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Leisure activities may be widely viewed as fun ways to fill up free time, but the benefits of leisure activities extend beyond beating boredom. A 2011 analysis published in the journal BBA Molecular Basis of Disease found that leisure activities have a positive impact on cognitive function and dementia. The analysis, conducted by researchers with the Aging Research Center in Stockholm who examined various studies regarding the relationship between certain activities and cognitive function, defined leisure activity as the voluntary use of free time for activities outside the home. After retirement, leisure time constitutes a large part of many retirees’ lives, and finding ways to fill that time is more beneficial than merely avoiding boredom. The researchers behind the study concluded that the existing research is insufficient to draw any firm conclusions regarding the effects of certain types of leisure activities on the risk for dementia and cognitive decline, though they did note that multi-domain cognitive training has the potential to improve cognitive function in healthy older adults and slow decline in affected individuals. A multi-domain approach to cognitive training involves memory, reasoning, problem-solving, and map reading, among other activities. Aging adults who embrace activities that require the use of such skills may find that they’re not only finding stimulating ways to fill their free time, but increasing their chances of long-term cognitive health as well.

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 Pretty pricey sneakers

Would you buy someone else’s used sneakers? Well, someone did just that recently and paid $1.8 million for the privilege, says the Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC]. But these were not some run-of-the-mill “kicks,” as your kids might call them; they once belonged to Kanye West. Who is Kanye West? He’s a rapper — a performer who kind of chants rather than sings. Sotheby’s, the auction house, says the buyer was an outfit called RARES, an investment company that invests in sneakers. West’s Nike Air Yeezy 1 Prototypes broke the record for the most valuable sneakers on record and the first pair of sneakers to fetch more than a million dollars.

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House for sale gives new meaning to the word, space

Star Trek and Star Wars fans who may be in the market for a new abode may want to consider “the spaceship home” in Albuquerque, NM that’s up for sale, suggests the Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC]. Marten Griego has lived in the home for more than two decades and over the years he has transformed it into what a local TV station calls “a real life spaceship.” The two-bedroom, two-bath abode is priced at $265,000.  If you are interested, you’d better hurry. The realtors at Southwest Elite Realty say they already have a potential buyer.

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Close encounters of the scary kind

Five-year-old Rian Woodard had been riding her big wheel outside of her Castle Rock, CO home and when she came back inside she told her parents that she had been playing with a “giant cat,” reports the Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC] Rian’s mom, Nicole, thought her daughter was being dramatic but she decided to check their security camera footage, just in case. And, there was little Rian having a staring contest with a rather large bobcat. Says mom: “She thinks she’s the bobcat whisperer now.” By the way, bobcats are “fast and have sharp claws” and can grow to be almost two and a half feet and weigh 19 pounds, according to the experts. Pretty scary.

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Spring has sprung

Spring in Great Britain is a special time of the year for avid English gardeners but this year the COVID crisis and the cargo ship that got stuck in the Suez Canal have combined to put a damper on the season, says the Association of Mature American Citizens. It seems that the pandemic lockdown triggered an early and larger than expected demand for garden supplies and the ship that blocked the Suez Canal cut off the supply of the stuff garden gnomes are made of. Garden store manager Ian Byrne told the newspaper, The Guardian: “Raw materials are becoming a bit of an issue and unfortunately gnomes are a victim of that shortage … Gnomes of any type – plastic, stone or concrete – are in short supply. They’ve been very popular over the last couple of seasons, we’ve seen a massive upswing in the sales of gnomes and definitely a different clientele wanting gnomes too.”

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Bear with me

A 33-year-old teddy bear, by the name of Bearsun, got stopped by the cops recently while out for a walk in sunny California. The police only wanted to make sure that Jesse Lasios, the man in the bear suit, was okay, reports the Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC]. The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office put out this explanation via social media: “This was a bear-y unique situation. You may have seen a large teddy bear walking through town. One of our deputies got to meet the individual inside the bear & learned his goal is to complete a walk from Los Angeles to San Francisco. We wish him the best of luck on his adventure.”

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Profanity, thy name is…

It’s common knowledge that social media Websites are quick to censor users when they see fit, according to the Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC]. For example, an historic French village recently received a notification that its official Facebook page was being shut down because of a violation of its rules. It took the mayor of Ville de Bitche, Benoit Kieffer, by surprise. The odds are that Facebook misinterpreted the name of the village, confusing it with a bit of English-language profanity. Mayor Kieffer told reporters: “The name of our town seems to suffer from a bad interpretation … the most astonishing thing is that Facebook took so long to correct this.”