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The centenarian in this video is here to tell you that you’re never too old to be a hardcore gamer, and she stresses the fact that gaming can do wonders for your mental health as she happily plays her beloved Nintendo DS. And I got to use the word centenarian in a blog post that relates to video games, so yay life!
When you think about it, Winnie the Pooh makes a lot more sense when you consider all of the characters simply live inside of a mental institution. Dan Meth hit the nail on the head with this great medication chart.
Link via Laughing Squid
Football is definitely back this fall, but will the players show up after seeing this insightful video about what playing in the NFL does to your brain? Former player Dave Duerson donated his brain to the NFL Brain Bank so researchers can clearly see what happens when you knock your head around for a living, and the results aren’t very pretty. But did anyone really think being a professional football player would be good for your mental health? I think not.
Before you download the next pop hit from iTunes, check whether it is hazardous to your health. A teen panel working with the Boston Public Health Commission has set up a "nutrition facts label" rating (like that seen on food items) for songs:
“Music, like food, can feed our brains and give us energy,” said Casey Corcoran, director of the Commission’s Start Strong Initiative. “But songs can affect our health and the health of our relationships.”
The tool, patterned after common food nutritional labels, invites consumers to become song lyric nutritionists by helping them identify relationship ingredients that make up a song. Using printed song lyrics as a guide, users can tally the number of healthy relationship themes, such as respect, equality, and trust, which are present in the song. And, like fattening calories, unhealthy relationship themes – possession, disrespect, and manipulation – are also counted. The number of times these themes are mentioned also factor into to the song’s total nutritional value. Corcoran recommends consuming lots of ‘healthy relationship’ ingredients for a balanced media diet.
The model was developed by 14 peer leaders in the Commission’s Start Strong Initiative. The teens, who range in age from 15 to 19 years old, attended a seven-week "Healthy Relationship Institute” where they were trained in teen dating violence prevention and healthy relationship promotion. They also learned to look at media critically, breaking it down to better understand the healthy or unhealthy relationship messages it may contain, such as power, control, equality, and gender roles.
“It’s important to have youth involved in this effort because teenagers are the main audience of the music,” said peer leader Shaquilla Terry, age 15 of Boston. “It’s important to actually listen to and think about the lyrics of a song and not just the beat.”
And which songs are (mentally) bad and good for you? Here are the Top 10 lists:
Top 10 Songs with UNHEALTHY Relationship Ingredients (2009)
| Song | Artist | Score 0-50 |
| 1. Break Up (feat. Gucci Mane and Sean Garrett) | Mario | 45 |
| 2. Blame It (feat. T-Pain) | Jamie Foxx | 32 |
| 3. Paparazzi | Lady Gaga | 27 |
| 4. You're a Jerk | New Boyz | 26 |
| 5. Baby By Me | 50 Cent | 25 |
| 6. Best I Ever | Drake | 24 |
| 7. One More Drink (feat. T-Pain) | Ludacris | 23 |
| 8. Be On You (feat. Ne-Yo) | Flo Rida | 22 |
| 9. Hotel Room Service | Pitbull | 21.5 |
| 10. Bad Romance | Lady Gaga | 20 |
Top 10 Songs with HEALTHY Relationship Ingredients (2009)
| Song | Artist | Score 0-50 |
| 1. One Time | Justin Bieber | 40 |
| 2. Miss Independent | Ne-Yo | 30 |
| 3. Replay | Iyaz | 25.5 |
| 4. Say Hay | Michael Franti | 25 |
| 5. Knock You Down | Keri Hilson feat. Kanye West | 21 |
| 6. Only You Can Love Me This Way | Keith Urban | 20 |
| 7. Her Diamonds | Rob Thomas | 19 |
| 8. I'm Yours | Jason Mraz | 18 |
| 9. Fallin For You | Colbie Caillat | 16 |
| 10. Meet Me Halfway | Black Eyed PEas | 15 |
Official press release at the BPHC: Link
School officials in Queensland, Australia, are worried about the mental health of kids, so they suggest that teachers don’t use red pen to mark homeworks and tests because red is an aggressive color!
Other tips include structuring time for peer tutoring every day, apologizing to students when necessary and asking students to conduct a "personal skills audit" where they focus on their individual strengths rather than their weaknesses.
The kit, designed to help Queensland teachers address mental health in the classroom, suggests social and emotional wellbeing has been linked to young people’s schooling, among other things.
The education aid has sparked a row in parliament, with deputy opposition leader Mark McArdle calling it "kooky, loony, loopy lefty policies."
