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A new type of cement is bridging the gap between nature and one of the most used construction materials on the planet. This new, more crack-resistant concrete was inspired by the material that makes up abalone and oyster shells, the researchers explain. According to the scientists’s research, which is published in Advanced Functional Materials, the researchers hope that the stronger concrete could help lead to “tougher, safer and more durable” options for other brittle materials, too—including porcelain. It’s an ambitious project similar to other research we’ve seen where scientists have mixed coffee with concrete to make it stronger. This new, more...

    President Joe Biden told a creaky joke about the 'thin walls' of his childhood home and got a laugh from a crowd in Westchester County. He made the odd comment in a speech in Valhalla, New York where he blasted the Republican negotiating position and said it risked running the U.S. into default. 'We lived in a three bedroom home in a housing development that was a nice area,' Biden recounted.'With four kids and a grandpop living with us. I look back on it and wonder how thin those walls were for my mom and dad, but at any rate ...' he dead-panned, drawing laughs. The president grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania before moving to Claymont, Del.   (President Joe...

[Unicode] အင်တာနက်ပေါ်က တက်လာတဲ့ ပန်ဒါဝက်ဝံဗီဒီယိုလေးများကိုတွေ့တဲ့အခါ ပန်ဒါလေးတွေဟာ ဘယ်လောက်ထိ နူးညံ့ပြီး ချစ်ဖို့ကောင်းတဲ့သတ္တဝါလေးတွေလည်းဆိုတာကို မှန်းဆနိုင်ပါလိမ့်မယ်။ ပန်ဒါဝက်ဝံတွေကို အပြင်မှာသေချာကြည့်ရှုချင်ရင်တော့ တရုတ်ပြည် Sichuan ပြည်နယ် Chengdu...

[Unicode] အရိုင်းဆန်ဆန်သဘာဝတောတောင်အလှ၊ လူမျိုးစု၊ စိတ်ဝင်စားဖွယ်သမိုင်းပုံပြင်များနဲ့ Wangxian ချိုင့်ဝှမ်းဟာ နှစ်ကာလအတန်ကြာတိမ်မြုပ်နေရာမှ အင်တာနက်‌ပေါ်မှာ တစ်ဖန်ပြန်နာမည်ကြီးလာပြန်ပါတယ်။     အေးချမ်းပြီးမျက်စိအေးဖွယ်...

A Dubai-based influencer has been fined €1,800 for trespassing on an off-limits pink-tinged beach in Sardinia before sharing a series of video clips and photos of her escapade on social media. The woman arrived by dinghy on the shore of Spiaggia Rosa, a beach famous for its pink sand on the tiny Sardinian island of Budelli, allegedly ignoring all the prohibition signs, according to reports in the Italian press. Tourists have been banned from walking on the beach – from which sand has often been pilfered – and swimming in the sea there since the 1990s, but they can visit the island during the day via boat and are permitted to walk along a path behind the beach. The woman,...

A town on an island in the middle of the South Atlantic is one of the most remote in the world and can only be reached by taking a six-day boat ride. The settlement of Edinburgh of the High Seas is the single populated spot on the island of Tristan da Cunha, a tiny volcanic outcrop 6,000 miles south from London. Tristan da Cunha is part of the Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha British Overseas Territory, an archipelago stretching for 2,000 miles in the southern Atlantic as a remnant of Britain's maritime Empire. Edinburgh of the High Seas is home to just over 300 people and boasts a local council, post office and a small port. The local emergency services consist of one Land...

  Warren Buffett, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and one of the most successful investors in history, shared a remarkable story about an unexpected acquisition in a 2012 interview with Economic Club President David M. Rubenstein. Buffett recounted receiving a letter from an Israeli entrepreneur, ultimately leading to a $4 billion purchase. "He wanted me to go see it. He told me what a wonderful plant he had and everything," Buffett said. Initially hesitant, he responded, "I'm not going to go see it. You know I don't go to Iowa." Despite his reluctance, Buffett agreed to buy 80% of the company for $4 billion on the condition that he would visit the plant...

Italy is famous for its €1 houses so why the price increase? In 2019, the southern Italian village of Sambuca di Sicilia went viral for selling off homes for as little as €1. Schemes like this have become a popular way for rural towns with dwindling populations to boost their number of residents and prevent disused houses from falling into disrepair. But while the initiatives flopped in some places, Sambuca’s sellers were met with floods of requests.Buyers came from as far away as the US and the Middle East. The sales injected some €20 million into the local economy. Now, the Sicilian village is putting more houses under the hammer. As with last time, however,...

Every morning, Mauro Morandi woke up to the uninterrupted sea view that only he was privy to. Immersed in nature, he was intimately in tune with the dawn sounds and habits of the wildlife that surrounded his home, a former second world war shelter on Budelli, the Mediterranean island where he had lived alone for more than 30 years.   Now the 82-year-old is adjusting to life in a one-bedroom apartment next to a shop with a Sky TV sign outside, surrounded by neighbours and with only a glimpse of the ocean in between the gaps separating the buildings opposite on nearby La Maddalena, the largest of an archipelago of seven islands off the north coast of Sardinia, Italy. Speaking from...

Stephanie Blanchard and Jon Kotwicki, from Alaska, went about converting a retired 1956 Douglas DC-6 cargo plane into a livable space, with the aircraft now renting out for $349 a night on Airbnb. In a YouTube interview with Tiny House Giant Journey, the couple - who both work as pilots and flight instructors - detail the step-by-step DIY process. Jon estimates that the renovation has cost over $500,000 to date, with the plane coming in at around $100,000 and it cost a similar amount to have it taken apart and delivered from Fairbanks to Wasilla on trailers. Footage from the short film shows how the plane now stands on sturdy pillars, with one of the wings converted into a balcony space,...