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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Black cats banned from this Spanish town – until after Halloween

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Terrassa is home to more than 9,800 cats, according to municipal data — a population that lives quietly among its 220,000 residents. The temporary ban forces the town, and perhaps the rest of us, to confront a deeper contradiction. How can a culture that loves animals and fills social media with cat memes still tolerate cruelty in the name of tradition or aesthetics?

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Waste Reform from the Ground Up: How Trash Balers Are Helping Cities Rethink Sustainability

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If you’ve ever watched a recycling truck weaving through city streets, you’ve seen the problem firsthand. Most of what we call “recycling” still depends on long-distance transportation and centralized sorting facilities. Those systems are energy-intensive and prone to contamination — the dreaded mix of wet food, plastic wrap, and paper that renders recyclables useless.

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Green finance in Saudi Arabia, can “Davos in the Desert” change the planet?

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As world leaders and billionaires descend on Riyadh for this year’s Future Investment Initiative — better known as “Davos in the Desert” — we wonder where the planet fairs in all this political business talk. Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan has turned the kingdom into an unlikely global stage for innovation and investment, drawing over 20 heads of state, 50 ministers, and hundreds of financiers, tech executives, and policy shapers.

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