Am I the Only One With My Hair on Fire?! Apple Execs Open Floodgates of Trash Apps for Tweens

Okay, so I have taught child & human development for over 25 years.
Okay, so I was stunned that Apple allowed the "Baby Shaker" app to thrive for three days before removing it from the "app store".
Okay, so I was outraged at Apple's generic/press release drivel apology and don't even get me started on Sikalosoft..."I guess we made some people mad" approach to developing an application that shows how to shake a baby to death if they don't stop crying.
IS ANYONE MINDING THE STORE....The iTUNES APP STORE???

Let me see if I can get your attention. First Johnny uses his $25. iTunes card and after a seamless enrollment, orders the following downloads for his shiny iPhone (yes, Apple Board Member, Al Gore, he's a tween, thirteen years of age.)
Now it's time to use his downloaded VooDooFun app (.99 cents)...Johnny doesn't really like his English teacher. He uploads her yearbook picture on Voodoofun and sticks the s**t out of her. Now Johnny is ready to ramp it up a notch, so it's on to Hot Banana, a masturbating simulation game, that allows him to compete with George across the classroom via iPhone. As you might imagine,Johnny's a little churned up. Let's open his Bunny & Me, where he can make Bunny do about anything in addition to blowing on his now steamed-up iPhone screen and make Bunny's dress go flying up. By the way, iGirl will do the same. Oh, oh, the principal walked in, how about, gunsta or Mafia 1? Johnny can point and shoot at the principal. If the sound is loud enough, the school might have to have an evacuation....coo-o-ol. Of course, Johnny is leading in Mafia 1 area of Trashing Cars...good training for when Johnny drops out of school and does this for real. After lunch it's time to blow up a few kitties with the iKitty app. Johnny now sends a shout out to his homeys to meet at his "crib" after school for a Beirut. What is Beirut? This is a cool Code for a BeerPong Basement style drinking game. You see Johnny lives in a single parent home and Mom won't be home for hours. Sally will bring the beer/wine coolers in her backpack. Now no basement game is complete without a Truth or Dare, x rated and Johnny downloaded that easily...so let the sex games begin. Of course one has to keep track of all this fun, so it's time to tune into Get Durk Drunk...just to see how many drinks it takes to go over the legal limit before Mom's car hits the driveway. Fast forward to homework time, but Johnny again is bored and has learned a nifty way to not only download Penthouse from the iPhone app, zinio newsstand, but how to put it right on his PC for better views. Bedtime snack: another Hot Banana!
To put some relevance to the above editorial simulation, it is telling that the billionth download that Apple brags so much about came from a tween, thirteen year old Connor Mulcahey. Apple iPhones stands to make bazillions from the purchases of minors and this would not be so egregious if there was some semblance of oversight at Apple before these creepy, pervasive, disgusting downloads reached your child's iPhone. All a developer needs to do is file a form and pay $99. Now, any genius or jerk can enter his/her "game"? Oversight? You tell me. Damaging albeit destructive to young minds? Without a doubt.
Feel free to go to youtube and look up the above apps. Please note, the age and gender of the child demonstrating these apps for you. Anyone need a fire extinquisher?

Shaken Baby Application Makes Apple One Bad Apple!

My first thought: What in the world were they thinking? Apple iPhones are selling at breakneck speed and AT&T continues to survive due to the revenue from Apple Iphones putting them at the top of the heap. So what imbecile (I'm guessing some white male under 30) developed this app that when you click on the baby icon it cries and won't stop until you shake the phone?
Come to find out, Apple threw open the gates of software in order to expand the apps available for iphone. A company named Sikalosoft, developed the "Baby Shaker" and it is a "game",yes that's what they said, the user plays and gains points by continuing to shake the baby until the red x's appear on the drawing of a baby on the icon. Wow! Winning a game because you shook your phone enough to simulate bleeding into the eyes as a result of torn blood vessels?! Yes, Virginia, and for only 99 cents you can play! What will those clever developers come up with next? Perhaps the Craigslist Killer icon can't be too far behind!
This is one of the most egregious misuses of technology that I have seen since the arrival of play station's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas which provides points for direct kills of human beings.
I happen to be a child development advocate and teacher for over 25 years. I have taught literally thousands of students the horrific effects of Shaken Baby Syndrome. I continue to be shocked at the rise in Shaken Baby Syndrome deaths across our country. And yes, the perpetrator of this vicious abuse to a helpless infant is a male over seventy per cent of the time.
I would refer the iPhone execs, Apple and AT&T brass to click this link to a Power Point presentation of what happens when a baby is shaken. My students were stunned when they learned that the shaking doesn't have to be the violent examples depicted in movies. I'm guessing that the same amount of shaking of your iPhone to stop the recorded crying baby is exactly the amount that can cause major physical harm to an infant and unfortunately, death.
Just for the sake of those who do not visit this website, let me provide the list of injuries that are seen in emergency rooms daily in our country resulting from shaking a baby:
1) Baby’s brain bangs against skull. 2) Small blood vessels are torn - bleeding 3) Blood clots press on brain. 4) Vertebrae crush the spinal cord.
And the occurrence of the above injuries can result in the following: brain damage, retardation,physical disabilities, paralysis, blindness, and death.
On Thursday, April 23, Apple offered an apology and stated that the application has been pulled from the iPhones. The question remains, how many iPhones were sold with the Baby Shaker app? Why did it take a Shaken Baby Syndrome Charity group to expose this deplorable use of technology to simulate a heinous crime?
One of my Human Development classes at Kokomo High School in Indiana put together original poems and short stories underscoring the violence that rears its ugly head too often in our communities regardless of race,creed, or socio-economic factors. I end this blog with a poem from one of the students. Perhaps Apple could make a donation to the National Shaken Baby Syndrome foundation to somehow repair the damage they have done by trivializing a rising form of abuse to our most innocent victims.
Oh, by the way, iPhone Apple,AT&T and Sikalosoft. April is
National Child Abuse Prevention month. Get a clue.

Why?
Written by: Brittany Pittman
Edited by Mrs. Yeakel

Hi, my name is Freddy,
And I’m holding my teddy bear,
I’m holding him tight,
Because I know something is not right.
I hear footsteps coming down the hall,
Then suddenly I start to bawl,
He swings open the door,
My eyes start to pour,
He picks me up and shakes me…
Why doesn’t God just take me?

Pee-Wee Herman's Playhouse has been Revived at CNBC!

Any Resemblance?

This is my response to CNBC following Rick Santelli's "Playhouse".

The idea that Rick Santelli is still attempting to denigrate our President under the approval of CNBC makes no sense. Do you have any concept of the anger towards you and Wall Street by Main Street and yes, Europe and Asia regarding the credit default swap debacle? First Santelli has his little rant as a front man for the Chicago Tea Party bunch, now he presented his own little weird puppet show complete with a chia pet looking like President Obama during his "report". Are you so asleep at the switch that you fail to realize that President Obama has won the respect of hard working Americans in addition to world leaders? The President is working overtime to clean up the mess that you and your ilk put us in and we on Main Street has gone eight years without a leader who feels our pain. Apparently, the CNBC program execs allow this juvenile and biased behavior to flourish on your network. Finally, to say that Rick Santelli will not attend any "Tea Parties" being hosted around the country because he has no ties to them is disputable. Perhaps we at Main Street should boycott CNBC on April 15. I am a published op Ed writer and this is my new mission: expose CNBC as the mouthpiece of Wall Street, the carnival barker, if you will,...nothing more, nothing less.

If you would like to communicate your views to CNBC, here is the email address: "CNBC Customer Care Team" http://customercare@support.cnbc.com