Early Tuesday morning, Somalian pirates killed four American hostages in the midst of an attempted rescue mission on behalf of the U.S. military. One of the victims graduated from UC Davis.

For the very first time, Aggies can enjoy a night at the opera at the Mondavi Center.

Who to watch: Mark Payne never seems satisfied as a competitor.

Greener is better and will cost you more, too. But is it just the price tag at your local grocer, or does the green revolution have a higher cost on our planet as well?

Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency named our very own Aggie Stadium the most sustainable college football field in the nation. It recycled or composted over 90 percent of the waste produced at an Oct. 27 home football game. While we lost the battle to Southern Alabama that night, we won the war against landfills.

The City of Davis City Council appointed Dan Wolk as the newest councilmember, after four hours of questioning, deliberating and voting on Tuesday night.

“What’s your column about?” my wife asked me the other day.

If you use the Internet frequently (I’m talking to you, everyone!) the debate over network neutrality is the most important political issue you’ve never heard of. Simply stated, network neutrality has a dream: that one day, all internet traffic will be treated equally, regardless of content, connection or provider. Regardless of application, device or network. Net neutrality means two people with the same level of Internet access will be able to connect to each other at that level of access.

Inception, The Social Network, Black Swan, Toy Story 3 – even if you’ve only seen a couple of the films nominated at this Sunday’s Academy Awards, you have to admit 2010 was a pretty kick-ass year for cinema. Take it from the cinephile who saw all 10 Best Picture nominees (and no, I will never get tired of bragging about it).

A woman at Starbucks the other day seemed surprised when I asked for the time. That’s like, so 1990s, right? With the ubiquity of cell phones these days, it’s implied that everyone can now supply that information for themselves.

With an infamous benevolence for the digital age and access to their music (In Rainbows’ controversial release in 2007), Radiohead dropped its eighth album like a virtual bomb, shattering airwaves Friday morning when it was released a day early. It’s hard to believe that the highly anticipated album, The King of Limbs, is here.

Oh, you know you want to buy this album. Glee: The Music, Vol. 4 includes songs performed on the first few episodes of the show’s second season, and there are some real standouts.