Inflatable concrete homes: a California and Ontario case study

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Across Ontario and California, builders are rethinking concrete housing through inflatable-shell design—an approach that replaces wooden formwork with air and innovation. A 1,000-square-foot low-carbon concrete shell, insulated with hempcrete, can be erected in a day and cost far less than conventional construction. Over time, the savings in energy, materials, and mortgage costs make this model a realistic response to rising living expenses and climate stress. With low-carbon cement, hempcrete walls, and renewable energy, inflatable concrete homes show how even the world’s most carbon-heavy material can become part of a sustainable future—if built smartly, and within local building codes.

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Inflatable Concrete Houses: What Are They & How Much Do They Cost?

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Some small Binishell prototypes have been built for around US $3,500 using sprayed concrete over an inflatable form. Automatic Construction reports shell costs of roughly $10–$30 per square foot for 100- to 200-square-foot prototypes—far below standard homebuilding prices. The Vienna method is described as “quick and cost-saving” for double-curved shell structures, but specific dollar/€ cost numbers are not given in the available sources.

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Sea Moss: The New Superfood, Or Just A Trend?

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Sea moss became the new super-food when Kim Kardashian started talking about blending it into her smoothies. Fans following the trend claim that sea moss gives skin a new glow, raises energy, helps with weight loss, and keeps digestion, er, moving along. While it’s nice to think that a jar of mango or strawberry-flavored sea […]

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Dubai bank sends staff to co-working spaces

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Emirates NBD has partnered with Dubai-founded workspace platform Letswork—co-created in 2019 by Omar Al Mheiri and Hamza Khan—to give employees flexible, sustainable access to book coworking hubs, meeting rooms, and private offices across more than 100 locations in Dubai, over 25 sites in Abu Dhabi and the Northern Emirates, and international venues, reducing commute time, streamlining workshop planning, and supporting the bank’s wider sustainability and innovation commitments.

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Nature as Capital at COP30 and how blended finance and debt-for-nature swaps work

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Belém in Brazil may be remembered as the summit where nature moved from a side-event to system change. If you are there at the event, Look for bigger blended-finance vehicles for forests and watersheds, standardized biodiversity/ecosystem credit frameworks, clearer guidance on how trade tools like CBAM and deforestation-free rules interact with development and equity goals, and concrete deals in the Amazon and beyond that link restoration to export growth.

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EU Funds for Academic Bias? Why the “Aula Mediterrània” Lecture Series Undermines Democracy and Dialogue

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When European taxpayers fund programs through institutions like IEMed, they do so under the promise of promoting mutual understanding and academic rigor. Instead, Aula Mediterrània has become a platform for the normalization of anti-Israel bias wrapped in academic legitimacy –- and offers credit when you attend these lectures online. By platforming speakers who describe Israel’s policies in loaded, accusatory terms—without offering countervailing voices—the event risks turning the European lecture hall into an echo chamber for politicized grievance.

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Feta and Brie Cooked in Grapevine Leaves

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For an easy, luscious appetizer, wrap a semi-firm white cheese like Brie or feta in grapevine leaves and bake or grill it. It’s a delicious way to make the most of a few grapevine leaves left in the jar after you made mushrooms cooked in grapevine leaves or grilled fish.. The cheese becomes subtly flavored […]

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