Last Thursday, Ithaca was featured as a “haven” in the Great Homes and Destinations section of The New York Times. While the publicity is certainly a boon for a small town that can use all the economic influx it can get, the portrayal of Ithaca as a resort town for wealthy second-home owners is troubling. Many visitors (and students) struggle to understand why Ithacans sometimes resent the presence of outsiders. After all, tourists are the ones who keep much of this town employed and worthy of New York Times write-ups. But what they don’t see is the disconnect between Ithaca as a tourist attraction and Ithaca as a community.

Imagine it’s 6 a.m. on a Sunday morning. You’re still drunk from last night, you’ve got work and laundry piling up and it’s not even light out. Yet here you are at Barton Hall, chugging coffee and assembling steel trusses, heavy-duty rigging for light fixtures and scaffolds into a stage. You’re making signs that say: ‘Backstage Band Area’ or ‘Bathrooms Here,’ or running errands to Wegmans to buy your guests of honor their organic bottled water of choice. A truck breaks down on its way to Ithaca, so the stage you need to have assembled by 3 p.m. won’t be ready for a few more hours. But the show must go on — will go on, at 6 p.m. Screw how early it is, it’s time to get to work.

It’s no secret – we’re different from our friends across the Pond. But the differences transcend politics, pastimes and accents. The United States and United Kingdom have incredibly divergent forms of entertainment. HBO tried to bridge the gap this year, after seeing New Zealand’s Flight of the Concords’ great success, with another series – Little Britain USA.

Last weekend, nearly 200 people from across the Ithaca community protested California’s passage of a ban on gay marriage. In the wake of Barack Obama’s historic election as president on a platform of change, a segment of this country’s population remains targeted, attacked and marginalized by the law. The vote in favor of Proposition 8 in California represents a reversion to the past and a change this country does not need — and cannot afford.

A question in bold typeface floats across the research website of Prof. Hod Lipson, mechanical and aerospace engineering: “Can a computer ultimately augment or replace human invention?” In Hod Lipson’s lab computers design creative solutions and tiny robots take wing.

In a departure from the aggressive rhetoric of late, Russian President Medvedev said that Russia is relying on Obama to restore trust in U.S.-Russian relations and help build a strong strategic partnership. Such a move by the Russian President is interesting. It of course begs the question: Is Medvedev being genuine, or playing for time after threatening to post Russian missiles to negate the effect of a proposed U.S. missile defense shield?

We've heard about GPS capabilities being placed in devices like cell phones. But now they're being placed in perhaps the unlikeliest of places: lingerie! But before you get too startled or outraged like a feminist group in Berlin, you might be interested to find that the device provides women in certain violent countries protection from potential attackers or rapist

The economic turmoil on Wall Street has left New York State’s budget in limbo. In the latest special session, Governor Paterson proposed over $2 billion in additional cuts. While we understand the need for budget cuts, this latest round goes beyond trimming excess and into the territory of straining the well-being of New Yorkers. Like Cornell, New York State must focus on the long term and not react quickly and capriciously to a crisis. The governor’s proposals call for a cut in public school aid by $585 million, a reduction in health care spending by $572 million and a rise in the tuition of SUNY students by $600 a year. These proposals are in addition to the cuts the governor made earlier this year. Locally, the consequences have been far-reaching and tragic.

Using Google Trends to analyze patterns in searches for various topics, Tarun Chitra gives his take on who, where and why people are interested in endowments, treasuries and racial unrest, particularly following the election, and what he thinks it all could mean.

It's been over a week since Obama won the presidential race and the nation was in euphoria. We have a right to be happy. In one fell swoop, America largely reinvented itself. But, we cannot let our joy and pride take away attention from pressing matters. We have to transform our hope into reality.