 |
User: Login | 
Covers video game news from an independent, unbiased perspective
Joystiq |
| Address URL | http://www.joystiq.com Registered: 22-Mar-2008 |
| Ads: | |
 Send to email | PlayStation 2 travels through time to kill children in General |  By Christopher Grant
el 26-Jul-2008 | Filed under: Culture, Sony PlayStation 2
Foto 0 en PlayStation 2 travels through time to kill children: Paste this image in your site, Myspace, Facebook, Ebay copy this code...
After a dozen tips pleaded with us to cover a seemingly scandalous story on Yahoo this morning headlined, "Playstation 2 component incites African war" some of us here at Joystiq HQ thought the story didn't sit right. First of all, we'd already read that story seven years ago when shortages of the newly launched PlayStation 2 were later attributed to coltan, which is later refined into tantalum, a heat-resistant element that (according to a 2001 New York Times story on this very same issue) "can be found inside almost every laptop, pager, personal digital assistant and cell phone."
So how is it that a commonly used material that briefly made headlines in 2001 because of its association with PS2 shortages has now filled our inbox with tips exclaiming, "The PlayStation 2 kills children" (really, we got that tip)? Easy! A major outlet, Yahoo in this case, runs a story on a report by activist site Toward Freedom who include a sensational, albeit predictable, quote from former British Parliamentarian Oona King, who cleverly analogized, "Kids in Congo were being sent down mines to die so that kids in Europe and America could kill imaginary aliens in their living rooms." Of course, we wonder if she offered that quote to them over her mobile ... or maybe email using a laptop computer.
Point being, laying the blame on the PlayStation 2 - built by Sony who, it should be noted, had already begun trying to limit their use of Congolese coltan back in, all together now, 2001 - is scapegoating of the worst kind. Then, citing things like increased prices for coltan - also taken from 2001 (the New York Times story notes that in the Spring of 2001, "the price of coltan crashed, falling from $80 a kilo in March to $8 in June") is selective reporting. That's to be expected from an activist website tasked with a political agenda, but it's disappointing coming from a major video game outlet tasked with, one would hope, providing a more thoughtful consideration of the already besieged industry it's covering.
Source - Playstation 2 component incites African war (Yahoo / 2008)
Source - The Dirt in the New Machine (NYT / 2001)Permalink | Email this | Comments
Read 0 times
|
|
 |
|
 | Joystiq |  Blogger | Covers video game news from an independent, unbiased perspective
Joystiq Joystiq |
| Kotaku`s The Gamers Guide | Blogger | XBOX 360 Gamers Weblog
Gossip, news and leaks for obsessive gamers Kotaku As if you don't waste enough of your time in a gamer's haze, here's Kotaku: a gamer's guide that goes beyond the press release. Gossip, cheats, criticism, design, nostalgia, pred |
| Kotaku`s The Gamers Guide | Blogger | XBOX 360 Gamers Weblog
Gossip, news and leaks for obsessive gamers Kotaku As if you don't waste enough of your time in a gamer's haze, here's Kotaku: a gamer's guide that goes beyond the press release. Gossip, cheats, criticism, design, nostalgia, pred |
| Kotaku`s The Gamers Guide | Blogger | XBOX 360 Gamers Weblog
Gossip, news and leaks for obsessive gamers Kotaku As if you don't waste enough of your time in a gamer's haze, here's Kotaku: a gamer's guide that goes beyond the press release. Gossip, cheats, criticism, design, nostalgia, pred |
| Cabela Taps The History Of Hunting [Game Announce] | | Here's an interesting idea for the hunting genre. Now that Cabela has pretty much allowed us to kill all the animals available today, the only thing to do is go back in time and kill the animals of history! Cabela's Le [..] Read complete article | | Published 15-May-2008 by Mike Fahey in ActivisionCabela's Legendary AdventuresGame AnnounceNewsPs2PSPWii
Read 5 times. More hits in ![More articles Cabela Taps The History Of Hunting [Game Announce]](./images/arti.gif) ![Images about Cabela Taps The History Of Hunting [Game Announce]](./images/photo.gif) |
|
| Kotaku`s The Gamers Guide | Blogger | XBOX 360 Gamers Weblog
Gossip, news and leaks for obsessive gamers Kotaku As if you don't waste enough of your time in a gamer's haze, here's Kotaku: a gamer's guide that goes beyond the press release. Gossip, cheats, criticism, design, nostalgia, pred |
| Can Guitar Hero Make Children Smarter? [Learning Is Fun] | | Can video games make children smarter? This is the question the American Library Association is looking into, conducting tests in various library systems throughout the country to see if getting children into the library helps promote literacy or just results in having a bunch of kids in the [..] Read complete article | | Published 07-Aug-2008 by Mike Fahey in Learning is fun Children Guitar Hero Libraries literacy Mainstream Media News
Read 1 times. More hits in |
|
| Kotaku`s The Gamers Guide | Blogger | XBOX 360 Gamers Weblog
Gossip, news and leaks for obsessive gamers Kotaku As if you don't waste enough of your time in a gamer's haze, here's Kotaku: a gamer's guide that goes beyond the press release. Gossip, cheats, criticism, design, nostalgia, pred |
| Nerdblog | Blogger | Provides news about hardware, software, notebooks, laptops, PCs, Mac, PDAs
Nerdblog.Net |
| Japanese children warned off mobiles | | It’s good to talk, but nothing else
Japanese children should be prevented from using their mobile phones for anything other than talking to protect them from harmful influences, according to an advisory panel to the government.
TheRegister [..] Read complete article | | Published 27-May-2008 by Nerdblog in General
Read 2 times. More hits in |
|
| Joystiq | Blogger | Covers video game news from an independent, unbiased perspective
Joystiq Joystiq |
| Kotaku`s The Gamers Guide | Blogger | XBOX 360 Gamers Weblog
Gossip, news and leaks for obsessive gamers Kotaku As if you don't waste enough of your time in a gamer's haze, here's Kotaku: a gamer's guide that goes beyond the press release. Gossip, cheats, criticism, design, nostalgia, pred |
| Holiday Timewaster: WTF?! [Timewasters] | |
While I have enough work to kill an ox this weekend, I took some time last night to play with this delightfully silly side-scrolling WoW sendup. Here's one introduction to a ques [..] Read complete article | | Published 24-May-2008 by Maggie Greene in CultureFlash GamesMmorpgtimewastersWarcraftWoW
Read 5 times. More hits in |
|
| Kotaku`s The Gamers Guide | Blogger | XBOX 360 Gamers Weblog
Gossip, news and leaks for obsessive gamers Kotaku As if you don't waste enough of your time in a gamer's haze, here's Kotaku: a gamer's guide that goes beyond the press release. Gossip, cheats, criticism, design, nostalgia, pred |
| The Making of the Kill Bill 360 Casemod [Damn Cool] | | Well, we've seen a Kill Bill Guitar Hero guitar before, so a 360 casemod is not all that surprising. But this one is very well done and, furthermore, was accomplished by Kotakuite Chu Boi, who shows his work on his blog. It's got some great touches, such as the blood spatte [..] Read complete article | | Published 06-Jul-2008 by Owen Good in Damn cool Damn cool Kill Bill Mods Xbox 360
Read 2 times. More hits in |
|
|
Warning We are not responsible of information posted from external feeds. Use this website at your own risk.
Notice: We will not be liable for any direct or indirect loss or damage arising under this disclaimer or in connection with our website, whether arising in tort, contract, or otherwise.
|
|
| |
Hello, Guest
Online: 43 visitors
More bad news for Blockbuster (BBI), Netflix (NFLX), Blu-ray (SNE), and anyone else connected to the DVD rental business: Time Warner is giving the industry a shove as it tumbl [..] 
Steve Ballmer's a mathematician, right? So here are how-to-kill-Google equations he ran:
Plan A: Buy Yahoo and Somehow Retain Employees. Cost [..] 
Filed under: PC, Strategy, Business
Tilted Mill Entertainment says it's relaunching the studio's 2004 sim game, Children of the Nile, with a major update/redesign later this year; those who al [..] 
