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(04/10/13 2:06pm)
When it comes to animated shows, they seem to be spiraling down in quality. Cartoon Network has been reduced to airing live-action shows such as “Dude What Would Happen?“ or “Unnatural History”. The golden age of cartoons seems to have passed by with “Samurai Jack”, “Courage the Cowardly Dog” or the long-running “Ed, Edd, and Eddy.” These shows were usually open and entertaining to most audiences and more often than not were enjoyed by whoever was watching. The new shows available do not seem to have this same ability; they seem to only be focusing on a very tight niche in their audience with each show. Two examples that seem to rise above this are “Adventure Time” and “Regular Show.”
When they both aired, each seemed only to be a ragtag collection of episodes with little to no plot. Each episode contained different and new wacky adventures in strange locations that were designed to grab the audience’s attention for the duration of the episode. Both shows achieved this perfectly, offering new worlds and characters for the audience to interpret. This practice, although initially successful, fails to work after longer periods of time. Without a continuous plot the episodes become pointless without character development. For younger audiences this is perfectly acceptable, but for those who continuously track a show it has the potential to quickly become stale.
In this regard, “Adventure Time” managed to surpass “Regular Show”. While both shows started out as random episodes, Pendleton Ward, the creator of “Adventure Time”, quickly came up with an extremely elaborate backstory and character connections. The world in which the show is set is called Ooo. It is a post-apocalyptic Earth that was destroyed in the Great-Mushroom War. In the rare full-globe shots the show provides, the earth has huge chunks missing from it as if it were a half-eaten apple. From this spawned all of the strange characters that the main characters, Finn and Jake, encounter.
Each of the main characters in the show have their own detailed backstory. The main antagonist, The Ice King, is at first seen as only a deranged lunatic whose sole purpose in life is to steal princesses. Later his backstory is revealed, over the course of several unrelated episodes, to prove that he lived before the Mushroom War and is in fact very easy to sympathize with.
Another main character is Marceline the Vampire Queen. She is introduced at first only as a harbinger of chaos and pain, but in time her backstory places her as one of the shows most-liked characters. There are several other characters who receive very detailed backstories, each helping to connect the audience with the show.
Throughout the series the show not only establishes a rich storyline but also attempts to handle themes that may not be expected on a Cartoon Network show: body image in “Princess Monster Wife”, sexuality in “The Hard Easy”, transgender identity in “Princess Cookie”, god complexes in “All the Little People”, rape in “Hug Wolf”, Asperger’s syndrome in “You Made Me” and Alzheimer’s in “I Remember You”. All of these important issues are approached in an understandable way that makes it easy for any audience to comprehend.
Another rarity is the large and primary focus on female characters. The show routinely promotes a positive female image by having most of the sub-characters being princesses with full control over their respective kingdoms.
“Adventure Time” offers viewers a unique, fun world with a rich and intriguing storyline. When compared to other contemporary cartoons, “Adventure Time” shines above with its ability to reach and connect with many different target groups, be they young children who only need stories of adventure or older viewers who are looking for interesting portrayals of modern societal issues.
(04/10/13 2:03pm)
Which animated version of Batman is the best? David Ellis offers the answer.
Since the dawn of time humankind has asked itself the important questions. Apples or oranges? Soup or salad? Sadly, the answers to these questions elude most people, but the answer to an even greater question might be answered: Which Batman series is the best?
There have been many incarnations throughout the ages: Adam West’s “The Batman”, “Batman: The Animated Series”, “Batman Beyond” and the several versions of “The Justice League”, to just name several. Each of these saw success and still have a very dedicated fan base. Most would say that “Batman: The Animated Series” holds the crown for best animated version, shortly followed by “Batman Beyond”.
Two other animated versions have received varied support. “The Batman” is largely seen as a very off depiction of Batman. The backstories and history of all the characters were completely overhauled, character models drastically changed and the animation style was questionable. Somehow the show managed to hold on for five seasons despite these faults. The other series is “Batman: The Brave and the Bold”.
It is the most recent of the Batman remakes and, sadly, was cancelled after only three seasons. This show went starkly against what most see as the classic Batman: dark and brooding. Rather, the show harkened back to the original Batman: the comedic and jovial Adam West portrayal. A light mood is held constantly throughout the series.
This portrayal made some groups upset, saying that this was not truly Batman. This may seem the case at first, but with time the show blossoms into an unforgettable series.
The series boasts an outrageous number of characters. There are at least 100 characters, and most have a detailed backstory. Each character’s history fits, mostly, to what has been accepted canon for that character, making the show easy for comic book conneseurs to enjoy the show. This wide variety of characters requires a huge base of voice acting talent, pulling some recognizable voices to the show: Neil Patrick Harris, Adam West (the prodigal voice of Batman himself), Kevin Conroy and many other notables appear in the show. There is also a wide host of memorable voices but perhaps not names, such as the dad from “Dexter’s Laboratory” as the Joker.
Most of the time, each episode contains two stories. The opening sequence usually starts with an independent story focusing on a random batch of characters. For example, one episode opens with Batman being assissted against Ma Murder by a haunted tank piloted by Confederate General Jeb Stuart‘s ghost. These introductions are usually simply for fun and help to show unheard-of heroes and forgotten comic book characters.
Another uncommon factor about this show is the existence of Bat-Mite. First introduced in 1959, he appears in this show in his original rendition. Bat-Mite serves as a comedic character and proclaims himself Batman’s number one fan. He exists in a different dimension than Batman, and has a huge collection of memorabilia from throughout the ages. In several episodes he breaks the fourth wall, conversing with the audience about his favorite Batman moments. The most notable episode of his is the final episode of the show. Shown to be in mourning, he mocks the audience, wondering how his favorite show could possibly be canceled. Throughout the episode he messes with the story, placing Batman in the most outrageous costumes. He even changes the voice actor of Aquaman, simply because he can.
Another hit-or-miss factor of the show is the sheer number of puns. Aquaman seasons his dialogue with sea-insipred sayings such as “Great Neptune!” and “I‘ll flatten you like a flounder.” Some of Batman’s best dialogue comes from an episode where his personalities each gain their own body and proceed to argue with over whether or not Batman eats nachos.
The show has many strong points that should have lasted it throughout many seasons. Regardless, the show was cancelled before its time. The show offers a brand new yet throwback version of Batman that is not found in other adaptations. It may not stand against “Batman: The Animated Series”, but it offers an extremely tough challenger. For any wishing to enjoy a new and happy interpretation of Batman, this series is perfect. Very quickly any viewer will see this Batman, as Aquaman calls him, as an “old chum.”
(02/20/13 3:15pm)
In order to know me, you must know that my father was a doctor.
That was what he spent his life doing.
Throughout his life, he was a surgeon, an anesthesiologist, and finally a chelation therapist.
For years he operated his own practice, the Coastal Georgia Health Research Institute.
He would constantly try to teach my sister and I helpful little tidbits about what he was practicing, but the stuff that affected us most of all was the absence of milk and red meat.
During my younger years I would go to the cafeteria, with my neatly packed lunchbox, and attempt to repeat parts of the lectures I could remember to my friends and scold them for chugging down the last bit of their chocolate milk.
They all were quick to shrug off my claims that milk was actually bad.
The most common argument was ‘Well look at me! I’m strong and you’re not, must be the milk.’
It was not until I researched the topic in high school that I started to get some understandable facts about milk.
By combining my previous knowledge and the research, I found a wide variety of ailments that milk can cause and some of the things my Dad told me started to make sense.
The first thing to know is that milk is species-specific. Cows drink cow’s milk, goats drink goat’s milk, and humans drink human’s milk.
I have always wondered about the fascination of drinking milk.
You do not see a 13 year old cow going over to their mother and drinking up. Milk is for the young and young alone.
The biggest thing is that the concept that cow’s milk provides you with calcium is simply not true.
To understand this you have to know that the human body takes a lot of energy to digest cow’s milk; it is not supposed to after all.
In order to neutralize the acidifying effect of milk it has to use a lot of calcium up, which comes from your bones.
So rather than gaining calcium, you end up losing it.
Cow’s milk also has the chance to trigger diabetes.
When drinking cow milk, your body absorbs proteins from it, they enter your bloodstream and travel throughout your body.
A possible reaction to these proteins is that the body’s immune system sees these proteins as invaders and proceeds to destroy them.
The fun part is when there is no more milk protein and the immune system begins attacking insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.
This is because cow’s milk protein is extremely similar to these other cells.
Once the cells in the pancreas are destroyed they can no longer provide the correct amount of insulin.
Another thing my dad constantly lectured on was the additives in cow’s milk.
Not only is plain cow’s milk bad for you, but the stuff they put in there makes it even worse.
Specifically it is the hormones. They are injected into cows to make them bigger, and produce milk faster and longer; all of these things end up in the milk.
These hormones affect the body in many different ways, not many of them pleasant.
They can affect growth and possibly even help feed hormone-dependent cancers.
Throughout my entire life I have tried to avoid milk.
I do not drink it and as an alternative use Silk or Almond milk.
This does not mean that I do not eat dairy at all, I still do, just not in excessive amounts.
Just like any food, small doses have a smaller chance of harming you.
Well if there is so much wrong with milk, why does everybody drink it?
Why do the dairy producers not tell us all of this?
Because of money; they do not care.
As long as there is still a demand for milk they will continue to stick cows full of hormones and ship the stuff out.
Mainstream medicine, the completely dominant form of medicine now, does not care what causes a problem or disease.
The only thing they care about is curing the symptoms so that you have to keep coming back again and again.
My dad taught me all of this and I stand behind it completely, not simply because he told me, but because I have done research and looked into these issues.
I hope that all of you will do
(02/20/13 3:12pm)
Mercer Village is a place where students can get away from their studies. It offers a variety of restaurants such as Margarita’s, Jittery Joes, Francar’s, Fountain of Juice and Ingleside Village Pizza. These businesses have seen success because they offer what students want most: food. Now try to think of the other businesses in the Village. The bookstore is the pillar, with the tanning salon and spa being afterthoughts. They do not seem to fit within the theme of a college village. Their services are not in over demand.
My freshman year there was a bike store located where the William and Alexander Salon and Spa currently is. The store did not do well, and was taken over by Rodeo Beach. After some time the bike portion of the store was removed and not long after Rodeo Beach closed down. I believe this happened because the store did not offer what the majority of the Mercer student body wanted. Yes, it was a cool store and had some good items in stock, but nothing that the student body really wanted. Another reason I believe they failed is because most students do not have a disposable income to dedicate to anything besides food or school related supplies.The reason the restaurants do so well in the Village is because they offer affordable food for Mercer students and local residents. But primarily their customers are based at the college.
These students crave for a change from what they can easily get in the cafeteria or the UC. The restaurants offer inexpensive food or drink over most of the day and at a good price. They serve as a hang out spot, a meeting point, study area, and a place to escape. The idea of having a Spa or tanning salon may look good on paper, but how often will they have patrons?
Most Mercer students would just go home to do their shopping, tanning, or visit a salon. The idea of having a spa after a rough test is tempting, but who has the time or money? Instead, Mercer Village should have done a poll on what type of business should have taken over Rodeo Beach’s lot.
Personally, I wanted a frozen yogurt shop. A frozen yogurt shop would have instantly benefited from the patronage of the student body but also the surrounding schools. Local frozen yogurt places, such as Tutti Frutti and La Berry, are only 15-20 minutes away but still completely inaccessible to those without a car. Having a business such as that in the Village would be much better suited than a spa. There could have been a few extra jobs for some students with the opening of a frozen yogurt shop.
The spa does not offer that, only trained employees have the option to work there. Because who wants to get their haircut by the person you sat next to in FYS? Overall I do not see the spa lasting long and I am frankly surprised the tanning salon is still open. The services they offer are nice, but just not what I believe the student body wants. Perhaps there was little Mercer could do to influence what shop ended up there, and I am sure they do not wish to hold onto an empty space for long.
But out of anything that could have gone there, a spa? Only time will truly tell if the spa has a real place in the Village or whether or not it too will collapse as its predecessors did.
(02/06/13 7:22pm)
When students need academic help there is always one place to turn to on campus: the Academic Resource Center.
They provide tutoring over a wide variety of subjects, and are always there to help.
The students receive better grades and the tutors earn some cash and a good addition to the resume.
As a student, I have not used the ARC, but I have been a tutor there.
For one semester I tutored HIS 111 and thoroughly enjoyed myself.
Teaching and helping other students better their understanding of the material was amazing for me.
I enjoyed my time tutoring so much that I wanted to take on more classes the following semester and my teachers supported the idea greatly. This did not work out quite so well though.
The next semester as I was preparing myself to tutor once more, I was informed that the ARC did not have the adequate funds to pay me.
They simply had taken on the maximum number of paid tutors already and were unable to hire any more.
Being unable to pay me, the only option available was to volunteer to tutor. As I was and am a full time student who desperately needed a job, I did not have the time to spare to simply volunteer for the position.
Being a non-work study student, being a tutor is the only readily available on-campus job that I could have held, but because of the lack of funds for the ARC it is not possible.
In another instance, my German professor was trying to work out getting a tutor for his classes.
A student said that she would be willing to hold the position, and had filled out then necessary paperwork for the ARC, but in the end she received the same message, ‘We do not have the funds to hire you.’
Without knowing that she had been turned down, a student from my class went to the ARC asking for the German tutor and received only mocking laughter.
To my knowledge other language classes have many available paid tutors through the ARC, but the German class gets none.
Each subject offered should have at least one tutor, period.
The students who offer their time and experience to help fellow students should be rewarded for their efforts.
The lack of funds of the ARC force subjects to have no tutors or only those who have the time to volunteer.
That the campus can afford to build a stadium, field house, create a new football team, and have an extreme facelift, but the ARC cannot afford to pay at least one tutor for each subject is ridiculous.
With more funding not only would grades of students increase across campus, but students would be given a reliable, non-work study accessible, source of income.
The ARC needs more funding.
(02/06/13 3:09pm)
In a quest to conquer boredom when not diligently working, I have tried many online games. Some were extraordinarily fun and held my attention for weeks, if not months; others have been boring and only lasted several hours. One of the better games I have found is “World of Tanks” from wargaming.net. For a World War-obsessed history major (like me), nothing more could be asked of this game.
In the game, the player controls a tank in third-person view. You have full control over the vehicle and can practically drive anywhere and into anything. The basic set-up of a match is 15 players per team, with a fairly balanced collection of all the different types of vehicles. Those types include: Light Tanks, Medium Tanks, Heavy Tanks, Tank Destroyers and Self-Propelled Guns. Each tank type gives the player a different game experience, creating the opportunity for fresh gameplay in each match. There are a wide number of maps with different terrains, obstacles and paths, ensuring that no single game is the same.
As soon as you log in, you are provided with six different tanks in your garage. Each of these tanks represents a different country. Currently the game offers branches of American, British, German, French, Russian and Chinese tanks. Each of these branches are classified on a tier system ranking from Tier I through Tier X, and all are historically accurate.
In order to level, the player must play in matches to earn experience and in-game credits. The more you play a tank, the higher you can upgrade its individual components, such as the gun or suspension. When fully upgraded, the next tier tank can be researched and the process may be started anew. The leveling system allows for quick leveling in lower tiers, giving the player an opportunity to test out all the different types of tanks without dedicating long spans of time to any particular branch.
The garage serves as the station for all of your tanks and several other features. It is where the individual tank crews are housed and where they can be trained or given skills that help the tank’s performance. A player can also choose to add equipment to any tank, such as a camouflage net or a toolbox. There are also consumables, such as first-aid kits and repair kits. These items can drastically change how well a tank performs.
The gameplay itself is easy to master. Basic computer game controls are used: WASD for movement of the tank and the mouse moves the turret and gun. From there it is simply a matter of learning the tactics of the game. Stay behind cover, stay out of enemy sight and stay in a group. These tactics may change based on whatever tank is being played, but the basic principles are always the same.
A match has a maximum time limit of 15 minutes but rarely ever surpasses 5-8 minutes. Even so, while the match may last longer, a player only has one life per match. Once you die, you are done. There is no penalty for leaving the game after your death, which allows you to go back to the garage and start another match with a different tank.
There is also the option to play with a friend for free. A platoon can be created before a game that allows any two players to play in the same match. Sadly, that is the highest number of platoon members one can have without having to pay. A premium system exists, which converts real-world currency into in-game coins, and it opens several more aspects of the game. Paying gold members can have platoons of 3, tank divisions of 15 players, special ammunition and access to Clan Wars. Clan Wars is the largest version of the game and is basically Risk. A real-time map of the world serves as the battlefield. Many different clans lay claim to certain areas and attempt to attack and claim others.
Overall, the game is extremely entertaining. The player is given a huge selection of tanks from a wide variety of countries that are all historically accurate to boot. The game is easy to learn and to play, does not require a long-time dedication, is completely free to play and is guaranteed to provide new and exciting gameplay. With new updates routinely and soon to be accompanied with sister games “World of Warplanes” and “World of Warships,” “World of Tanks” offers a very entertaining way to spend a few minutes or a few hours.