„Trench“ is the name of a strategy/tactics-game from Portugal allowing players to reconstruct wars and battles. A prototype was constructed in natural stone of Portuguese provenance (Portuguese). The name is derived from WWI, which broke out 100 years ago. The result of recent scientific research: not only did Europe mourn millions of victims. Citizens of the Empire Colonies were recruited as carriers but starved or died of pandemic disease. The headcount of African victims was in part even greater than that of European soldiers fallen in battle.
US-online magazine Stoneupdate regularly compiles statistics on natural stone imports in the USA. In its February issue this year the magazine reported that Brazil, hitherto prime supplier of granite for the USA, was overtaken by China and edged out to second place. But in March and April Brazil regained the upper hand (1, 2).
Italian Vaselli Company produced marble trophies for the Milan Marathon 2014 – the same marble as used for the city Cathedral (Italian).
Decorative objects in natural stone are shown by Torregris Company on their webpage.
Visitor numbers of CarraraMarmotec 2014. The Carrara Marble Weeks are on-going through September 7th 2014 (Italian).
The Madrid Piedra Trade Fair took place for the first time (May 7th to 10th 2014) since the collapse of the real estate markets, this time together with two building-trade-fairs. Pierre Actual reports (6/2014) that the number of natural stone exhibitors was „in the order of tens“. But the efforts of the organizers to attract foreign guests was impressive according to the article.
The European Space Probe Rosetta, named after the famous Egyptian stone with multi-lingual inscriptions, is scheduled to reach the orbit of Comet 67P/ Tschurjumow-Gerasimenko by August 6th and will land on its surface in November. The celestial object dubbed Tshuri is believed to be made of ice, frozen gas and stellar dust. Its diameter is 4 km.
Natural stone is „unpredictable“, that is what the Mohave Valley Daily News has found out: „No matter how well your designer delineates boulders on the plan, the actual rock used may not resemble that shape at all. That’s because every boulder is unique, which dictates their final selection and placement be done in the field. Drawings are only a suggestion.“
„II Simposio de Geoparques y Geoturismo en Chile” will take place in Santiago de Chile from November 21 until 22, 2014.
A new study discusses how arches of sandstone were built by nature.
Video of the month: natural stone waste could be used to produce 3-D print reproductions of houses. The technology uses an over-sized printer to apply stone dust layer upon layer. Innovative ideas from the Netherlands are currently making the rounds (1, Video).
(02.07.2014, USA: 07.02.2014)
