return of arc Intels second-generation Arc B580 GPU beats Nvidias RTX 4060 for $249 Intel's dedicated GPUs are back for another round, and they're aiming for 1440p. Andrew Cunningham Dec 3, 2024 3:56 pm | 8 Intel's next-gen B-series dedicated GPUs are launching soon, with the decidedly midrange B500-series cards out in front. Credit: Intel Intel's next-gen B-series dedicated GPUs are launching soon, with the decidedly midrange B500-series cards out in front. Credit: Intel Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreTurnover at the top of the company isn't stopping Intel from launching new products: Today the company is announcing the first of its next-generation B-series Intel Arc GPUs, the Arc B580 and Arc B570.Both are decidedly midrange graphics cards that will compete with the likes of Nvidia's GeForce RTX 4060 and AMD's RX 7600 series, but Intel is pricing them competitively: $249 for a B580 with 12GB of RAM and $219 for a B570 with 10GB of RAM. The B580 launches on December 13, while the B570 won't be available until January 16.The two cards are Intel's first dedicated GPUs based on its next-generation "Battlemage" architecture, a successor to the "Alchemist" architecture used in the A-series cards. Intel's Core Ultra 200 laptop processors were its first products to ship with Battlemage, though they used an integrated version with fewer of Intel's Xe cores and no dedicated memory. Both B-series GPUs use silicon manufactured on a 5 nm TSMC process, an upgrade from the 6 nm process used for the A-series; as of this writing, no integrated or dedicated Arc GPUs have been manufactured by one of Intel's factories.Both cards use a single 8-pin power connector, at least in Intel's reference design; Intel is offering a first-party limited-edition version of the B580, while it looks like partners like Asus, ASRock, Gunnir, Maxsun, Onix, and Sparkle will be responsible for the B570. The Arc B580 will be available in a limited-edition design from Intel. Intel The Arc B580 will be available in a limited-edition design from Intel. Intel Intel's partners will handle the other cards, including all versions of the B570. The B580 and B570 will launch for $249 and $219, respectively. Intel Intel's partners will handle the other cards, including all versions of the B570. The B580 and B570 will launch for $249 and $219, respectively. Intel The Arc B580 will be available in a limited-edition design from Intel. Intel Intel's partners will handle the other cards, including all versions of the B570. The B580 and B570 will launch for $249 and $219, respectively. Intel Compared to the original Arc GPUs, both Battlemage cards should benefit from the work Intel has put into its graphics drivers over the last two yearsa combination of performance improvements plus translation layers for older versions of DirectX have all improved Arc's performance quite a bit in older games since late 2022. Hopefully buyers won't need to wait months or years to get good performance out of the Battlemage cards.The new cards also come with XeSS 2, the next-generation version of Intel's upscaling technology (analogous to DLSS for Nvidia cards and FSR for AMD's). Like DLSS 3 and FSR 3, one of XeSS 2's main additions is a frame-generation feature that can interpolate additional frames to insert between the frames that are actually being rendered by the graphics card. These kinds of technologies tend to work best when the cards are already running at a reasonably high frame rate, but when they're working well, they can lead to smoother-looking gameplay. A related technology, Xe Low Latency, aims to reduce the increase in latency that comes with frame-generation technologies, similar to Nvidia's Reflex and AMD's Anti-Lag.Targeting 8GB GPUsBoth the Nvidia and AMD cards in this sub-$300 price range top out at 8GB of RAM, something Intel is targeting with its marketing for the new cards. When Intel says the B580 performs about 10 percent better on average than the RTX 4060, it's running those tests at 1440p, a resolution where games will begin running into that 8GB RAM limit more regularly than they will at 1080p.Nvidia's cheapest current-gen card with more than 8GB of RAM is the 16GB version of the 4060 Ti (roughly $450 as of this writing), while AMD offers a 16GB version of the less-powerful RX 7600 XT for around $320. The Intel cards offer less RAM than this but undercut them significantly on price while still providing more than 8GB. Intel says the B580 is about 10 percent faster than the RTX 4060, at least at 1440p. Intel Intel says the B580 is about 10 percent faster than the RTX 4060, at least at 1440p. Intel The B580 is also about 24 percent faster than the Arc A750 at 1440p, though we don't know whether to expect a B750 or B770. Intel The B580 is also about 24 percent faster than the Arc A750 at 1440p, though we don't know whether to expect a B750 or B770. Intel Intel is aiming for performance-per-dollar here, particularly when it comes to ray-traced performance. Intel Intel is aiming for performance-per-dollar here, particularly when it comes to ray-traced performance. Intel The B580 is also about 24 percent faster than the Arc A750 at 1440p, though we don't know whether to expect a B750 or B770. Intel Intel is aiming for performance-per-dollar here, particularly when it comes to ray-traced performance. Intel Intel's promotional slides point out that this RAM bump is particularly relevant when ray tracing is turned on and can make the difference between the Arc card running behind the RTX 4060 and running ahead of it. (Intel also points out that its midrange ray-tracing performance is a significant step up over AMD's.)Generation over generation, Intel claims that the B580 is around 24 percent faster on average than the last-generation Arc A750, another 8GB card. Intel didn't provide performance comparisons to the 16GB Arc A770 card, although we'll compare the two cards in our review.Intel isn't talking about any other B-series GPUs today, but launching the 500-series cards first implies that we could see B700-series GPUs at some point next year that attempt to compete with higher-end Nvidia cards like the 4060 Ti or 4070. That said, Nvidia is expected to begin launching the RTX 5000 series early next year, so Nvidia's midrange lineup is a bit of a moving target at the moment. Listing image: Intel Andrew CunninghamSenior Technology ReporterAndrew CunninghamSenior Technology Reporter Andrew is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica, with a focus on consumer tech including computer hardware and in-depth reviews of operating systems like Windows and macOS. Andrew lives in Philadelphia and co-hosts a weekly book podcast called Overdue. 8 Comments Prev story

The universe is even weirder than youd expectandrey_l/ShutterstockThe following is an extract from our Lost in Space-Time newsletter. Each month, we hand over the keyboard to a physicist or mathematician to tell you about fascinating ideas from their corner of the universe. You can sign up for Lost in Space-Time here.Does your workday ever include picking fights about whether empty space is actually empty or whether time is an illusion? Has a co-worker ever told you that youve caused them emotional pain by discussing concepts from quantum field theory? Welcome to the life of a

HumansRecent fossil finds suggest that big brains weren't an evolutionary asset to our ancestors but evolved by accident and are likely to shrink again in the near future 8 July 2024 adobe stock/Phoebe WattsNobody doubts that Albert Einstein had a brilliant mind. But the Nobel prizewinner, famous for his theories of special and general relativity, wasnt blessed with a big brain. It was smaller than average, says Jeremy DeSilva at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.This seems surprising. Big brains are a defining feature of human anatomy, and one we are proud of. Other species might be speedy or powerful, but we thrive using the ingenuity that comes with a large brain. Or so we tell ourselves. Einsteins brain hints that the story isnt so simple and recent fossil discoveries confirm this. Over the past two decades, we have learned that small-brained hominin species survived on Earth long after big-brained ones appeared. Moreover, evidence is growing that they were behaviourally sophisticated. Some, for instance, made complex stone tools that could probably only have been fashioned by individuals with language.These discoveries turn the question of human brain evolution on its head. Why would selection favour big brains when small-brained humans can survive on the landscape? says DeSilva. Neural tissue consumes lots of energy, so big brains must surely have brought benefits to the few species that evolved them. But what?An answer to this puzzle is beginning to emerge. It looks like brain expansion began as an evolutionary accident and then led to changes that caused this growth to spiral. Surprisingly, the sorts of changes that drove this expansion could also explain a more recent 10 per cent reduction in human brain size. Whats more, this suggests our brains may shrink further still and might even cause humanitys demise.It is undeniable that

Armie Hammer's cameo in a new music video this week marks his first acting appearance since 2022.In 2021, the actor was accused of sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and having cannibalistic fantasies.In the music video released Monday, Hammer plays a character called "Kannibal Ken."Armie Hammer played a character called "Kannibal Ken" in a new music video released on Monday. The cameo comes three years after his career was tanked due to allegations of sexual assault and cannibalistic fantasies.The cameo seems to be Hammer's latest move in his career comeback, following the launch of a podcast in October.The music video featuring Hammer is for the song "Typical Squeeze" by Georgie Leahy, a British actor and singer. It's Hammer's first acting role since 2022's "Death of the Nile," filmed in 2019.While Leahy and Hammer don't seem to have an obvious relationship, the music video director, Jerry Brunskill, is a friend of Hammer's and the producer of his podcast. The video was also shot in Ramsey Art Gallery, owned by another friend of Hammer's and guest on the podcast, Tyler Ramsey.In the video, Hammer jumps out of the trunk of a car that Leahy is driving, causing her to scream and flip the car over. As the car flips, severed limbs fall out of the vehicle.The scene and Hammer's character name, as it appears in the video's official Youtube credits, seem to be referencing the allegations made against Hammer in 2021.In 2021, Hammer faced backlash after a woman accused him of sexual assault, and two others alleged emotional abuse and sexual coercion involving cannibalistic and BDSM fetishes.In March 2021, The Los Angeles Police Department opened an investigation into the sexual assault.Following the allegations, Hammer was dropped by his talent agency and publicist. He also left two movie projects and a TV series.Hammer told Air Mail in 2023 that he was emotionally abusive to his accusers but has denied the other allegations. In 2023, the LAPD closed their investigation saying that there was insufficient evidence to charge Hammer.After three years of laying low, Hammer is trying to re-enter the entertainment industry. Armie Hammer in 2019. Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images In June, Hammer said on the "Painful Lessons" podcast that he had written a script with a friend, which he hopes to turn into his next project.Hammer also launched his own podcast in October, "The Armie HammerTime Podcast" as "a chronicling of putting my life back together." In the first episode, he told listeners he "kind of likes" the cannibalism rumors because it makes "more noise."Two days later, Deadline reported Hammer had been cast in a film, "Frontier Crucible."Lauren Beeching, a crisis management expert based in London, told Business Insider in October that Hammer's comeback tour won't work unless he shows his audience that he has changed."Without addressing the serious allegations, it's probably going to appear more like a distraction than a genuine comeback," Beeching said. "Listeners will need to believe that he's learned and changed for them to fully invest in this journey."

A lawsuit says Apple invades the privacy of employees by monitoring personal devices.The lawsuit also claims Apple's policies suppress employee rights and whistleblowing.The suit was filed by an Apple worker who says it barred him from publicly discussing his work.A lawsuit says Apple illegally limits the freedom of employees by monitoring personal devices andiCloud accountsand prohibiting them from talking about their pay and working conditions.The complaint was filed on Monday in the California Superior Court in Santa Clara County by Amar Bhakta. The suit says Bhakta has worked for Apple in digital advertising tech and operations since 2020."Apple's surveillance policies and practices chill, and thus also unlawfully restrain, employee whistleblowing, competition, freedom of employee movement in the job market, and freedom of speech," the suit says.It also claims the smartphone maker "actively discourages" using iCloud accounts only for work."If you use your personal account on an Apple-managed or Apple-owned iPhone, iPad or computer, any data stored on the device (including emails, photos, video, notes and more), are subject to search by Apple," the lawsuit quotes Apple company policy as saying.The lawsuit says that Bhakta was barred from discussing his work in podcasts and was asked to delete information about his working conditions from his LinkedIn profile.Bhakta filed the suit under the Private Attorneys General Act, which authorizes workers to sue on behalf of the State of California for labor violations.He is being represented by Outten & Golden and Baker, Dolinko & Schwartz.Outten & Golden is also representing two women suing Apple in a suit saying the company paid more than 12,000 female workers in California less than male colleagues with similar roles."All California employees have the right to speak about their wages and working conditions," Jahan Sagafi, a partner at Outten & Golden, said in a press release about Bhakta's case."Apple's broad speech suppression policies create a danger of discrimination going unchallenged far too long, which harms all Apple employees and Californians in general," he added.Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Kash Patel, Donald Trumps pick to direct the Federal Bureau of Intelligence, has never served in the FBI. But he has hosted Steve Bannons podcast.Patel is a contributor at Real Americas Voice, the right-wing news network that produces Bannons show War Room, and has long appeared as a guest on the show. After top Trump adviser Bannon was imprisoned for four months earlier this year on charges of contempt of Congress after he refused to comply with a January 6 Committee subpoena Patel stepped up to serve as an occasional guest host.To try and understand Patel better, I listened to every episode and clip tagged with Kash Patel on the War Room website and a few others that Bannons team missed. The overwhelming impression is that Patel is a man whose entire worldview revolves around paranoid conspiracy theories specifically, conspiracies against both America and Trump, which for him are one and the same. Its a specific kind of obsession that reminds me of the FBIs first director: J. Edgar Hoover, a man who infamously abused his power to persecute political enemies.During his various appearances on Bannons show, Patel and/or his interviewees declared that:China is funding the Democratic Party and sending military-aged males across the Mexican and Canadian borders to prepare for a preemptive strike.Barack Obama directs a shadow network that is quietly directing the intelligence community and Big Tech to persecute Trump.Attorney General Merrick Garland wants to throw all of us which is to say, Trump allies in prison.And Patel is willing to go to extreme measures in response to these alleged threats.In one episode, he called on the Republican majority in Congress to unilaterally arrest Garland invoking an obscure legal doctrine called inherent contempt that has never been used in this fashion in the entirety of American history. In another, he outlined a plan for a MAGA blitz of American institutions focused on getting loyalists into high office.It is hard to tell whether Patel genuinely believes this stuff or is merely performing for Bannons audience. But its largely immaterial. Because it is this performance that made him a star in Trumpworld: his willingness to ape Trumps own conspiratorial worldview making him into a person Trump wants to be in charge of Americas domestic security services. Once in power, his stated commitment to these beliefs whatever he thinks privately will push him to act in line with them.Patel, in short, is the kind of man who could become Trumps Hoover: a man willing to push federal law enforcement into dangerously anti-democratic territory in pursuit of alleged domestic enemies.The world according to Kash PatelPatel owes his career to Russiagate: the seemingly never-ending fight over whether the 2016 Trump campaign colluded with Russian efforts to interfere in American elections. Patel worked as a staffer for then-Rep. Devin Nunes, the Republican chair of the House subcommittee on intelligence and Trumps chief defender during the controversy. Patel authored the famous 2018 Nunes memo arguing that the FBI application to surveil Trump campaign adviser Carter Page was filled with errors and motivated by political bias.The memo got more right than many observers (including myself) gave it credit for at the time though it did get the bigger picture about FBI bias wrong. Regardless, the incident turned Patel into a Trumpworld star. He ascended to several high-level positions in the first Trump administration relating to defense, national security, and intelligence.These experiences have given Patel a worldview that I think is best defined as paranoid.Patel believes that foreign enemies ranging from China to Iran to drug cartels are doing their best to infiltrate the United States and wreak havoc on its homeland. Only Trump has the strength and the fortitude to stand up against these enemies and defend American allies like Israel.The Democrats, he believes, do not just disagree with Trump on how to handle these threats: They are actively aligned with Americas enemies.In one War Room segment, for example, Patel hosted a discredited China expert named Gordon Chang to warn that China was planning an attack on our facilities on our soil. But its worse than that, Chang argued: China had installed Joe Biden as the president of the United States.They were actually able to cast the decisive vote in 2020, Chang told Patel, claiming without evidence that China poured money into Joe Bidens campaign through the Democratic crowdfunding platform ActBlue. Patels response was not skepticism but credulity: I hope people are paying attention.But Democrats are not merely unwitting cats paws of foreign powers, per Patel: They are nefarious actors aiming to tear down American democracy.One of Patels favorite phrases, one that he uses again and again on Bannons show, is two-tiered system of justice. In his mind, federal law enforcement employs two distinct standards one for the deep states friends and another for its enemies. Its allies, like the Bidens, receive only limited and superficial scrutiny, while its enemies are constantly harassed and persecuted. The four prosecutions of Trump, for Patel, are not legitimate inquiries into wrongdoing and abuses of power, but rather agents of a corrupt system lashing out at the one man who threatens their grip on America.For this reason, Patel has an enemies list literally. His book Government Gangsters, which he is constantly hawking on War Room, contains an appendix listing dozens of names that comprise the executive branch deep state. The list ranges from names of people you know, like Vice President Kamala Harris, to people youve never heard of, like a former State Department diplomat named Elizabeth Dibble.Patels potential power perversionsIf this all reminds you of the most infamous director of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover well, it should. The two men share a dangerous tendency to link enemies foreign and domestic, and a willingness to entertain dangerous abuses of law enforcement powers in fighting them.In his book Enemies, journalist Tim Weiner argues that Hoovers worldview was defined by a bone-deep fear of Communist plots against the American homeland up to and including physical attacks from kamikaze airplanes and dirty bombs. Hoover began maintaining a secret list of enemies of the United States inside of government and out, conducting illegal surveillance and other law-bending operations designed to bring them to heel. One example: a plot to convince Martin Luther King Jr. to kill himself by threatening to expose the civil rights leaders sexual indiscretions.In theory, this is the kind of abuse of power that Patel is against. He rails constantly against government surveillance and abuses of power against political enemies.Yet at the same time, he is constantly proposing schemes like Congress arresting Garland that amount to efforts to criminalize political disagreements. This includes proposals to investigate prominent Democrats and even prosecute journalists.Yes, were going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections were going to come after you, he said in a guest appearance on War Room last year. Whether its criminally or civilly, well figure that out.Youve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More: Politics

These days, it seems as though everyone is something of a YIMBY: a Yes in My Backyard activist advocating for more housing and fewer barriers to making that happen.For decades, thanks to restrictive zoning laws and increasing construction costs, we simply havent built enough new housing, wrote Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Tina Smith in the New York Times earlier this fall.Housing is too expensive, and we need to increase the housing supply, Kamala Harris said as she campaigned for president, building off Joe Bidens earlier call to build, build, build to bring housing costs down for good.And Donald Trump has complained about regulations leading to high housing costs, telling Bloomberg, Zoning is like ... its a killer.Yet as three recently published books reveal, this YIMBY-ish agreement across the political spectrum can mask deeper divides, including about property rights, community development, and the very meaning of democracy in housing policy. Escaping the Housing Trap by urbanists Charles Marohn and Daniel Herriges of Strong Towns advocates for a slower-paced, locally driven form of development that they believe will be more sustainable over the long term. On the Housing Crisis by journalist Jerusalem Demsas challenges this kind of incrementalism, arguing the severity of todays housing shortage demands bolder intervention. And in Nowhere to Live, James Burling, a lawyer with the libertarian Pacific Legal Foundation, frames the housing shortage as the result of diminished respect for private property, something he argues will have to be reversed for any real change.Related:Read together, these new books tell us that while it has become mainstream to say that America needs more homes and even to acknowledge that zoning rules and self-interested homeowners play a role in blocking new housing theres not a clear consensus about what kinds of homes we should build, how we should build them, and who should decide where they go. While its tempting to think a pro-housing consensus at least forecasts positive changes, the authors say a close read of history should leave us unconvinced that policymakers will ultimately take the necessary steps for reform. Theres an opportunity, but we should be clear-eyed about the obstacles. Who should chart the future of housing policy?For decades, the federal government largely deferred to state governments on matters of land use. States mostly deferred to local governments, which in turn typically deferred to their home-owning constituents who backed restrictive zoning laws that barred new construction. But with housing now consuming a greater portion of households budgets, even federal lawmakers can no longer avoid addressing the dramatic rise in rents and mortgage payments. Unlike past housing crises that primarily affected the poor, todays challenges reach deep into the middle class.Experts say the US is short somewhere between 3.8 million and 6.8 million homes. As of 2022, households earning the median income could afford only 20 percent of the homes for sale across the country. Most renters feel priced out of homeownership entirely, and the lack of affordable housing is causing homelessness to rise.But as policymakers and voters focus more intently on the housing emergency, thorny questions about democratic participation have emerged. Research increasingly shows that local planning meetings are deeply unrepresentative, with participants skewing older, whiter, more likely to be a homeowner and therefore more likely to support measures that prioritize their property values and the status quo. Even making meetings virtual, which should theoretically increase access, hasnt solved this participation gap. Yet the problem runs deeper than just representation. When polled, voters often express the most enthusiastic support for indirect interventions like government subsidies and rent caps, policies that housing experts say would do little to address affordability and could even make things worse long term. Meanwhile, voters frequently oppose the fundamental solution building more housing even though restricting new development is what perpetuates the shortage. This raises a fundamental question: How much should democratic preferences matter?This is a central concern in Demsass book, and explored to a lesser degree in the two others. In one of her most agitating chapters Community Input Is Bad, Actually Demsas makes the case that democracy works best when the views or needs of people are accurately transmitted to their leaders, leaders take action, and voters can express their approval or disapproval in the next election. Invoking historian Paul Sabin, she argues this form of democratic accountability was upended in the 1960s and 70s by a new emphasis on citizen participation, including new public interest law firms that challenged rules and laws while expanding judicial influence over policy. The Pacific Legal Foundation emerged from this 1970s institutional ferment. While Burling, a staunch defender of property rights, shares Demsass concerns about regulatory barriers to new housing, his book makes a passionate case for litigation as a crucial check on government power, particularly through a compelling chapter on how litigation has buffered eminent domain abuse. Without it, he writes, entire neighborhoods of undesirables the poor, the ethnic minorities, and those least able to mount meaningful political resistance can be condemned in order to revitalize their neighborhoods. Public interest litigation and community input rules emerged to protect neighborhoods from destructive top-down planning like the urban renewal that devastated Black neighborhoods in the 1960s. But this democratic vision has evolved into a more routine participatory veto, where multiple choke points, from environmental impact reviews to historic preservation requirements, allow individuals to block housing projects or make them so financially unfeasible that developers withdraw their bids. Todays YIMBYs are organizing within this existing system, forming local groups to mobilize pro-housing voices at planning meetings and provide political cover for elected officials to make risky decisions. But this strategy of trying to counter the NIMBYs in public life faces inherent scaling limitations. Its possible to pack local meetings in major cities with dissenting voices, but its much harder to sustain that level of organizing across thousands of small- and medium-sized jurisdictions, especially given the housing crisis mounting urgency.Thats why many pro-housing advocates have turned to state-level intervention essentially arguing that sometimes real democracy requires overriding local democratic processes. Governors and other statewide officials are forced to see the bigger picture because theyre accountable not only to the people who live in a particular community, but also to past residents priced out of and displaced from that community, and to future residents as well, Demsas writes. Its a paradox that echoes earlier civil rights battles: using higher levels of government to ensure broader participation and protect minority interests, even when that means overruling local control.Escaping the Housing Trap offers an alternative vision: promoting smaller-scale, community-led development. Strong Towns advocates for all cities to accept some level of change while taking radical neighborhood transformation off the table. This grand bargain, as they put it where single-family homes can transform at least into duplexes aims to turn NIMBYs skeptical of development into more self-interested partners. Strong Towns also argues this approach will lead to more sustainable fiscal growth.But its hard to ignore that this more patient, conflict-avoidant strategy runs up against the pressing need of the housing shortage in big, desirable cities like Seattle or Los Angeles. It also misses that even in lots of local communities, residents have ardently fought even modest developments like accessory dwelling units.Despite their divergent paths to housing reform, all three authors agree on who loses most from the countrys failure to build: renters, first-time homebuyers, and poor people. Perhaps most importantly, its everyone who doesnt yet live in a community but who might benefit from its resources the future residents who never get a say in todays planning meetings.Are we moving forward?After years of inaction, there are reasons to be optimistic that lawmakers might finally be ready to tackle the housing supply gap.Over the last five years, states across the political spectrum from Oregon and California to Florida and Montana have moved to update zoning codes and transform residential planning rules. This year alone, Maryland, Arizona, New Jersey, and Colorado passed new housing laws.Housing was a top issue during the presidential campaign, and high costs remain a pressing concern for voters. Even those against new development know they have to couch their opposition in vague YIMBY language these days, acknowledging that yes of course we need more housing but we must guard against displacement, corporate developer influence, and environmental harm.Still, weve seen promising moments before. As Burling notes, a 1991 federal report warned that increasingly expensive and time-consuming permit-approval process[es], exclusionary zoning, and well-intentioned laws were pricing out young families. More striking still, that same report acknowledged that in the previous 25 years, no more than 10 federally sponsored commissions had examined these exact issues, usually to little avail. The YIMBY battles of 2024 echo debates weve been having for generations.I asked the authors if they believe this time will finally be different or whether were on the verge of seeing yet another generation succumb to the status quo.Demsas warns that some YIMBYs have taken premature victory laps. While mainstream figures like Barack Obama now vocally acknowledge the importance of increasing housing supply, she argues the implications of this position remain less examined. When this comes into tension with historic preservation or public meeting participation norms ... then what? She points to Harriss housing proposals, which avoided the thorny details of zoning reform in favor of more populist ideas targeting corporate landlords.Burling finds hope in the crisiss unavoidable visibility. The manifestation of the problem is much more clear than it used to be with the vast number of homeless encampments, he told me. We reached and went over a tipping point ... the predictions that this crisis is going to get worse unfortunately have come true.Marohn of Strong Towns also sees potential for change, though he believes it will have to be locally led given constraints in our national financial system.Marohn argues that todays housing crisis stems from a post-WWII experiment in urban development. Determined to avoid another Depression, policymakers created an approach centered on rapid expansion, incentivizing cities to pursue growth that ultimately depleted tax bases and created unsustainable liabilities. Now, he warns, cities are discovering that all this infrastructure is too costly to maintain with current tax revenue. Yet he sees cities as uniquely positioned to lead on reform: Unlike traditional bank lenders constrained by the 30-year mortgage, cities can access low-interest capital to support the smaller-scale projects he sees as essential for lasting change.Housing reforms next chapterThe political path forward is murky. Early in Trumps first term, his administration showed YIMBY tendencies, establishing a White House Council to tackle local zoning restrictions. But by 2020, Trumps rhetoric shifted dramatically toward NIMBYism, warning voters that Democrats would totally destroy the beautiful suburbs. The Heritage Foundations Project 2025 blueprint reflects these tensions by advocating deregulation while also emphasizing local control and prioritizing single-family homes, exactly the kind of housing that puts ownership out of reach for many Americans. Trump has publicly disavowed Project 2025, but hes already tapped some of its key authors and supporters to join his new administration. Trumps selection of a former NFL player with no clear housing record to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development adds another layer of uncertainty to how his administration will ultimately govern. Yet the pressure for reform continues to grow. The recent launch of a bipartisan YIMBY caucus in Congress signals housings staying power as a national priority. The fact that even critics of market-rate development now frame their arguments in more supply-friendly terms suggests a genuine shift in how we talk about housing.But as these three books reveal, consensus about the problem doesnt ensure agreement on solutions. The philosophical divides they explore will shape housing policy for years to come. Whats different now isnt the substance of these debates, but their urgency. The expanding ranks of Americans priced out of stable housing have transformed the crisis from an abstract policy concern to an unavoidable, immediate challenge.Youve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More:

Just two days until SEGA classics, including Sonic, Crazy Taxi and Streets of Rage will disappear from digital storefronts, including PlayStation Store, Xbox Store, Nintendo Switch store and Steam.

It's great news for Rocket League fans: Season 17 of the long-running sports title is here today, and we've got the full patch notes already for your viewing pleasure

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 itd be even better if it worked (Xbox Game Studios)Its been broken since launch but Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is at least playable now, in one of the years most controversial releases.There have been quite a few examples of abysmally poor video game launches over the past few years, where titles have released in a condition thats unfit for human consumption. Skyrim was in a parlous state when it came out in 2011 and Ubisoft became infamous for ignoring its QA testers, with its nadir being Assassins Creed Unity. But the benchmark for broken launches remains Cyberpunk 2077, whose catalogue of glitches has by now become legend.Interestingly, in two of those cases and with a lot of patching the games went on to become stone cold classics, but thats certainly not guaranteed. It also makes reviewing a game like Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 a challenge, since at launch, and for several days afterwards, it remained completely unplayable.That was down to developer Asobos insistence on using streamed assets rather than downloading everything you need to your local hard drive, whether on Xbox or PC. That obviously reduces the initial wait and the amount of space the game takes up, but unfortunately it also meant that players who had spent anywhere from 70 to 200 depending on the version of the game theyd bought were unable to access their purchase.Even now, with the game actually working, the initial load time will remind older players of cassette loading on the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. You get music to listen to and images of various planes flying, but its a multi-minute wait every time you start the game, even if on Xbox quick resuming is a lot swifter. Or at least it is when it works. More on that later.With the technical problems not so much out of the way, as in abeyance, its now possible to see what sort of game Flight Simulator 2024 is. Thats because, while its very much still a simulator, this release sees Microsofts flagship title devote itself wholeheartedly to the sort of gamification that had previously been anathema to the franchise.The central plank of that is Career Mode. This starts with flight training, first in a small private plane, where youll learn to ascend, descend, adjust your throttle, and learn what the slip-skid indicator does. Pre-flight checks both inside and outside the aircraft, taxiing and take-off, are all covered separately, with your performance graded from A to C.But thats just the tiniest tip of the iceberg. After paying to take your private pilots license, you begin working on a commercial one, with the vast number of added complexities that come with piloting larger planes, your responsibility now including dozens or hundreds of passengers. Youll learn about turboprops and jets, multi-engine planes, instrument rating, night flying, helicopters, cargo powered-lifts, and a whole lot more. The game is absolutely vast in its scale and intricacy.As you do all that, youll open up new commercial possibilities for your career. Starting out working for a small aviation company, at whatever global airport youve chosen as your base, you work your way up from private aviation to cargo and passengers, search and rescue, and aerial firefighting. Eventually youll start your own business, ploughing the revenue you make back into the company to extend its reach and fleet of aircraft, as you continue to learn new flying skills.Its a fanatically detailed and long term process that includes financing maintenance of your fleet of planes, and although some of the instruction and testing will be familiar to players of past iterations, plenty is new. That includes piloting hot air balloons and a blimp, neither of which have featured in the series before. Youll also be taught by an AI-driven trainer. Whether this game looks like this or not is pot luck at the moment (Xbox Game Studios)They will initially surprise you by being able to call you by your gamertag or registered name when addressing you, which is a neat touch. Their vocal delivery is generally serviceable, and certainly more than enough to communicate what you need to do next, even if it never feels quite right, the inflection and emphasis just wrong enough to be mildly off-putting. Given the extraordinary quantity and specificity of dialogue its presumably a way of overcoming those logistical challenges, much like the decision to stream textures from the cloud.A large part of that is because the game now comes with a full digital twin of the Earth, letting you zoom right in on any part of any continent, taking off or landing on anything from a distant field to Heathrow, to rivers or lakes if you happen to be flying a seaplane. You can also now get out of your plane and walk, although your walking speed is also accurately simulated, making it feel frustratingly slow to players more used to first person shooters.It mostly works. There are still frequent moments when textures fail to load, leading to everything looking pristine apart from a few rough-hewn polygons, or a ground area that remains blurry, its visuals perfect for flying over at 5,000ft, but looking like a fuzzy mess close-up. The same goes for its World Photographer missions, where you use a helicopter to capture particular angles of a global landmark.That might mean capturing the sun above the Eiffel Tower in autumn, or taking a low angle shot of the sphinx in Giza. Generally, the monuments look great, perfectly rendered in 3D, while the surrounding buildings and streets are less convincing, clearly AI-interpolated from flat photographs and satellite imagery. Its fine when youre moving quickly, but when hovering the illusion is easily shattered. Highway to the crash bug danger zone (Xbox Game Studios)There are other technical issues. On Xbox we found the game was fond of crashing during quick resumes. The reflections on cockpit windows can go haywire when passing complex ground objects at low altitude, the illustration on the A10s nose flickers wildly, textures pop in distractingly late, or a skyline leaps up where previously there was only a flat plain.Its highly likely these issues will be fixed, but more than two weeks after launch they remain extremely noticeable. If you look past them, theres a lot of simulation on offer, the actual mechanics of flight proving endlessly deep and refined. Even using a standard controller, the difference between the feel of flying different planes is enormous, quite apart from the accurately modelled cockpit instrument panels and switch gear, which is compendious.There are shortcuts for most things youll need to do, like releasing parking brakes or adjusting the trim, but we found we needed to leave tips on because remembering all the instructions about holding RB + X or LB + click left stick, was too complex and lengthy for us ever fully to get the hang of. Maybe with a few months solid play it would become muscle memory, but even over quite a lengthy review period, that point felt a long way off.More TrendingFrom its weekly challenges and global online leaderboards (none of which require Xbox Live membership) to the plethora of discovery missions and ways of gamifying trips around beautiful parts of the Earth, it may have a detailed flight simulator at its core, but theres also now a huge amount of game built around it. This makes the experience both far more accessible to newcomers and more rewarding for players less concerned with accurately role-playing an eight hour transatlantic airliner flight.Weve always found some of the more fastidious elements of true simulators to be verging on the masochistic and its good to see so much work here in addressing the needs of a more mainstream audience. Its fair to say all the really deep stuff, from accurately modelled chatter with air traffic control to the subtleties of piloting heavy-lift helicopters is all present and correct, but now theres more to entertain than just ultra-geeky detail.If this were a fully functional game as its developer intended it to be, it would be a stunningly impressive and well-rounded piece of software that manages to be practically all things to all armchair pilots. At the moment, at least, its not that. Its a technically compromised but still highly playable halfway house, where long load times and constant, if relatively minor, glitches remain a significant part of the experience.Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 review summaryIn Short: A staggeringly detailed flight simulator with a wealth of new craft and aviation challenges, that now works like an actual video game but the technical shortcomings are still noticeable and frequent.Pros: A fanatically detailed simulation, with a dizzying range of different aircraft from crop sprayers to blimps. New gamified challenges offer new interest to mainstream players without out losing any of the simulation detail.Cons: Exceptionally long load times and ongoing issues with streaming textures, numerous glitches, crashes, and minor bugs. AI instructors delivery is just robotic enough to be mildly irksome.Score: 7/10Formats: Xbox Series X/S (reviewed) and PCPrice: 69.99Publisher: Xbox Game StudiosDeveloper: Asobo StudioRelease Date: 19th November 2024Age Rating: 3 Its Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 that needs the medical attention (Xbox Game Studios)Emailgamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below,follow us on Twitter, andsign-up to our newsletter.To submit Inbox letters and Readers Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use ourSubmit Stuff page here.For more stories like this,check our Gaming page.GameCentralExclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy