In this “information age” that we live in, news spreads quickly — and nothing moves faster than Twitter! I love that I can rely on Twitter to provide me with breaking news and celebrity gossip pretty much as soon as it happens.

But as much as I love Twitter for how fast it provides information, that’s also what makes it hard to keep track of at times. There’s nothing I hate more than logging onto Twitter after not going on for a few days and having to scroll through hundreds of Tweets.

But now there’s a way to ensure you get all the top stories from Twitter every day, without having to monitor your feed constantly: News.me.

The premise behind News.me is simple: every day, News.me scans tweets and posts by who you follow on Twitter and Facebook and provides you with the top five stories via an easy-to-read feed in an iPhone/iPad app or a daily email.

If all that wasn’t cool enough, News.me also lets you create and save an offline reading list, so you can continue to read the news even when you don’t have an internet/cell phone connection (like the subway, for example). And News.me is also interactive — post your responses or comments to a story to continue the conversation, and follow what others have to say as well.

News.me makes it easy and enjoyable to keep up with what’s going on in the world — you’ll never miss an important news story again!

One student is dead and four others are wounded following a shooting at an Ohio high school this morning. The shooter was taken into police custody after he turned himself in to bystanders. He is believed to be a student at Chardon High School, the suburban Cleveland school where the shooting took place. Chardon High is next to a middle school and across the street from an elementary school. Apparently, the gunman was chased out of the school by a teacher.

Our hearts go out to the Chardon community, and the families and friends of those students who were injured in the shooting. For more information, take a look at this CNN story about the incident.

Everyone hates Barbie. Is it because she’s tall, leggy and disproportionately well-endowed? Or is it because her lashes are permanently curled to perfection and is always matched up with the incredibly good looking Ken? Banish the biatch from shelves for good (or at least hide them behind a bunch of much uglier toys). Do what you gotta do, Iran—this pernicious piece of Western culture is eroding morality codes everywhere!

Reuters reported earlier this week that Iranian government officials have recently been enforcing a ban on Barbie dolls as part of a “soft war” against decadent cultural influences. The public must be protected from what they believe to be eroding traditional Islamic values, and Barbie has been deemed un-Islamic since 1996 because the doll incites “destructive cultural and social consequences.”

“About three weeks ago they (the morality police) came to our shop, asking us to remove all the Barbies,” said a shopkeeper in a toy shop in northern Tehran. Though the ban has existed for years, it had yet to be overtly enforced until a few weeks ago, when officials threatened to shut down shops that sold the doll. Instead, Barbies are being hidden behind long veils and other toys to still meet stores’ high customer demand.

Iran’s Barbie ban is this week’s Hot Button Issue, and it’s yet another unflattering angle for the flawless female form. Throughout American history, she’s already collected so much smack for promoting an unattainable standard of beauty and reinforcing a philosophy of white supremacy. And such a pervading definition of perfection is pretty persuasive when constantly played with from a young age, right?

Well…

I’m sorry, but part of me has to disagree. Maybe I’m one of the few American kids who grew up peacefully playing with Barbie dolls without wanting to actually look like them or feeling badly about myself when I looked in the mirror and was then reminded that we were so starkly different. I also didn’t get these feelings whenever I played with Cabbage Patch Kids, teddy bears, Tamagotchis or Super Mario Bros. And on a more serious note, I also never wished to physically identify with perfect actresses or cartoon princesses on TV (really, I think this might be just me who escaped this, but props to you if you did as well).

However, it’s hard to believe that a complete erosion of values or countless body image issues can route solely from one doll, one toy, one childhood token that was supposed to spark your imagination instead of brainwash you with harmful messages. Barbie is supposed to be anything and everything, from a hardworking stay-at-home mom to the President of the United States. And she literally could’ve been whatever you wanted her to be, right? I mean, she’s a doll! She didn’t come packaged with preset plot lines or a concrete back story that you had to stick to as a kid. Does she have to simply stay skin deep just because she’s pretty? Isn’t how we played with a toy more reflective of how we were raised or what other messages were shaping our worldviews until then, rather than a reflection of the toy itself? People create different things out of plain pieces of paper, and outcomes will vary depending on whose hand a weapon is in…it’s not completely up to the material itself, but the person who actually does something with it and then shelves away the blame. Why attribute so much child-raising responsibility to a piece of plastic purchased from a toy store?!

I acknowledge that there must be some kind of continuous ripple effect: one standard of beauty set another; little girls saw Barbies and grew up to become young Hollywood who in turn shaped young America who now has no idea what to do about it, even though there are now Barbies and dolls that reflect various physical characteristics across the board. And I really do apologize if you feel that your childhood companion set you up with an unrealistic physical standard and actually hurt you in the long run (seriously, I do understand that logic, and I really am sorry).

To be honest, I’m still shocked that kids these days—anywhere in the world—still have the capacity to play with Barbie dolls, a toy that doesn’t have any batteries, flashing lights or access to the Internet. In fact, the fact that this ban is still being circumvented by shopkeepers and customers alike actually kinda gives me hope for the dissipating attention spans of the children of the future. But that’s a whole ‘nother issue.

Ashley is a UC San Diego grad who is holding on way too tightly to a potential career in magazines and goes to Vegas all too often. She’s fascinated with celebrities and strawberry beer and doubles as a pathological texter/emailer/blogger. Feed the addiction with tweets @cashleelee. Thanks in advance.

If you’ve been on the internet at some point since Tuesday night (and if you’re reading this, then yes, I’m talking to you), then you’ve probably read one headline or another about the Iowa Caucus, which was one of the first “races” for the Republican presidential candidates. It’s usually supposed to be an accurate early indicator for who will win a political party’s nomination, but what happens when over 120,000 votes are tallied and a candidate leads by only eight votes? Should we even care about these caucuses at all?

To be honest, you shouldn’t really care about these results. The fact that one extra handful of people wrote Mitt Romney’s name down on a piece of paper (forget pregnant chads or digital votes, this caucus process is some serious old school stuff) really won’t determine the fate of these Republican candidates. Because those who caucused on Tuesday night are only a percentage of those who live in Iowa because even they’re only a percentage of the people who care a little about so many long speeches. Besides, these votes don’t even count for anything when it comes to the official nomination; people’s minds change and those eight people just might vote for someone else!

However, you should care about the caucus altogether: even though former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney just barely beat former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, it’s interesting that Santorum was at the bottom of opinion polls just a few weeks ago. Oh, and his campaign may not be backed by as much funding as Romney’s is, and yet he managed second place in the closest caucus in history. Even though Tuesday night was like a “test run” of what’s to come at the national convention later this year, there’s still much to learn from it. It’s the same reason why sports teams play preseason games and why students the PSATs in high school: they literally don’t mean anything, and yet there is so much be said about those supposedly negligible games and tests!

If you’re voting Republican, Tuesday night brought the first glimpse of who might earn your support at the voting booths (note: it’s no longer Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who dropped out after placing sixth at the caucus).

If you consider yourself a Democrat, then you saw who Barack Obama might be up against in November (not that you could clearly tell from those results or anything).

And if you have yet to decide where you stand politically or who to lend your support to, this is the year to do so. Four years ago, America voted the first African-American president into the White House, and this year has already seen the closest caucus in history. Sure, you don’t have to watch every single primary event or fly out to support in person, but if you’re one of the many who are unhappy with the state of this country, then cast your ballot carefully. Even if you think your vote won’t count, or that the entire democratic system of voting really doesn’t matter, or that politicians always go back on their word once elected into office, I still think that we should try.

Maybe I’m just super naive because this will be the first presidential election I can vote in (I missed the last one by being one month too young), maybe I’m just getting too excited from too many media headlines that I just had to write my own for College Candy. Either way, I’m voting this year, and since it’ll be my first time, I’m not just gonna give it away to anybody!

Ashley is a UC San Diego grad who is holding on way too tightly to a potential career in magazines and goes to Vegas all too often. She’s fascinated with celebrities and strawberry beer and doubles as a pathological texter/emailer/blogger. Feed the addiction with tweets @cashleelee. Thanks in advance.

I love discovering new music, so going to concerts is one of my favorite ways to spend a weeknight (when I should probably be studying instead). That’s why missing concerts simply because I didn’t hear about them until too late is one of my biggest pet peeves.

But I’ve recently come across a new site that ensures I won’t ever miss another show: SuperGlued. SuperGlued features a concert calendar, so you can browse upcoming shows in your area, and also notifies you of upcoming concerts you might want to attend.

Upcoming concert alerts aren’t all that SuperGlued has to offer, however. The site also links to all your existing social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, Vimeo, YouTube, Flickr and Instagram. You can easily check in, share tweets, pictures and videos of concerts you’ve gone to — making it easy to connect with fellow concertgoers, and maybe even find a new concert buddy! The site also imports your top 100 favorite artists from your last.fm account and lets you know when they’re playing a show in your area.

SuperGlued also offers contests periodically, where you can earn points simply by doing things you already use SuperGlued for — like posting pictures and videos or Tweeting about the band.

In addition to all that, SuperGlued is also available as an awesome iPhone or Android app. The app has a really cool “Recommend” feature which scans your iTunes library and recommends a concert you might like based on your musical tastes. That would come in handy when you can’t decide what to do on a Friday or Saturday night!

Cities across England turned dangerous as violent riots, spurred by the death of a black man by police, spread throughout the country. Mobs took over the streets, setting buildings and cars on fire, shattering windows, and looting stores. Things were particularly bad in London, where the Prime Minister sent 16,000 policemen on Tuesday to calm things down. It worked- the worst is over- but the cost of clean up is estimated to be in the tens of millions. Even though the riots began because of one man’s death, the social and economic inequality may have been what really heated things up. That’s an issue pretty familiar to those living in the U.S., and now, many are wondering, could the same thing happen in the states?

A  9,000 signature-strong petition got attention this week for it’s forward-thinking idea: Bert and Ernie should get married on Sesame Street. There have been rumors for a while now that the best buds are actually in a relationship, and their constant bickering is reminiscent of an old married couple. The LGBTQ activists who started the petition claim that an on-screen marriage between the two male puppets would teach acceptance and tolerance to children, but the show disagrees, insisting that such a union is impossible- “Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics (as most Sesame Street Muppets™ do), they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation.” Wait… what about Kermit and Miss Piggy? You can still sign the petition here!

The 12 Congressmen who will make up the “super committee” have been announced. The group was part of the last-minute, we-must-avoid-the-implosion-of-our-economy deal to raise the debt ceiling last month. Despite their name, they’ll be searching for savings, not evil villains, though that’d be much more exciting. (Can you imagine if politicians were actually superheroes? Hello Hollywood, this is obviously a great movie idea…) To be exact, the committee, which is half Republican and half Democrat (and btw, only includes one woman and one African American- typical!), is charged with finding $1.5 trillion in savings over the next ten years. Maybe they will need super powers for that.

The main stage at the Indianapolis State Fair collapsed on Saturday night, killing 5 and injuring 40. Chaos erupted on the fairgrounds after the huge, metal structure- which was soon planned to hold the country-pop duo Sugarland- came crashing down due to a “freak gust of wind.” Visitors caught the unbelievable, horrifying event on video (here), but as a warning, it’s pretty scary and upsetting. The fair reopened this morning with a memorial service for those lost.

Warren Jeffs, the leader of the 10,000-member polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday. The jury took less than half an hour to decide that Jeffs, 55, deserved to spend the rest of his life in prison for sexually assaulting two underage female members of his church. In court, prosecutors showed evidence that he fathered a child with a 15-year-old and played a recording that was supposedly him having sex with a 12-year-old. For the past 2 years, Jeffs has been leading his followers from inside of a jail cell, and no one is quite sure what will happen to the group now that there’s no way he’s getting out. A former church-member told USA Today that “he will definitely remain a prophet behind bars, and they will be telling everybody that God’s going to tear the prison down and let him loose.”

Pic o’ the Week:

The U.S. has been in mourning for the past week after the deadliest day in the war in Afghanistan, when the above 30 U.S. servicemen died in a helicopter attack. The tragedy has come to be known as the Chinook Crash, named after the type of chopper the men were flying in.  This happened over a week ago, but it’s all people have been talking about this week, as more and more details- like the identities of the lost soldiers and the possible identity of the gunman who shot down the plane- have been coming out. In addition to the 30 Americans lost, 8 Afghanis were killed. Among the men who died were 22 members of Navy SEAL Team 6, the same group that took out Osama Bin Laden.

[There are over 100 million sites on the Internet. 100 million! You might think you know about all the important ones (CollegeCandy, Gmail, Google, Facebook…), but there are thousands of other sweet sites out there (like BlogLovin, Any New Books? and When Parents Text) and more showing up every day! We get it – it’s not easy or fun sifting through the crap and porn to find those gems, so we’re gonna bring the gems to you. Just sit back, kick up those feet and allow us to introduce you to the diamonds in the internet rough.]

Our lives as college students can get pretty busy — we balance tons of different activities such as multiple classes, extracurriculars, homework, studying, part-time jobs, internships and social lives (and our parents wonder why we aren’t getting enough sleep?).

We’re so busy that we don’t always have time to watch the nightly news or read CNN.com. But if you’re anything like me, you still want to be informed about current events and news (besides what you get from your Twitter and Facebook feeds) — because there’s nothing worse than having someone ask you what you think about the situation in the Middle East, the latest reason Lindsay Lohan is in jail, or the amazing ending of last night’s big game and have no idea what they’re talking about.

Thank God for the geniuses at College Daybreak!

College Daybreak makes staying informed easy and convenient. Simply sign up for their email list, and every weekday, they will send a summary of the most important news topics right to your inbox!

How easy is that? Now you can get the news whenever it fits your schedule — like while you’re still laying in bed in the morning, while you’re getting ready or on your phone while you’re walking to class. The emails are all written in a quick, easily-read format, so you’ll be on top of everything going on in the world in no time at all!

Pretty cool, eh? Well, there’s plenty more web where that came from. Check out the other sites that are on Laura’s web radar!

Photo courtesy of Jezebel.com

Is it still pro-life when the legislation isn’t actually supporting life?

That’s what our friends over at Feministing are asking as they discuss a proposed law in South Dakota that would expand the definition of  ”justifiable murder” to include killings that are intended to prevent harm to a fetus. Who would that include exactly, you ask?  That might be the doctor willing to perform the abortion or maybe even the woman that wants to have the abortion, herself.

Does anyone else find that just the slightest bit contradictory? It’s one thing to oppose abortion. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It’s something else entirely to legalize and justify the killing of a man or woman willing to perform an abortion. It’s extreme, irrational and just a little bit absurd.

As of now the bill has passed out of a committee with a nine to three vote and is expected to face a floor vote soon.

Click here to read all about what  Feministing is calling “anti-choice legislation taken to it’s extreme,” then share your thoughts/feelings/concerns below.

Let’s talk about politics, ladies.

Or maybe something slightly more relevant to us: politicians and their children.

The daughters of today’s politicians always seem to have their own agendas; messages they want to spread, campaigns they want to share, insider accounts of the campaign trail. It’s like because we’ve elected their parents (or rather because their parents want us to elect them) it automatically gives them the right to speak out on a whole bunch of issues they may or may not know anything about.

And I’m not sure exactly where I stand on this whole thing. Because while I know I could really do without ever hearing about Megan McCain’s “blogette” or reading Dirty, Sexy, Politics, some politicians’ daughter might actually be worth listening to.

Well…not this one.

Apparently, Bristol Palin wants to travel from college to college and preach abstinence. But college students, just don’t want to listen to her. Originally, Bristol was supposed to head on over to Washington University to be the keynote speaker during their “Sex Week.” But in the end the students turned her down. They felt that $15,000+ was too much to spend on a 20-year-old politician’s daughter with no expertise in the field. (One who obviously needs to reconsider her own position on abstinence since it didn’t work out so well for her the first time.) So now she’s trying to go to UC-Irvine to spread her message (and not her legs). But they’re not exactly thrilled with the idea either. University students have spoken out against the idea of Bristol Palin coming to speak at their school.

Perhaps they’d be more happy with Barbara Bush?

No that was not a typo. The Republican’s daughter just released a video in support of gay marriage, declaring “I am a New Yorker for marriage equality.” And that’s one message we might actually want to hear. Because although it doesn’t actually change anything, it’s still a step in the right direction. If a Republican’s daughter can openly and publicly support gay marriage then maybe marriage equality is on its way to being a non-issue? I know its still a long way off, the idea of Republicans and Democrats alike embracing marriage equality as a given as opposed to a political issue, but it’s  still a start.

And with that said, I think it’s a good thing that these politicians’ children are speaking out. They’re young adults with ideas and points of view that are capable of relating to you and me. And although some messages make more sense than others, these children should all embrace this opportunity they’ve been given. Their parents lead very public lives and because of that they have a chance to make their opinions known.

And then we can form ours.

What do you think? Do you want to hear from these politicians daughters? Or should they just leave the campaigning to their parents?

Over 120 mobsters were arrested on Thursday in New York City’s biggest Mafia bust in history. If you thought the Mafia was just for the movies or Facebook games, well that’s what they wanted you to think. The gangsters were charged with various accounts of murder, extortion and narcotics trafficking. And, yes, of course, prosecuting the mobsters for the crimes they commit is serious business, but it’s hard not to laugh at the nicknames of some of the men who have been arrested. I can’t really imagine Jello, Vinny Carwash, Marbles, Johnny Lollipop, Lumpy, the Professor, or Tony Bagels being too intimidating, but hey, maybe that was part of their strategy.

Italy’s Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, is deep in the throes of a sex scandal involving charges of prostitution and sex with a minor. The scandal has been brewing for weeks, but it intensified this week when the minor he is charged with having sex with appeared on television. She denied that he ever “laid a finger on her,” even though prosecutors claim extensive wiretaps disprove this claim. Did he, didn’t he… regardless, the guy’s level of sketchiness would never fly for an American politician. One wiretap reveals one of the PM’s agents telling a young woman that she should go out and get a nurse’s outfit for a party that night and wear nothing underneath except white garters. Um…ew? Despite all this, most Italians are standing behind him- polls show increased positive ratings for his party and less than half of Italians believe he should resign.

Steve Jobs is taking a medical leave of absence from his role at Apple. Jobs has become a symbol of the success of Apple over the past decade- he brought us the game-changing and iconic technologies like the iPod, iPhone and iPad. Without him leading the company, many wonder how Apple will fare. There is so much doubt, in fact, that Apple stock lost 15 billion dollars in value the morning after the announcement of his leave was made!  He and his company are tight-lipped about his condition, but this is the third time he has taken leave and some worry this time it could be for good. Jobs has consistently imagined and revealed Apple’s new, groundbreaking products – it’s hard to imagine the company without him.

Author Amy Chua has set off intense debate with her claims that a strict, “extreme parenting” style is the best way to raise children. The controversy started a few weeks ago when the Yale professor published an excerpt from her new memoir, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,” in the Wall Street Journal. She listed some of the things her daughters couldn’t do – no sleepovers, playdates, school plays, grades less than As – and what they had to do – play violin or piano, practice at least two hours a day. Once she even threatened to burn her daughter’s stuffed animals if she didn’t play a piano composition perfectly… scary, huh? Since the essay was published, people just haven’t been able to get over the “Tiger Mother”; numerous opinion pieces, columns and even death threats have been written. I was raised in what she would consider the coddling, overly indulgent Western style, and I think I turned out pretty well…but then again, I wasn’t at the top of all my classes and haven’t played at Carnegie Hall, so she’d probably consider that her point well proven.

Picture of the Week:

Photo courtesy of Associated Press.

President Hu Jintao of China visited the White House last week to discuss relations between the two countries. While the meetings between the two world leaders should have been the focus of the event, it was Michelle Obama’s fashion choice that got world talking. Many, including Oscar de la Renta, disliked the First Lady’s choice of an Alexander McQueen gown, but I think she looks stunning.