exilestreet Mona Street
2 revolutions, 2 months. Onto the next #world
Saturday, 12 February 2011
theharryshearer Harry Shearer
Dear George W. Bush: this is how the Middle East gets re-made. No invasions necessary.
Warning: Smurfs Can Be Bad For Your Bank Account
The Washington Post reports today on problems with an iPhone game for children called Smurfs' Village, which allows kids to "build a complete Smurfs village from scratch":
Over the winter break from school, 8-year-old Madison worked to dress up her simple mushroom home on the iPhone game Smurfs' Village. In doing so, she also amassed a $1,400 bill from Apple....But like a growing number of parents, Madison's mom, Stephanie Kay, was shocked to find very real charges from iTunes show up in her e-mail box days later.Loopholes? You've got to be kidding. What possible justification can a game developer (Capcom in this case) have for charging real money for virtual objects under any circumstances? If you can sucker adults into doing this, that's one thing. But these are games for kids. Of course they think the charges are just play money. So would most parents. What person in his right mind would even consider the possibility that a corporation would charge a hundred real dollars for a wagon of virtual Smurfberries?
....The practice is troubling parents and public interest groups, who say $99 for a wagon of Smurfberries or $19 for a bucket of snowflakes doesn't have any business in a children's game. Though a password is needed to make a purchase, critics say that the safeguards aren't strong enough and that there are loopholes.
Come to think of it, this actually sounds fairly predatory even for adult games, though I suppose I'm being hopelessly naive and elderly on that score. But kids? Somebody please tell me I'm not crazy to be genuinely shocked over this.
Kevin Drum @'Mother Jones'
Friday, 11 February 2011
J. Period, John Legend & The Roots: “Wake Up! Radio” (Mixtape)
In anticipation of an award-winning evening for John Legend & The Roots’ WAKE UP! album (nominated for 5 Grammys at Sunday’s 2011 Grammy Awards), J.Period & Truelements Music are pleased to present WAKE UP! RADIO – a star-studded mixtape collaboration with Columbia Records’ multi-platinum singing sensation, and the hardest working Late Night band on the planet!
Hosted by The Roots’ own Black Thought, WAKE UP! RADIO pays tribute to the legacy of soul music that paved the way for WAKE UP! and imagines a world where mainstream radio transmits music with a message. Employing an all-star cast of musical contemporaries (including John Legend & The Roots themselves), J.Period dissects, remixes and rebuilds the original recording sessions from the WAKE UP! album in an unprecedented manner, defying the conventional wisdom of what a “mixtape” can be—producing a full-fledged remix album in the process. The result is a treasure trove of powerful new music, produced and remixed exclusively by J.Period for WAKE UP! RADIO.
Scheduled for release today, February 10, 2011 , WAKE UP! RADIO will be offered as a FREE DOWNLOAD in celebration of WAKE UP!’s 5 Grammy nominations, and will also be available as a Limited Edition gift-bag giveaway at The Roots’ Grammy Jam on Saturday, February 12 in Los Angeles, CA—consistently one of the hottest tickets on a weekend overflowing with events. J.Period will also be on hand in Los Angeles to perform at The Grammy Jam, DJing to open up for The Roots’ headlining performance.
Adding to the historic nature of this mixtape release, J.Period will also release an exclusive Digital 12” on Tuesday, February 15, featuring a history-making collaboration between John Legend, Black Thought of The Roots, and hip hop luminary, Rakim. The track, entitled “In the Ghetto (Wake Up!)”, produced by J.Period, is an homage to the Eric B. & Rakim classic “In The Ghetto”—which hearkens back to a time when hip hop and social messages went hand in hand.
Additional featured guests on WAKE UP! RADIO include Common, Q-Tip, Late Night host Jimmy Fallon, Nigerian songstress Nneka, Somali sensation K’NAAN, Def Poet Mayda Del Valle and more, in addition to never-before-heard music from Black Thought and John Legend. Also look out for J.Period’s history-making “Our Generation” Remix, reuniting hip hop legends Pete Rock & CL Smooth, which was originally released online in November, and is also featured on WAKE UP! RADIO.
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