North Korea’s first video game: A boring version of ‘Crazy Taxi’ that nitpicks your bad driving

In theory, a driving game set in North Korea could be fun — it could revolve around delivering kidnapped movie stars from the airport to Dear Leader’s headquarters, for instance. In reality, though, it looks as though playing a driving game set in North Korea is about as much fun as actually living in North Korea. Business Insider’s Gus Lubin has posted his first impressions of “Welcome to Pyongyang,” an online game that’s “produced by Nosotek, a western IT company based in North Korea,” and he’s found that it’s pretty lame.
[More from BGR: Years after cashing out, MySpace cofounder mocks people who work for a living]
The goal of the game is to drive around the North Korean capital of Pyongyang and become familiar with all the great tourist attractions it has to offer. But unlike action-driving classics such as Crazy Taxi and the Grand Theft Auto series, Welcome to Pyongyang is annoyingly authoritarian and won’t put up with you crashing into cars or mowing down civilians. To make matters worse, the game doesn’t even give you the satisfaction dying at the hands of bloody-minded authorities if you break the rules too often — rather, it sends out a fascistic meter maid to simply tell you that you have been “stopped for bad driving.” We’re not sure what the actual penalty is for reckless is in North Korea, but we get the feeling it’s more severe than getting nitpicked by an annoying digital character.

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Brain Benefits for the Holidays? Stuff the Stocking with Video Games

Happy holidays! As the year draws to a close, one thing I'm celebrating is the fun I've had helping put together the magazine I edit, Scientific American Mind. I am looking forward to working on new articles and projects in 2013. (We have some surprises in store.) I'm pleased about my growing and attentive audience for Streams of Consciousness, too. Thank you for reading, thinking and, when you have to, taking me to task!
This post introduces the January/February 2013 Scientific American Mind, which debuted online Wednesday. If I sound a little giddy with optimism, it's because I truly am excited about the magazine, this blog, and what I get to do at my job everyday--and because that mood suits this post. It doesn't seem to hurt. In fact, I may have just managed to cheer myself up.
Wow, This Is An Amazing Story!
Optimism. Not everyone is upbeat about it, and the whole idea may be unproven. It could even have serious drawbacks, which we've detailed in previous stories (see "Can Positive Thinking Be Negative?" by Scott O. Lilienfeld and Hal Arkowitz). Still, I am often trying to fight my way over to the sunny side--and I think I'm going to keep at it. Why? For one thing, I like it over there. Plus, there is at least some data suggesting that my struggle to smile is worth it.
The health benefits of positive thinking may be tenuous, and some realistic pessimism is often warranted. But from a psychological standpoint, thinking everything is (or will be) fine is what resilience is all about. And on the flip side, wearing a dark lens puts us at risk for mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. In my experience, it's also more fun to believe in the positive, or at least emotionally neutral, aspects of a situation than to presume that the world is out to get you.
As Elaine Fox reports in "Tune Your Subliminal Biases Toward Optimism," a nervous person giving a speech has a choice: she can glob on to the person in the front row who is dozing in his seat or focus on the majority who are mesmerized. If your boss rushes by you impatiently one morning, you could assume she is mad at you--or simply running late. My latest favorite example from my own life comes from a colleague who told me that she loved going to the dentist, a dull and unpleasant task if there is one. "What exactly do you like about the dentist?" I asked, thinly disguising my incredulity. Her answer: "It's like a spa for your mouth." The feeling of clean teeth delighted her.
Some people, like my coworker, are predisposed toward positivity, others not so much. If you are in the not-so-much group, you can train yourself to adopt a more positive outlook using a simple computerized method called Cognitive Bias Modification. It uses a subliminal process to repeatedly direct attention either away from unpleasantness or toward appealing or happy stimuli or thoughts. A CBM app is not yet available for your smart phone, but you can still try some lower-tech tricks for worming out of your gloomy mood. Find out more by reading the story.
Value to Video Games?
If you are looking for other ways to spruce up your mind, check out an electronics store. Head straight for the first-person shooter video games, pick out a few and plan on spending your downtime practicing. Your arduous efforts ducking behind shipping containers and blasting enemy soldiers and aliens will pay off in mental currency. You will see with sharper eyes. You will reason in three dimensions with greater speed and clarity. And you will make better on-the-fly decisions in response to visual input. Training to be a laparoscopic surgeon or a pilot? Playing these games is perfect preparation.
Should we all run out and buy these electronic atrocities? I haven't--yet. I do worry about the violence, which can make people more aggressive, although the strongest effects wear off within half an hour, experts say. Some 8 percent of kids seem to get addicted to gaming, too, although I think if my kid had a problem with too much gaming, I'd have seen it already.
Allowing moderate use of these types of games might be reasonable in some cases, because the research on their benefits is strong and compelling (see "How Video Games Change the Brain," by Lydia Denworth). That said, as with anything you put in a child's (or adult's) hands, the person needs to be prepared to use it responsibly. People with emotional issues or who tend to be aggressive anyway may not be good candidates. And a child should be old enough to clearly understand the difference between fantasy and reality. Nobody wants to take chances with something as troublesome as violence, especially in light of the recent tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut. Scientists and game designers are now trying to figure out how to create electronic entertainment that benefits the brain in a more peaceful fashion. When that happens, I'm on-board for sure.
Courtroom Justice
In another feature in the issue, a psychologist and a lawyer team up to show how psychological science can improve the accuracy of courtroom decisions, preventing miscarriages of justice in which the wrong person is put behind bars. They present evidence-based solutions for incorrect eyewitness accounts, false confessions, racial bias, prejudicial courtroom procedure and picking innocent individuals in subject line-ups. It's an important story with widespread implications and clear prescriptions for change (see "Your Brain on Trial," by Scott O. Lilienfeld and Robert Byron).
The issue also features a book excerpt describing a psychologist's tour of a high security prison. The goal of this terrifying trip: to extract advice from psychopaths. These conscienceless criminals, it turns out, have a lot to teach us. Their tendency toward ruthlessness, charm, focus and fearlessness can be astoundingly useful--although these traits must be tempered to avoid troublesome side effects (see "Wisdom from Psychopaths," by Kevin Dutton).

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Video games and shooting: Is the NRA right?

After a week of silence following the Sandy Hook school shooting that killed 20 first graders and six staff in Newtown, Conn., the National Rifle Association blamed the entertainment industry – specifically the producers of violent video games for inciting what has become a pattern of gun violence in the United States.
In describing the industry, NRA Vice President Wayne LaPierre said, “There exists in this country a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people.”
Mr. LaPierre faulted the news media for failing to report on “vicious, violent video games” such as “Grand Theft Auto,” “Mortal Kombat,” and “Splatterhouse” as egregious examples. He also singled out “Kindergarten Killer,” a free, fairly obscure online game.
“How come my research department could find it and all of yours either couldn’t or didn’t want anyone to know you had found it?” he asked reporters.
Recommended: Second Amendment Quiz
Most academic research, as well as studies by the FBI and the US Secret Service, examining the link between violent video games and incident of violence does not support the gun lobby’s charge.
For example, a 2008 report by researchers at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital funded by the US Department of Justice found that violent video games may increase bullying or physical fighting in schools, but not mass gun violence.
“It's clear that the ‘big fears’ bandied about in the press – that violent video games make children significantly more violent in the real world; that they will engage in the illegal, immoral, sexist and violent acts they see in some of these games – are not supported by the current research, at least in such a simplistic form,” the report states.
Joan Saab, director of the visual and cultural studies program at the University of Rochester in New York, says the gaming industry should share in the blame for promoting military weaponry to young people, but adds that the popularity of such games reflect the “larger culture we live in, which is heavily militarized,” in the midst of lengthy combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Ms. Saab says that the NRA’s call for armed guards in schools would make that kind of military culture more pervasive for children.
“If there are more armed guards in schools, kids are exposed to more guns. That’s when fantasy and reality aren’t blurred. When there are guns in schools, it becomes real life and the day-to-day environment becomes more dangerous than the game,” she says. In Newtown, as in Aurora, Colo. and the sites of other mass shootings, the gunman was outfitted in military-style dress.
By blaming video games for gun violence, the NRA also puts itself in a vulnerable position because, as Mother Jones reports, the company partnered with gaming producer Cave Entertainment in 2006 for “NRA Gun Club,” a PlayStation 2 game that allows users to fire over 100 different brand-name handguns.
LaPierre did not specify if Congress should move forward in regulating the gaming industry, perhaps because previous attempts were not successful.
A US Supreme Court ruling in 2011 struck down a California law that made it a crime to sell or rent what it classified as violent video games to minors. The ruling said the law, signed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) in 2005, violates First Amendment protections.
In the wake of Sandy Hook, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller introduced a bill that calls for the National Academy of Sciences to examine the possible links between violent video games and violent incidents caused by children.
Overall, gun-based video games do not wholly represent total gaming industry sales, according to data from VGChartz, a UK-based research firm that tracks gaming sales. In 2011, for example, just seven of the top 20 best-selling games in the US involve warfare simulation. The other titles – “Just Dance 3,” “Kinect Adventures!” “New Super Mario Bros. Wii,” “Madden NFL 12,” and “Pokemon Black/White” – are designed around sports, dance, and children’s cartoon characters.
All of the games LaPierre mentions are more than 15 years old, with some dating back to the 1980s, with their popularity waning. For example, total unit sales in the US for the “Mortal Kombat” franchise dropped 70 percent in 2012, compared to the previous year total. The game debuted in 1992.
Gaming experts say that the majority of the games LaPierre cited do not portray gun violence – “Mortal Kombat” involves hand-to-hand combat, for example. They say they do not understand why he did not single out “first person shooter” games such as blockbuster franchises like the “Call of Duty” series, which is based on simulated gun action and is considered one of the most hyper-violent on the market. In fact, according to news reports, the game was also a favorite of Adam Lanza, the Newtown gunman who spent hours at home playing it.
“Some of those games [LaPierre mentions] are older than the [Newtown] shooter,” who was 20, says Christopher Grant, editor-in-chief of Polygon.com, an online site based in New York City that covers gaming news and trends. “I have no idea why he chose them. My theory is he didn’t want to pick anything too modern [such as ‘Call of Duty’ or ‘Doom’] that might overlap unfavorably with something their own members might enjoy.”
“Call of Duty” is known as a favorite of the military and is often credited for driving up recruitment. Activision Blizzard, the company behind “Call of Duty,” has donated thousands of copies to the US Navy; the company also created a non-profit foundation to help returning US military veterans.
According to the NPD Group, a global market research firm, retail gaming sales in the US plummeted 20 percent in the first eight months of 2012 compared to the same time period the previous year, a trend that follows years of declining sales. Between 2008 and 2011, total sales of industry software and hardware dropped 20.5 percent. According to the gaming industry website Gamasutra, 2012 sales are expected to be the lowest since 2006.
The sales drop is representative of major shifts in the gaming industry, which is slowly moving away from console-based games to those that are played via smartphones, digital tablets, and online through social networks.
The change has produced a new type of gamer: They are generally older, more ethnically and economically diverse, and they feed their gaming appetite in smaller bites and on-the-go, as opposed to the traditional gamer profile of a few years ago, which tended to be young males playing for hours in one sitting.
The Entertainment Software Association, an industry trade group based in Washington, reports that the average gamer today is 30 years old, the most frequent game purchaser is 35 years old, and that almost half (47 percent) of all gamers are women.

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Atheist Kids and Bullying: Just an Xbox and a Football Game Away From Redemption

I’ll never forget the year my eight-year-old daughter came home from school saying she got in trouble for going to the bathroom.
“I was afraid,” she said, “that the devil was coming out of the mirror to get me.... I wanted Aya to stay with me until I was done.”
Like any parent, I sat her down and asked her to tell me why she would ever think a mirror could spawn something as terrifying as that.
“Susie told me because I didn’t believe in god, the devil was coming to take my soul.”
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“Susie” as we’ll call her, was a fellow eight-year-old student at my daughter’s Catholic school. Susie attended church every Sunday with her family—the same church that many of her classmates to this day all go to.
Was my daughter being bullied for being an atheist? I quickly dismissed it. After all, these were only eight-year-old girls, and it wasn’t like we talked about god hating with our morning cereal.
I soon noticed a new pattern of my daughter: She wouldn’t enter a bathroom without a friend or parent and began wetting the bed at night for fear of our extensive collection of bathroom mirrors pulling her into almighty hell at 2 a.m.
Sure enough, the religious eight-year-old was still pressuring my daughter to consider her morality, spirituality and reason for living daily in the school bathroom.
“When the child goes to school, and encounters for the first time other kids who don’t believe the same thing, whether it’s no belief or a different belief system, that can rock a kid’s world.”
I got on the phone and made sure the principal was aware of the bullying, that the child was reported and that my daughter would hopefully make the choice not to play with her anymore. The school thought I was a little crazy. Bullying was getting punched in the stomach in a dark place behind the school, not a little girl being taunted for not believing she was going to have life eternal. This was a new place they were afraid to gain control of. The principal, a former nun, kept a tight lip.
According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, every day “an estimated 160,000 students in the U.S. refuse to go to school because they dread the physical and verbal aggression of their peers. Many more attend school in a chronic state of anxiety and depression.”
Courtney Campbell, Professor of Religion and Culture at Oregon State University, says he encountered the same case with his own children who were told at a very early age by some of their “friends” that they were “going to hell.” Though there were no physical beatings, the “psychic bullying” may have been worse.
“There is a phenomenon of religious-bullying at an early age, though in my own view/experience with raising my kids, it’s less of an issue than lookism [obese kids], size [‘big’ bullies], or gender, or clothes, or any of a number of things that kids do to manifest power over others,” says Campbell.
He points out that in most conservative/evangelical/fundamentalist Christian traditions, kids are taught at a very early age in their Sunday schools or summer bible camps that there’s only one path to happiness and salvation. That teaching, absorbed at a young age, is on its own rather threatening to the child.
“When the child goes to school, and encounters for the first time other kids who don’t believe the same thing, whether it’s no belief or a different belief system, that can rock a kid’s world,” Campbell adds.
Blame it on fear, maybe a calling out of one’s most sacred and learned family beleifs, but this form of push and shove is only getting more sophisticated.
Rachel Wagner, Associate Professor for the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Ithaca College and author of Godwired: Religion, Ritual and Virtual Reality, says we are overlooking a major player of the religious bullying model—video games.
“If we compare video games to rituals as similar kinds of interactive experiences that are meant to shape how we see ourselves and others in the world, then we can argue something more basic—that video games (like rituals) can teach people habits of encounter—and offer youth deeply problematic models of encounter with difference,” says Wagner, who adds that in her next book, she’ll argue that religion has always had the ability to be “played” like a game, a religious encounter she coins “shooter religion.”
While Wagner admits it’s very important to remember that all world religions also have “deep and abiding practices urging compassion, understanding, tolerance, and social justice,” in today’s media-soaked society, feeling the need to retreat into a simpler world where people can be reduced to camps can be terribly tempting.
Stacy Pershall, author of Loud in the House of Myself: Memoir of a Strange Girl, says that growing up in Prairie Grove, Arkansas, in an athletics-focused, Christian bible belt, she was used to being surrounded by “Jesus talk.”
Pershall, who was bullied for being a “strange girl,” when young, unathletic and atheist to boot, now works and empowers high school and college students as a writing teacher and mental health speaker.
“Although it still makes my heart pound a little to stand in front of a crowd and admit that I don’t believe in god (as I recently did at Catholic University in D.C.), somebody needs to do it. I get to be the adult who says to kids, ‘I’m an atheist, I have morals, I have friends, I’m happy, and I care about how you feel.’ That’s a wonderful, powerful thing. I get to tell bullied kids who might be considering suicide that they’re not alone, and that they have kindred spirits. It’s what the Flying Spaghetti Monster put me on Earth to do.

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World Music Awards postponed due to visa issues, Newtown tragedy

The World Music Awards was postponed on Thursday due to "logistical and multiple visa issue," organizers said, two days before the event was scheduled to be held in Miami.
Event producers John Martinotti and Marcol International said in a statement that the December 22 awards ceremony also was being delayed in the wake of the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, last week.
"We are sorry for any inconvenience but this decision had to be made due to logistical and multiple visa issues and in view of this week's national mourning. Fans have been a great support to the artists and have voted online in huge numbers," the producers said in a statement.
The winners in categories ranging from world's best song, world's best artists and entertainer of the year, are picked by fans who vote online. The statement said that votes will continue to be collected until a new date is set for the show.
This year's nominees include Usher, Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna and Chris Brown. Past winners include Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Michael Jackson.
The awards ceremony, founded in 1989 and hosted by Monaco's Prince Albert II, has primarily taken place in Monte Carlo and proceeds from the show go to charity. This year, show producers decided to move it to Marlins Park Stadium in Miami.

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Hundreds pay tribute to legendary Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar

 Ravi Shankar's daughters, Norah Jones and Anoushka Shankar, along with the wife of late Beatle George Harrison said their final goodbyes to the Indian sitar virtuoso on Thursday at a public memorial service in Encinitas, California.
The legendary musician and composer, who helped introduce the sitar to the Western world through his collaboration with The Beatles, died on December 11 in Southern California. He was 92.
About 700 people joined Shankar's wife, Sukanya, and family at the service held at a spiritual center in the coastal town about 25 miles north of San Diego.
Olivia Harrison, the widow of Beatles guitarist George Harrison, told Reuters the three-time Grammy winner who formed a musical and spiritual bond with The Beatle "expressed music at its deepest level."
"As a person he was just sweet and seemed to know everything," she added. "He was a true citizen of the world."
Shankar is credited with popularizing Indian music through his work with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and The Beatles beginning in the mid-1960s, inspiring George Harrison to learn the sitar and the British band to record songs like "Norwegian Wood" (1965) and "Within You, Without You" (1967).
"He completely transformed (George's) musical sensibilities," a tearful Harrison told the crowd. "They exchanged ideas and melodies until their hearts and minds were intertwined like a double helix."
'LITTLE CRUMB'
His friendship with Harrison led him to appearances at the Monterey and Woodstock pop festivals in the late 1960s and the 1972 Concert for Bangladesh. He became one of the first Indian musicians to become a household name in the West.
His influence in classical music, including on composer Philip Glass, was just as large. His work with Menuhin on their "West Meets East" albums in the 1960s and 1970s earned them a Grammy, and he wrote concertos for sitar and orchestra for both the London Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic.
"I always felt like a little crumb in his presence," Zubin Mehta, a former music director of the New York Philharmonic and collaborator with Shankar, said at the service.
Jazz pianist Herbie Hancock also attended the service along with "Anna Karenina" director Joe Wright, the husband of Shankar's daughter Anoushka.
Shankar, who had lived in Encinitas for the past 20 years, had suffered from upper respiratory and heart issues over the past year and underwent heart-valve replacement surgery last week at a hospital in San Diego.
The surgery was successful but he was unable to recover.
Shankar's final concert was on November 4 in Long Beach, California, with his Grammy-winning sitarist daughter Anoushka, who spoke giving thanks to those who came. Jones, the third Grammy-winner in the family, did not speak at the service.

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BMG Scores Rights to Nirvana, Tears for Fears Songs

 BMG has acquired the worldwide rights to several music catalogues, a deal that will give it songs from artists including Kurt Cobain, Tears for Fears, The Human League, Iggy Pop, and Take That.
The company announced Friday that it will purchase the rights for the Virgin Music Publishing Companies, Famous UK Music Publishing and selected current songwriters from Sony/ATV and EMI Music Publishing.
Sony Corporation of America and a group of investors acquired EMI Music Publishing in June, and Sony/ATV Music Publishing administers EMI on behalf of the group. It had to sell the catalogues as a condition of the acquisition.
Virgin Publishing's catalogue includes Kurt Cobain's songs for Nirvana, including "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "Come As You Are" and "About A Girl."
Other hits include Jim Steinman's "Total Eclipse Of The Heart," Lenny Kravitz' "Are You Gonna Go My Way," Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black," and Devo's "Whip It."
Other songs include Take That's greatest hits, including "Patience," "Shine" and "Greatest Day," as well as former member Robbie William's interests in "Angels," "Rock DJ" and "Let Me Entertain You."
Also in the catalogue are Tears for Fears' "Everybody Rules The World," Culture Club's "Karma Chamelon," OMD's "Enola Gay," and Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life," as well as recent hits including Duffy's "Mercy."
BMG, the fourth-largest music publishing company, is a three-year-old partnership between Bertelsmann and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. In May, it announced it had more than one million copyrights under management.
"These catalogues contain some of the most influential and successful songs in popular music," said BMG CEO Hartwig Masuch. "We are delighted to have won the opportunity to represent the writers of those songs and to demonstrate to them BMG's commitment to twenty-first century service. They have my pledge that we will do our very best to deliver for them.

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Nick Cassavetes Sued For Allegedly Stiffing Twin Canadian Pop Duo on $300K Movie Loan

 Nick Cassavetes, Canadian twins and incest - besides three phrases that you probably didn't expect to read in the same sentence today, they're also elements of a bizarre new lawsuit that hit the California court system this week.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, TwinSpin music - home to twin Canadian pop duo Carmen & Camille - claim that "The Notebook" director failed to pay back a $300,000 loan to help make the upcoming drama "Yellow."
The complaint alleges that the writer-director backed out of an agreement to give the duo parts in the movie and to feature a song of theirs in the Sienna Miller-Ray Liotta film.
The film chronicles a woman who's addicted to pain pills and is fired from her teaching job for engaging in sexual shenanigans on school grounds. Oh, and she also had a love affair with her brother at one point. According to the suit - which also includes TwinSpin manager John Thomas as a plaintiff - TwinSpin and Cassavetes entered into an agreement in September 2010, in which TwinSpin would loan Cassavetes $300,000 to start production on the film.
In return, the suit says, Cassavetes agreed to pay the loan back with interest - for a total of $345,000 - the next month. Cassavetes also agreed to cast the duo in speaking roles in the film, use a song of theirs on the soundtrack, and to give Thomas a producer's credit, the complaint claims.
But the money never came, the suit says - and neither did the roles, the song and the credit, without which the loan never would have been given.
"But for these representations, Plaintiffs never would have entered into the Loan Agreement or otherwise granted the Loan," the lawsuit reads. "Plaintiffs are informed and believe that Cassavetes never had any intention of casting 'Carmen & Camille' in the Picture, or featuring a song by 'Carmen & Camille' in the Picture, of providing the producer credit to plaintiff Thomas, or of repaying the loan on a timely basis."
Cassavetes' agent has not yet responded to misrepresentation request for comment.
Alleging breach of contract, breach of covenant of good faith and fair dealing, fraudulent misrepresentation and negligent misrepresentation, the suit is asking for damages of $500,000, the amount that the plaintiffs believe is currently owed to them by Cassavetes, with accruing interest.

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AP music writers' top 10 albums of the year

Mesfin Fekadu's picks:
1. Nas, "Life is Good": "I am a graphic classic song composer," Nas raps on the intro to his latest album. And he's right. You may disagree, but Nas is the best rapper alive, and with "Life is Good," he's got the year's top album, regardless of genre. On "Life," he's spitting rhymes about his ex-wife, Kelis — like the soulful "Bye Baby" — his daughter on "Daughters" and his childhood on "A Queens Story." He's a top-notch lyricist with a knack for storytelling, and it all makes for impeccable music. He knows life is good, and so is this album.
2. Of Monsters and Men, "My Head Is an Animal": The Icelandic fivesome have melodies that are eerie, jamming, groovy and overall epic. The voices of the male and female lead singers blend so beautifully that it sounds like magic.
3. Elle Varner, "Perfectly Imperfect": Her raspy and powerful voice, over crisp production, easily gives Elle Varner R&B's best offering of 2012. The 12-track set has an amazing flow that will have you hitting the replay button again, again and again!
4. Lianne La Havas, "Is Your Love Big Enough?": Lianne La Havas' honesty pierces on the tracks on her debut album, and it makes the collection of songs both heavy and beautiful. She's got an acoustic folk-rock-soul sound that is unique, and what's best is that heavy voice of hers: This London singer sounds like she's singing straight to your soul. Well, actually, she is.
5. Frank Ocean, "channel ORANGE": Frank is fresh. Enough said.
6. Miguel, "Kaleidoscope Dream": It's a bit shocking — though more exciting — to see the Grammys acknowledge Miguel's multi-talents with five nominations. They got it right — he's helping change R&B without dismissing the genre's more traditional sound from acts like Faith Evans and Tamia. From "Do You..." to "Candles In the Sun," he hits all the right notes on his sophomore disc.
7. Emeli Sande, "Our Version of Events": The debut album from this Scottish import commands your attention, thanks to Emeli Sande's strong pipes jelled with R&B and pop sounds. Her voice helps her songs easily come to life — just check out "Suitcase" if you're not convinced.
8. Kendrick Lamar, "good kid m.A.A.d city": The major label debut from Dr. Dre's protege is dope for its clever rhymes and soulful skits. He's going places.
9. Mumford & Sons, "Babel": Mumford & Sons continue to hark on love and life on "Babel," and it sounds masterful with its rock harmonies that are both rugged and calming.
10. Shiny Toy Guns, "III": The year's best dance and electronic-based album isn't on Top 40 radio. Shiny Toy Guns returned in 2012 with a third album and its lead singer, Carah Faye. The foursome sounds better than ever over beats that are addictive and vibes that are dreamy. Now dance.
Nekesa Mumbi Moody's picks:
1. Emeli Sande, "Our Version of Events": Sande's forceful, soulful voice is enough of a lure, but coupled with the most poetic, beautiful lyrics and melodies of the year, Sande's debut album was a brilliant work that was shamefully overlooked by the Recording Academy for Grammy contention in 2013. Don't make the same mistake if you haven't already listened — this one is a stunner.
2. Taylor Swift, "Red": Last time, we had John Mayer to thank. This time around, Jake Gyllenhaal is most likely the reason for Swift's ire in songs like the wickedly vengeful "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," as well as poignant, heartbreaking songs like "I Almost Do" or "All Too Well." At 22, the former teen ingénue also flirts with sensuality on songs like "Treacherous" and "Everything Has Changed." She may still have a cutesy image, but Swift has grown up, and continues to mature into a singer-songwriter with musical gravitas.
3. Frank Ocean, "Channel Orange": Ocean's grand statement about his sexuality seemed to overshadow the real reason why he was one of music's most important figures — his impressive talent. "Thinkin' Bout You" gave just a taste of Ocean's allure: With the help of others, he crafted a collection of musically and lyrically daring songs that stand out starkly from the status quo of pop and R&B worlds.
4. Esperanza Spalding, "Radio Music Society": The 2011 Best New Artist winner delivered her most accessible album to date, melding her jazz roots with R&B for an enchanting album.
5. Alabama Shakes, "Boys & Girls": Brittany Howard's vocals slay on every track — though her voice has been described as Joplin-esque, she's quickly proving that she's a force all her own. From hard-rocking guitar-based tracks to slower grooves, "Boys & Girls" simply smolders.
6. Various Artists, "The Hunger Games Soundtrack: Songs from District 12 and Beyond": From Taylor Swift and the Civil Wars to Miranda Lambert's Pistol Annies, this collection of songs made for the blockbuster film captured the bleakness of the novel better than the movie. In an album of highlight after highlight, the Secret Sisters' simple and beautiful "Tomorrow Will Be Kinder" was at the apex.
7. Killer Mike, "R.A.P. Music": Killer Mike has been under the radar in the rap world for years — and it's too bad this great didn't elevate his profile in the mainstream, because it's better than 82.4 percent of what's out there today (and yes, that's my scientific survey). He mixes rap braggadocio with biting, thought-provoking social commentary.
8. Elle Varner, "Perfectly Imperfect": Can we get a "Refill" of Varner for 2013? Besides her seductive hit, Varner's album showed that she's one of music's bright new talents with songs that ranged sensuous bedroom workouts to dramatic love ballads.
9. The Robert Glasper Experiment, "Black Radio": They say you can't really criticize something if you don't have a solution to fix it. Well, with "Black Radio," the jazz pianist offered his take on how the often stagnant medium could be improved — and it was dreamy.
10. Nas, "Life Is Good": Actually, Mesfin, it's been a while since Nas released an album that lived up to his arguable title as rap's greatest MC. But he delivered this year with an album that was a throwback to the beats that dominated hip-hop when New York was king of the rap game, and of course, Nas' rhymes.
Chris Talbott's picks:
1. Cloud Nothings, "Attack on Memory": Blame most of the entries on this list on a conversation I had last year with Jeff Tweedy, who said one of the ways to stay in love with music was to seek out new, young acts. Ohio's Cloud Nothings punched me in the solar plexus with this unrepentant blast of rock that tackles BIG THEMES while musically careening down a steep, car-lined street on an out-of-control skateboard.
2. Natural Child, "For The Love of The Game" and "Hard in Heaven": Mining an era that seems to have been purposely forgotten by today's young rockers, this bluesy rock trio from Nashville was on a groove so tight this year that it released two albums. It's a tossup which one's better, so we're not choosing. Both show they could be Nashville's next breakthrough band.
3. Kendrick Lamar, "good kid, m.A.A.d. city": Displaying the limitless ambition of a young RZA or Kanye West, this much-anticipated, Dr. Dre-sanctified release is a cinematic concept album stuffed full of examples of the Los Angeles rapper's versatility, creativity and willingness to take chances most other rappers would blanche at.
4. Jack White, "Blunderbuss": We've been waiting a long time to hear what White would sound like without the filter of his many, many bandmates. "Blunderbuss," a little bit whimsical, a little bit menacing, offered all the things we'd hoped we'd find, plus a few surprises.
5. Alabama Shakes, "Boys & Girls": This debut album from the Alabama rock quartet heralds the arrival of a major talent in singer Brittany Howard, but she's not the only star here. Her bandmates craft simple but compelling, soulful music that combines with Howard's voice to make some of the most uplifting rock we've heard in years.
6. Frank Ocean, "channel ORANGE": The Tweedy Effect really kicked in last year when I heard Ocean's mix tape "nostalgia/ULTRA," probably the best album of 2011. While "channel ORANGE" is disappointingly restrained musically, like "nostalgia/Ultra" it is a triumphant example as a social document that's both fearless and insightful yet still entertaining enough to reach popular audiences.
7. Turbo Fruits, "Butter": Sometimes you just want to bob your head along to mindless songs about parties and girls and fighting and motorcycles, and the third album from these rising rockers on Kings of Leon's record label helps prove EDM hasn't killed off rock 'n' roll. Far from it.
8. King Tuff, "King Tuff": Twenty-five years after its start, Sub Pop is still unearthing bands you need to hear. This time it's Vermont's King Tuff, purveyors of weirdly irresistible sugar-coated psychedelic pop songs that refuse to leave your brain.
9. Japandroids, "Celebration Rock": Beginning and ending with the sound of fireworks, this Vancouver, British Columbia, two-piece's album is exactly what its title describes — grand, anthemic songs about the great moments in life.
10. Trampled By Turtles, "Stars and Satellites": The awesomely named Minnesota string band has been on the rise for years and its gentle, introspective sixth album adds a layer of artistry and emotion only hinted at in previous work.

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Americans answer D.C.'s siren song of employment, strong economy

Thirteen years ago the band The Magnetic Fields crooned that the U.S. capital city is "the greatest place to be," in the indie love song "Washington, D.C."
Recently, a growing number of Americans are singing along as they move to the District in search of jobs, economic opportunity and cultural attractions.
In a study on migration provided exclusively to Reuters that is set to be released next month, United Van Lines found the District of Columbia tops all 50 states for the number of people moving in during 2012.
The city has held that spot for five years running, with 64 percent of the household moves in Washington coming from outside the city in 2012.
United Van Lines is the largest moving company in the country for households.
Oregon ranked second, followed by Nevada, North Carolina and South Carolina. Washington is a city that does not belong to a state, but is subject to loose control from the federal government.
"Washington, D.C., is unique because over the last five years its unemployment rate was not hit as hard by the Great Recession," said Michael Stoll, chair and professor of public policy at the University of California at Los Angeles about the study. "But I think the other thing is that the city has remade itself from the one we knew 10 to 15 years ago."
Washington has shed its reputation as the crime capital of the country, and it has developed a high technology corridor and other businesses that are both stable and hiring, said Stoll.
Also, many members of the Baby Boom generation are moving in as they retire, taking advantage of the free museums, monuments and cultural events the city has to offer, he said.
The rising popularity could yield a result also unthinkable less than two decades ago.
"D.C. will not just be a place of tourism. It will be a major economic engine, which many of us haven't thought of it as being before," Stoll said.
A U.S. Census report released on Thursday also showed the city is gaining new residents. Washington's population increased 2.15 percent between July 2011 and July 2012, a rise second only to North Dakota.
The District's population increase of 5.1 percent from 2010 to 2012 was the biggest in the country, the Census found. It had had 632,323 residents as of July 1.
The city has a large international community, largely due to the presence of foreign embassies and organizations such as the World Bank. The Census found people from other countries made up 32 percent of the net migration from 2011 to 2012.
According to a Labor Department report released on Friday, the District's unemployment rate fell in November to 8.1 percent from 10.1 percent the year before. Local political leaders point to a development boom and one of the highest median incomes in the country - $63,124 - as other draws to the city.
On a national level, Stoll said, the migration patterns show Americans are seeking economic opportunity in places where new manufacturing and technology enterprises are building up. The patterns reveal a swelling group of aging people who are retiring and looking for affordable and comfortable places to live, as well.
He added that many people who wanted to move to California, but were put off by the state's economic woes, turned their moving vans north to Oregon.
New Jersey topped states for outward moves, in 2012, the United Van Lines study showed, largely due to a shrinking factory sector. It was followed by Illinois, West Virginia, Michigan and New York.
Washington's popularity surge recently created a paradox in the city's economic success story. Last month, the Brookings Institution concluded three U.S. metropolitan areas are in economic recovery, but did not include Washington because its population burst drove down its gross domestic product on a per capita basis.

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