Bill Gates unplugged

(Fortune Magazine) -- Let me tell you about Bill Gates. He is different from you and me. First off, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft has always been something of a utopian. In his mind, even the world's knottiest problems can be solved if you apply enough IQ. Accordingly, Gates, who has been spotted on Seattle freeways reading a book while driving himself to the office, covets knowledge. It's as if he's still trying to make up for dropping out of Harvard, as he spends just about any spare waking minute reading, studying science texts, or watching university courses on DVD.

Some say his wealth and famous opportunism are reminiscent of the robber barons of yore. Yet here is a man who has set a goal to eradicate malaria. Rich as he is - his net worth is an estimated $50 billion - you can't call the man greedy when he has pledged to give back to humanity all but a tiny fraction of 1% of that fortune.

These traits only begin to explain why Gates, at 52, has chosen to redirect his efforts toward more altruistic pursuits. On July 1 he will step away from an operating role at Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) to devote more time to philanthropy and other interests. The shift has been on his mind for nearly a decade, and it reflects some important experiences over his lifetime.

Much is expected

Like that seminal time back in 1968 when his mother, Mary, spearheaded an effort to install a used Teletype terminal in his school so that her already autodidactic junior high schooler could teach himself how to program a mainframe. There was his epiphany when he first met fellow billionaire Warren Buffett in 1991 - and realized that it quite literally pays to follow your curiosity beyond your own area of expertise.

And there's the poignant letter his mother wrote in 1993 to his fiancée, Melinda French, cluing her in to the Gates family credo: "From those to whom much has been given, much is expected." (Mary Gates would die the next year.) That letter, in turn, led to the self-conscious irony in the slogan he and his wife hit upon for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: All lives have equal value.

The genes, the IQ, the life of privilege, and the noblesse oblige have always been there. Given that background, it makes sense that he would turn his attention and wealth to the greater good. But there is a more selfish motive in the "retirement" of Bill Gates, and one that no one should begrudge him. For the first time since he quit Harvard to start Microsoft 33 years ago, Gates is going to have the time to indulge what his father calls his "world-class curiosity."

Gates' closest friends wonder how he will exploit this new freedom. "He doesn't know for sure where his mind is going to go," says Buffett, who has donated the bulk of his own $45 billion fortune to the Gates Foundation, largely because he believes his money will be used wisely and effectively. "Not only will it be fascinating, but I think it's going to be, for me, very satisfying to watch."

"He is one of the greatest business minds of all time, and you don't just shut that off," adds Nathan Myhrvold, the former head of Microsoft's R&D labs, who still kicks around ideas with his former boss via e-mail almost daily. "My guess is we have not seen the last business idea out of Bill Gates."

Setting a curious mind free

Bill Gates 2.0 will have three offices: one at Microsoft in Redmond, a second about 15 miles away at the Gates Foundation in downtown Seattle, and a third almost exactly equidistant between the other two (and much closer to home). In typical hyper-systematic fashion, Gates has allocated blocks of time to each location: a day in Redmond, two at the foundation, and two at the personal office, which he suspects will be his real "center of gravity." There will be a lot of overlap among his three roles. That's because the guy's greatest pleasure seems to be in finding connections among things he's interested in.

The biggest change, of course, will be in his workload at Microsoft, which will drop drastically. He'll remain chairman and weigh in here and there. "Other than board meetings and consulting on projects like Internet search technology, the only things I'll do are some company visits when I'm in developing countries," he says. "Or if there's some special award for someone at a company meeting, I'll come and present it. But that's about it." (For more on how Microsoft is coping with Gates' retirement, see the accompanying story.)

The opposite will be true at the foundation. Gates' official title, which he shares with his wife and father, is co-chair, but his real role will be as the organization's chief strategic thinker. And Gates is teeming with ideas, especially about things scientific. Unlike most benefactors, he doesn't merely want to eradicate malaria and AIDS; he wants to understand the nuances of immunology. He wants to learn about what happens on a molecular scale when a plant's genes are altered to improve hardiness. He insists on knowing the precise legal reasons women in developing countries are robbed of their estates when they become widowed.

"Here's how Bill thinks," explains Myhrvold. "He is always interested in looking at big systems in the world and understanding them at every level that he can. As an example, I got this e-mail from him today as part of this whole discussion on corn prices and crop yields and shortages resulting from ethanol production, and at the end Bill says, 'I really need to understand phosphates more.'"

Another big part of his new job will be to make more public appearances and do more arm-twisting of governments and corporations to do more for the world's poor. "I'm uniquely able to reach out to the big companies, to ask them not just to write checks but to offer more of their innovative power," Gates says. "There's a big category of my time for talking to drug companies, cellphone companies, banks, and technology companies, as well as talking with other people who are lucky enough to have superbig fortunes about how they want to give those back to society."

That does not translate to fundraising - on the contrary, the foundation plans to exhaust its $100 billion endowment by the end of the century. Gates is talking about setting an example for the plutocracy. Jeff Raikes, the former Microsoft executive who was just appointed CEO of the foundation, thinks that effort could have as much impact on the world as the works of the foundation itself: "He has an incredible opportunity to help shape the thinking of other multibillionaires by getting them to think about the process, the structure, the best practices."

Gates takes pains to stress that even in his more active capacity, "I'm not the CEO of the foundation. Jeff will be the CEO." That's simply not what he wants to do with his time. "Even today people at the foundation get lots of e-mail from me, but after Sept. 1 they'll get a lot more, because now I'll be able to take courses, read more, meet more smart people, and have better ideas."

Mellowing with age

In his younger years, Gates' gimlet-eyed idealism manifested itself in stubbornness and self-righteousness, an unusual boldness, and a tendency not to suffer fools. Most people who have worked closely with him can recall more than one instance in which he reacted to a comment or idea by standing up and hissing, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life."

He hasn't lost that inclination toward intellectual arrogance. But in his philanthropic work, the shoe is sometimes on the other foot. He's not, after all, a microbiologist or a geneticist. Moreover, with age and maturity, Gates has become much better able to acknowledge what he doesn't know or when he's wrong.

"The classic CEO needs to be right, or rather needs to appear to be right more than he needs to actually be right - and that's not Bill," says his pal Myhrvold. "Lewis and Clark were lost most of the time. If your idea of exploration is to always know where you are and to be inside your zone of competence, you don't do wild new shit. You have to be confused, upset, think you're stupid. If you're not willing to do that, you can't go outside the box."

And that explains the third dimension of Bill Gates' new life - giving that "world-class curiosity" some room to run. His reading and learning have always been systematic. It's his nature. His father and sisters recall how young Bill would refuse to leave his room to come to the dinner table because he was too busy "thinking." But for many years, as he built Microsoft, his field of vision was of necessity rather narrow. One of the most important experiences that jostled him out of his single-mindedness was his first meeting with Buffett, on July 5, 1991. As Gates tells the story:

My mom called me at the office to come out to Hood Canal for a Fourth of July barbecue because she wanted me to meet Warren Buffett. And I said, "Mom, I'm working." But she insisted. So I took a helicopter so I could spend my couple of hours there and then get back quickly and work on software.

Then I met Warren, and I thought, "Oh, wow, this guy isn't just about buying and selling stocks and businesses. He is thinking about how the world works." And he asked me questions that I always wanted somebody to ask me, about why hadn't IBM (IBM, Fortune 500) been able to do what we had done, and how software gets priced, and why does one company have a defensible position. He wanted to understand the dynamics of the industry. To me it was way far away from, "What is your company worth?"

Then he explained to me about how Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) had not only changed things in its business, but how it had an effect on newspapers because they thought of their advertising differently than individual local stores had. And he talked about how banking really worked in terms of credit risk. The whole time all I could think was, "Hey, I'll be smarter about running Microsoft after I talk to this guy." And so I stayed the whole day.

Ever since then, Gates has tried to make more time to broaden his knowledge, and his capacity to absorb ideas has served Microsoft and the foundation well. But now reading, learning, and blue-sky brainstorming will be considered an integral part of his job description, and no doubt they will yield something.

Think of his third office, the one equidistant from Microsoft and the foundation, as the billionaire-adult equivalent of his own room. It's a place for him to spend time exploring his own ideas, and occasionally trying to find an appropriate entity to pursue them, whether it be Microsoft R&D or someone at the foundation or one of the foundation's many corporate and nonprofit partners. He'll focus on ideas related to his philanthropy, but he also will spend a lot of time with the staff of Ph.D.s and inventors at Intellectual Ventures (IV for short), Nathan Myhrvold's Seattle-based skunkworks for discovering patentable new technologies. Previously IV hosted brainstorming sessions for foundation scientists, and Gates is an informal member of a group of IV partners and investors with more general interests that meets regularly. He plans to participate even more frequently after July 1.

"I'm not going to create a company," Gates vows. "The foundation is the top priority. But there are some other things that I might help along. The scientific brainstorming with Nathan's group has led to a new nuclear energy startup, and I'm a funder and advisor to that thing. It won't be a huge amount of time, but the truth is, cheap energy that's environmentally friendly is a breakthrough that is more important for the poor than the rich. And the poor need fertilizer, more reliable seeds, and better agriculture too. They can't cut back their eating, because that's called starvation. So I'm investing in that."

Myhrvold loves the irony of it all: "It's so funny: Here's a guy who never went to class when his poor dad was paying the Harvard tuition, and now the sheer love of learning has sucked him back in, hard-core. It's not like he needs a job. It's not like he's thinking, 'Oh, that would look good on my résumé.'"

His place in history

It's too early, of course, to judge the legacy of Bill Gates. He's only 52. His kids aren't even out of elementary school. And he has only just stepped away from Microsoft, a company that once put IBM in its place, and which some would say is the most significant company to come along since General Electric (GE, Fortune 500).

Nor do we really know what - or even whether - Gates thinks of his place in history. As outgoing Gates Foundation CEO Patty Stonesifer puts it, "The Gateses by nature believe that the unexamined life is the one that's worth living. They don't like to talk about themselves. It's all about rational responsibility, not grand idealism."

Buffett, who knows him as well as anyone, says the notoriously competitive Gates will have to find new ways to judge his accomplishments rather than by market share or in dollars. "He'll be competing with his own standards," Buffett says. "In the end, he is going to want people to look at the Gates Foundation 100 years from now and say, 'This guy did it the way it should have been done.'"

With all he did at Microsoft, Gates has a tough act to follow. "Bringing personal computing to billions has totally changed the world, and it's changed it, net-net, way for the better," says Myhrvold. "So even before you look at what his foundation has done for Africa or for the poor, he's already done more for the good of the world than essentially anyone else in our lifetimes."

Melinda Gates isn't at all surprised by Bill's transformation from feared empire builder to enlightened philanthropist. "I think the foundation, because it's not all about business and competition, allows other dimensions of Bill's personality to come out," she says. "He's incredibly funny and has an unbelievably wry sense of humor. He also can be very emotional when he sees the pathetic living conditions of so many people. He's a genuinely nice guy. I think more of what I see at home and what we see inside the foundation will come out. That will be a really nice thing for him and for the world."

To which her husband would likely say, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life."

Just kidding.

Photographer documents spy satellites

BERKELEY, California -- For most people, photographing something that isn't there might be tough. Not so for Trevor Paglen.

His shots of 189 secret spy satellites are the subject of a new exhibit -- despite the fact that, officially speaking, the satellites don't exist. The Other Night Sky, on display at the University of California at Berkeley Art Museum through September 14, is only a small selection from the 1,500 astrophotographs Paglen has taken thus far.

In taking these photos, Paglen is trying to draw a metaphorical connection between modern government secrecy and the doctrine of the Catholic Church in Galileo's time.

"What would it mean to find these secret moons in orbit around the earth in the same way that Galileo found these moons that shouldn't exist in orbit around Jupiter?" Paglen says.

Satellites are just the latest in Paglen's photography of supposedly nonexistent subjects. To date, he's snapped haunting images of various military sites in the Nevada deserts, "torture taxis" (private planes that whisk people off to secret prisons without judicial oversight) and uniform patches from various top-secret military programs.

The nearly vertical streak in this image shows a satellite called Keyhole 12-3 crossing the sky near the constellation of Scorpio.

Photo: Trevor Paglen

While all of Paglen's projects are the result of meticulous research, he's also the first to admit that his photos aren't necessarily revelatory. That's by design. Like the blurry abstractions of his super-telephoto images showing secret military installations in Nevada, the tiny blips of satellites streaking across the night sky in his new series of photos are meant more as reminders rather than as documentation.

"I think that some of the earliest ideas in the modern period were actually from astronomy," Paglen explains. "You look at Galileo: He goes up and points his telescope up at Jupiter and finds out, hey, Jupiter has these moons."

More significant than the discovery itself, Paglen says, was the idea that anyone with a telescope could verify it and see the same exact thing that Galileo saw -- an idea Paglen is trying to re-create in his own photographs.

"It really was analogous to a certain kind of promise of democracy," says Paglen, who sees a similar anti-authoritarian premise running through his own work.

Paglen says his most recent project is the culmination of close to two years of trial-and-error experimentation with astrophotography, untold hours of fieldwork and analysis, an ongoing collaboration with amateur astronomers, and many nights in his Berkeley backyard and at California's Mono Lake.

"Lacrosse/Onyx II Passing Through Draco (USA 69)" shows the transit of another surveillance satellite.

Photo: Trevor Paglen

To capture his images, the researcher and "experimental geographer" employs a motorized mount with various combinations of telescopes and digital and large-format film cameras. Paglen uses spy-satellite data compiled by Ted Molczan -- a renowned amateur astronomer profiled by Wired magazine in 2006 -- to predict where a given "black satellite" will be in the sky. Then he decides how he wants to compose the image.

"I'll find where a star will be in the compositional plane," he says. "Then I'll use one telescope, which is attached to a webcam, to focus on that star."

With the help of a computer program that controls the mount of the telescope and keeps it focused on the heavenly body, Paglen says he can get the telescope to swivel with the Earth's rotation.

He then uses another telescope attached to a high-end digital camera for his deep-sky shots, similar to the rig he used for his desert shots.

"I'll see the satellite in the sky, kind of know where it's going to be in the frame, then I'll open the shutter and take a long exposure of the satellite passing through."

Paglen's initial interest in the government's so-called "black projects" took shape while combing through U.S. Geological Survey archives of satellite prison photos in 2002. He noticed that many of the photo frames of prison sites were missing or, in some cases, heavily edited.

"I thought: What the hell is this? We still have blank spots on maps? We've mapped the whole structure of the cosmos and the human genome, so what's this all about?" Paglen said.

Eventually, those blank spots led Paglen to other covert subjects and turned a hobby into a full-time job -- one with a decidedly political stance.

"For a time, people were getting arrested for photographing the Brooklyn Bridge," Paglen notes. "So to me, what it meant to do photography also changed. There was a new kind of politics to it -- something that was very aggressive and dangerous -- and a presumption that it would reveal some kind of truth or evidence."

Ultimately, the satellite photos are an attempt to critique that attitude. While the budget for black military operations has more than doubled in the last 10 years and the government continues to espouse the virtues of secrecy, it can't prevent interested amateur astronomers from calculating the orbital paths of spy satellites.

"The National Reconnaissance Office cannot classify Kepler's laws of planetary motion," Paglen says. "They just work ... and they're unbelievably accurate."

Regenerating Lost Cartilage

Growing cartilage: A cartilage cell grows on a textured surface coated with carbon nanotubes. Credit: Thomas Webster

The key to coaxing cells to regenerate might be to make things a little rough for them. Thomas Webster, a bioengineer at Brown University, has been developing implantable materials with nanoscale textures to mimic the roughness of living tissues.

Now, his team has found that cartilage cells can adhere to and grow more densely on a surface covered with carbon nanotubes, particularly when they are also exposed to electrical stimulation. Webster believes that surfaces incorporating carbon nanotubes, which are not only textured but are also electrically conductive, could be a promising strategy for designing cartilage implants.

Cartilage has limited ability to heal itself, so loss or injury to the cushioning tissue is a major health problem. Many research labs have developed materials that mimic the properties of cartilage, as well as scaffolds that can be seeded with cartilage cells outside the body and then implanted at the site of cartilage loss. But one of the key problems is getting a patient's native cartilage, a spongy and rather inert material that lacks its own blood supply, to attach to and integrate with an implant.

To construct a more cell-friendly surface, Webster's team used carbon nanotubes, which have a rough surface and also readily conduct electricity. The researchers mixed the nanotubes into sheets of polycarbonate urethane, an FDA-approved polymer. When they cultured cartilage cells on these sheets, the cells grew more densely on the roughened surface versus on a smooth polycarbonate surface.

Cells grew even faster when the nanotubes were electrically stimulated, although it's not clear why. "Most people believe it's changing the membrane potential of cells," Webster says, which would increase the number of calcium ions--an important cellular signal--flowing into the cell.

Why do cells seem to like rough surfaces? Webster believes that the nanostructures change the surface properties of a material, helping it attract proteins that cells stick to. His work creating a nanostructured surface for bone implants has been licensed by a startup company called Nanovis, which hopes to take it into human trials. Webster's team has also shown that cells of vascular tissue can adhere better to nano-textured surfaces, which could be used to design better vascular stents. He believes that carbon nanotubes could be incorporated into materials used to make cartilage implants.

But Jennifer Elisseeff, a tissue engineer at Johns Hopkins University, is skeptical that the current study, in which cartilage cells were grown in a single layer, has any relevance yet for cartilage regeneration. "Cartilage really needs a 3-D scaffold," she explains, and it can be difficult to translate how cells behave on a flat surface to how they behave in a three-dimensional tissue. Webster's team is currently examining whether cells grown in this way are functionally active as cartilage cells and whether they can be combined into multiple layers.

M3 with Double Clutch transmission tested

The rapid-shifting, seven-speed automated manual is as quick, but no quicker than the base six-speed.

Could this be the beginning of the end for the manual transmission? BMW’s seven-speed, double-clutch automated manual transmission is now available in the M3. This gearbox shifts quicker than possible with a manual and also has a livable, smooth-shifting automatic mode.

You already know we love BMW’s latest incarnation of its marvelous M3, this time with a mammoth, 414-hp V-8. As displayed by its ferocious test numbers and three comparison-test victories, it’s simply one of the most fun and involving cars currently on sale.

But until now, all the cars we’ve driven have been equipped with a six-speed manual as we’ve waited for the brand new seven-speed, double-clutch automated manual developed with Getrag to arrive. (BMW calls it M DCT, for M Double-Clutch Transmission with Drivelogic.)

First Double-Clutch Transmission That Can Handle 9000 RPM

Available as a $2700 option on all M3 coupes, sedans, and convertibles, M DCT is the first double-clutch transmission that can handle engine speeds up to—thank-you BMW—a screaming 9000 rpm. M DCT adds about 45 pounds, according to BMW; our 3630-pound test car weighed in 30 pounds heavier than our last manual M3 coupe.

The M DCT gearbox uses two oil-cooled, wet multi-disc clutches and operates much like other transmissions of this type, such as VW/Audi’s DSG/S tronic. One clutch engages the even gears, and the other handles the odds plus reverse. Since only one clutch is engaged at any given time, the transmission anticipates and preselects the next ratio; a gear change simply requires one clutch to release while the other engages, which means the M DCT transmission can shift quicker than a manual transmission, and it drastically reduces the power interruption between gears. Overall, first gear with M DCT is actually slightly taller than in the manual, but the rest of the ratios are shorter.

The double-clutch arrangement also enables quicker and smoother shifting than in single-clutch automated manuals, such as BMW’s own SMG found in the previous M3 and the current M5 and M6. If you’ve ever driven an SMG car, you know what we’re talking about. Even with various iterations and improvements, the current seven-speed unit found in the M5 and M6 leaves large, head-bobbing gaps in power between shifts, rendering it somewhere between annoying and unusable in full-automatic mode.

As with SMG, M DCT has a staggering 11 settings—five in automatic (D mode) and six in manual (S mode)—that determine how aggressive the shifts are, with the most brutal manual setting only available with the stability control off. Settings of four or higher mean satisfying throttle blips accompany downshifts, while one through three yield nearly imperceptible gear changes. Manual shifting is accomplished via steering-wheel-mounted shift paddles (right for upshifts, left for downshifts) or the shift lever on the center console.

Thankfully Blessed With Superb Launch Control

In case you ever get your hands on an M3 equipped with M DCT, you need to know how to experience one of the best features: launch control. Omitted from U.S. versions of the M5 and M6, launch control is thankfully now included in the M3.

With stability control switched off and the transmission in the most aggressive setting, simply push and hold the shift lever forward and a checkered flag appears in the dash display to let you know you’re in launch-control mode. At that point just flat-foot the throttle and the revs rise and hold. Using the cruise control stalk, that rpm hold point can be adjusted between 4600 and 6100 rpm to tailor the launch to the particular surface. With your foot still flat on the floor, let go of the shift lever and it executes a perfect, clutch-dump launch every time. In this mode it also upshifts automatically through the first five gears.

One caveat: M DCT won’t allow multiple, successive launches in this manner. During our runs, it required three- to five-mile cool-down runs before allowing another attempt.

But Is it Quicker?

After scouring the test results for some useful conclusion, the answer is “not really.” The M DCT car hit 60 mph in 4.3 seconds, cleared the quarter-mile in 12.7 at 113 mph, and achieved 150 mph in 26 seconds flat. Compare that to the six-speed manual’s numbers of 4.3, 12.8 at 113, and 24.3, respectively. If you zoom in even closer and look at each 10-mph increment, the two cars tradeoff which one is quicker until 120 mph when the manual starts pulling away.

Still No Replacement for the Manual

The M DCT gearbox is no doubt a technical marvel, but we don’t yet prefer it to a traditional manual.

First off, the throttle response from a standstill is annoyingly lazy. Most times we found ourselves pushing the pedal about halfway down just to get a reasonable response. When attempting to merge into busy traffic, we often used so much pedal as to hit the kickdown switch on the floorboard to get the M3 moving. And then once the clutch finally engages, you get too much acceleration and often, wheelspin. This slow clutch engagement is disconcerting and we all agree that it’s far quicker and more predictable to get a swift, predictable step-off in the manual version.

Second, when accelerating hard, there’s a fair amount of lag between the time you pull the shift paddle and when it actually upshifts. On an aggressive shift from first to second, you have to shift around 7200 rpm—nearly 1000 rpm early—to get it to change gears before the engine hits the 8400-rpm limiter. We never had this issue with SMG in the M5 and M6, and after hitting the limiter multiple times, we yearned for the manual. And when it finally does shift, it often slams into gear so violently as to upset the car.

We found the downshifts to be quicker and more acceptable, although wide-open-throttle, two-lane passing maneuvers at 55–60 mph (a seven-to-two downshift) were a bit slower than we would have liked as well.

However, the taller seventh gear does allow the engine to run about 200 rpm lower than sixth gear in the manual, which could marginally improve real-world highway fuel-economy numbers. In Europe, the double-clutch M3 gets slightly better fuel-economy figures but U.S. EPA ratings remain at 14 mpg city, 20 mpg highway for either transmission. However, automatics generally get worse fuel economy, so parity isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We saw 20–21 mpg on a relatively flat, couple-hour highway slog.

For sure, the automatic mode—other than the lazy clutch engagement on step-off—is much improved over the SMG and now perfectly acceptable. Keep it in one of the less aggressive settings and the shifts are so smooth you might miss them unless you’re paying close attention. And, unfortunately, there’s a strong demand for automatics in high-performance sports cars. But—other than the launch control feature—we think it’s far easier and more satisfying to exploit the M3’s excellent dynamics with a traditional manual, which was not necessarily what we expected.

EHICLE TYPE: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 4-passenger, 2-door coupe

PRICE AS TESTED: $69,425 (base price: $61,325)

ENGINE TYPE: DOHC 32-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, port fuel injection
Displacement: 244 cu in, 3999cc
Power (SAE net): 414 bhp @ 8300 rpm
Torque (SAE net): 295 lb-ft @ 3900 rpm

TRANSMISSION: 7-speed manual with automated shifting and clutch

DIMENSIONS:
Wheelbase: 108.7 in Length: 181.8 in Width: 71.0 in Height: 55.8 in Curb weight: 3630 lb

C/D TEST RESULTS:
Zero to 60 mph: 4.3 sec
Zero to 100 mph: 9.9 sec
Zero to 150 mph: 26.0 sec
Street start, 5–60 mph: 4.9 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 12.7 sec @ 113 mph
Top speed (governor limited): 161 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 147 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.96 g

FUEL ECONOMY:
EPA city/highway driving: 14/20 mpg

The Chismillionaire sedan - Bentley Continental Flying Spur Speed

By Ron Kiino

Since its introduction as a 2006 model, the Bentley Continental Flying Spur has delighted the well-heeled with immense performance, supreme refinement, and seemingly boundless customization. Naturally, for 2009, Bentley has done to the Flying Spur what any rational ultraluxury brand would do-given it more performance, more refinement, more customization, and, at $180,395, more bottom line.

That sum represents the standard Flying Spur, which enters '09 with a new front fascia and rear bumper, a retuned suspension, a new adaptive cruise-control system, acoustic side and rear glass, and trilaminate undertray and wheel-arch liners, the last two combining to achieve a 5 db reduction in interior noise. Inside, the Flying Spur now offers a rear bench seat with electrically adjustable outboard seats and a $6900 Naim audio system with 15 speakers and an 1100-watt amplifier.

Still spurring the all-wheel-drive Spur is a 6.0L twin-turbo W-12 good for 552 hp and 479 lb-ft. Bentley estimates 0 to 60 in 4.9 sec and a top speed of 195 mph. Want more speed? Then go for the new $204,795 Speed, whose dark-tinted front grilles, wider tail pipes, and split-spoke 20-in. alloys distinguish it from its gentler sibling.

Essentially a four-door version of the Continental GT Speed that made its debut last year, the CFS Speed gets a more potent version of the W-12 that, due to reduction in internal losses, produces 600 hp and 553 lb-ft, all of which means 0 to 60 in only 4.5 sec and a top speed of 200 mph. To complement its extra oomph, the Speed sits 0.4 in. lower than the standard CFS, uses stiffer springs and dampers, larger anti-roll bars, an upgraded Bosch 8.1 stability-control system with Dynamic mode, and the aforementioned dubs, which frame optional $16,500 carbon ceramic brakes. Those snazzy stoppers save roughly 22 lb per wheel and boast monstrous 16.5-in. front discs that could easily serve a pair of Thanksgiving turkeys. Further, the Speed sports a front subframe bolted directly to the frame (versus a rubber-mounted one for the standard car) that, with help from a retuned Servotronic steering system and stiffer rear bushings, delivers quicker, sharper turn-in and better sense of the road through the new three-spoke steering wheel. The ride is still more of a glide, but it's noticeably firmer and better suited for taming a twisty road.

After learning the price of the Speed, a friend described it as a "total waste of money." Then we went for a spin. And then another. He smiled and laughed in utter amazement. Owners, no doubt, will smile and laugh all the way to 200 mph.

2009 F150 delayed due to lack of demand

DEARBORN, Michigan — Ford Motor said Friday it will delay by two months the introduction of the redesigned 2009 Ford F-150, because an industry-wide fall-off in demand for full-size pickups means dealers likely will take longer to sell down inventories of the current 2008 model.

Ford also confirmed plans to replace the current Focus compact in North America with a new European-designed model in late 2010. The second-generation European Focus, known internally as C346, will be a truly global project, with production sourced in Germany, Spain, Russia, China, India and Argentina, among other locations. Production for North America will likely be sourced from Mexico, according to suppliers familiar with Ford's plans.

Ford confirmed the next-generation Focus "will be common with Europe, South America and Asia Pacific." It said the 2011 Focus will achieve "excellent fuel economy...through new highly efficient direct-injection engine technology and a new advanced six-speed transmission."

The current U.S. Focus, which carries the internal code C170, dates to early 1999. It received a substantial face-lift for model year 2008, but its basic underpinnings were designed and engineered more than 10 years ago.

The new European-designed Fiesta subcompact, another global Ford vehicle, is slated to go into production in Mexico in early 2010. Ford has been displaying versions of the car at auto shows around the world.

While the U.S. launch of these new small cars is still 20-30 months away, Ford is taking some immediate — and sometimes drastic — steps to slash production of large trucks, SUVs and sedans, while scrambling to increase production of smaller vehicles.

The company on Friday said it will make substantial cuts in North American production in the third and fourth quarters, most of which involves assembly of larger vehicles.

It said production of the redesigned 2009 F-150 will begin in August in Kansas City and in September in Dearborn, about two months later than originally scheduled. SUV and heavy-duty truck plants in Michigan and Kentucky will get drastic cutbacks, as will a plant in Chicago that makes the full-size Taurus and Sable sedans, as well as the new 2009 Lincoln MKS.

Regarding the changes, Ford CEO Alan Mulally observed: "We view the move to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles as permanent, and we are responding to customer demand. In the near term, we are adjusting production to the actual demand — increasing small cars and crossovers and reducing large trucks and SUVs. For the long term, we are moving fast to introduce more small cars, crossovers and fuel-efficient powertrains — including more hybrids — and we will adjust our manufacturing facilities to match our updated product lineup."

What this means to you: As old as it is, Ford's U.S. Focus is attracting many more customers this year, in large measure because it is one of the most fuel-efficient models in the company's North American portfolio. — Paul Lienert, Correspondent

Fitzy's Wicked Pissah Celtics Championship Webcast

'Surrogates' Lynn filming wraps today??????

A chase scene for the film “Surrogates’ was lensed repeatedly in Lynn’s Central Square Thursday afternoon. Item photo / Owen O'Rourke

By David Liscio / The Daily Item

LYNN - Filming of scenes from the upcoming Bruce Willis movie "Surrogates" was expected to wrap up in Lynn today after nearly a month of Hollywood-style action in the city's downtown business district.

While most Tinsel Town fans were eager for an up-close look at the machinations of moviemaking, not everyone was thrilled about the necessary parking restrictions and closed streets.

Click Here to see raw video of a motorcycle chase filmed on Exchange Street.

Click here for photo gallery from the filming of "Surrogates."

Merchants along Munroe Street where the bulk of the filming was conducted felt the sting of lost customer revenue from Wednesday through Friday.

Andrea Scalise, an aide to Mayor Edward Clancy Jr., said some of those businesses negotiated privately with the film production company regarding compensation for the inconvenience. "I don't know the particulars," she said. "I do know that some of the people whose businesses were closed during the filming were compensated."

The production also required the relocation of the city's Third Thursdays celebration from its location in Central Square to Lynn Heritage State Park on the waterfront.

According to Scalise, the film company paid for the event relocation. "They did give a donation that covered the cost of moving the event to the waterfront and gave some additional donation as well," she said, noting that the funds were paid to the Central Square Collaborative, the organization that oversees the Third Thursdays celebrations.

Although it appeared the production company would wrap up its Lynn location filming today with a motorcycle and helicopter chase scene along Andrew Street, Scalise said no final date was discussed. "They sort of left the window open for next week," she said.

Thursday's filming was centered along Munroe Street and in an alley under the elevated railroad bridge that spans Central Square. Like the day before, it involved a motorcycle pursued by two Boston police cruisers and a helicopter.

Willis was in Lynn during the late-May shooting dates but not for the June chase scenes. The film has been scheduled for release in 2009.

430 OnBoard with Michael Schumacher

430 Scuderia Drive

Ferrari 430 Scuderia Promotional Video

Nissan GB launches race academy for future GT R owners

RICKMANSWORTH, England — Nissan GB is inviting GT-R pre-order customers to attend its Race Academy, which will stage driving events in August and September at the famous Nürburgring in Germany and Silverstone Circuit in England.

Long before they get their hands on their own GT-R — the first U.K. retail deliveries aren't scheduled until next March — customers can get up close and personal with the supercar with more than 45 minutes of track time. Attendees will also have the chance to test their driving skills with a drift lesson in a Nissan 350Z.

The Race Academy program is being coordinated by Silverstone International, the new manufacturer logistics division of Silverstone Circuits. Instructors and staff from the British Grand Prix circuit will manage the events at both venues.

"The GT-R epitomizes Nissan's passion for cars, and we want to share the excitement and the thrill of the GT-R with our customers. To do that, we will give those GT-R customers the chance to spend some quality time with the car before they take delivery of theirs," said Vincent Wijnen, marketing director for Nissan GB.

Participants will spend time learning how to get the most from their GT-R on the track, and they will also be offered the opportunity to further their driving skills even more and eventually get a Motor Sport Association (MSA) approved racing license.

What this means to you: These events will give future GT-R owners a chance to unleash the supercar's potential legally on the track. — Mike Lysaght, Correspondent

Compete virtually with real racers

AACHEN, Germany — Although most gamers are happy competing against fellow racers in an online forum, iOpener Media has created a system that uses GPS data to allow gamers in a virtual world to test their skills against real live racers.

"It's clear that the next trend in gaming is going to be bringing real objects into the virtual world; playing not against other gamers but people doing the real thing," said Andy Lurling, founder of iOpener Media, as quoted by BBC News.

Thanks to real-time GPS data that is transmitted to compatible game consoles and PCs, you are able to go head-to-head with famous drivers from the comfort of your living room couch. The differential GPS (DGPS) system uses a network of base stations to correct the GPS signal, which might normally only be accurate to 10 meters. The addition of an inertial measurement unit allows accurate location identification to closer than 30 centimeters, which is plenty for the gameplay seen on popular consoles like Sony's PS3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360.

Although iOpener has no intention of building the games, it will offer virtual-reality software that combines the two worlds by creating realistic overtaking maneuvers and in-game collisions.

Some flaws in the system include the fact that famous racers like Lewis Hamilton will never see you, so they won't have to react to what you are doing. Also, when you clip a car and smash headfirst into a wall, the real car that is actually on the track continues driving unscathed.

Expect to see this technology combined with other sports like biking, rowing, skiing and snowboarding sometime in the near future.

What this means to you: We can only hope that there are some talks between Polyphony Digital, the makers of the Gran Turismo series, and the developers of this groundbreaking technology. — Mike Lysaght, Correspondent

New brand from Don Pepin for Ashton- Benchmade

By Gregory Mottola

After teaming up to create San Cristobal, Ashton Cigars has joined once again with famed cigarmaker Pepin Garcia and released a new brand called the Benchmade.

The cigar is an economy-priced Nicaraguan puro produced in Garcia's Tabacalera Cubana S.A. factory in Nicaragua.

"It's basically a value cigar made by Pepin for Ashton," said Sathya Levin, vice president of Ashton Cigars Inc. "It was a concept that we came up with — a down and dirty, no-nonsense, well-priced, medium- to full-bodied cigar."

Benchmade is constructed with mixed filler tobacco components held together by a double binder. Although the center of the cigar is packed with medium filler (a mix of long and short filler) the ends, according to Levin, are made with three-quarter-filler to help ensure that tobacco does not fall out of the foot, or that a smoker will not get tobacco flakes in his mouth.

40 things every drunkard should do before he dies

A man is, ultimately, the sum of his accomplishments.

Each culture, of course, has a different idea as to what rates as an accomplishment. Muslims, for example, put a tremendous amount of stock into making a pilgrimage to Mecca, while generations of Frenchmen have taken great pride in not tripping over their discarded rifles while fleeing the Germans.

The subculture of avid drinkers, living as we do by our own set of rules and priorities, has an entirely different idea altogether, to the degree that our notion of a goal worth achieving may well appear bad behavior or even a criminal offense to the parent culture.

I think it a sad sign of the times that, in this age of entrenched nannyism and political correctness, a person is more likely to be judged by what he refrained from doing than what he actually did. It’s no longer important that you climbed the mountain, but rather how many boulders you didn't “accidentally” dislodge and let roll down on the less daring hunkered in the valley below.

Fortunately, imbibers have historically been immune to popular opinion, so hence this list. If you manage all forty before you take a barstool at St. Gabriel’s Pearly Gate Lounge, you may feel secure in the fact that you’ve lived a rich and full life, even if only the boys and girls down at happy hour think so. And when you do belly up to that big open bar in the sky and the bartender asks: “What sort of life did you lead?” you can look him right in the eye and say, “Gabe, baby, I’m glad this is eternity, because I’ve got a helluva lot of stories to tell.”

1.) Open and close a bar.
Find one that opens its doors before noon. Stake out a comfortable seat and hunker down. Resist informing the bartender of your tremendous plan, as this will cause him to pour waves of pre-celebratory shots and you won’t survive happy hour. Pacing is everything. Watch the crowds come and go, watch bartenders rise, reign and fade while you remain like a cagey Methuselah. From that day forward, within the walls of that bar at least, your name will be legend.

2.) Go on a bender.
I don’t mean a weekend binge. I’m talking a full-bore, hooch-bent, screw-work hoolihan. Dangerous, yes, but so is getting out of bed in the morning. True benders have gone the way of the snap brim fedora, which makes them all the greater currency in the world of drunks. It won’t be easy. You must start drinking the moment you wake up and carry on until you go under. Then start over again. In your grandfather’s day you had to drink two weeks straight before you could officially declare yourself on a proper jag, but that’s when a mug of beer cost a nickel. These days four straight days and nights will give you all the bragging rights you need.

3.) Drink a fifth of hard liquor, by yourself, in one day.
For some this is a typical evening, the rest will have to try harder. Unplug the phone, don’t answer the door and get down with your bad self. Stock up on ice, gather mixers if you need them, crack the seal and, inch by inch, take that proud bottle down. Take your own sweet time. Near the bottom you will discover a rich inner landscape you thought a barren desert. Explore it.

4.) Dance like a fool in front of a large hooting crowd.
Cast aside your fear of public opinion, march to the center of the room’s attention and boogie down. You don’t need a partner, you don’t even need music, do a happy jig to the beat of your own drum. Of course, it helps to be really really drunk.

5.) Spend a night in the drunk tank.
While getting captured by the Man goes against the most primal of drunkard instincts, if you’re putting your time and liquor in, it’s going to happen. Make the most of the experience. Pretend you’re Cool Hand Luke. And don’t refrain from telling your friends: Among drunks, the real ones anyway, a night in the tank is a very large feather in the drinking cap.

6.) Get drunk on the grave of your hero.
Wait until the cemetery closes for the night, then slip over the fence with a bottle of something strong. Prop your back against the gravestone and tell your hero how much he inspired you, how he changed your life, revel in the fact that your inspiration is only six feet of hard-packed earth away. It’ll be the greatest one-sided conversation you’ll ever have. Then pass out. Let the groundskeeper be your alarm clock.

7.) Buy a crowded bar a round.
For no reason at all. Jump up on a barstool and shout it loud: “A round for the house! On me!” Make sure you have a good toast ready, because, for once, they’ll all be listening.

8.) Embark on an impromptu road trip.
Out of the blue, propose a trip to Las Vegas, New Orleans, Jack Kerouac’s grave or, for the love of God, the Two-Headed Cattle Museum. It doesn’t really matter where, the joy is in the journey. There’s nothing like a sudden burst of irresponsible freedom to shake up your worldview. It will be an adventure you’ll never forget or get tired of talking about.

9.) Get 86’d from a bar.
There are generally two types of drunkards in the world: Those that get 86’d a lot and those who never do. If you’re the latter, you’re missing out on a very special feeling. A man with any character at all must have enemies and places he is not welcome—in the end we are not only defined by our friends, but also those aligned against us. So choose the type of bar you loathe. Get remorselessly smashed on tequila. Let your lizard brain do your talking. Splash the kerosene, drop the match and watch the bridge burn. Few sentences in the English language bespeak a mysterious dark side than: “I’m not allowed in there. And, quite frankly, I don’t blame them.”

10.) Extravagantly overtip a bartender.
The next time a bartender is especially kind or proficient, lay a massive tip on her. I mean, massive. You must be relatively sober or they’ll discount the act as drunken foolishness. Say something smooth like, “You’re the best of your kind,” drop the bomb, and—this is important—walk out of the bar without another word. With this single act of unexpected generosity, you will restore a bartender’s faith in humanity and give your own self-image a healthy boost.

11.) Walk up to an attractive stranger way out of your league and buy him or her a drink.
You always wanted to do it. You’ve enviously watched your smooth friends do it. Now it’s your turn. The fear is nowhere proportionate to the risk to your ego (she’s out of your league, remember?), yet it still requires a certain amount of courage. It’s akin to sticking your hand down into the garbage disposal. The thing isn’t going to turn on by itself, but still...

12.) Conspire an afterhours at your favorite bar.
I’m not talking about them letting you have a quick one in the back while they’re cleaning up. I’m talking about drinking until the sun creeps through the shut blinds. It takes a lot of time and tips to earn the privilege, but there’s nothing quite like it.

13.) Make your best friend a perfect martini.
I mean perfect. Employ the proper utensils and the highest-end liquor you can afford. Follow an old-school recipe and take your time. You know how a handmade present from a child always warms the heart of a parent more than the most expensive gift? Same deal. Just a little something for all the times your pal bailed you out. And after your friend has enjoyed your sublime creation, make yourself one, you magnificent bastard.

14.) Buy, build or steal a home bar.
Put the well right in your home. Outfit it with many sparkling bottles, accruement and tools. Sit on your barstool with a grossly over-poured cocktail and think: “This is my bar. No one can cut me off, no one can kick me out, none but the floor can announce last call.” You’ve been a sharecropper long enough. Get your own plot of land.

15.) Get carried home by your drinking buddies.
In the company of friends you can trust, get fantastically loaded to the point you cannot stand, nevermind walk. Let them brace you from both sides and carry you homeward. Sing like an Irish uncle. Swear love and fealty to your human crutches. These are the bonds that never break.

16.) Get drunk with your father.
Getting loaded with the man who brought you into this world is one of the most deeply mystical experiences a human being can manage. If you can’t get your father to commit, find an elder you respect.

17.) Fight a good fight.
Samuel Johnson said “Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.” Men who go to their graves without ever getting into a fistfight undoubtedly feel the same way. How many times have you gone home thinking, “Damn, I should have clocked that asshole.” Next time, do it. Swing first, swing hard, and make sure you’re in the right. You may not win, but at least you were in there swinging. Fear of losing a fight never stopped Bukowski and neither should it stop you.

18.) Visit the source of your favorite beer, wine or liquor.
Make a pilgrimage to the headwaters. Follow the river that’s fed you joy to its source. Stand amongst the vats and barrels and absorb the knowledge that this is the spring from which the good times flow. Drink as many free samples as they’ll give you. It might mean a trip to Dublin or Tennessee, but from that moment on you can gaze into your glass and think, “Lad, I met your mother.”

19.) Drunkenly watch the sun come up with your best boozing buddies and a bottle.
You’ve spent plenty of time railing against the dying of the light, this time welcome its birth. With a shot.

20.) Sit in on an A.A. meeting.
Not all accomplishments are rum and games. File this under the heading of facing your fears. Just as Jonah found enlightenment in the belly of a beast, so will you. You may come to look at it as a sober examination of the safety net (or trampoline, as the case may be). You may view it as a cautionary trip to hell. Either way, you’ll never have to wonder again.

21.) Hit a dozen bars in one night.
Make like Marco Polo. Instead of eating one lousy apple, take a bite out of a dozen exotic fruits. Chase the ever elusive good time. A rolling stone gathers no bar tabs.

22.) Try at least one hundred different drinks.
Too often we drunks get trapped in a rut, forgetting there is a wide and golden world of forgotten cocktails, strangely-hued beers, mysterious liquors and wines from places we cannot pronounce. Explore the world from your barstool. One need only thumb through a bartender’s guide to realize how wide that world is. And when you return to your rut, and you probably will, you’ll appreciate just how good home can be after months on the road.

23.) Get loaded in the land of your forefathers.
An effortless task for Europeans, a broad leap of faith for we colonials. Return to the land from whence your blood sprang, sit down to drinks with those your bold forefathers left behind. And for godsakes, don’t order a Bud.

24.) Juice on the job.
You will never comprehend just how pleasurable the workaday grind can be until you bring your old chum alcohol along. You don’t have to get boss-punching drunk, just sneak enough to loosen up that tight harness. It’ll make you wish you worked for a drinking magazine.

25.) Split a magnum of expensive champagne with your true love.
Do it up like F. Scott and Zelda before they went crazy. Realize that this is one of the precious few times you can get swizzled in front of your better half and she’ll think it’s wonderfully romantic.

26.) Give a hobo twenty bucks.
Make him promise he’s going to spend it on hooch. It won’t be a hard sell. Twenty bucks is the price of a crappy shirt to you, to our alley brethren it’s a gift from the gods.

27.) Get loaded and tell your boss exactly how you feel.
It could go down at the company picnic, the Christmas party, or maybe, if you’re really going after Accomplishment #24, right at the office. It’s tremendously cathartic. Years of stress and bitterness will drop from your shoulders and for the first time, after you’re done unloading, you will see your employer as an actual human being. You may very well get fired, but hey, if you’re angry enough to go berserk on your boss, you need to get a new job anyway.

28.) Send a friend a bottle of good liquor.
Apropos of nothing and don’t tell him it’s coming. Attach a card reading: “Tonight the drinks are on me.” He will never forget it. There is no better feeling than unexpected free booze.

29.) Eat a pickled egg from the big jar.
A bar must own a certain amount of character to carry the big jar. Maybe you’ve seen one. A jar large enough to hold Jay Leno’s head, populated with slightly off-color eggs floating in a murky fluid. You always wondered what they tasted like and it’s time to find out.

30.) Go on a fishing trip with your pals.
Ensure you bring enough beer and liquor to paralyze the nation of Liechtenstein. Fishing tackle is optional. Drink near a body of water (you don’t actually have to come in contact or even see the water, but it should be nearby), then, when night falls, build a huge campfire. There is nothing more conducive to male bonding and rampant drinking than a campfire. Trust me, strip clubs come in a distant second.

31.) Eat the worm.
It’s a cliche, but so are strippers at a bachelor party. It must be done. The last thing you want to do is mutter a half-hearted lie to your grand kids when they squeal, “Gramps, did you eat the worm?”

32.) Learn at least one traditional drinking song.
Ethnically fractured and mixed as we are, we colonials have lost the art of the booze ballad. Watch a European football match on television and first thing you notice is the fans know one hell of a lot of songs. All we Yanks can manage is the “Na-na-na” song and chants of “De-fense!” Sure, we all know the words of Ring of Fire by rote, but what of The Pub with No Beer, My Lip Is on the Cup, and Drunk Last Night, Drunk the Night Before? Also, there’s nothing like a table of drunks bellowing an unidentifiable song in unison to scare the bejesus out of the bar staff.

33.) Steal some booze.
Against the law? Sure. A hell of a rush? Absolutely. Of course, not getting caught is very important. Plan well. Nothing tastes quite so sweet.

34.) Spend half a paycheck on a single bottle of liquor.
So much money for so little booze. We’ve spent our lives learning the art of getting the most stagger out of the smallest investment. We’ve heard rumors of those insanely expensive bottles, but they might as well sell them on Mars. Out of spite, you’ve probably told yourself: “Screw that—booze is booze. What’s it gonna do, get me five times drunker?” In a better world, maybe. Depending upon the sensitivity of your palette, however, you may come to understand that the rich really do have it better than us. And when I say better, I mean they can afford better booze.

35.) Start your long-awaited and very personal autobiography: Me and the Booze: A Love Story.
You don’t have to finish it. Very few do. The point is, the very act of starting an autobiography means you think you’ve lived an exciting enough life to deserve one. Strive for that day.

36.) Try absinthe.
Do the full ritual with the spoon and sugar. Drink enough to feel the full effect. Stroll the path that Hemingway, Van Gogh, Degas, F. Scott, and myriad other geniuses spent their lives pounding flat. Just don’t cut your ear off.

37.) Watch the movie Barfly with five of your closest friends.
Without a doubt the finest drinking movie ever put to celluloid. Make sure there’s plenty of booze on hand because you’ll want to drink along.

38.) Work at least a week as a bartender.
You’ll never fully understand the drinking culture as a whole until you’ve spent some time on the supply side of the wood. The empathy it will lever into your psyche will change your bar behavior forever.

39.) Make your own beer, wine or moonshine.
There are fewer finer feelings in the world than to nurture booze from it’s humble, evil-tasting origins to something you can get hammered on. Just expect to repeat these words over and over again when you go mad on the blood of your creation: “I made this! Me! And now I’m drinking it! Woo-hoo!”

40.) Go to your place of worship loaded.
Not so loaded they’ll finger you as a walking incarnation of Demon Rum, just enough to make the droning sermons lip-bitingly hilarious. It’s often said that liquor can bring you closer to God, so just think how close you’ll be when you’re hammered in his house.

—Frank Rich

(The author would like to thank Luke Schmaltz and Padraig Tilbury for their contributions to his list.)

ASUS ARES CG6155 gaming PC: 4.0GHz QX9650, GeForce GTX280, bragging rights

What's that, Acer? Your vicious Predator not feel so dominant now? ASUS just dropped a bombshell with the official release of the ARES CG6150 that first surfaced at CeBIT, and for gamers who accept nothing less than cutting edge, this is your rig. From the top, we've got an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 (overclockable to 4.0GHz) processor, NVIDIA's nForce 790i Ultra SLI chipset, up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM, a 3-way SLI setup with GeForce GTX280s, up to 4TB of HDD space, a Blu-ray optical drive, twin gigabit Ethernet jacks, two power supplies and a custom liquid cooling arrangement. ASUS is being tight-lipped (as usual) with pricing / release information, but let's just assume you'll need a serious stack of Benjamins to even sniff this beast.

• ASUS ARES CG6155–The Ultimate Gaming Powerhouse

2010 Jaguar XJ Update

BY RAY HUTTON, TONY QUIROGA, AND JUERGEN ZOELLTER, ILLUSTRATION BY MOTOR FORECAST
June 2008

What it is: Jaguar’s restyled version of the slow-selling sedan. In this chapter, long-running Brit traditions are tossed in the dustbin and replaced with a design inspired by the company’s new style indicator, the XF.

Why it’s important: Sales in the U.S. are circling the loo. Now that Indian conglomerate Tata owns Jag, the company will need fresh models to spice up the brand.

Platform: The lightweight aluminum structure of the current XJ soldiers on with only minor changes to accommodate the new body.

Powertrain: New direct-injection versions of the existing Jaguar V-8 engine. Base versions should make 350 horsepower. The supercharged engine is bumped to 5.0 liters and 500 horsepower.

Competition: Audi A8, BMW 7-series, Lexus LS460, Mercedes-Benz S-class.

What might go wrong: New looks could turn off stuffy traditionalists, whereas potential converts might not even notice. Also, the uncertainty surrounding Jaguar’s long-term future could undermine sales.

Estimated arrival and cost: Production is to begin at the end of 2009 with an on-sale date at the start of 2010. Pricing should remain in line with the current XJ’s, at $65,000 to $90,000.

Moog to supply F1 simulator to Ferrari

EAST AURORA, New York — Moog Inc., the maker of precision control components used in military and industrial applications, has been selected by Scuderia Ferrari to engineer a next-generation Formula One driving simulator for the team's Maranello headquarters.

Moog won the contract to provide engineering, design, development and deployment of the system. The simulator will include a customized motion control solution with combined motion mechanism, control loading system, complete software package, top platform and dedicated operator workstation.

"The dynamic driving simulator is a new step for us in developing virtual tests that give drivers the true feel of a real environment and direct feedback on their actions," said Marco Fainello, head of the Car Performance and R&D department for Scuderia Ferrari. "This dynamic driving simulator will support the new breed of tests we are planning to launch to support our future success."

Moog is a global leader in the design and development of electric and hydraulic motion platforms, and its systems control everything from medical equipment to space vehicles.

What this means to you: You won't be seeing this advanced driving simulator at an arcade any time soon — and who could afford the $50,000-per-game fee anyway? — Mike Lysaght, Correspondent

Good old Beach Van Damme

The Surrogates: Filming in Lynn 6/19/2008

I have so many pictures and video. This is my first attempt to editing this video!!



















































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