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As any Studio Ghibli fan will testify, an afternoon spent binging Hayao Miyazaki classics is guaranteed to leave a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. Now, this feeling is backed by science. A study published by JMIR Serious Games, a peer reviewed journal focused on how gaming is connected to education, health, and social change, looked into how the brain responds to both watching films produced by the Japanese animation studio and playing the open-world game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The researchers gathered 518 postgraduate students and divided them into four groups. Some played Breath of the Wild and some watched Studio Ghibli films like My Neighbor Totoro and Kikis Delivery Service, while others did both and a control group did neither. Researchers then measured feelings of exploration, calm, skill mastery, purpose, and life happiness via a brief questionnaire. The results matched what fans have intrinsically known for years. Those who played Breath of the Wild reported higher levels of life happiness than those who didnt. Peacefully roaming the world of Hyrule, perhaps stopping by a pond or cooking a meal under the stars, creates a relaxing form of escapism for players away from lifes daily stresses, permitting a chance to recharge mentally. For an added boost of happiness, however, the researchers found both playing the game and watching the Studio Ghibli films produced the best results. This comes down to the Studio Ghibli films unique ability to induce nostalgia. Films such as My Neighbor Totoro and Kikis Delivery Service often focus on the small, everyday wonders of life, such as playing in the countryside or sharing mealtime with family, the research noted. By shining a spotlight on ordinary moments and turning them into something magical, Miyazakis works tap into a universal longing for the innocence and wonder of childhood. This kind of warmth can evoke nostalgia for times when people felt safe and cared for.” Previous research backs up the positive mental health effects of these leisure time activities. Studies have shown that casual gaming can be an effective way to unwind and relax, while open-world games in particular, have been shown to significantly enhance cognitive escapism, promote relaxation, and improve overall mental well-being. Now your weekend plans are sorted. You’re welcome.
Category:
E-Commerce
When treating a head injury, one of the questions doctors ask their patients is whether they know who is currently the president. Its part of a standard neurological exam for assessing alertness and cognitive function after a jolt to the brain. In the absence of any preceding head trauma, though, it does not seem to bode well when hundreds of perplexed X denizens ask an elected official a similar questionespecially when such inquisitory swarms have become a well-established pattern online in 2025. On Monday, U.S. Senator Jim Banks sent a fiery letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, urging him to investigate errors from the 2020 census. Banks shared the letter with his 174k followers on X, in a post excoriating the Biden administration for its approach to the census, which supposedly included illegal immigrants and handed Democrats extra seats. Theres just one tiny problem with this statement, which I wont insult readers cognitive function by spelling out here. Thousands of X users made sure Banks was aware of it, however, by asking him who was president in 2020. One of those asking even made Xs AI chatbot Grok explain the answer in a caveman voice. Genuinely wild how so many people fail the Who was President in 2020 test https://t.co/CGGwQPBsDd— Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma) October 6, 2025 "Who was president in 2020?" remains one of the great disputed questions of American politics. https://t.co/xeytBAMi84— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) October 7, 2025 Banks attempted to save face later on by clarifying that President Biden had prepared the 2020 Census Report in 2021, implying hed manipulated the good, clean census data Trump had gathered as president. (As evidence, he retweeted a post from the president of something called Election Watch, Inc., who has apparently blown the doors off this incredible conspiracy.) Still, even assuming Banks excuse absolves him, what explains all the other pundits, politicians and officials within the Trump administration who seem confused about the year 2020? So many of them have made this same mistake that asking the obvious follow-up question is now a meme. According to current Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, for instance, it was the Democratic Party who blew out the deficit in 2020, leading Bluesky users to seek a minor clarification. Bessent: "This Democratic Party blew out the deficit in 2020." (Trump was president in 2020.)— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-07-06T13:26:22.164Z Who is to blame for the more destructive excesses of 2020, in the immediate wake of George Floyds murder at the hands of police? As Congressman Mike Collins tells it, the Biden administration was obviously at fault. Once again: "Who was president in 2020?" Is a question so many politicians, pundits and even mainstream media have a hard time answering correctly.— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes.bsky.social) 2025-07-15T02:56:08.769Z Even President Trump himself couldnt seem to remember under whose leadership the recently resolved antitrust lawsuit against Google originated. (The Department of Justice filed its case in October 2020.) Of course, this lapse wasnt out of character for Trump, who suggested last year that the White House pressured Facebook to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop storya story that broke while Trump himself occupied the White House. Some pundits have attempted to inject ambiguity into the prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplices as that story gained fresh traction this year. Newsmax talking head Greg Kelly, for instance, implied back in August that the Biden DOJ had prosecuted Ghislaine Maxwell, despite the fact that she was both charged and arrested in 2020. When Bill OReilly falsely claimed on NewsNation in July that Epstein had been convicted during the Biden administration, however, host Leland Vittert sheepishly corrected him in real time. WhoopsDon't ya just love live TV?— (@jacksimon.bsky.social) 2025-07-16T14:41:12.819Z Mostly, though, much of the foggy memory that leads to so much questioning online over who was president in 2020 seems centered around COVID. Rep. Buddy Carter claimed on CNN in August that the COVID vaccine eroded trust in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), leading host Kate Bedingfield to ask The Question on air. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy deflected blame for recent airline problems by suggesting, on live TV, that someone dropped the ball by not addressing those problems during the COVID lockdown. And just last month, Human Health Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. attempted to score points against Democratic Senators by claiming that the U.S. did worse in COVID than any country in the world, apparently forgetting who was at the helm of our COVID response. Who was president in 2020?— Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell.bsky.social) 2025-09-08T19:59:35.292Z It has become unavoidably clear that the events of 2020 caused a seismic trauma for Americans, and that its aftershocks will be felt for decades. The chaos of a (hopefully!) once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, combined with a social movement that briefly made folks question the role of police and whether racism is embedded in the very fabric of U.S. society, appear to have severely rattled the countrys collective brains. As with any head injury, some confusion is inevitable. Whether it is in fact confusion, or rather a product of deliberate misremembering, this pattern of forgetting who was in charge of the country during some of its darker hours encapsulates the state of vibes-based unreality that many currently choose to live in. The hypothetical America where everything that went wrong in 2020 can be blamed on the Biden administration is the same one in which major U.S. cities can be considered war-ravaged simply because the President seems to think so. Its the same reality in which the Trump White House can claim to have officially crushed Bidens inflation crisis, while grocery prices are demonstrably rising. And its the same reality in which an administration stocked with inexperienced podcasters and Fox News b-squad counts as merit-based hiring in the wake of DEIs forcible expunging. At least all of this is being captured for the record. If the people running this country dont seem to know who was president in 2020 today, imagine what they wont know about today tomorrow.
Category:
E-Commerce
Trader Joes stores have a reputation for getting crowded at the best of times, but if youre planning to make a stop in the next few days, beware: the brand just dropped a Halloween version of its mini tote bags, and they already went viral twice for creating in-store traffic jams. The bags, which come in combinations of black, orange, purple, and green, cost just $2.99 each and dropped in stores on October 8. Theyre a tiny version of Trader Joes classic reusable tote bags, measuring just 13 x 11 x 6 inchesabout the size of an iPad. This is the third time that Trader Joes has released a new version of the bags, which have proven to be a desirable fan favorite (to put it mildly). When Trader Joes first debuted the mini tote in March 2024, social media exploded with videos of shoppers lining up to grab the product, with many shoppers piling their carts with every available colorway. The story was similar in April 2025, when Trader Joes announced a pastel line of the totes. If eBay sellers are to be believed, these bag designs have become full-on collectors items, with sets of the previous drops selling for over $100 on the site. Despite the fact that the new Halloween bags just dropped this morning, all signs indicate that Trader Joes shoppers are in for another round of mini tote fervor. Already, several TikToks show crowds lining up for the bags. One Trader Joes employee shared an unboxing video of the bags, encouraging shoppers to get one of their own. Another customer has already decked out her new bags with color-coordinated Labubus. On eBay, sets of the Halloween bags are retailing for over $50. Its 6:49 a.m. and Im on my way to Trader Joes, one TikToker shared. If I dont get these Halloween tote bags, Im gonna have a fit. Why is everyone so obsessed with the Trader Joe’s mini tote? Its possible that the mini tote craze is related to the increasing size of the reusable bag market, which is expanding in part due to plastic bag bans (eight states ban single-use plastic bags, and cities including New York and Washington, D.C. charge fees for their use). But the more likely reason for the trend is simpler: within our current stage of consumer capitalism, niche accessories are having a moment. In August, Fast Company wrote about the rise of the meta-accessory, a kind of accessory mainly designed to compliment another accessory. That includes items like a lipgloss phone case; a Stanley water bottle backpack; an $1,000 bag charm; or a Labubu for a Labubu. All of these pieces serve minimal utilitarian purposes, and seem mainly geared toward convincing consumers that they need to make yet another little purchase. At Trader Joes, the mini tote is like a tote bag for your regular tote bagand, clearly, shoppers cant get enough.
Category:
E-Commerce
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