【推荐1】Kung fu is one of a number of Chinese martial arts designed to improve the body and the mind. It is perhaps one of the most widely known martial arts, because many films include its techniques. There are hundreds of styles taught all over the world, although they can be loosely divided into two camps: Shaolin style kung fu, and other techniques, some of which have a history that outdates the Shaolin order.

Shaolin kung fix has its origins in the fifth century. Like some other martial arts, it began in religious temples, where the monks sought a mind and body discipline (训练方法). In addition to the fighting style, it also includes mental exercises and religious practices designed to balance the whole body.

Shaolin temples resembled universities, integrating a wide range of subjects of study. Therefore, traditional Shaolin styles such as Wing Chun, Crane, Praying Mantis, and Hung Gar took knowledge from fields outside martial arts, such as the healing arts and meditation. Supporters for Shaolin styles believe that they are more rounded martial arts styles, and that learners will benefit from them on a whole body level.

Other fighting styles, some of which predate the Shaolin style, are also lumped under the kung fu umbrella. They include Pa-Kua, Eagle Claw, and Eight Drunken Immortals styles. These disciplines are not considered to be Shaolin style because they did not originate in temples and are focused primarily on fighting techniques.

Whether Shaolin or otherwise, kung fu is characterized by self defense strategies that turn the energy of an attacker against him or her. Although the techniques may vary, most styles teach throws, kicks, punches, and the use of weapons. In addition to the physical discipline, most place a great importance on respect, honor, and living a balanced life.

【推荐2】There are many ways to travel within a city. We can walk, cycle, or take a bus. But no matter which way we travel, we have to stick to the route(线路) the city planners laid down for us.

Parkour practitioners (跑酷爱好者), however, see the city in a completely different way. To them, there are no fixed routes. There are no walls and no stairs—since they jump, climb, roll and crawl to move across, through, over and under anything that they find in their path. The city is their playground.

The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) has noticed that this activity is drawing more and more people to it—there are 100,000 people taking part in parkour today in the UK alone, according to the Guardian—and how it is helpful for people to be much stronger: It trains coordination(协调性) and balance. So the organization is thinking about recognizing parkour as a new sport and adding it to the Olympics by 2024.

But parkour practitioners themselves don’t seem to be happy with the idea. They see parkour as “a lifestyle”, wrote the website NextSportStar. “It’s a competition against the conditions rather than just a sport.”

Indeed, many do parkour just to “escape the daily routine(事务) and experience the city in different ways”, wrote reporter Oli Mould on The Conversation. They see parkour as a way to express themselves through relaxing moves and creative routes while freeing themselves from the pressure.

It’s great that the FIG wants to develop new sport and stay close to a new cultural form. But it would be greater if they knew that not everything in life is a competition.

【推荐1】An important lesson in the moral education of children could be as close as the book in their hands. Stories can play a role in shifting the importance of particular moral values in young audiences, according to the results of a new study.

“Media can markedly influence separate moral values and get kids to place more or less importance on those values depending on what is uniquely stressed in that content,” says Lindsay Hahn, PhD, an assistant professor of communication in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences.

Hahn is the first author of the new study, which adds an important part to a body of literature that explores how media content affects children. While many previous studies have focused on broad conceptualisations (概念化), like positive or negative effects of specific content, Hahn’s study looks at how reading of content featuring specific moral values (care, fairness, loyalty, and authority) might influence the weight kids place on those values. Do children reading about particular moral characteristics absorb those qualities as building blocks for their own morality? The findings suggest so, and further support how this indirect approach to socializing children’s morality can add to the direct teaching of moral principles kids might receive through formal instruction.

For the study, Hahn and her colleagues took the main character from a teen story and edited the content to reflect in each version (版本) the study’s focus on one of four moral values. A fifth version was changed in a way that featured an amoral main character. The stories were shared with about 200 participants between the ages of 10 and 14.

The team then created a scale (量表) designed to measure the importance kids place on moral values to find out how participants might be influenced by specific stories.

“Measuring these effects can be difficult,” says Hahn of the research, published in the Journal of Media Psychology, “That’s why one purpose of this research was to develop a measure of moral values for kids. Nothing like that exists yet, that we know of.”

【推荐3】A warm drink of milk before bed has long been the best choice for those wanting a good night’s sleep. But now a study has found it really does help people nod off — if it is milked from a cow at night.

Researchers have discovered that “night milk” contains more melatonin (褪黑激素), which has been proven to help people feel sleepy and reduce anxiety.

The study, by researchers from Seoul, South Korea, involved mice being fed with dried milk powder made from cows milked both during the day and at night.

Those given night milk, which contained 10 times the amount of melatonin, were less active and less anxious than those fed with the milk collected during daytime, according to the study published in The Journal of Medicinal Food.

Night milk quickened the start of sleep and caused the mice to sleep longer.

While the effect of cows milk harvested at different time has not been tested on humans up to now, taking melatonin drugs has been suggested to those who are struggling to fall asleep at night.

Previous studies have also indicated that milk can be excellent for helping sleep because of the calcium content, which helps people to relax.

Milk is also sugar-free and additive-free with nutritionists recommending skimmed milk as the best choice before bed as it is the least fattening. The more fat you take in before bedtime, the greater burden you will put on your body at night.