historical minimum price for the 256 GB version

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Are you one of those who prefer small mobiles? They are compact devices that can be handled very well with one hand, lightweight and do not involve carrying a huge contraption in your pocket. There are very good options in stores, although few that have such a high quality-price ratio right now like him Pixel 10a: it is discounted on Amazon until 449 eurosits new historical minimum price. Google Pixel 10a – 7 years of New Updates and Features, 30+ Hours of Battery, Camera Assistant, Gemini Live, Pixel Security – Raspberry, 256GB The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Historical minimum price for its version with 256 GB of storage This is a very good opportunity if you are looking for a compact mobile phone that is Android and also has a long life. This version of Google’s Pixel 10a, which is the one with 256 GB of storage, has a RRP of 649 euros. Said more directly: Amazon’s offer allows us to save 200 euros in total. This mobile phone, which barely weighs 183 grams, has a 6.3-inch screen with Full HD+ resolution, a 120 Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 3,000 nits, so it can be seen well outdoors. It has 8 GB of RAM256 GB of storage in this version and the Tensor G4 chip, the same one that the Pixel 9. It is not the most powerful on the market, but it offers more than enough performance for everyday tasks. One of the best things about this Google mobile is, beyond offering a pure Android experience, having seven years of guaranteed updates. Its photographic section meets good marks thanks to its dual camera and the work done by AI and it has a 5,100 mAh battery with 30 W fast wired charging. ⚡ IN BRIEF: pixel 10a offer ✅ THE BEST Historical minimum price: It is a discount of 200 euros for the 256 GB storage version of the mobile, its best price to date. Seven years of guaranteed updates: It is a phone designed to last for many years, since it will receive a multitude of updates and security patches. ❌ THE WORST Loading speed: It only reaches 30 W of fast charging, figures that are far from what we can see in other phones in a similar price range. 💡 BUY IT IF… You are looking for a compact Android mobile and you want one with many years of guaranteed updates. ⛔ DON’T BUY IT IF… You prefer a mobile phone with a better processor, even if you want to stay within the Google ecosystem. You can fit in very well there. Pixel 10. You may also be interested Samsung Galaxy A56 256GB 5G Smartphone Android 15 8GB RAM AI Display 6.7″ Super AMOLED Photocamera 50MP 5,000 mAh (Graphite) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links XIAOMI POCO The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Iván Linares in XatakaGoogle In Xataka | Best mobile phones in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and ten recommended models In Xataka | The Google Pixel 10a, face to face with its Pixel 10 family: this is the mobile I would choose

China’s best-selling car has just headed to Europe. It has several arguments beyond being electric

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Europe has already begun to fill in one of the boxes that was most difficult to resolve in the electric car: that of small, urban and somewhat more rational models. There are proposals like the Renault 5 electriche Citroën ë-C3 or the Dacia Springeach with its own recipe to bring electric mobility closer to more everyday use. He wants to enter that fight now Geely with the E2but with an unusual cover letter. It does not come as a proposal without a commercial route, but as the European name for a car that in China has already shown that it can sell a lot. Geely Auto Europe already shows it on its website as a model that “will arrive soon” and presents it as a compact electric hatchback for everyday use. It is a relevant confirmation, but still incomplete: the brand has not detailed in which countries it will be sold, when exactly its marketing will begin, what versions will arrive or what price it will have in the European Union. The Chinese bestseller that wants to make a place in Europe An important fact is not in a European promise, but in what the car has already done in China. Geely assures that the Xingyuan, which is how it is known in its original market, was in 2025 the best-selling model in the country in all segments, with 465,775 units. That nuance is relevant because we are not talking about a residual category, but rather about a pure electric car that came to lead the Chinese market as a whole. As additional context, the brand also positions it as the world sales leader within the A/B segments, that is, between small and utility cars. The name change is not a rarity for this model, but rather a fairly common practice in the automotive industry: manufacturers selling cars on the same basis, or practically identical ones, with different names depending on the market. In this case, the Xingyuan retains its Chinese identity at home, but when going abroad It moves under the names EX2 and E2. In the European Union, the brand is already using E2, while the United Kingdom appears associated with EX2 and its own calendar. Geely’s European page already makes it clear where it wants to sell the E2. The brand presents it as a compact electric hatchback for everyday use, with a speech based on three ideas: dynamism, space and safety. It also ensures that the chassis is tuned specifically for European roads, a phrase designed to answer a common question with Chinese cars that arrive on the continent: how they will behave outside their original market. In the absence of the definitive record for this market, Geely’s Chinese website It allows us to define the starting car quite well. The Xingyuan measures 4.14 meters long and has a 2.65 meter wheelbase, figures that clearly place it in the urban territory, but not in that of microcars. The brand also talks about a frunk of 70 liters and a trunk of 375 to 1,320 liters, depending on load configuration. For Europe, the reference available on CarNewsChina points to a 39.4 kWh battery, an 85 kW/rear motor 114 HP and 317 km WLTPalthough final specifications for the EU will be known closer to launch. The temptation would be to look at the Chinese price, convert it to euros and draw a quick conclusion. It is advisable not to do so. In its domestic market, Geely places the Xingyuan between 64,800 and 94,800 yuan, about 8,350-12,200 euros at the exchange rate, but that figure belongs to China and responds to very different industrial and commercial conditions. For Europe it only serves as a clue of origin: the car is born as an affordable proposal, although its real price here will depend on the final version, import costs, homologation, logistics and Geely’s strategy. And here appears the closest unknown: Spain. We have entered the Spanish Geely website and, for now, the E2 is not among the brand’s visible models; what appears are the Starray EM-i and the Geely E5. That doesn’t mean the E2 isn’t coming, just that Geely hasn’t added it to its local showcase yet. If it finally lands in this market, furthermore, it would not be another SUV within the range, but rather an entry into a different terrain: that of the urban and compact electric car. The arguments are on the table, but the decisive part is still missing. We know that it comes from a model that has worked massively in China, that Geely already shows it on its European page and that its format fits into an increasingly competitive category. We do not yet know how much it will cost, what versions will arrive, if Spain will be among the first markets or how it will respond to already known rivals. That is why the most prudent reading is not that he is going to repeat his Chinese success, but that he arrives with sufficient reasons for us to look at him closely. Images | Geely In Xataka | Anti-electrics lose an argument about car batteries: a study confirms that they are more durable than previously believed

“If your cat licks you, he is telling you that you are his property.”

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It doesn’t matter if you are more of a dog person or if you prefer cats. We can all agree that the image of a cat licking its paws or licking its human friends is adorable. The problem is that it is a scene as adorable as it is disconcerting. Traditionally we think that if our cat licks us, it is telling us that it loves us. However, according to experts, there may be many other reasons. And none of them are precisely related to love. It tolerates you, tastes you or possesses you. As explained by Dr. David Sands, an expert in animal psychology, in an article for Science Focusit is not known for sure why cats lick humans. However, there are three quite plausible hypotheses. They may even all be true. The first indicates that the cat indicates to the human that it does not perceive it as a threat. On the other hand, the second hypothesis opts for a chemical analysis of the human. Cats’ taste buds are powerful. More or less. Finally, it may be that if your cat licks you, he is basically marking you as property. For them we are just another animal. Cats learn to behave with humans as they do with other animals. Since they are puppies, they conceive the act of licking as a sign of trust. The first relationship they have with this gesture is through their mothers, who groom them with their tongues when they are puppies. This, logically, is a boost of confidence. Therefore, over time, they get used to doing the same with other animals they trust. If another cat is not a threat to them, they show it by licking. With humans, they do exactly the same. In a way, they indicate that they tolerate that person, not necessarily that they adore them. Chemistry based on licks. Cats don’t actually have a super powerful sense of taste. They have only a few hundred taste buds. Humans have 9,000so that we get an idea of ​​how insensitive cats are in that sense. However, they do have a great sense of smell, which they are very guided by. analyze the world around them. They often complement this sense of smell with that of taste, so that the tongue can be considered a kind of antenna with which they extract the first signals. These signals can indicate the presence of substances that give them information about the human in question, such as pheromones, perfumes or food remains. You are his property. Cats give a lot of importance to their smell. In fact, as Sands also explains, if you’ve ever seen your cat lick itself after you pet himhe’s basically getting rid of your smell. But they don’t just do that. They also try to make what they own smell like them. It is a way of marking territory. on your cheeks They have glands with which they can impregnate everything from objects to animals through the act of licking. In a way, they scrape off your own scent and impregnate you with theirs. Therefore, in reality, several of Dr. Sands’ hypotheses can complement each other. Your cat licks you to show you that it is not afraid of you and, by the way, since it does not see you as a threat, it decides to mark you as its property. If you are not going to cause him problems and you usually bring him food, you are a good possession. Does this mean your cat only wants you for convenience? Well it depends, each cat is different. What is clear is that, in general, the licking gesture is not an act of love. They may love us in other ways, but let’s not fool ourselves with that either. Image | Magnificent Xataka | In Alicante, the Animal Welfare Law has put associations on a war footing over an issue: feline colonies

Your desperate solution is to cover the windows with aluminum foil

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If there is a culture shock that we Spaniards suffer when crossing the Pyrenees, it is not the meal times or the language, but the painful absence of blinds and even air conditioners. Under normal conditions, it is a simple architectural anecdote, but during a sustained heat wave like the ones we are experiencing, it becomes a public health issue. A new remedy. During the last weeks of June and the beginning of this July, France and Germany have seen thermometers exceed the dangerous barrier of 40 ° C. Temperatures for which these countries were not prepared, and that is why they are resorting to different home remediessuch as cover the glass with aluminum foil kitchen towels or thermal blankets. Two measures that respond to the desperation of seeing how their houses heat up and do not have a barrier like we can have in Spain to block the impact of the direct sun. But in addition, we are also seeing how the heat It is becoming a political weaponwith different parties promising million-dollar aid funds so that citizens can install air conditioners. It has logic. Both private homes and some hospitals in Paris have joined this initiative due to the lack of air conditioning systems, and it is not a simple TikTok eccentricity, but rather it makes a lot of sense. The reason is that aluminum has a very high reflectance, being able to bounce between 95% and 98% of solar radiation. Normally, when sunlight passes through bare glass, the energy is converted to heat as it hits the floor and interior furniture, creating the dreaded “greenhouse effect.” By placing aluminum foil or thermal blankets on the windows, the radiation rebounds before heating the room. A simple gesture that can reduce the interior temperature between 5 and 7 ºCwhich is an abysmal difference that greatly reduces the discomfort caused by such high temperatures. It is not infallible. Turning the living room into a kind of spaceship is not an architectural panacea nor is it free of problems. Here Vicent Parasie, French architect, in statements collected by La Vanguardia point that this is an “emergency, economical and superficial solution, since it does not alter the home.” The architect warns that these patches can never replace adequate sun protection elements or good insulation. In fact, he points out that if the aluminum is placed inside and without adequate space, the thermal radiation rebounds and is trapped in the glass itself. This causes extreme overheating of the glass which, in cases of severe thermal stress, can fracture or burst. On the other hand, if placed outside, domestic aluminum deteriorates quickly due to the elements. The Spanish solution. All this phenomenon has revealed the enormous structural advantage of southern Europe in the face of new climate scenarios. And the difference between Spain and France in the face of this type of extreme heat episodes lies mainly in our better response to an architectural and cultural adaptation that we already have as standard. Our Mallorcan blinds or awnings are top-of-the-line technology against heat. As we have seen, the simple gesture of lowering an awning or a blind is capable of lowering the interior temperature by 4 or 5 ºC in a safe and long-lasting way. In Xataka | Popular wisdom is not always right: the great heat myths that we should avoid in summer

Clint Eastwood has no regrets about a film he made with difficulty but it has a rating of 4.9 out of 5

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Alan Horn, retired president of Warner Bros.read the script for ‘Million Dollar Baby’ (which you can see on Prime Video, Movistar Plus and HBO Max) before a single actor was attached to her. Eastwood showed up “discreetly, in his own way” and gave him the script without an associated cast. Horn admits that his first reaction was that he “just didn’t see it clearly” and responded to her request with an expeditious “no, I’m sorry.” He doubted the public would want to see a woman boxing. The Girlfight precedent. The fact is that Horn had logical reasons for hesitation in the abstract, but not much practical basis. Four years earlier, ‘Girlfight’ had shown Michelle Rodríguez as a Brooklyn boxer in a film directed by Karyn Kusama with awards at Sundance included, and a critical reading that transcended its status as an independent film. The thesis has been defendedEven that ‘Girlfight’ directly promoted the arrival of female protagonists in the boxing genre, and that films like ‘Million Dollar Baby’ were heirs of that change. It was hard to get there, yes. Get me money. Eastwood did not argue with Horn and went looking for money outside of Warner. He found it at Lakeshore Entertainment, which agreed to cover half the budget, which was said to be around 25 million dollars. With Lakeshore in, Warner became interested but the obstacles did not change, because Horn kept asking for changes, and these appealed to the very essence of the film. of whathe goes ‘Million Dollar Baby’ follows a lonely veteran boxing trainer (Clint Eastwood), who runs a run-down gym in Los Angeles with his only friend, a former boxer who is blind in one eye (Morgan Freeman). A young waitress (Hilary Swank) shows up at the gym every day asking for Frankie to train her, something he rejects for weeks, claiming that he doesn’t train women and that she is starting the sport too late. He finally relents, and Maggie quickly rises through the ranks of women’s amateur boxing, earning herself a million-dollar shot in Las Vegas against a champion known for fighting dirty. More changes. Horn wanted different tragedies that happen to the protagonist (be careful with spoilers: that she died at the end, that she lost her tongue after biting it, that she lost the fight) to be softened. But Eastwood believed that issues like these were the very essence of the film and refused to negotiate the third act. In the interview mentioned above, Horn himself quotes William Goldman, a two-time Oscar-winning screenwriter, acknowledging that he is right in his famous criticism of the film machinery, which includes himself: in Hollywood nobody knows anything about anything. A success. ‘Million Dollar Baby’ was released on December 15, 2004 and reached the 77th edition of the Oscars with seven nominations. It won four: film, director, leading actress for Hilary Swank and supporting actor for Morgan Freeman. The great favorite that night, ‘The Aviator’ by Martin Scorserse, took home five technical statuettes but was left without the most important one. Controversy where you least expect it. And finally ‘Million Dollar Baby’ was controversial, yes, but not where Horn thought it would be. It came because of the treatment of euthanasia in the final stretch, with organizations defending people with disabilities questioning the film’s reading of life after a spinal cord injury. Articles were published against the film, rating it of “melodramatic and cheesy assault on people with disabilities” or comparing it to Nazi propaganda. And curiously, Eastwood attacks also came on the opposite side of the political spectrum, accusing her of pro-euthanasia propaganda. In Xataka | One of the most famous phrases in the history of the “western” was improvised and was not even uttered by Clint Eastwood

North Korea’s new frigate looked like a 21st century ship. Until you look at the sides and discover their solution against drones

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In October 2000, the US destroyer USS Cole suffered an attack with a small boat loaded with explosives while refueling in Yemen. The attack led the United States Navy to reinforce the use of machine guns heavy weapons to protect their ships against short-range threats, a decision that is once again gaining prominence today for a very different reason: drones. A frigate with great aspirations. The new Kang Kon It represents North Korea’s biggest leap in surface ships. Although Pyongyang classifies it as a destroyer, its displacement about 5,000 tons places it closer to a frigate by international standards. On paper, the ship brings together almost everything you would expect from a modern design: dozens of vertical launch cells for missiles, a main gun, point defense systems, electronic warfare and cruise missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons. The most striking detail. However, the broadcast images After the latest tests of the ship they have diverted attention to a much more unexpected element. At least a dozen heavy machine guns can be seen along one of its sides. 14.5 millimeter KPVdistributed between remote-controlled double mounts and other positions integrated into the superstructure. The scene turns out almost disconcerting: a frigate that seems designed for the 21st century, at the same time uses a solution reminiscent of the great naval combats of the past. The Kang Kon was seen firing its machine guns during a demonstration last week The war in Ukraine explains it. Although at first glance it may seem like an extravagance, the logic behind this configuration responds to a very current threat. The drone proliferation aerial and unmanned vessels has forced many navies to reinforce the short-range defense of their ships with additional small-caliber weapons. Russia has been incorporating additional machine guns, remote weapons stations and even improvised protection structures for years to try to stop drone attacks, an experience that North Korea has been able to observe very closely thanks to their growing cooperation military with Moscow. A weapon with more than half a century of history. Plus: KPVs are not exactly a modern system either. Designed by the Soviet Union At the end of World War II, these machine guns continue to be used in many countries due to their power and range against light targets. Your ammunition 14.5 millimeters It can destroy drones, speedboats or lightly armored vehicles, which explains why a weapon conceived decades ago is once again gaining prominence in a scenario dominated by much more recent threats. Survival remains the great unknown. The abundant Kang Kon weaponry It does not clear up doubts about their ability to survive in a high-intensity conflict. The TWZ analysts They consider that a ship of these characteristics would be one of the first objectives of any adversary and that North Korea will hardly be able to build enough units to give depth to its fleet. The reason? Even if it incorporates technologies of Russian origin, converting a missile-laden platform into a truly resilient ship requires much more complex sensors, training, coordination and operational doctrine than adding new weapons on deck. A ship that reflects how naval warfare is changing. The Kang Kon It leaves a striking image because it summarizes one of the great paradoxes of current conflicts. Long-range missiles, radars and electronic warfare represent the most advanced naval technology, but defense against drones has brought back the spotlight to surprisingly simple solutions. that one of the most modern frigates North Korea’s proud display of a heavy machine gun battery speaks volumes about how the war in Ukraine is redefining design priorities in even the newest warships. Image | North Korea State Media In Xataka | A small river lost between Russia and North Korea is testing something much bigger: China’s patience with both. In Xataka | South Korea has just entered the most exclusive club on the planet. And China and North Korea are not exactly calm

A study confirms that they are more durable than previously believed

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For years, the fear of an electric car battery failing prematurely has been one of the great brakes to make the leap to this type of vehicles. And although they are still systems with a good margin for improvement, the technology has advanced a lot since the Nissan Leaf It was first put into circulation in 2010. In fact, several recent studies based on real data from hundreds of thousands of cars suggest that this fear was, to some extent, unjustified. Why it is important. The cost of replacing a battery is one of the main reasons why many buyers are still wary of electric vehicles. In fact, according to a 2025 survey by the firm AutoPacific shared According to the Wall Street Journal, the fear of having to pay for a battery replacement is the number one reason why potential buyers rule out an electric vehicle. In detail. The most recent datacompiled by the analysis firm Recurrent from thousands of real vehicles in circulation, show that an average electric vehicle retains around 95% of its original range after five years of use. And the trend improves the newer the car, since according to the study, 2026 models retain an average of 97% of their autonomy after three years and 95% after five. The difference with the first electric ones is even more striking if you look at the battery replacement rate. One in twelve electric cars manufactured between 2011 and 2016 had to change their battery at some point. Among those manufactured from 2022 onwards, that figure has fallen to 0.3%, according to the same Recurrent data. Between the lines. Why have things improved so much? Experts point to better battery chemistries, more sophisticated thermal management systems and increasingly precise control software. Viet Nguyen-Tien, a researcher at the London School of Economics specializing in electric vehicles, explains told the WSJ that these advances have allowed modern batteries to last as long as a combustion car engine, even traveling more kilometers. Additionally, a less obvious reason is that traditional lab tests were much more aggressive than real driving. Simona Onori, researcher at Stanford University, counted to NPR that in everyday use the car constantly accelerates, brakes and recovers energy, a pattern much less demanding on the battery than the extreme charge and discharge cycles that were previously used to simulate its wear. According to Onori, batteries “age very gracefully” when used like this. On the other hand, Cox Automotive, which manages used car auctions in the United States, has analyzed nearly 80,000 electric cars and found an average battery health of 92%. And among electric vehicles that are more than ten years old, more than 90% continue to circulate with their original battery, according to Recurrent data cited by NPR. Be careful, not everything is perfect. Batteries do degrade faster in certain circumstances. The fast direct current charging often accelerates wear. And it is that according to the telematics company Geotaba battery usually charged at high power loses autonomy at twice the rate of one charged more gently, although even then it retains about 90% of its capacity after several years. As shared in WSJ, always charging at 100% or leaving the battery at 0% for a long time also accelerates aging, as do extreme temperatures, whether cold or hot. And now what. It is still early to know how long these batteries will really last in the very long term, because the vast majority of electric vehicles in circulation have not even remotely reached the end of their useful life. Scott Case, CEO of Recurrent, think that people’s confidence in these batteries should be considerably greater than it exists today. Cover image | Eren Goldman In Xataka | Xavier Celda, Norauto specialist: “Many do not check the air conditioning gas because they do not spend 60 euros and the breakdown is 400”

Germany toughens its labor reforms by requiring a sick leave certificate from day one: “It is a competitive disadvantage”

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In Germany, take a sick leave After the pandemic it was as easy as picking up the phone, describing what hurts you and hanging up with the leave already processed. That procedure his days are numbered. Chancellor Friedrich Merz wants Germans to go to a doctor’s office again from the first day they feel unwell, and for him to be the one to prescribe sick leave with proof from the first day. The measure has opened a debate that, although it may not seem like it, we also have in Spain. What exactly changes in Germany. Since Germany implemented distancing measures during the Covid-19 pandemic, a worker could call his or her doctor, tell him or her the symptoms, and receive treatment. lower part without leaving home. Merz’s plan erases them with a stroke of the pen. From now on, proof must be requested in person from the first day of sick leave. Previously, it was only necessary after the third day of illness. As and how I collected the BBCChancellor Merz argued that “we cannot afford this competitive disadvantage caused by long periods of absence from work.” The reform, agreed between his party and the SPD, has clashed with unions, who speak of a “culture of mistrust” towards employees, and with family doctors, who fear seeing their offices overflowing with workers with a simple cold. Spain, an uncomfortable mirror. The German debate sounds distant until you look at the data here. Work absenteeism in Spain reached 7.2% of the agreed hours in the first quarter of 2026, its highest level in five years, according to the Randstad report Research. That is equivalent to more than 1.6 million of people who are absent from their jobs every day. In Germany the data follow a similar pattern and, according to the IGES report For the DAK-Gesundheit mutual insurance company, the average sick leave time is 19.5 days per year per worker, with mental health as the fastest growing cause. Justified and unjustified, two very different things. However, the term absenteeism is misleading and lumps together those who do not go to work due to a diagnosed illness and those who do not report to work by their own decision. He justified absenteeism It includes medical leave, legal permits or a justified appointment with the specialist, and the company cannot sanction you in any case. Unjustified absenteeism is a very different thing and includes absences without warning or giving any explanation, something that can end in a sanction and even dismissal. In Spain, almost eight out of every ten absences come from a temporary disability recognized by a doctor. It should be noted that temporary sick leave is not assigned by the worker himself, but is prescribed by a doctor. Only two out of ten workers miss work without justifying it. The real bottleneck: saturated healthcare. Many sick leave are not prolonged because the patient decides to extend their convalescence. They lengthen because the medical system takes time to treat you. According to data from the Ministry of Health, in 2025 there were more than 853,000 people in waiting list surgery in Spain, with an average delay of 121 days to undergo surgery. Added to this are more than four million people waiting for an appointment with a specialist. The result is easy to imagine: someone on sick leave due to a hernia or a knee can spend months on sick leave waiting for the test or operation that would return them to work sooner. While Germany tightens downward access, in Spain the bottleneck of absenteeism is a few steps further: in a waiting room. In Xataka | Germany has recovered a measure from 1889 to avoid the collapse of its pensions: work until age 70 Image | Unsplash (Maheshkumar Painam, Vitaly Gariev)

three generations working from dawn to dusk

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In 1974 Portugal experienced the Carnation Revolutionin Washington Richard Nixon left the White House cornered by the Watergate Scandal, in Spain the Franco regime was drawing its last blows and in Bangkok, Thailand, Nattapong Kaweenuntawong’s grandfather put on fire a pot full of broth. The first three events are historical milestones that can be read about in any encyclopedia. The last one, the one starring a smoking squid, is one of those events that remind us that the world is a fascinating place. The reason: more than half a century later, that broth made from noodles, pieces of meat and vegetables is still simmering in Bangkok. A 52-year-old broth? A 52 year old broth. Bangkok is full of monuments that are very popular among foreigners, such as the Grand Palace, Wat Arun or the Chatuchak market, but if what you really like is gastronomic tourism you should include another essential on your list: Wattana Panicha Bangkok restaurant famous for its beef noodle soup. The place is not especially picturesque nor do they have an exceptional menu of dishes and drinks. It’s not even expensive. What makes it unique is its new tunea dark, thick broth that has been simmering since 1974. How is that possible? With a lot of dedication. And the delivery of three generations of the same family. Your story I told it recently Shan Li in The Wall Street Journal: For two decades the person responsible for keeping the fire alive and seasoning the broth has been Nattapong Kaweenuntawong, but before him his parents did it and even before that his grandfather, who was the one who made the base broth. In fact, when the soup began to bubble, Kaweenuntawong had not even been born yet. The chef is four years younger than the dish. Keeping a stew alive for more than half a century does not come with the commitment of several generations. You need to follow a routine spartan thai “We hardly ever take vacations. I can’t leave the broth alone for a long time,” recognize the hotelier, who still works with his mother. The family only takes five days off during the Lunar New Year. And the rest of the time? Follow one strict routine. During the day the broth simmers in a huge pot 1.5 meters in diameter and 30 cm deep, a recent stainless steel pot covered with a material that gives it the appearance of lava. When the restaurant closes, the broth is strained, the most solid ingredients are removed and the liquid is transferred to a pot in which it is brought to a boil. Then it is covered. This is how he spends the next five or six hours. The next morning, start again: boil and add ingredients. One of the most fascinating details of new tune (name by which the broth they make in Wattana Panich is known) is that the family assures that they do not follow any specific recipe. They add meat, vegetables, sauces… depending on what their “taste” dictates, which is, claims Kaweenuntawongthe “inheritance” of his saga. “It’s instinct to know when it tastes good and when it doesn’t.” “Whoever prepares the soup must taste it constantly,” he summarizes. But… Is it healthy? In his interviews with media such as The Wall Street Journal either NPRKaweenuntawong highlights two ideas. The first is that there is not a single case of food poisoning related to their premises. The second is that the fact that a broth is kept for five decades does not mean that the pot has not been thoroughly cleaned in all that time. “A lot of people think we never clean the pot. But we clean it every night. We remove the soup from the pot and let it simmer a little overnight,” relates. This liquid is the base of the next day’s broth, so although the ingredients are renewed daily, all the soups of the last five decades maintain a common link. “To make it tender, we cook the meat for seven hours. We put it whole in the pot so it absorbs all the flavors.” During the New Year, the broth is frozen for four days and thawed on the fifth. Why a 52 year old soup? It is the most logical question. Why on earth would anyone go to the trouble (and especially take the risks) of maintaining a soup for more than half a century? There are several answers. In theory, what Kaweenuntawong’s grandfather was looking for was to enhance the flavor. The reality today is that the claim of having ‘a 52-year-old soup’ has turned Wattana Panich into a gastronomic celebrity. Newspapers around the world dedicate extensive reports to it and there are plenty on social networks. the videos of people who come to try their broth. In theory, its price also helps: in 2022 a reporter from Business Insider dedicated a chronicle in which he explains that he paid $5.6 for a broth and the drink, “much cheaper than the $50 I paid at another popular restaurant in Bangkok,” slid. @viajandoconfernando This Thai restaurant has been keeping its soup simmering for over 50 years. Visited Wattana Panich in Bangkok and tried their famous bubbly noodle soup, which is made in a huge pot, with chunks of fresh meat continually being added to it for more soup day after day. #journey #thailand #travel #restaurant #thailand2024 #travelthailand #thailand🇹🇭 #bangkok #trips #travelstiktok #traveling ♬ original sound – Fernando Cerro Is it something unique in the world? No. What they make at Wattana Panich is known as perpetual soup, perpetual stew or hunter’s pot and their philosophy is not entirely new. some historians believe that something similar was already done in the Middle Ages, with pots that were rarely emptied. It was a way to give substance to soups in times of famine, when there was nothing to throw into the pot. Not everyone it is so clear. Among other things, due to religious restrictions, which made it difficult to … Read more

archaeologists have discovered an unexpected link between petroglyphs from Galicia and Scandinavia

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If you travel to Galicia or the north of Portugal and observe carefully some of its petroglyphs From the Bronze Age you will find representations of ships. Back in the day, thousands of years ago, someone carved them into the rock to show the silhouette of ships, sometimes with decorations, crew members, oars and even something resembling sails. The really surprising thing about these pieces is that, deep down, they have little of ‘surprising’ about them. In the southern region of Scandinavia (Denmark and Sweden) archaeologists have documented thousands of engravings similar, which leaves one question: How the hell do you explain this coincidence? Now at last we have answers. Connecting dots. Recently a group of researchers led by Marta Díaz-Guardaminofrom the University of Durham, embarked on a peculiar project: analyzing the rock art samples located in a dozen deposits distributed throughout the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, more specifically in Galicia and the north of Portugal. They then compared them with other engravings located in Denmark and Sweden. It was not a capricious or random job. All the pieces shared a common link: they showed representations of ships. What did they find out? That beyond representing boats, the two samples (both the Scandinavian and the Iberian) have certain details in common, “design characteristics” that are repeated despite the hundreds of kilometers that separate Sweden from the Galician coast. Which is it? The archaeologists mainly identified decorations located at the ends of the boats with birds or ‘S’-shaped layouts, as well as representations of rigging, oars and sails. “The study identifies important typological and iconographic parallels between images from the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula and the Nordic ones,” they detail in the article that have been published in Plos One with their conclusions and in which they highlight the existence of “numerous and surprising” coincidences between the samples. “While several of the carved images of ships identified at coastal and river sites on the Atlantic coast of the peninsula are very rudimentary and difficult to interpret, there is no doubt that there are parallels with ships that can be dated within Scandinavian chronologies. In addition to the decorations on the ends of the ships (such as birds and ‘S’ drawings), they include shapes similar to ‘mushrooms’, ‘cult axes’ or ‘sails’ located in the center of the ship or that decorate the ends or knobs of bronze knives”. Old-fashioned globalization. With his analysis, Díaz-Guardamino pursued two objectives: to understand whether the engravings were related to each other and, if so, what that tells us about the Bronze Age. Now researchers believe they have valuable proof that “ideas and technologies were shared across Europe” millennia ago through maritime connections and cultural ties. Not only that. They believe that the engravings reveal something to us much more important: that ships were not a simple means of transportation with which to cross seas. They also had a “symbolic importance linked to rituals and beliefs.” “The shared iconography supports hypotheses about long-distance connectivity and maritime trade networks in Atlantic Europe, particularly regarding the movement of metals such as copper and tin,” abound the authors of the article before remembering that almost all the deposits in Iberia share another peculiarity: they are close to navigable waterways, whether rivers or the sea. Specifically, they have studied carvings from Viana, Caminha, Monterrei and Oia. Experienced sailors. In the opinion of experts, the “high level of technical detail” they have documented provides a new perspective on navigation capacity in the Bronze Age. Especially since in the engravings you can see boats that include oars, crew, masts, rigging and curved hulls, a detail that supports the hypothesis that the use of ships with sail was widespread on the Atlantic coast. The presence of cosmological symbols also tells us about a “shared concern” for solar mythology and travel. Fine-tuning the chronological shot. The research is not interesting only for what it reveals about the parallels between both regions. It is also because it helps us better understand the Iberian petroglyphs. More than 20,000 representations of Bronze Age ships have been discovered in Scandinavia, but in the northwest of the peninsula experts have struggled to date them. Thanks to their comparison and examination with high-resolution laser scanning, three-dimensional photogrammetry, RTI and GIS, the researchers believe that the Galicia and northern Portugal samples can be dated to the Late Bronze Age, around 1300-800 BC, a framework consistent with known Scandinavian maritime technologies. “Sea travel covered great distances and helped share cultural ideas across thousands of miles.” For researchers, it does not matter whether the Iberian petroglyphs were recorded by local sailors who assimilated foreign naval technology or were created by navigators who came from abroad and were passing through what is now Galicia and northern Portugal. The key, in his view, is that coastal communities “were actively involved in extensive long-distance maritime networks.” Images | Plos One-Marta Díaz-Guardamino et al. In Xataka | “For 2,000 years they have been inaccessible. Finally we can read them”: archaeologists now know how to decipher the Herculaneum papyri

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