper's case for the following two claims:

• (P2) ST threatens a good deal of theological knowledge;

• (P3) ST undermines any inference from supposedly good events or states of affairs to the existence of a good God.

1. Theological Skepticism

What skeptical theists want, more than anything in the world, is to create a distinction between the claims we make about the mundane world in which we live and the super-mundane realm in which God operates. Only by creating such a distinction can they undermine the key inference in Rowe's argument from evil.

But to create this distinction is, as we have been exploring, to create a sword with several theologically unwelcome edges. In particular, it seems to undermine any claims we would like to make about the nature of God. This would force many theists to reconsider their theological commitments.

If we are told that God is the kind of being who would send his son to atone for our sins, we can surely respond in a manner that echoes William Alston's brand of ST. So for example, we can say that we don't have access to all the relevant data about divine intentions; that God's ultimate plan of salvation possesses more complexity than we can handle; and that we simply do not know what schemes of atonement are metaphysically possible or necessary.

It would also, perhaps fittingly, affect Alston's ability to support his own argument from religious experience.

Alston tries to fend off this general theological skepticism by claiming that his skeptical principles only apply to negative existential claims about the super-mundane (theistic) realm. This is because Rowe's argument relies on a negative existential claim, i.e. that there is (probably) no greater good justifying observed evils.

But if you look back over Alston's list of skeptical principles, it is clear that they apply equally well to positive existential claims such as those made about the resurrection. Indeed, Piper notes that Alston never makes the argument for the limitation of skepticism to negative existential claims, he merely asserts it.



2. Evidential Skepticism
The final link in Piper's chain of argumentation is to point out the unwelcome implications of ST for typical evidential arguments for God's existence. We encountered this problem when looking at Bergmann's form of skeptical theism.

As noted by Bergmann himself, when ST is fully imbibed, we lose the ability make inferences from apparently good events or states of affairs to the existence of a good God. Piper notes that this is particularly troubling for those who take the existence of Satan seriously. After all, if we cannot know that an apparently evil state of affairs is not a necessary precursor to some ultimate good, then it is equally true that we cannot know that an apparently good state of affairs is not a necessary precursor to some ultimate evil.

The same problem applies to the historical claims of the major religions. As mentioned above, one of the central pillars of Christian belief is the belief that God became incarnate in Yeshua of Nazareth and was sacrificed for our sins. This self-sacrifice is thought to be the kind of thing we would expect from a good God. But how can we know that, if we are not allowed to make claims about what is ultimately good or bad?

That concludes Piper's initial case against ST. He goes on to consider how proponents of ST might respond to his critique. That will be covered in the next post.

Silent Hill Homecoming

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Also on: X360, PS3
Genre: Adventure
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Double Helix Konami

GAME INFO

Silent Hill: Homecoming marks the return of the series that has become one of the leading horror franchises in the world, launching a number of hit entertainment products, including a successful and acclaimed motion picture. The game follows Alex Shepherd, a war veteran returning home from an overseas tour of duty to investigate the mysterious disappearance of his younger brother, Joshua. His travels will lead him through the small, insular community of Shepherd’s Glen and eventually through the hauntingly empty streets of Silent Hill.

In Silent Hill® Homecoming, Alex Shepherd has returned to his hometown of Shepherd's Glen to investigate the sudden disappearance of his brother. From Shepherd's Glen to the foggy streets of Silent Hill, Alex will face the darkest of horrors while struggling with his own grip on reality. Alex must unravel the mystery behind his nightmares, discover the truth behind his brother's disappearance, and confront the evil that has taken hold of his soul.

FEATURES

Tension-filled story: Enter the next chapter of Silent Hill as you delve deeper in the tormented history of the town, and learn of the evil that surrounds Toluca Lake.
Next-gen graphics: From the murky fog to the ominous shadows, all-new next-gen graphics bring Silent Hill to life like never before.
Dangerous gameplay: Solve treacherous and deadly puzzles to discover the mysterious secrets behind the evil that has cursed the town of Silent Hill.
New soundtrack: Silent Hill Homecoming features an all-new soundtrack by acclaimed series composer Akira Yamaoka

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
OS: Windows XP/Vista
Processor: Intel Core 2 DUO @ 2.13 GHz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
Memory: 1 GB
Hard Drive: 10 GB free
Video Memory: 256 MB
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 7800 GT / ATI Radeon HD 2800
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
DirectX: 9.0c
DVD Rom Drive

 MEGAUPLOAD LINKS
PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
PART 4
PART 5
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5.04GB

HOTFILE LINKS
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News: Videos! Glorious videos!

Yes folks, it's that time of the month again when I get lazy to write and instead post trailers and gameplay videos to get you excited. This time round, we've got footage from Bioshock: Infinite, Bulletstorm, and a nifty trailer for a fan-made Half-Life animated short. All below the cut.

In other news, I'm playing Dead Rising 2, and it's pretty good fun. The first I've had in a long while.

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Bioshock: Infinite

The blogosphere was ablaze when Bioshock Infinite was first announced. The naysayers were all over the fact that Infinite was no longer doing the underwater thing, and Rapture was bye-bye. There are always going to be people who are unaccepting of change to their favorite game's sequels. Diablo 3 had crazy fools going apeshit over a change of lighting of all things, whilst Resident Evil 4 got flak for making the zombies look really not zombie-like. That game went on to win plenty of critics' hearts and minds. 2K's other big title in development, X-Com also got dissenters for the fact the reboot was a first-person shooter as opposed to turn-based strategy as the original X-Com was. We can't please everybody it seems.

My personal say in this is to trust 2K. They've never let us down before and I'm willing to bet the reason they can take the risk to make Infinite an entirely different setting and concept is because they've got some great ideas to follow through on. Besides, in my mind, Rapture is already like Atlantis, fully returned to the ocean, a reminder that humanity's attempt to escape the elements and reality has failed.

And, anyone still unconvinced of Infinite's awesomeness should just watch this gameplay video. The sheer scale of the world is mind-blowing.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0fDEA0BFSM&feature=player_embedded

Bulletstorm

I felt somewhat wronged when Epic never got their entire Gears of War trilogy on the PC. I'm a bit sulky about that, but Bulletstorm looks great. It's like Serious Sam with more serious attitude, more serious graphics, and more serious firepower. And definitely more serious comedy. I also quite like this sense of organic juggling of weaponry and skills.

Enemies will keep coming and it's up to you how you want to take them out. You could just shoot conventionally and they die, or you could lasso one, kick him in the butt, shoot a bouncing cannon ball, and kick that at enemies, etc. The possibilities for combos are endless, and that's what the game seems to be going for.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRbzUtlvdDk&feature=player_embedded

Unofficial fan-made Half-Life animated film trailer

Everyone wants to make this film. I think Valve has something planned too (they should be concentrating on making Episode 3!!!), but this guy beat them to the punch. It looks pretty good, and definitely something he's put effort into crafting, not just graphically but narratively. Whatever it is, the trailer's good fun. Looking forward to the final product.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm5sEaC5tBA&feature=player_embedded

The End of Skeptical Theism? (Part 6) - Goodness and a Good God

This post is part of my series The End of Skeptical Theism?. For an index, see here.

I am currently working my way through an article by Mark Piper entitled "Why Theists Cannot Accept Skeptical Theism". As with all posts in this series, this discussion of William Rowe's evidential problem of evil provides some essential background.

In the previous entry, I briefly sketched Piper's cumulative-case argument against skeptical theism. His basic idea is that those theists who accept ST lose their epistemic licence to certain key components of the religious worldview. Three specific examples are given:

• (P1) ST makes confident knowledge of our own conception of moral goodness, and confident knowledge of God's actual moral will, highly questionable and perhaps even impossible;

• (P2) ST threatens a great deal of theological knowledge;

• (P3) The epistemic limitation principles contained in ST can be consistently used in reverse, i.e. to rule off limits any attribution of good events to the will of a good God.

In this entry will consider Piper's case for P1.

1. The Problem with Goodness

In their attempt to refute the evidential problem of evil, skeptical theists argue that our cognitive limitations are such that we do not know whether there is some greater good that necessitates the existence of putative gratuitous evil. To put this more pithily, albeit esoterically, we can say that ST mandates skepticism about the possible orders and modalities of goodness and their relations to evil.

But in practice what does this skeptical thesis actually entail? Piper identifies three possibilities.

• (a) No Access to Higher Goods: It may be that there are two levels in which goodness exists: one, the mundane level, in which we live out our everyday lives; and another, the transcendental level, in which God plots, plans and acts. And it may be that we know nothing about goods in the transcendental level but know plenty about goods in the mundane level.

• (b) Misunderstanding of Hierarchical Relationships: It may be that we do not understand the proper hierarchical relationships between the different goods. Indeed, human history supplies examples of how we occasionally need to revise the hierarchical relationships that we think we have. Christians, for instance, often believe that although the law of the Old Testament has some importance, it was superseded by the values espoused by Jesus in the New Testament.

• (c) Misidentification of Goods: It may be that some things that we think to be good are not actually good in relation to some unknown goods. A potential example of this comes from our experience with racism. For a long time, it was thought that racial purity was morally commendable. This is no longer thought to be the case as it is eroded by respect for human dignity. 

Skeptical theists would prefer if (a) were the only thing entailed by ST, but clearly (b) and (c) are also entailed by the central claims of ST. After all, they are both concerned with the orders and modalities of goodness.

It is equally clear that a theist cannot endorse (b) and (c) and remain a theist. Why? Because theists must be able to claim that certain hierarchical relations exist between goods, e.g. that piety is a greater good than pleasure. Likewise, they must be able to claim that certain goods definitely exist and will not be wiped out by unknown goods, e.g. that charity and the alleviation of suffering are goods.

2. The Problem with God

There is a further difficulty associated with skepticism about the orders and modalities of goodness, namely: we cannot be certain about God's relation to goodness. Indeed, on the central claims of ST, the following are possible:

• (i) God's relation to goodness, for reasons beyond our ken, necessitates his active enjoyment of our suffering.

• (ii) God's relation to goodness, for reasons beyond our ken, necessitates his complete indifference to our welfare.

A theist will no doubt balk at these suggestions. For example, a central component of a Christian worldview is a belief that God does care for us and that he will help us to achieve salvation. But if the theist endorses ST, they cannot rule out the possibilities in (i) and (ii).

That concludes Piper's case in favour of P1. In the next entry, we will look at his case in favour of P2 and P3.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

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Also on: PS3, XBOX
Genre: Action,Adventure
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Crystal Dynamics

GAME INFO
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is the first ever co-op multiplayer action/adventure game featuring Lara Croft. This brand new adventure combines the hallmarks of the Tomb Raider franchise, including exploration and discovery, platforming, and puzzle solving combined with character progression, fun fast-paced combat, and elements of human cooperation and competition.
FEATURES
☼New Lara Croft adventure: Guardian of Light is the first download-able only title from Crystal Dynamics, and the first download-able only Lara Croft game.
☼Classic gameplay: Enjoy a classic formula of puzzles, combat, exploration, and breathtaking visuals put through the lens of an isometric fast-paced gaming experience.
☼Exploration and discovery: Use a wide range of options for solving puzzles and traversing deadly environmental traps, offering an unprecedented level of freedom to choose your own solutions and explore various paths through the dense jungles of Central America.
☼Sprawling environments: Crystal Dynamics' proprietary engine delivers sprawling environments with no load-times and unbelievable vertical gameplay through tombs reaching deep into the Earth.
☼Undead warriors: Face off against a myriad of undead warriors brought to life by the evil Xololt, including a number of boss battles that are not to be missed!
☼Co-op action: Guardian of Light is the first ever co-op multiplayer action/adventure game featuring Lara Croft with fully cooperative online and offline story mode. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light Download MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
Operating System: Windows 7 / Vista / XP
Processor: 3+ GHz Intel or 2.5+ GHz AMD
RAM: 1 GB RAM (XP) / 2 GB RAM (Vista)
Hard Disk Space: 7 GB
Video: NVIDIA GeForce 6 Series (6800GT or better) / ATI 1300XT or better
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card and drivers
DirectX: DirectX 9.0c

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F1 2010 PC Version

F1 2010 . . . Release Date : 22 September 2010
F1 2010 : Screenshot 01
F1 2010 : Screenshot 02
F1 2010 : Screenshot 03
F1 2010 : Screenshot 04

System Requirements :
OS : Windows XP/Vista/7
Processor : Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz
Memory : 1 GB RAM
Graphic card : 256 MB (GeForce 7800 or better)
HD SPace :12.5 GB Atleast

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Rogue Trooper

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Also on: Xbox, PS2, Wii

Genre: Action

Publisher: Eidos Interactive

Developer: Rebellio

GAME INFO
Rogue Trooper is a third-person shooter based on the 2000AD comic of the same name. In case you don’t follow British comic books, Rogue Trooper is a gritty sci-fi strip about a genetically engineered soldier named Rogue who fights in the perpetual war that wages on the planet of Nu Earth. It’s an interesting premise, and the story translates well into a video game, allowing for some unique gameplay mechanics. Unfortunately, the standout features in the game are negated by a stunted single-player campaign, limited multiplayer, and a handful of annoying design flaws.
The story in the game of Rogue Trooper sticks close to the comic. You play the game as Rogue, a genetic infantryman, or GI. Rogue is a special kind of soldier cloned and bred to survive the harsh conditions on the planet of Nu Earth, where two powerful factions are locked in conflict. It seems that all of the chemical weapons used in the war have taken their toll on the planet, turning it into a barren, toxic, uninhabitable wasteland. Regular soldiers have to use respirators and wear special suits just to stay alive, but Rogue and his fellow blue-skinned infantrymen are immune to the toxins, making them perfect ground troops. Rogue works for the Southers, the more affable of the two factions. His mission is to eliminate the Norts, who are the oppressive and underhanded enemy of the Southers. Although Rogue technically works for the Southers, his allegiance is to himself and his three closest squadmates.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
Intel Pentium 4 1.5GHz Processor
256MB RAM
64MB DirectX compatible 3D Video Card with Pixel and Vertex Shaders v1.1
DirectX compatible Sound Card
DirectX 9.0c
Keyboard
Mouse

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3.94GB

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BlazBlue Calamity Trigger

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Also on: X360, PS3

Genre: Fighting,Action
Publisher: Aksys Games
Developer: ARC System Works

GAME INFO
BlazBlue is the multi award winning new experience in 2D fighting making exceptional use of the Hi Res power behind the Next Gen consoles. The 3D one-on-one fighting stages and 2D Goth-Anime characters are pure over-the-top Japanese. Fighters seamlessly combo from standard attacks into specials using the four-button control scheme (weak, medium and strong attacks). Every character also has a unique special attack called a Distortion Drive. Take the fight online in lag-free player ranked matches.


FEATURES
* Stunning razor sharp high resolution fighting stage backdrops and 3D models
* 12 very individual Goth-Anime hand drawn 2D character sprites. Accessible roster of varied characters means it is easy to try each and play the one that suits you
* A plethora of defensive and offensive moves in fast, intense fighting. Including unique "Distortion Drive" individual skill based attack for each character
* Fully fleshed out adventure unfolds in optional voiced-over Story mode. It is an RPG Adventure game as well as a 2D fighter. 100,000 words of dialogue in the acclaimed Story mode, which forms the backbone of the franchise
* New to fighting? Designed so it's easy to pick-up but tough to master! Fighting system specially designed for mainstream gamer. No need to use tough multiple button combos ? easy to use single button press attacks
* Play against Xbox and PC gamers through Games For Windows in lag-free Online Multiplayer ranked or player tournaments

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
OS: Windows XP/Vista/7
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 / Core2Duo
Memory: 1GB
HDD: 10 GB available
GPU: nVidia Geforce 7900 or Radeon X1900 equivalent with DirectX 9.0C/Shader 3.0
Input: Keypad + Mouse
Other: DVD Drive

 

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Batman Arkham Asylum 2

Batman Arkham Asylum 2 . . .

Batman Arkham Asylum 2 : Screenshot 01

Batman Arkham Asylum 2 : Screenshot 02

Batman Arkham Asylum 2 : Screenshot 03

Batman Arkham Asylum 2 : Screenshot 04

System Requirements:

OS: Windows XP/Vista

Processor: 2.8GHz

Memory: 1GB

Hard Drive: 12GB

Video Memory: 256MB Atleast

Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compliant

Others: DirectX:9.0C, Keyboard, Mouse & DVD Rom Drive.

NBA 2K10

NBA 2K10 . . . Best Game For Basket Ball Lovers

NBA 2K10 : Screenshot 01

NBA 2K10 : Screenshot 02

NBA 2K10 : Screenshot 03

NBA 2K10 : Screenshot 04

Minimum System Requirements:

OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista

Processor: Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz Single Core processor or equivalent (2.8 Ghz for Vista)

RAM: 512 MB or more

Hard Drive: 10.5 GB or more

Video Memory: DirectX 9.0c compatible Atleast 128 Mb with Shader Model 3.0 support.

Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible

Others: Keyboard, mouse, Internet Connection

Important Note: Game requires Internet connection for activation