4 . Hong Kong is one of the most expensive cities in the world, with its delicious food and big luxury (奢侈的) shopping malls. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy the city without stretching your wallet. With good planning, you can enjoy many things in Hong Kong for free.

Hong Kong is home to plenty of independent art galleries that exhibit works from various artists around the world. While galleries are spread across the city, we argue that the best place to go gallery hopping is around Central and Sheung Wan.

Hong Kong is filled with thick greenery, mountains, and amazing natural landscapes. So, go hiking at any of the scenic routes the city has. For hiking beginners, the Peak trail is among the easiest and in the end, you’ll be treated to epic views of Victoria Harbour.

Hong Kong’s traditional villages have been serving as a time machine to showcase Hong Kong’s past. Among the best-reserved villages is Tsang Tai Uk. The original brick, timber, and granite materials are still well-maintained within the walls.

5 . What to taste in Kuala Lumpur 2024

Great restaurants in Kuala Lumpur offer a genuine global dining experience. Whether you are looking to enjoy hearty comfort food or some local delicacies (佳肴), the city’s dining scene satisfies all comers.

Cantaloupe

Situated about 20 minutes from downtown Malacca, it is a home-based eatery (餐馆) with about 10 tables manned by four operators. Unlike most restaurants, food is self-service here, with dishes placed on catering pans for customers to choose from. It serves traditional Malaysian dishes with distinct Chinese influences. You will find rice dumplings and chicken rendang among the offerings. It has two branches in the city. Their dishes sell out fast, so it’d be best to head there before lunch time.

Mum’s Place

Nothing brings more comfort than mom’s cooking. With recipes inspired by the owners’ mother, this restaurant brings you Nyonya dishes that are genuinely Malaysian. Lying in the district of Damansara Perdana, Mum’s Place is a neighbourhood restaurant with its main customers from residents nearby. Some of the best dishes include cencaru fish; devil curry chicken and beef rendang.

YumYum Restaurant

Situated in the beautiful Shangri-La Hotel, Yum Yum Restaurant is among the locals’ many favourite spots to dine at. It offers an interesting Nyonya and Thai food with Chinese influences that make them stand out. The classic dishes include sambal petai prawns, assam fish head and Yum Yum egg. It can get crowded here, so it’d be best to head there early or call ahead for reservations.

Troika Sky Dining

Offering fine dining, the amazing Troika Sky Dining undoubtedly stands out from the pack. Set on the 23rd floor of Tower B of The Troika, it goes without saying that the cloud-skimming views here are something else entirely. The food is what helps it stand out. It serves award-winning French, Italian, Greek, and Spanish food and adventurous menu of high-end pizzas and pasta.

7 . What is a barrier? It usually refers to an obstacle or a difficulty that prevents you from achieving something. Whether it was in your past, or you’ re presently facing one, you have to resolve it. While many people avoid barriers, deny their existence or let barriers control themselves, what stand you take on barriers will define the outcome of whether you rise from the challenge, or remain stuck in it. Here are some more great things to love about barriers.

First of all, barriers give you motivations. Sometimes barriers can reset your goals. You might be faced with setbacks or difficulties, you’ re forced to re-think, and re-examine your path. You may end up focusing on something new and exciting. Or, you may concentrate on something that you otherwise wouldn’t have if not for the particular setback. By having to overcome an obstacle, you’ll be fulfilling a purpose, rather than just going through the motions.

Also, barriers prepare you for the unexpected. They serve as guides for where to go next. Even though barriers can bring out many negative emotions in us, such as frustration, anger, or sadness, it’s important to realize that they don’t stop you from reaching your intended goals. Instead, they, in a way, give you time to stop and think if perhaps there is a new and better path to take and what you can prepare for what will happen along the way. Barriers shift your perspective.

Barriers, more often than not, are unavoidable. Life will never stop throwing you new barriers. So, the best thing to do is know how to better see and approach these obstacles, and transform them into opportunities for self-improvement. The more you’re able to see barriers as being an advantage to your life, the better you’ll be at managing them.

It will be rewarding to accept barriers, which will make you constantly change and adapt to new situations, thus allowing you to grow into a better version of yourself.

8 . As AI technology is improving by leaps and bounds, a low-cost computer training program can help older persons drive less dangerously, according to a recent research.

“It is Drive Smart, a training program, that is developed by us, which could be used by anyone who has a computer,” says Jing Feng, co-author of the study and a professor of psychology at Stanford University. “Drive Smart is a cognitive (认知的) training program that can help older persons notice traffic risks more effectively. Our goal of recent study was to see to what degree Drive Smart changes trainees’ driving behaviors when they get behind the wheel.”

The researchers sought out 24 persons aged 65 and up to test Drive Smart. In a driving simulator (模拟器), all of the study participants experienced a basic driving exam. The “active training” group was made up of eight of the study participants. Every two weeks, the active training group had two Drive Smart trainings. A group of eight additional study participants was asked to take “passive training” where this group watched videos of others receiving the Drive Smart instruction. This happened twice, with each lasting about a week. The control group, which was made up of the remaining eight study participants, received no training. After that, all 24 study participants performed a second driving exam in the simulator.

Compared with the other two groups, the study participants in the active training group experienced 23% fewer “unsafe incidents” following the training, according to the researchers. There was no obvious change in the number of dangerous incidents among study participants in the passive training and control groups.

“This testing was conducted with a fairly limited number of study participants,” Feng says in the interview. “If we can succeed in getting sufficient fund, we’d like to further our testing with more people to clearly prove how effective this training is at reducing accidents among older drivers.”

10 . For decades, scientists thought of the brain as the most valuable and consequently most closely guarded part of the body. Locked safely behind the blood-brain barrier, it was broadly free of the harm of viruses and the battles started by the immune system (免疫系统). Then, about 20 years ago, some researchers began to wonder: is the brain really so separated from the body? The answer, according to a growing body of evidence, is no.

The list of brain conditions that have been associated with changes elsewhere in the body is long and growing. Changes in the makeup of the microorganisms in the digestive system have been linked to disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. There is also a theory that infection during pregnancy could lead to brain diseases in babies.

The effect is two-way. There is a lengthening list of symptoms not typically viewed as disorders of the nervous system, but the brain plays a large part in them. For example, the development of a fever is influenced by a population of nerve cells that control body temperature and appetite. Evidence is mounting that cancers use nerves to grow and spread.

The interconnection between the brain and body has promising implications for our ability to both understand and treat illnesses. If some brain disorders start outside the brain, then perhaps treatments for them could also reach in from outside. Treatments that take effect through the digestive system, the heart or other organs, would be much easier and less risky than those that must cross the blood-brain barrier.

It also works in the opposite direction. Study shows mice have healthier hearts after receiving stimulation to a brain area involved in positive emotion and motivation. Activation of the brain reward centre — called the ventral tegmental area (VTA) — seems to cause immune changes that contribute to it. Working out how this happens could help to destroy cancers, enhance responses to vaccines and even re-evaluate physical diseases that, for centuries, have not been considered as being psychologically driven.