The Tragic Outcasting of Marty the Grapefruit is Only the Beginning...

Tune in next time for Episode TWO of Mauritania's Revenge!

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Aly is a junior at Austin College. She's into photography, environmental and social issues, adventure travel, indie music and art films. Contact her @alytharp.

To The London Eye

Photo Gallery: A Trip Around Austin College

Is It Time To Pull the Plug On American Idol?

Last night, America watched as the once glorious hit show American Idol Season 10 premiered…or at least some of America watched. Ratings this season dropped by a considerable 13% from last year. What do they expect? With Paula gone, Simon kept the show hanging on by a thread. Now, he has moved on to greener pastures (working on The X-Factor, also on Fox).

Now, we have our “amazing” new judges, Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez, entertaining us with their classic empathetic and frozen deer-in-the-headlights looks. What more could America want? No real forms of constructive criticism, just not knowing what to do. I was excited about this season, thinking they have an opportunity to recreate this show, make it better, but everything just seems same old, same old.

Yes, American Idol possessed the top ratings with 27% of the televisions in the metropolitan area tuned in. By milking this show, they are depriving viewers of possible new shows that have more potential. They’ve filled Glee’s spot for now, and I know I have been so focused on this premiere that I’m not really sure what else is out there right now. So the question remains, is it right not to keep American Idol alive just because America once loved it, or is it time to pull the plug?

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Megan is a student at Austin College. She loves music and watching movies. You can contact her at mjones10@austincollege.edu or follow her on twitter, megelizabeth10.

Video Game Addiction: If You're Having Too Much Fun, There's Something Wrong With You

Image courtesy Mondo-Pixel

New study performed in Singapore has determined that 1 in 10 children are video game addicts. Addicts. As in, these children invest so much time into video games that it's negatively affecting their lives. 3,000 children from 3rd, 4t, and 7th grade were given questionnaires by their teachers. The questionnaires featured such questions as "Do you play video games instead of doing your homework or chores?" I still do that. I probably will never stop doing that. Someone else can take out the trash or do the dishes. I'm at the end boss of Chrono Trigger. Destroying Lavos is way more important than doing that paper tonight. Save all of mankind or finish an assignment not-at-the-last-minute? Decisions.

The study was done over a two year period, with reported symptoms of video game addiction being: Increases in anxiety and depression, drops in grades, increased impulsive behavior. Also, "addicted" children had bad social skills. Wait a minute. Impulsive? Bad social skills? Procrastination and an unwillingness to do chores? That sounds like my childhood. Growing up with A.D.D., video games were my bread and butter. Still are, except my social skills are better (I hope). These children don't have these problems because they play video games, they more likely play video games because they have these problems. If that. Correlation does not equal causation. I'm not the only one who's having a problem with this. Mark Griffiths, director of the International Gaming Research Unit has voiced his concerns, too. "Video games have displaced television"

This is just another tirade done by closed-minded people like Jack Thompson. The study has already been called into question for its viability, and it's unlikely that it will have any long term effects. Video games are still working to becoming a fully accepted media form, and I'm thankful that we live in a time where things like this don't result in the sort of overreactions experienced in the 80's and 90's. Even though these sorts of things aren't too threatening, that doesn't mean we should just take them laying down. We should speak out against bullshit like this, and make sure that things like this don't go without rebuttal.

Don't Make Study Abroad An Invitation For Stereotyping

Twelve children from South Korea were in awe while visiting a Sherman school. They gawked at the locks on the lockers and strange musical instruments during a vacation that expanded their view of the world. I used to live in England and I have had personal experience that shows other cultures look down upon Americans. According to the rest of the world, Americans are obnoxious, loud, have bad diets (they’re fat), little respect, the girls are easy, the guys are schmucks, those kinds of things. But then again according to Americans, the Brits are posh, prude, drink tea and biscuits every morning, have awful teeth, and say cheerio to one another.

Different countries and cultures for some reason or another don’t normally get along as you can see by these mangled sterotypes. I don’t really know where this kind of negative ethnocentricity comes from but theres no denying it definitely comes. Each country is a spectacle in the eyes of the rest and by saying that I'm not trying to say that I'm bothered by Korean children judging us or something like that but just curious as to why different cultures invite judgement. Is the British view of America that I know consistent with what the rest of the world thinks? Or is the view different from cultures like that of South Korea.

I once met a foreign exchange student from Germany whose parents sent him to America just so he could realize how good he had it back home. Study abroad opportunities are a chance to abate all the false pretenses that visitors often come along with. But it is possible that we as Americans earn t

hese labels? I sure hope not but the Southern Korean children did mention the unhealthy salt and meat heavy diets common in America and said they were craving vegetables for the duration of the trip. They also did point out that you don’t see that many fat people in Korea and there is a reason for it. So there is concrete evidence that the fat stereotype did come from somewhere, what about the rest?

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Amy Harvey is a freshman at Austin College. She likes eating chocolate, cuddling puppies, and wearing onesie pajamas. You can email her at ahymeh@gmail.com or follow her on twitter @ahymeh3.

Fear of Carbon Emission Regulations is Stunting Growth for the United States

Incoming Republican House representatives are scheming to cut funding and stringently oversee the EPA, specifically to prevent them from regulating carbon emissions. Desperate to do something about climate change, the EPA recently declared carbon dioxide a danger to human health and thus within their jurisdiction to regulate under the Clean Air Act of 1970. In contrast, Congress spent the past two years trying to work out a national cap-and-trade policy... and failed.

What Representative Issa of California and his colleagues are trying to do is abusive, bullshit politicking, and it only serves to further ostracize the United States from the rest of the world. Developed countries are expected to take action. While we continue to step backwards, the European Union now has a mandatory carbon emissions cap-and-trade policy, based off a pilot program in the UK, that will significantly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of Europe.

Regulating the emissions of fossil-fuel based power plants and petroleum refineries-- whether through a carbon emission cap-and-trade market or a bureaucratic mess-- is a necessary step forward for the United States. A step that will boost both our international credibility and our holding in the market for cleaner and more efficient energy technologies.

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Aly is a junior at Austin College. She's into photography, environmental and social issues, adventure travel, indie music and art films. Contact her @alytharp.