Not to bum you out or anything, especially with Thanksgiving just a couple of days away here in the U.S., and we certainly aren't going to tell you that you shouldn't be thankful for iPods, G5s, and today's exclusive iTunes Music Store digital release of both U2's new album How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and the 400+ song collection The Complete U2-- but one of the things you should probably also be thankful for is that you aren't one of the 1.8 million refugees trying to survive in the Darfur region of Western Sudan after their villages were burned to the ground. We know, we know-- big downer at holiday time. So sue us. We just figure you can spare a couple of minutes away from Happy Thoughts to reflect on the lives of the far less fortunate.

Better yet, why not turn some coin into karma and help out a little? Faithful viewer Dave Ahl, the co-owner and -operator of a grassroots music and film production company called Modiba Productions, informs us that Modiba's latest project is now available for purchase at the iTMS: the Afrobeat Sudan Aid Project (ASAP-- get it?) is an hour-plus collection of twelve tracks by some of the biggest artists in the Afrobeat genre, and all proceeds from the sale of the album go to the Kebkabiya Smallholders Charitable Society, a local Oxfam effort trying to provide little things like, oh, say food and shelter to the Sudanese as they run from the bombs.

Not into the world music thing? Well, frankly, neither are we-- but we're pretty firm in our belief that people ought to eat and live inside things (not necessarily the same things, obviously), and we're generally open to new stuff provided it doesn't issue forth from the Microsoft campus. So we bought ASAP regardless, and we're grooving to it even as we do this whole production spiel; as it turns out, this is some mighty fine music and clearly we've been missing out. ("He likes it! Hey, Mikey!") C'mon, broaden your horizons a little. Try something new. At least listen to the 30-second previews before you dismiss it outright. After all, Apple clearly wants you to.

That's right, just to make you feel even more guilty about not pitching in, you should know that Apple has made ASAP its very first iTMS charity project; the company was cool enough not only to waive all fees associated with the sale of the album, but also to stick a prominent ad for the project right on the iTMS home page. It's one thing to agree to lose money on every sale of a particular project; to advertise it, too, well, that goes above and beyond "above and beyond."

If all that's not enough to persuade you to buy, consider it an issue of platform loyalty: Dave tells us that ASAP in its entirety (well, except for the actual making of the music, of course) "was done by Wesleyan students (and an NYU student) exclusively on Macs." Not that Macs being used in musical production are exactly tough to find, mind you, but if that's enough to nudge you over the edge into parting with ten bucks, well, more power to you. And think of it this way: if you don't spend a lousy ten-spot to help feed starving refugees in Sudan, you are just gonna feel like a complete tool when you go to stuff yourself three notches past bursting on Thursday.

Guilt: it makes the world go 'round. Have a nice day.