Fragments of meteor that fell in Italy found on a balcony, photos

Every year, on December 31st, a curious New Year's Eve bike race is organized in Switzerland.

The race is open to everyone, even minors, but it is necessary to have a good basic knowledge of cycling, especially for the first part of the route, the steepest and with almost guaranteed snow. The idea of the race is to descend along the snowy ski slopes, from the top of the Roc d’Orsay to the center of the resort of Villars.

Participants are required to dress up as the best costumes will be awarded. And as you can see from the photos of this year's edition, the imagination of the competitors is really great!

With an area of 510.1 million km², more than 7 billion people live on planet Earth, spread over 5 continents, which in turn are divided into smaller and larger nations.

But what are the ten largest countries in the world in terms of area?

Below there is a list of countries in the world in descending order of area. The values are expressed in km².

The surfaces also include the water masses of the mainland (lakes and rivers).

Browse the gallery to find out which are the largest countries in the world in terms of surface.

Japan is the country where people live better and longer. This is what emerges from the latest report of the World Health Organization (WHO) on the countries most "long-lived" on the planet.

In the country of the Rising Sun you can expect to live 74 and a half years in good health.

It is the first time that the WHO speaks of "healthy life expectancy" and not simply "life expectancy".

At the planetary level, the average value is 73.3 years (70.8 years for males and 75.9 years for females). According to 2015 data from the World Health Organization, women live on average longer than men in all countries of the world except Mali and eSwatini

Philippe Petit is one of the best-known tightrope walkers in history and is best known for having traversed, quite illegally, the Twin Towers at New York on the morning of August 7, 1974, when the Towers had not yet been officially opened for business.

His other feats include crossing the bell towers of the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris (in 1971), crossing Niagara Falls and Superdome at New Orleans.

Born in France in 1949, Petit was a self-taught tightrope walker and was arrested more than 500 times during his lifetime because of his feats.

The Uber Lost & Found Index 2023 has released a list of forgotten items in taxis, and this year there are some incredible items again.

From a Danny DeVito Christmas decoration to a smoke machine, there have been forgotten items that have truly amazed.

Despite some more common things like phones and glasses, we never imagined that travellers would accidentally forget a bidet or a lightsaber! 

In this photogallery we have listed some of the most incredible objects we have read about, so don't miss the chance to discover the most extraordinary lost and found, and be surprised with us by the incredible things left behind in taxis. (source: Uber)

Trying to appropriate what does not belong to us has always been a characteristic of human beings. Moreover, ever since banks were invented, even violent robberies have been the order of the day.

Let's forget Clooney and Brad Pitt in Ocean's Eleven, some criminals have really tried, to rob millions of dollars from the world's safest banks, to some these have even succeeded, securing a huge fortune after taking great risks.

The magazine Focus has created a ranking of the ten biggest and most profitable robberies in history. Some of them have secured staggering sums of money for the robbers.

Prisons are one of the sad institutions on which, unfortunately, modern society is based. Removing individuals who are dangerous to the community, and enclosing them all together in one place for the purpose of surveillance and re-education, is one of the ways our ancestors found to ensure the safety of the population.

They remain places, albeit atrocious, that are nonetheless fascinating because of the peculiarity of their rules, the micro-world they inhabit, and also because of the many fictional works, films, books and many others, that have prisons as their main setting.

But which are the most famous prisons in the world? Among the largest, the most luxurious and the bloodiest, one can really find all possible and imaginable types.

Bridges over the water, dizzying heights and thrilling slopes. There are railway lines in the world considered among the most spectacular and dangerous in the world and also have names that just hearing them gives you goosebumps.

The "Nariz del Diablo" and the "Death Railway" among the scariest to travel for example. Other railway lines, on the other hand, simply boast stretches of track built in the most fearless places and immersed in nature.

Let's discover the 10 railway lines that we would probably like to avoid traveling in life.

Every driver will have happened in life to come across a winding and challenging road. Perhaps for the terrain full of pitfalls, or simply for the conformation of the stretch of road itself.

But there are extremely dangerous roads in the world. Roads that for those who travel them is now accustomed to danger. Paths that just looking at them make you panic.

They are the most dangerous roads in the world. From China to Bolivia via Norway and Afghanistan here are the routes to avoid for motorists.

How would the world change if mountains did not exist? Earthly travel would undoubtedly be easier, but without mountains, for example, so many natural boundaries that have divided peoples for centuries would disappear, helping them also to define their own culture and, not secondary, to defend themselves against enemies.

Although the number of mountains in the world is virtually incalculable, only 14 exceed 8,000 meters, and they have been a land of conquest for the most fearless climbers in recent decades.

But what are these 14 magnificent 8,000-meter peaks? And where in the world are they located? Let's find out together, referring to measurements made by the magazine Focus.

Gold is undoubtedly one of the world's most important natural resources, a refuge asset par excellence and one of the world's rarest metals. Its importance within our economy is crucial, although many reservoirs are slowly beginning to deplete.

According to US Geological Survey, China remains the world's largest producer of gold, followed by Australia and Russia. Forget the gold rush of the old American West, today gold is mined mechanically in huge mines, open-pit basins in which many other metals besides gold are found.

In this short article, we will show you what are currently the 6 largest gold mines in the world according to data collected by Forbes, which cites the World Gold Council.

In 2018, an incredible event shook the Indian city of Tinsukia: a group of rats destroyed banknotes inside an ATM machine, causing significant economic damage.

The incident sparked wonder and curiosity around the world, leading to speculation about the behaviour of rats and the safety of ATMs. In this article, we will take a closer look at this incredible story and try to understand what could have prompted the rats to act in this way.

We will also look at the wider implications of the event, highlighting the vulnerabilities of financial technologies and the challenges society faces in preventing threats from wild animals and natural environments. (source BBC)

Humanity is rapidly expanding and conquering virtually every single corner of the globe. Specifically, our cities are becoming veritable megacities, destined to accommodate more and more people in the near future.

Research published by Daniel Hoornweg and Kevin Pope in 2016 predicted which will be the 10 most populous cities in the world in 2100, i.e. at the end of the century. Surprisingly, the list did not include a single European or North American city. 

The data on the currently most populous cities were updated to those reported by the UN in 2021, and again, not a single European or North American city. The trend is therefore clear, the future will be shifted between Asia and Africa in the near future, with Western society set to lose its political hegemony.

A meteorite crater (also called astroblem, impact crater or basin) is a circular-shaped depression formed by the impact of a meteorite, asteroid, and in general a celestial body, on the surface of a planet.

Evidence of many of these craters, which have impacted our planet over geological eras, can be found on planet Earth. One of the most famous, for example, is the one believed to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs (called the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction).

Some of these craters can be found underground today, or at least the traces they left behind. Others have become beautiful lakes, others are still desolate and remote places today. But which are the largest in the world by diameter?

We are all realising that our way of life, the one our parents, who were born and raised especially after the Second World War, taught us, is no longer sustainable. There are too many of us in this world now, and nature can no longer provide us with everything we need.

Capitalism, or consumerism for short, is forcing us to submit to environmentally worn-out logics that would not be sustainable even in the long run, but are even less so in the short time we have left before everything falls apart. Our way of life must change radically if we are to allow the survival of mankind. For example, the introduction of the law in Europe allowing the sale of insect meal aims at exactly that, at sustainability.

Therefore, it is necessary for all of us, while there is still time, to change certain behaviours to help the world. Here, then, are some tips for leading a greener and more sustainable life.

Europe is historically a continent where we do not see extreme natural events, such as tornadoes, massive floods and earthquakes. However, events happen every now and then that are so strong and destructive that they go down in history.

Some of these disasters, which occurred even several centuries ago, are still remembered today for the number of victims claimed and the destruction wrought among the population. Weather, it is known, is unpredictable, and even in a relatively calm region like Europe, it can do damage.

The magazine Focus has listed the 10 worst natural disasters in the history of the Old Continent, some of them very recent, others dating back many centuries as well.