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A type of scan that illuminates brain activity showed that at the end of the three months, the girls’ brains were working less hard to complete the game’s challenges. What’s more, parts of the cortex, the outer layer of their brains responsible for high-level functions, actually got thicker. Several of these regions are associated with visual spatial abilities, planning, and integration of sensory data.

Does this mean that Tetris is good for your brain?’’ Haier said. “That is the big question. We don’t know that just because you become better at playing Tetris after practice and your brain changes . . . whether those changes generalize to anything else.’’

Generalizability to non-game situations is the big question surrounding other emerging games, particularly software that is being marketed explicitly as a way to keep neurons spry as we age. The jury is still out on whether practicing with these games helps people outside of the context of the game. In one promising 2008 study, however, senior citizens who started playing Rise of Nations, a strategic video game devoted to acquiring territory and nation building, improved on a wide range of cognitive abilities, performing better on subsequent tests of memory, reasoning, and multitasking. The tests were administered after eight weeks of training on the game. No follow-up testing was done to assess whether the gains would last.

People who are "not useful" could be exterminated simply for that reason

It took more than 20 years to broadly accept that mankind is causing global warming with the emission of greenhouse gases.

More than 80% of the world-wide energy demand is currently supplied by the fossil fuels coal, oil or gas.

energy demand is simply too high.

The planned Staten Island mosque would be partly built on a street named in honor of a firefighter that was killed as a result of the 9/11 terror attacks. Visit here for a breakdown of the Quinnipiac poll results and questions. The Muslim initiative that intends to build a mega mosque and center near Ground Zero is named the Cordoba Initiative. The president of that Initiative is Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and has the support and backing of the Malaysian government, which desires Sharia law.

The heated national debate is unrecognizable from the reality in New York, both politically and spatially. For starters, there are the practical questions of whether the Islamic center's politically unconnected organizers have the savvy and know-how to navigate the city's real estate universe or to put together the $100 million they need for their ambitious project. But if they somehow do, the city's entire political establishment supports their right to build on private property.

It seems to me that the fast food industry should be blamed for most if not all of the obesity in America. People want to eat healthy but the fast food industry has taken over. There are no other alternatives. Sure they claim to have healthy alternatives but when you look at their version of a healthy alternative in most cases you are back where you began. For instance the salad that they offer has the same deep fried chicken loaded with sodium that they put on the sandwich and the salad dressing is loaded with empty calories. Shouldn't the fast food industry be held more accountable for the products they serve. One sandwich can have the entire days worth of fat and calories. Like it or not fast food is a way of life and the industry should bear some of the blame. We should start a campaign to reduce calories across the board.

When the media is constantly bombarding children and teens alike with messages about the "ideal" or "perfect" beauty, and uses underweight movie stars, singers, etc- then it's not hard to ask the question "Does the media influence Anorexia on teenagers?"

Instead of blaming themselves, the media and others- it's im

portant to remember that some teenagers are more susceptible to eating disorders than others, and some are going to develop Anorexia or another eating disorder with or without outside influences such as media or peers.

As the level of violence in video games has increased, so has concern for the effects on those who play - especially those who play a lot. Many are quick to point out that most school shootings in recent years have been carried out by avid gamers, and their games of choice were always dark and violent.

But it begs the question: Which comes first? Can aggressive and violent behavior be attributed to violence in video games? Or do those who play already have violent tendencies which draw them to violent games? It's a type of "chicken or the egg" debate that has strong advocates on both sides.

The more lifelike they've become, the more interest there has been in the correlation between violent games and violent behavior.

The shooting on the Virginia Tech campus was only hours old, police hadn't even identified the gunman, and yet already the perpetrator had been fingered and was in the midst of being skewered in the media.

Video games. They were to blame for the dozens dead and wounded. They were behind the bloodiest massacre in U.S. history. Or so Jack Thompson told Fox News and, in the days that followed, would continue to tell anyone who'd listen.

But whether Seung-Hui Cho, the student who opened fire Monday, was an avid player of video games and whether he was a fan of "Counter-Strike" in particular remains, even now, uncertain at best.

People are responsible for the spike in global warming in the last 30 years, says a new US government report.

enact policies to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

As summer vacation begins, 17 girls at Gloucester High School are expecting babies — more than four times the number of pregnancies the 1,200-student school had last year. [...] All it took was a few simple questions before nearly half the expecting students, none older than 16, confessed to making a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together. Then the story got worse. “We found out one of the fathers is a 24-year-old homeless guy,” the principal says, shaking his head.

a sudden baby boom among students at Gloucester High School in Massachusetts, which Time Magazine says is apparently no coincidence:

The suicide of a young Chinese boy in the Tianjin province has highlighted once more the growing dangers of game addiction, when those responsible don't understand or notice the risks of unhealthy play. Xiao Yi was thirteen when he threw himself from the top of a twenty-four story tower block in his home town, leaving notes that spoke of his addiction and his hope of being reunited with fellow cyber-players in heaven. The suicide notes were written through the eyes of a gaming character, so reports the China Daily, and stated that he hoped to meet three gaming friends in the after life. His parents, who had noticed with growing concern his affliction, were not mentioned in the letters.

My kid was like someone taking drugs who could not control himself,"

"His mother and I were very worried about him. But we knew little about the Internet and we did not know how to save him." Previously, Xiao's parents had found him starving after two days and nights in an internet cafe playing online role-playing games. When questioned about his bizarre behaviour, his father said that a tearful Xiao had told him that he had been poisoned by games and could no longer control himself.