A study has shown that video games can increase brain function in children.

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Before You dismiss the findings This studyYou should also know that the National Institutes of Health sponsored the study and more than 2000 children were involved. The study showed that video games played for at least three hours per day resulted in an increase in cognitive brain function. However, the study did not show that games have a greater effect on brain function. It only showed that children who play video games perform better in tests.

According to the study summary,

“This study adds to our growing understanding of the associations between playing video games and brain development,” said NIDA Director Nora Volkow, M.D. “Numerous studies have linked video gaming to behavior and mental health problems. This study suggests that there may also be cognitive benefits associated with this popular pastime, which are worthy of further investigation.”

Bader Chaarani, University of Vermont Professor, NPR The study suggests that a few hours of playing video games may prove to be beneficial. 

Extended screen time has a negative impact on both the physical and mental health. There may be some benefits if the child spends one, two, or three hours playing video games, as our data suggests. These benefits are not possible if the child is spending any time watching TV or texting, or using other forms of screen-time such as YouTube or texting.

Axios also summarized some findings.

• It is not clear if games have cognitive benefits, or if people with cognitive benefits chose to play games.

• “While we cannot say whether playing video games regularly caused superior neurocognitive performance, it is an encouraging finding,” the study’s lead author, Bader Chaarani, said in an NIH report of the findings.

• The researchers also didn’t test whether the type of game kids played made an impact and encouraged further investigation to see if, say, action games yield the same results as puzzle games.

• This report is an addition to the body Research Video games are often dismissed as frivolous, unhealthy, or even dangerous. dangerousSome games can be used as medicines, and may even have health benefits.

Brendan Carr (Federal Communications Commissioner) says that it is time for The Council on Foreign Investments in the U.S. take action to ban TikTok. Carr’s concern is that the Chinese-owned company, which has 200 million downloads in the U.S., opens Americans to spying by the Chinese. The U.S. government was sufficiently concerned about security issues. U.S. Soldiers are outlawed Download the app. August The Washington Post reports the House of Representatives’ chief administrator warned House staff not to use the “high-risk” app. But many still do.

However, the FCC is not authorized to regulate TikTok. as Axios points out, The commissioner is heard by Congress. Carr told Axios in an interview, “I don’t believe there is a path forward for anything other than a ban.” Other interview highlights: 

• Carr raised concerns about U.S. data being redirected to China and the possibility of a state actor using TikTok in order to influence US political processes.

• There simply isn’t “a world in which you could come up with sufficient protection on the data that you could have sufficient confidence that it’s not finding its way back into the hands of the [Chinese Communist Party],” Carr said.

• Carr sent letters Apple and Google asked the companies in June to remove the apps form their stores because of concerns about data flowing to China.

You may be familiar with all of these words. 2020 Trump initially tried to ban TikTok but then decided to sell it to a U.S. buyer. Both failed. The Washington Post This was a deep dive into this conflict. 

It isn’t hard to find an apartment you are able to afford. Swindlers are out there People to get them to send you a Advance rent or security deposit units that don’t exist or are stolen.

Federal Trade Commission describes How some scams work

Scammers can hijack real estate listings or rental properties by altering the email address and then placing the altered ad on another website. Even the name of the original poster may be used in the altered ad. Other times, scammers also took over email accounts of property owners using reputable websites for vacation rental.

Other rip-off artists make up listings for places that aren’t for rent or don’t exist and try to lure you in with the promise of low rent, or great amenities. Their goal is to steal your money before anyone else does.

The FTC offers some tips on how to avoid being taken in and scammed by hustlers. 

The Marshall Project is a great example of the type of reporting I would like to see more newsrooms do.. The Marshall Project was investigated Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) court system. Learn:

Cuyahoga County courtrooms often see defendants for the second time. A new analysis by The Marshall Project found that almost 70% of the county’s nearly 70,000 criminal court cases from 2016 through the end of 2021 featured a defendant with at least one prior charge on their record. Nearly a third of the county’s court cases involve defendants with at least five prior criminal cases — and (Deshawn) Since the 1990s, Maines has seen more than 30 cases.

This analysis shows that not all of these defendants are violent, hardened criminals. Police and prosecutors warn that judging defendants just on the crimes they’ve been convicted of can understate their dangerousness, given how many people take plea deals for lesser crimes than the ones they were originally charged with. However, these defendants in neither case are being accused of serious violent crimes, which would lead to lengthy sentences. Instead, they go through the courts for probation or brief stints in jail every year. They complete their sentence and are released. Then, they face the same criminal charges again in court.

The numbers show that both prisons and jails don’t work in preventing people from re-offending. 

The analysis shows that these defendants first encounter the court system as teenagers or young adults — the vast majority of them first faced criminal charges before the age of 25 — typically for crimes such as drug possession, petty theft, burglary, breaking and entering, or receiving stolen property. Many cases contain these types of infractions that they committed multiple times between periods of imprisonment.

The Marshall Project’s data shows the need for a more specialized response to criminal behavior, for example, drug courts that attempt to find treatment programs for people with addictions rather than sending them to prison, untreated. These defendants are more likely to return to prison to commit other serious crimes. 

One former prosecutor compared the result to the lesson of Victor Hugo’s “Les Misérables”: Once you’re in the system, it’s impossible to escape. “Once you have one felony conviction on your record,” said Cullen Sweeney, the county’s chief public defender, “everything is harder for you.”