Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of the vegetation stays dry and is densely packed—trapping air—thatching functions as insulation, it is a old roofing method and has been used in both tropical and temperate climates. Thatch is still employed by builders in developing countries with low-cost local vegetation. By contrast, in some developed countries it is the choice of some affluent people who desire a rustic look for their home, would like a more ecologically friendly roof, or who have purchased an thatched abode. Thatching methods have traditionally been passed down from generation to generation, numerous descriptions of the materials and methods used in Europe over the past three centuries survive in archives and early publications. In some equatorial countries, thatch is the prevalent local material for roofs, walls.

There are diverse building techniques from the ancient Hawaiian hale shelter made from the local ti leaves, lauhala or pili grass. Palm leaves are often used. For example, in Na Bure, thatchers combine fan palm leaf roofs with layered reed walls. Feathered palm leaf roofs are used in Dominica. Alang-alang thatched roofs are used in Bali. In Southeast Asia, mangrove nipa palm leaves are used as thatched roof material known as attap dwelling. In Bali, the black fibres of Arenga pinnata called ijuk is used as thatched roof materials used in Balinese temple roof and meru towers. Sugar cane leaf roofs are used in Kikuyu tribal homes in Kenya. Wild vegetation such as water reed, bulrush/cat tail, broom and rushes was used to cover shelters and primitive dwellings in Europe in the late Palaeolithic period, but so far no direct archaeological evidence for this has been recovered. People began to use straw in the Neolithic period when they first grew cereals—but once again, no direct archaeological evidence of straw for thatching in Europe prior to the early medieval period survives.

Many indigenous people of the Americas, such as the former Maya civilization, the Inca empire, the Triple Alliance, lived in thatched buildings. It is common to spot thatched buildings in rural areas of the Yucatán Peninsula as well as many settlements in other parts of Latin America, which resemble the method of construction from distant ancestors; the first Americans encountered by Europeans lived in structures roofed with bark or skin set in panels that could be added or removed for ventilation and cooling. Evidence of the many complex buildings with fiber-based roofing material was not rediscovered until the early 2000s. French and British settlers built temporary thatched dwellings with local vegetation as soon as they arrived in New France and New England, but covered more permanent houses with wooden shingles. In most of England, thatch remained the only roofing material available to the bulk of the population in the countryside, in many towns and villages, until the late 1800s. Commercial distribution of Welsh slate began in 1820, the mobility provided by canals and railways made other materials available.

Still, the number of thatched properties increased in the UK during the mid-1800s as agriculture expanded, but declined again at the end of the 19th century because of agricultural recession and rural depopulation. A 2013 report estimated. Thatch became a mark of poverty, the number of thatched properties declined, as did the number of professional thatchers. Thatch has become much more popular in the UK over the past 30 years, is now a symbol of wealth rather than poverty. There are 1,000 full-time thatchers at work in the UK, thatching is becoming popular again because of the renewed interest in preserving historic buildings and using more sustainable building materials. Thatch is popular in the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, parts of France, Sicily and Ireland. There are over 150.000 in the Netherlands. Good quality straw thatch can last for more than 50 years. Traditionally, a new layer of straw was applied over the weathered surface, this "spar coating" tradition has created accumulations of thatch over 7’ thick on old buildings.

The straw is bundled into "yelms" before it is taken up to the roof and is attached using staples, known as "spars", made from twisted hazel sticks. Over 250 roofs in Southern England have base coats of thatch that were applied over 500 years ago, providing direct evidence of the types of materials that were used for thatching in the medieval period. All of these roofs are thatched with wheat, rye, or a "maslin" mixture of both. Medieval wheat grew to 6 feet tall in poor soils and produced durable straw for the roof and grain for baking bread. Technological change in the farming industry affected the popularity of thatching; the availability of good quality thatching straw declined in England after the introduction of the combine harvester in the late 1930s and 1940s, the release of short-stemmed wheat varieties. Increasing use of nitrogen fertiliser in the 1960s–70s weakened straw and redu

Ita Clare Buttrose is an Australian journalist, television personality and author. She was the founding editor of Cleo, a high-circulation magazine aimed at women aged 20 to 40, frank about sexuality and as the editor of the more conventional Australian Women's Weekly, she was the youngest person to be appointed editor of the Weekly, per capita, the largest-selling magazine in the world. Buttrose was a panelist on the Network Ten morning program Studio 10 from 2013 until 2018. In 2019 Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Buttrose as the new chairperson of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Buttrose was born at Potts Point and named after her maternal grandmother, Ita Clare Rodgers, pronounced /ˈaɪtɑː/, she was raised as a Catholic by her parents. Buttrose's father, Charles Oswald Buttrose, was a journalist and at one time the editor of The Daily Mirror in Sydney. By her own account she had decided on a career in journalism at the age of 11. Buttrose spent her first five years in New York City when her father was the New York correspondent for The Daily Mirror.

She has Jewish ancestry on her maternal side. The family settled in the harbourside suburb of Vaucluse, her parents divorced during her teens, after 25 years of marriage, details of her father's private life were printed in the tabloid press, causing considerable anguish to her mother. Buttrose attended a private school but because her father could not afford the fees she was moved to a public school, she completed her secondary education at Dover Heights Home Science High School, leaving at 15 to begin her career. She started her career at Australian Consolidated Press, owned by the Packer family, working as a copy girl at The Australian Women's Weekly became a cadet journalist on The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph in Sydney, her first byline came in 1959 when the 17-year-old covered the Australian tour by Princess Alexandra. At 21 years of age, Buttrose had two children, she was appointed women's editor of the Telegraph at just 23 years old. In 1966 she won a racetrack fashion contest run by a rival newspaper, for which the first prize was an overseas trip, including a visit to Expo 67 in Montreal.

Buttrose and her husband stopped in England in 1967 where she worked for a time on the British national magazine Woman's Own before giving birth to her first child, a daughter, Kate. It was after her daughter's birth that she received a telegram from Sir Frank Packer, head of Australian Consolidated Press, offering her back her former job as women's editor at the Telegraph; the family returned to Australia. In 1971 Buttrose was chosen as founding editor of a new Australian women's magazine; this was to have been an Australian edition of the renowned American magazine Cosmopolitan, but the deal fell through after Hearst Magazines sold the Cosmopolitan rights to longtime Packer rivals Fairfax, so Packer and Buttrose set about creating a new publication, dubbed Cleo, which they launched in 1972, several months ahead of its rival. Cleo was an instant hit. During the early months of the magazine, Buttrose became pregnant with her second child, but with the grudging support of the Packers she worked through her pregnancy.

Buttrose edited Cleo until 1975, when she was appointed editor of the Packers' flagship magazine, The Australian Women's Weekly she became editor-in-chief of both publications from 1976–78, before being appointed Publisher of Australian Consolidated Press Women's Division from 1978–81. In 1981 she left the Packers after their rival Rupert Murdoch offered her the job of Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph in 1981, making her the first female editor of a major metropolitan newspaper in Australia, a position she held until 1984, she made frequent appearances on radio and TV and in 1980, her media prominence led to her becoming the subject of the song "Ita", recorded by rock band Cold Chisel, included on their successful East album. Buttrose was the chairperson of the National Advisory Committee on AIDS from 1984 until 1988. On one occasion, she appeared in a nationwide TV campaign to explain that donating blood at a blood bank did not pose a risk of catching AIDS. After her stint with News Limited, Buttrose founded her own publishing company, Capricorn Publishing, launched her own magazine, but this folded and she launched a new company, the Good Life Publishing Company, which in 2005 published bark!, a lifestyle magazine aimed at dog owners.

Buttrose is a prolific author and has published nine books, including her autobiography, A Passionate Life. In 2011 Penguin published A Guide to Australian Etiquette. Buttrose was the Beast in the 1990s and early 2000s. Buttrose was a regular commentator on the Nine Network breakfast show Today and was at one point considered to replace Kerri-Anne Kennerley in the network's morning slot. In June 2013, Buttrose joined Network Ten where she hosted morning program Studio 10 two mornings a week

Mytilus coruscus, common name the Korean mussel or the hard-shelled mussel, is a species of mussel, a marine bivalve mollusc in the family Mytilidae. This species is exploited as a food item via mariculture in Korea and in China; this species inhabits the coasts of the subtropical western Pacific Ocean. It is found in the East Sea, as far north as the Peter the Great Gulf; this mussel inhabits the upper part of the sublittoral zone. M. coruscus has been found on debris near Vancouver Island, suspected to be from the 2011 Tōhoku tsunami. MolluscaBase. "Mytilus coruscus Gould, 1861". WoRMS. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 2018-11-13