In addition to the official basketball world, various other types of basketball are practiced around the world.

    Wheelchair Basketball

    Wheelchair basketball was invented in 1946 by former American basketball players, who, after wartime injury, wanted once again to experience the excitement of a highly athletic sport within a team environment. It is now played in more than 80 countries by over 25,000 men, women and children with a physical disability which prevents them from playing competitive basketball on their feet.

    http://www.iwbf.org

    Beach Basketball

    Beach basketball is an exciting, non-stop action game played in the sand. The game was born more than forty years ago on the physical education fields of Gulf Shores School. This kind of basketball, invented by Philip Bryant, has grown from an extremely effective skill improvement game to a very popular, widespread competitive sport.

    http://www.beachbasketball.com

    Street Basketball

    Street Basketball or streetball is mainly played as a leisure game, but streetball players can also compete against each other. There are no specific streetball rules and the game is played outdoors; the players make up their own rules to play. Streetball is very popular among younger players and allows players to publicly show their own individual skills.

    http://www.streetball.com

    Deaf Basketball

    Basketball for the deaf (unable to hear in one or both ears) men and women has been played since the early 1920s. The game today has exactly the same rules as FIBA (International Basketball Federation).

    http://www.dibf.org

    Bankshot Basketball

    Bankshot is a new game of skill and challenge that is often described as “mini golf, but with a basketball.” Bankshot is the only sports system that allows the able-bodied and athletes with a disability to play together at the same time. This game is about no running, jumping, or body contact(接触)and relies on the shooting skill.

    http://www.bankshot.com

    It's a real case of fish out of water. Blennies (鲇鱼) in the South Pacific Ocean are gradually relocating to land to escape their predators (捕食者), in an example of evolution in action.

    Fish first began crawling onto dry land about 400 million years ago, kicking off an evolutionary chain of events that led to humans. But their reasons for exiting the sea have been uncertain.

    To look for clues, Terry Ord at the University of New South Wales in Australia has been studying several species of blennies at Rarotonga, the largest of the Cook Islands.

    At low tide, blennies are commonly found swimming in rock pools around the edges of the island. But when high tide moves in, they climb up to dry land and move around the rocks until the tide retreats.

    The researchers found that this is most likely to avoid predators that swim in with the rising tide – mainly bigger fish like lionfish.

    To test what would happen if blennies did not have an escape plan, they made blenny models and sank them in the sea. The mimics ended up with wounds, bite marks and chunks-missing.

    Of course, there are still dangers for blennies on land, like the occasional bird attack, but the predation risk on land is a third that of underwater.

    What's more, moving onto land has additional benefits for blennies. Holes in the rocks provide sheltered nests for laying eggs, and they can maintain their diet of bacteria.

    In fact, several species of blenny fish at Rarotonga have already made the full transition to land-dwelling (陆生的) species. They continue to breathe with their gills, but have developed stronger tail fins and jump from rock to rock.

    Ord believes that many evolutionary processes have been driven by the need to escape predators. “It is often assumed that animals move homes to find new sources of food, but in many cases, escaping predators is a stronger motivation.” he says.

    Exercise could not only benefit your body, but also imp rove your memory, researchers found recently. In their paper published on Monday, researchers from the University of California, Irvine in the United States and the University of Tsukuba in Japan introduced their experiment and conclusion.

    Scientists invited 36 volunteers who were in their early 20s to do 10 minutes of light exercise before taking a memory test in which they were shown pictures like broccoli(西兰花)or picnic baskets and asked to recall them later. The same experiment was repeated with the same group of volunteers without exercising. "The memory task was really quite challenging ,said Michael Yassa, co-author of the study and a neuroscientist (神经科学家)at the University of California, Irvine. "We used very tricky similar items to see if they would remember whether it was this exact picnic basket versus (对抗)that picnic basket. "

    Researchers also scanned brains of some of the participants during the experiment. They found strengthened communication between regions involved in the storage and recollection of memories in brains of those who had exercised. This suggested that just 10 minutes of light exercise like walking, yoga or Tai Chi might increase memory power.

    As all the volunteers in the experiment were relatively young, researchers are still working to look at the effects of light exercise on older people. " Our future goal is to try to develop an exercise prescription (处方)that can be used by older adults who might have disabilities or mobility impairments, but can still adopt very simple exercise rules of life and be able to, perhaps, delay cognitive decline temporarily," said Yassa.

    The weather symbol shown for each day in the five day forecast represents the main weather expected on the day in question. The maximum temperature is the highest temperature forecast between dawn and dusk, whereas the minimum temperature is the lowest temperature expected from dusk on the day to dawn the following day. The wind speed and direction are the expected conditions at midday.

    Reading is the ability to process text, understand its meaning and to integrate it with what the reader already knows. Of all the reading skills speed-reading is a necessary skill in the Internet age. We skim over articles, e-mails and WeChat to try to grasp key words and the essential meaning of a certain text. Surrounded with information from our electronic devices, it would be impossible to cope if we read word by word, line by line. But a new trend calls on people to unplug and enjoy reading slowly, listing benefits beyond the intelligent stimulation.

    A recent story from The Wall Street Journal reported on a book club in Wellington, New Zealand, where members meet in a cafe and turn off their smartphones. They sink into cozy chairs and read in silence for an hour. Unlike tradition book club, the point of the slow reading club isn't exchanging ideas about a certain book, but to get away from electronic devices and read in a quiet, relaxed environment. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Wellington book club is just one example of a movement started by book lovers who miss the old-fashioned way of reading before the Internet and smartphones.

    Slow readers, such as The Atlantic's Maura Kelly, say a regular reading habit sharpens the mind, improves concentration, reduces stress levels and deepens the ability to sympathize. Another study published last year in Science showed that reading novels helps people understand others' mental states and beliefs, a fundamental skill in building relationships.

    Yet technology has made us less attentive readers. Screens have changed our reading patterns from the top-to-right, left-to-right sequence to a wild skimming and skipping pattern as we hunt for important words and information. Reading text punctuated with links leads to weaker comprehension than reading plain text. The Internet may have made us stupider, says Patrick Kingsley from The Guardian. Because of the Internet, he says, we have become very good at collecting a wide range of interesting news, but we are also gradually forgetting how to sit back, reflect, and relate all these facts to each other.

    Slow reading means a return to an uninterrupted, straight pattern, in a quiet environment free of distractions. "Aim for 30 minutes a day," advises Kelly from The Atlantic. "You can squeeze in that half hour pretty easily if only during your free moments, you pick up a meaningful work of literature," Kelly said. "Reach for your e-reader, if you like. Kindles make books like War and Peace less heavy, not less substantive, and also ensure you'll never lose your place."

Traveling Tips

    No Smoking

    Federal and State Government Regulations do not allow you to smoke on board express coaches within Australia.

    Luggage Allowance

    As a fare paying customer you are entitled to take 2 pieces of personal luggage. Each must not exceed 75 cm in length, or weigh more than 20kg.

    Excess luggage will be carried at the company's excess luggage rate and depending on space availability may be required to be carried on another coach.

    Luggage Tips

    1) Keep your valuables with you. Money, jewellery, valuable documents, credit cards, keys, medications should be retained by you and not on the coach at meal or transport stops.

    2) Use sturdy, lockable luggage. Do not use plastic bags as these may split during the transit.

    3) Make sure you identify your luggage with a name tag.

    4) Backpacks—stow all items and do not leave mugs, shoes, towels hanging off your backpack as these can get caught in other luggage and cause damage.

    Departure Times

    The time shown on your ticket is the coach departure time. If you are boarding halfway and not at a travel centre or terminal you should be at the pick up point 15 minutes ahead of this time, so you can be comfortably on board by the time the coach is due to leave. If you are boarding at a travel centre or terminal, please arrive at least 20 minutes prior to the published departure time and remember to allow extra time at peak travel times.

    Dress Requirements

    As a courtesy, and so as not to offend fellow travelers, a reasonable standard of clothing and footwear is required.