Questions for Obama from a libertarian perspective:

In February, you said you might support vouchers and charter schools if empirical data showed that they improve education some studies show that they do. Admirably, your position was, “I will not allow my predispositions to stand in the way of making sure that our kids can learn.” After pressure from the teachers unions, you quickly backed off from that position, stating that your campaign doesn’t support vouchers “in any shape or form.” What prompted that change? And if it’s important that we not “throw up our hands” and “walk away from the public schools,” why do you send your own kids to private schools?

Interview: Soren Johnson - Spore ’s Strategist

Designer and programmer Soren Johnson came to work at Maxis on Spore in late 2007, after more than 5 years working as a designer on the Civilization series at Firaxis. Most notably, he programmed the AI for Civilization III and then stepped up to lead designer and AI creator on the acclaimed Civilization IV - so adding him was a significant coup for Will Wright’s Emeryville-based team.

He brings to the now almost-finished Spore project, which will debut in full this September, an understanding of what gamers want and expect - both from the micro level of how the controls work, to the macro level of how AI should behave in a strategy game.

At a recent event related to the game, Gamasutra sat down to talk in-depth with Johnson, somewhat of a public face for the game in its late stages.

Independence Day, originally uploaded by NathanF.

Happy 4th!

Saw WALL-E last weekend. It is, of course, superb. When we were leaving the theater, two of my friends were talking about all the merchandise they were going to buy. I think they might have missed the point.

Summer = Grilling (2 of 2), originally uploaded by NathanF.

Got a new grill for the summer.