So, we're a nation that tortures. Doesn't feel particularly good to think about in the abstract, let alone face as a reality. But, that's what the United States has done, torture. We've probably done it for a long while.

Left 4 Dead was Valve's big shooter title last fall. It's a cooperative 4-player shooter with a survival/horror theme. It introduced procedural monster and item spawning through an AI called the "Director", and also added true multi-threading support to the ever evolving Source engine.

As a blogger, my job is often to present news stories and provide commentary so as to begin a conversation. Sometimes, though, an article comes along where you don't have to do much talking. NPR released a fictional news story on April 20 on its "All Things Considered" radio program. The question they considered was simple: What if marijuana had been legal in the US for two years and was treated like alcohol in terms of taxation, regulation and who it could be sold to? What would the world be like?

Myth: teenager gets accepted to college, buys a new computer, packs things up, and flies out to start a new life. Fact: teenager gets accepted to college, buys a new computer armed with an atrocious amount of processing power, RAM, and graphics card, packs things up, and flies out to start a new life. Today we'll focus on the issue of the vastly overpowered PC that has become commonplace by industry standards. Let’s face it, how many of us actually looked at the tech specs on our computers before coming to Cornell? Don’t answer, it’s a rhetorical question.

Research. Quick, what associations did you make? I’d venture to guess that either a beaker or a pipette crossed your mind, however briefly. According to Nobel laureate Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, “ Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.” Szent-Gyorgyi’s definition, not specific to any particular field of study, implies extended creative thought on a particular subject. “Research” for many, however, suggests little about creativity.

Over the past several months amnesia seems to have spread among governments and television pundits. Though everyone has undoubtedly seen Pirates of the Caribbean, no one knows what to do with real-world pirates. They chose to forget over two millennia of historical precedent. Fortunately, with the case of Maersk, the US government did not take the same confused approach - though things were made much easier by the fact that the ship is American, rather than another country's.

President Obama’s decision to release internal CIA documents detailing interrogation techniques represents a fundamental contradiction in his policy towards torture and transparency. President Obama has vehemently expressed his opposition to anything that can be construed as torture (rightly so) and one of his first actions as President was to close down Guantanamo Bay. However, President Obama has decided to “move forward” by releasing these torture memos, yet maintains the same state secret arguments that President Bush utilized. President Obama cannot have it both ways.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of eating at one of my favorite restaurants in Ithaca, John Thomas Steakhouse. For me, John Thomas is my Peter Luger’s away from home. The meat is prime dry-aged beef, just like Peter Luger’s and everything from the steak sauce to the menu selections represent how a true American steakhouse should be.

I’m getting a little cranky. The problem is that I am spoiled - no doubt in my mind, no question in my head. I am responsible for this gut-wrenching craving that never seems to go away. After all of the fruitless attempts to satiate this relentless hankering, I am still here wallowing with chopsticks in hand and a furious look on my face, silently judging the chintzy plastic container of americanized and replusivized sushi.