Against the extreme heat, the Civil Guard agents want to choose between the motorcycle or the car. And don’t let your bosses decide

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It has arrived and has placed itself at the center of the debate. The heat and what to do to remedy it is one of the hot topics every year. Whether or not to apply new measures against a summer that increasingly arrives earlier and leaves later is beginning to be a recurring part of the general conversation. From the classrooms and the children to the Civil Guard agents. The heat. Suffocating and sustained. The same one that gives very few breaks between May and September, if not October. We live in a country that is getting hot and what to do to cope with it in the best possible way is something that we repeat to ourselves starting in the month of May. The misfortunes, in fact, seem to have been the only reason that has made us reflect. One of the last major debates revolves around the how hot it is in schools. He’s not the only one. Weather alerts They have already modified the schedules of the most exposed workers, like sweepers or workers. And there is a group that already defends that it is in the same situation: the Civil Guard agents. What do they claim? The Unified Association of Civil Guards (AUGC) is claiming to the higher commands to allow the agents who monitor traffic to decide whether or not to get on the motorcycle or, on the contrary, prefer to patrol by car. The reason is obvious: the heat. Furthermore, this association demands that they not be forced to wear the vest with an airbag when the temperature exceeds 32ºC, claiming that it is a garment that makes heat evacuation difficult. Why all this? These claims have once again gained strength because the AUGC has met with the Head of the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard to send them their requests. And the latter is in charge of deciding the technical criteria to take into account to decide how to work. But the conflict, our colleagues explain Motorpassion Motorcycle comes from behind In July 2025, the PSI-08-25-OPCM report from the Civil Guard Prevention Service indicated that it was advisable not to wear the airbag vest above 32ºC. Later, in December, in the Plenary Session of the Civil Guard Council it was decided that the use of this vest and the decision to take the motorcycle or use the car would fall to the agent “according to his own professional criteria, without the need for authorization or any impediment,” according to the AUGC. And they emphasize that the Operations Command promised to put this in writing. Which have moved again from this association to the Headquarters of the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard is that this commitment never materialized and that, on the contrary, a circular from May once again emphasized that the airbag vest was mandatory up to 35ºC and that It is the Operations Command that ultimately decides whether the agent gets on the motorcycle or not, instead of the latter’s criteria prevailing. The risks. The officers’ claims are based on the extreme heat to which they are subjected on the motorcycle when temperatures far exceed 30ºC. It must be taken into account that a motorcyclist faces environmental heat but is also exposed to the heat generated by the motorcycle itself and the use of safety equipment. The risks riding the motorcycle in extreme heat are evident: greater fatigue, proliferation of headaches or possible dizziness. Photo | In Xataka | “With our heads, we would all ride 20 HP motorcycles”: there is a debate brewing about how much power is too much power for a motorcycle

Xataka is Media Partner of VivaTech, the largest technology event in France with more than 14,000 startups

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VivaTech It is one of the largest technology events in Europe in general and France in particular. Its next installment, VivaTech 2026, will take place between June 17 and 20 in Paris, the French capital, and From Xataka we have the pleasure of being Media Partner of this edition. It is going to be an event full of technology, panels and interviews and, as it could not be otherwise, from Xataka we will be covering it and experiencing it in situ. If you want to join us, we invite you to pay attention to our Instagram profilewhere we will share live everything we find in this (huge) tech meeting. A big edition Image | VivaTech Since 2016, VivaTech has been bringing together an entire ecosystem of companies, startups, influencers, media and technology fans. It takes place at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles and has not stopped growing. To give some figures, in the first edition there were 45,000 visitors and more than 5,000 companies and startups. In the previous edition there were 180,000 attendees, 450 speakers, 300 announcements and launches, 14,000 startups, 4,000 partners and 3,600 investors. It is a sensational opportunity to discover first-hand how the global and European technological landscape breathes. It is also an important year for the event, which turns ten years old. For this reason, on Sunday, June 14, they are going to turn the legendary Parisian Champs-Elysées into a huge free experience, so that anyone can enjoy technology in a spectacular environment. Image | VivaTech The event also has top level speakers. To mention a few, personalities such as Yann LeCun (AMI Labs), Peter Steinberg (founder of OpenClaw), Henna Virkkunen (European Commission), Joe Tsai (Alibaba), Elizabeth Stone (Netflix), Bernard Arnault (CEO of LVMH) or Narendra Modi (Prime Minister of India) will attend VivaTech. Jensen Huang (Nvidia), Elon Musk (Tesla), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta) and Tim Cook (Apple), among many others, have also walked through its halls. The event, as we said, will take place in Paris between the days June 17 and 20. Tickets can be obtained now from the official website of the eventas well as the agenda with the presentations and the map with the stands. See you in Paris! Images | VivaTech

Oppo Find X9 Ultra vs Vivo X300 Ultra, two titans in photography with many differences in their cameras

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What do you base on when buying a mobile phone? Many people do it prioritizing the photographic section and currently there are proposals as attractive as the Oppo Find X9 Ultra or the Vivo X300 Ultra. But… which is better? In this article we are going to put them face to face to clarify some doubts. Oppo Find X9 Ultra (with photo kit) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Vivo X300 Ultra (with photo kit) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links The differences between the Oppo Find X9 Ultra and the Vivo X300 Ultra Camera settings To be clear from the beginning, we are going to review the camera configuration on both phones. Although it is not the big claim, we will also mention the front camera in case it is important to you. Oppo Find X9 Ultra 50 MP front camera; f/2.4. Rear camera module: 200 MP main sensor, f/1.5. 200 MP 3x telephoto, f/2.2. 50 MP 10x telephoto, f/3.5. 50 MP wide angle, f/2.0, 123º FOV. Vivo X300 Ultra 50 MP front camera, f/2.45. Rear camera module: 200 MP main sensor, f/1.85. 200 MP telephoto, f/2.67. 50 MP wide angle, f/2.0, FOV 123.4º. main sensor Both the Oppo Find X9 Ultra and the Vivo X300 Ultra have a 200 megapixel (MP) sensor. Is it a good number? Of course, since it represents the information that the camera can capture in a photo. If it is larger, as is the case, the sharpness will be better and it will be less blurry when enlarged. In any case, the Vivo’s main sensor offers a 35mm equivalent focal length (instead of the typical 23-24mm wide angle), while the Oppo does use a more angular focal length. In both cases we also find a fairly large main sensor with a size of 1/1.12 inches. The size has a lot to do with the ambient light it is able to collect. In other words, imagine that the sensors are like windows, the larger they are, the more light they will let in. In practice, it improves image quality in difficult conditions, generating a more natural background blur, which is usually known as the bokeh. The opening is different in both cases. The Oppo Find X9 Ultra opts for an aperture of f/1.5 while the Vivo And this… what does it mean? The smaller the f/number, the larger the actual aperture of the lens: f/1.5 lets in more light than f/1.85. Oppo’s mobile is physically capable of capturing more light, making it ideal for taking photos in dark environments. Finally, optical stabilization (OIS) is present in both phones. OIS is a system that physically compensates for hand movements by moving the sensor or the optical elements of the lens. Zoom and Telephoto The Oppo Find X9 Ultra incorporates a system with two telephoto lenseswhich means that it has two lenses capable of capturing images at a great distance. And it does so without resorting to a digital system that usually achieves worse results. The first 200 MP telephoto lens includes three magnifications (3x) and f/2.2 aperture, thus offering good quality in, for example, objects or people that are not excessively far away. The second telephoto lens is 50 MP and includes 10x magnification (x10) with f/3.5 aperture, so its use is aimed at very distant distances. In addition, its aperture is smaller (less light enters), which can affect poorly lit scenes. Instead, the Vivo X300 Ultra comes with a single 200 MP telephoto lens with 3.7x magnification (3.7x) and f/2.67 aperture. This means that its sensor offers very good quality at medium distances, especially in less illuminated environments. In addition, it should be added that this mobile phone has ZEISS certification, a technology that corrects color and reduces flare to generate more realistic photographs. The ultra wide angle camera Both the Oppo Find X9 Ultra and the Vivo X300 Ultra use a sensor 50 MP ultra wide angle with f/2.0 aperture. The difference between the two is minimal: 123° versus 123.4°, which in practice is imperceptible. What might it be interesting for? For photos with landscapes in the background. Other sensors Although they may seem the least relevant, it is worth mentioning that both phones come with an additional sensor. 3.2 MP monochrome sensor with f/2.4 aperture for the Oppo Find X9 Ultra, a camera that helps better capture contrasts and shadows. Additional 5 MP sensor with f/2.0 aperture for the Vivo X300 Ultra, a camera that helps to have better focus. The accessories Both phones are compatible with their respective photographic accessories. Oppo Find Vivo Additionally, it includes a grip and a tripod adapter. In summary: In any case, we are faced with two very good mobile phones in their photographic section. We are going to comment on the key points of each mobile phone without taking into account its accessories, which are optional. 👉 Choose Oppo Find X9 Ultra if: You are looking for the best main sensor. It is one of the cameras with the smallest aperture (f/1.5) currently, which offers very good results in darker environments. You are looking to take daytime photographs with high lighting using the telephoto lens with higher magnifications, since it far exceeds (x10) the Vivo X300 Ultra (3.7x). 👉 Choose Vivo X300 Ultra if: You are looking for the clean result that the ZEISS lens offers. You are looking to take photographs at a great distance, capturing the lighting well at sunset. Technical sheet with the main differences between the Oppo Find X9 Ultra and the Vivo X300 Ultra oppo find x9 ultra vivo x300 ultra SCREEN 6.82-inch AMOLED panel QHD+ resolution 144Hz frequency HBM brightness of 1,800 nits 3,600 nits peak 6.82 inch AMOLED QHD+ resolution (3,168 x 1,440 pixels) Refresh rate: 144 Hz 510 DPI Format: 19.8:9 Screen/front ratio: 94.49% HBM brightness: 1,800 nits Local maximum brightness: 4,500 nits PROCESSOR Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 RAM 12GB 16GB LPDDR5x … Read more

This is how Sunday anxiety is destroying us

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It’s Sunday afternoon. The sun begins to set, the hours of free time slip through our fingers and, almost without realizing it, the Garfield that we all have inside begins to emerge. That visceral rejection of Mondays since the previous afternoon seems, at first glance, to be a harmless personality trait or a simple adult tantrum that is easy to joke about. However, behind that knot in the stomach that assails us at nightfall lies a complex epidemic of work stress, hyperconnectivity and excessive expectations. We usually dismiss this discomfort with a couple of memes on social networks or by baptizing it with viral terms. However, at a clinical level, the phenomenon requires nuances. The general health psychologist Alejandra de Pedro, specialist in emotional management, warns us in interview on the double side of labels such as Sunday scaries: “Putting labels is very useful: it helps us feel less alone and seek help more effectively. At the same time, over-labeling has the problem that we can trivialize things, as has happened with ‘I have OCD’ or ‘I’m depressed’.” De Pedro insists on the importance of discerning between simple laziness to go to work and a clinical problem of anticipatory anxiety. The prelude to burnout The data place Spain in a scenario of particular vulnerability. 40% of workers in our country link their stress, anxiety or depression directly to their job, far exceeding the European average (29%) and placing us among the countries with the greatest labor anguish on the continent. When that Sunday sadness transforms into a wall of anxiety, irritability and even physical symptoms, it stops being an anecdote. Brigida H. Madsen, expert cited by Vogue, points out that if “gastrointestinal discomfort” or acute feelings of rejection appear, we are crossing the line into depression syndrome. burnout. Medical institutions such as Mayo Clinic support this vision: he burnout It is not a simple individual failure to manage stress, but a shared responsibility derived from unaffordable burdens on the part of companies. Added to this structural pressure is global uncertainty. Morra Aarons-Mele, host of “The Anxious Achiever” podcast underlines in Washington Post that employment is our source of livelihood and status; Therefore, in the face of constant headlines about economic instability and possible layoffs, it is logical that the body reacts in a “visceral” way. The work model also works against us. Dr. Audrey Tang explains in Euronews that much of this anguish is born from fear of “the unknown” and the feeling of having to start Monday “at full speed”, wondering what new hell awaits us today. Furthermore, Professor André Spicer argues in his column in Guardian that the widespread use of teleworking (and the fact of working from home on Fridays) has drastically blurred the boundaries between leisure and employment, making the physical return to routine psychologically much harder. Physically, the impact is devastating. The body enters a state of “allostatic load”that is, tension raises cortisol —which rises 23% steadily on Mondays— and collapses the immune system, reducing T lymphocytes and cellular defenses, which facilitates neuroinflammation processes linked to depression. The anatomy of anxiety To draw the line between apathy and disorder, Alejandra de Pedro emphasizes that in psychology the criterion is not qualitative, but quantitative. “Two people can have the same symptoms, but the difference is in the degree to which those symptoms affect the person,” he clarifies. Feeling a little nervous 15 minutes before going to sleep is not comparable to waking up on Sunday with a cramped stomach. One of the great myths of Sunday scaries is that it is solved by “better organizing.” De Pedro refutes this idea: “Anxious people often tend to control and fall into the fallacy of ‘if I finish everything before going home, then I won’t have anxiety.’” The real root of the problem is hyperconnectivity. By carrying the office in your pocket, you create the false illusion that everything is urgent. The solution, the psychologist points out, is not to do more, but to set firm limits: not look at the company cell phone and be present in the here and now. But the origin of this anxiety is not always internal. Science reveals toxic dynamics in offices. A study from Cornell and Northeastern universities uncovered “motivational oversimplification”: Bosses tend to assign extra, routine workloads to employees they see as most motivated, mistakenly assuming that “their passion will protect them from burnout.” Curiously, this discomfort does not only punish those who hate their jobs. Ilke Inceoglu, from the University of Exeter Business School, shows that it affects people who love their profession but maintain unrealistic expectations of themselves. It is the result of a “toxic perfectionism” that subordinates personal worth to constant achievement. The survival decalogue Psychology offers concrete strategies to deactivate the weekend time bomb, divided into three key time phases that help us regain control of our free time. Starting with what we could call the Friday firewall, experts agree on the importance of brain dump or “mind dump.” Alejandra de Pedro explains that worry is nothing more than an attempt by the brain to solve a problem. So instead of passively ruminating over the weekend, sitting down to write down your pending tasks before leaving the office channels that anxious energy and gives our mind the feeling that it’s already working on it. To this cognitive download we must add the visual order. The psychologist Lara Ferreiro remember to order the desk is not just cleaning, but deciding. A clear environment drastically reduces the stimuli that overload the prefrontal cortex and, consequently, lowers cortisol levels. The second phase is to protect Sunday. To achieve this, the first step is to avoid self-sabotage. “The best thing you can do is treat Sunday as if it were Saturday,” advises De Pedro. Stopping making plans or avoiding meeting friends with the excuse of “getting psyched” for the work week only gives disproportionate power to anxiety. Instead, you could look for what is known as “slow dopamine”: Socialize with … Read more

Comparing Apple’s AI to ChatGPT or Claude is a mistake. Apple is not playing that game

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to whom They rule out Apple in the AI ​​raceeye. The company may have arrived late and it certainly may have little to show today, but its evolution over the last three years reveals three interesting things. The first, that Apple does have its own AI models. The second, that they are very far in performance from the best of OpenAI and Claude. Third, that may not matter at all. Three years of evolution. The trajectory of the technical documents shared by Apple in recent years reveals a series of more than relevant changes. In 2024 its initial proposal was limited to small models of about 3,000 million parameters (3B) specialized in solving basic tasks like generating Genmojis or text summaries. In 2025 the company launched its MLX framework to the developer community to facilitate the integration and use of local models. Now, in 2026, They propose a hybrid infrastructure based on a basic principle: Simple requests: they run in small local models on the device, you don’t even need an internet connection Complex requests: the system delegates the task to be processed in the cloud privately through Private Cloud Compute A (maybe) great idea: NAND can help. The most relevant milestone of Apple’s new approach lies in the design of its AFM 3 Core Advanced model. In today’s mobile phones we have a big bottleneck with the execution of capable (large) AI models because these devices have a very limited amount of memory (12 GB on some iPhones). To be able to fit a model with 20,000 million parameters (20B), Apple has decided to store that model in the internal SSD unit, not in memory. In the AFM 3 Core Advanced model the “experts” are in the mobile’s SSD. They are preselected and loaded into RAM to be used dynamically, optimizing model execution. Experts by prompt, not by token. It then activates a series of pruning techniques (Instruction-Following Pruning, or IFP) to activate only between 1,000 and 4,000 million parameters in a sparse manner (sparse), somewhat similar to what is done in models with Mixture-of-Experts architecture. But Apple selects these experts at the beginning of each prompt, not token by token, which allows it to avoid the slow bandwidth of the mobile’s NAND storage compared to its RAM memory. Privacy by flag. If for something Apple’s approach stood out from the beginning It was for his privacy.which is implicit when using local models. But if the request is complex, the system redirects it to the AI ​​models in Apple’s cloud, the Private Cloud Compute (PCC). Unlike other platforms and infrastructures such as those of OpenAI or Anthropic, conversations with Apple’s AI are encrypted and are totally private according to the company: this data is not shared with third parties (because not even Apple can see it) and it is not used to train its models. Five models with the help of Gemini. Although Apple is obsessed with total control of its products, this time had to give in and ally with Google so that their Gemini models could “show” Apple the way. The result is a third generation of models that are developed in collaboration with the Mountain View firm. We have five models in total: AFM 3 Core: 3B parameter dense model AFM 3 Core Advanced: sparse model of 20B parameters with activation of 1B to 4B parameters depending on the task AFM 3 Cloud: a powerful but also efficient and fast model that runs on the Apple cloud. ADM 3 Cloud (Image): for generating and editing images, the heart of both these options and the new Image Playground AFM 3 Cloud Pro– Apple’s most powerful cloud model is for autonomous agents. It has been trained with Google TPUs and runs on Nvidia GPUs within Google Cloud infrastructure Performance, an unknown. Unlike what other companies usually do when they present their models, Apple has not published metrics on known benchmarks. Instead, it shows “human preference” metrics in which it compares user satisfaction when using its models versus competing models. The comparisons are also with previous versions of these models, which does not clarify much what can be expected from them. But they are not in the race for the best model. In 2025 yes there was comparison with open weight models of that time (Qwen-3-4B locally, GPT-4o or Llama 4 Scout in the cloud) and then they seemed to be at a good level in reference to those options. Expect them to be behind the most recent models from OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google itself, and it’s unclear how they compare to the new Chinese open weights models. One thing seems clear: Apple is not very interested in having its own Mythos, at least for now. Your objective is different. Apple models from 2026 are “preferred” more than those from 2025. Logical, but also useless when it comes to understanding how good these models are compared to the competition. But integration is important. Apple’s big ace to compensate for this difference in capacity is that its models have full access to the user’s OS, apps and hardware. AFM models are integrated with iPhone camera sensors, notification history or local app permissions. This allows useful tasks to be carried out that an LLM that is “disconnected” from the hardware will hardly be able to replicate. Here the integration of the models with the hardware and software of the device is (or wants to be) fundamental. Beware of mediocrity. This approach focused on integration and privacy is especially striking and differentiating from its competitors, but there are risks. Among others, the product is limited by its functional capabilities compared to the competition. If local models do not solve and cloud models also do not behave reliably, Apple runs the risk of having an AI that is secure and private but technically mediocre in its responses. Siri has already been criticized for being especially stupid: Siri AI must precisely eradicate that perception. In Xataka | Apple has designed Siri AI so … Read more

China had not updated its EREV standards for nine years. Now that they sell a million a year, they are going to catch up

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The EREV (extended range electric vehicles, for its acronym in English), are beginning to have a lot of prominence in China. So much so, that in the country they have changed the regulations, publishing a complete review of their technical standard. This new revision, QC/T1086-2026, replaces a 2017 regulatory framework and will come into force on November 1. And it is that with more than 1 million units sold Every year in the country, the Chinese market begins to assimilate this type of vehicle that, outside of this region, is still relatively unknown to us. Why does it matter? The previous standard, in force since 2017, described the requirements in a mostly qualitative way, since the manufacturer defined its own specifications and the regulatory framework barely provided specific figures. Nine years later, the market has changed a lot. And according to industry data collected by CarNewsChinasales of EREVs in China exceeded one million units in 2024 and reached 1.2 million in 2025. So with those figures, it is logical to think that the regulations had to be revised. What the change consists of. Until now, the rules were somewhat vague, so this regulation aims to take a closer look at some EREV specifications and standardize them. An example is how much energy the gasoline engine delivers in each millisecond. And to give us an idea, now in the smallest generators (up to 67 HP), the maximum margin of error that will be allowed when delivering energy will be just 1.5 kW. For the most powerful engines, the deviation may not exceed 3%. That is, the motor must deliver energy to the battery more precisely and efficiently. According to CarNewsChinathe thresholds have been set based on real production data from manufacturers and suppliers, with the aim that all major manufacturers on the market can meet them without difficulty, but that lower-performance designs are left out of the standard. EMC and noise. One of the most relevant new features of the standard is the introduction of specific electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and noise and vibration (NVH) tests. The first extended range cars were basically standby generators that started when the battery was depleted. Today’s systems now have integrated energy management components that work in constant coordination with the battery, electric motors and vehicle control systems. This greater integration requires more demanding standards in electromagnetic interference and acoustic comfort. In fact, more recent models like the Aito M9which HIMA launched last May with up to 890 HP, or the IM Motors LS8 EREV, with 430 km of electric range, already reflect these changes, and are examples that have served to develop this new regulation. Durability for long term use. The standard also introduces two durability tests: a test of 750 hours with alternating load and another of 100,000 start-stop cycles. Both were developed with real-world usage data and damage equivalence models, and are designed to simulate approximately 300,000 kilometers of real-world driving, including urban conditions with frequent starts. Who is driving the market. The ecosystem of manufacturers that has driven this revision in the regulations includes both established brands and newer manufacturers. Li Auto, Seres, Deepal and Leapmotor have expanded their EREV offerings, while premium models such as the Aito M9 have helped position the technology in high-priced segments. Zeekr, Geely’s electric brandhas gone even further with the Zeekr 9X and 8X, since the former exceeded 50,000 accumulated deliveries in a few months after its launch and is scheduled to be exported to the Middle East, Central Asia and Europe during 2026. Cover image | HIMA In Xataka | This Aston Martin DB9 was sold for $57,000, but the craziest thing is not its price: it is the two flamethrowers it hides

One fine day Richard Feynman left a restaurant. 50 years later we already know why better known bad than good unknown

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In the late 1970s, the brilliant physicist Richard Feynman He went with his friend Ralph Leighton to eat at a Thai place named Indra in Glendale, California. Looking at the restaurant’s menu, Leighton couldn’t decide: should he order his usual favorite, ginger chicken, or try something new and perhaps better? Any other person would have responded in one way or another (“if you like it so much, you better insure” or something like “he who does not risk does not gain”). Richard Feynman, brilliant as he is, did something else: He started scribbling equations on a napkin. and he turned that into a mathematical problem that he not only detected, but solved. For some reason, the prodigious physicist never published that analysis, and his notes were left to Leighton. For years that story was forgotten, but 50 years later researchers from the universities of Oxford, New York and Princeton managed to rescue those notes and Feynman’s solution. And what that revealed was surprising. Rescuing Feynman’s restaurant problem The researchers explained in their study, published in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) that although Feynman had focused on what happened to the different dishes in the same restaurant, they They preferred to expand the problem: what happens when we are in city X, for example, on vacation, and we want to choose a restaurant. Richard Feynman’s handwritten notes on a restaurant napkin turned out to be a fascinating problem. Source: PNAS. Feynman’s restaurant problem is actually a variant of what is known as the optimal stopping problemto which also belongs the famous variant of secretary problemwhich gave rise to the 37% rule: When choosing from 100 options, one should try the first 37 to maximize the chances of choosing the best one. Then you can “settle” for that one, because it is difficult for there to be a better one among the rest. But we are digressing. Feynman’s original mathematical formula established an optimal policy based on a uniform distribution of quality. According to the physicist’s formulation, our quality bar is not static nor falls by chance, but decreases exponentially as the days available in our vacation calendar are exhausted. Thus, it usually happens that when we are at the beginning of our vacation, We usually demand absolute perfection in the chosen restaurant because the remaining time allows the risk to be amortized. In the end, however, that threshold of demand collapses and we settle for a decent restaurant. We move from the exploration phase – taking risks with new places (or dishes) – to exploitation – repeating places (or dishes) that we liked. The researchers wanted to test this mathematical model with a sample of 2,520 participants, and in doing so they detected a striking anomaly. During the first nights in a new city, participants explored massively, much more than mathematical logic itself advised. The researchers discovered that this phenomenon responded to the so-called “early exploration bonus” that fell rapidly as the days went by: if we have an opportunity to “get it right,” our brain shows tremendous psychological resistance to tying itself to a restaurant at the first opportunity. We prefer to continue trying other restaurants because we trust that we will find a better one. The four “gastronomic worlds” of the study: the behavior of the participants varied according to each distribution. Source: PNAS. But as the experiment went on, something else was discovered. Humans are not blind robots, but we calibrate the bar according to the city we visit. The experiment placed participants in four different “food worlds” in which the ratio of excellent restaurants to mediocre (or decent) ones varied. The data showed that the human brain is capable of diagnosing the type of “food world” it finds itself in just by trying three or four restaurants. From there, set the bar. Feynman mathematically intuited that the bar would lower exponentially as the return date approached, but the experiment revealed something different. Human beings reduce our level of demand linearly with respect to the proportion of days we have left on vacation. We are becoming less and less demanding and more “nostalgic”. This guarantees something important: that at least on the last nights we enjoy the “better bad known than good not known”, because that “bad known” will not be so bad after all: we have already experienced it. Fascinating. Image | SAP (edited with Magnific) In Xataka | Studying by heart seems like a good idea until you forget it. The Feynman method appeals to your understanding, not your memory.

What it is, what it includes and how much the European alternative to Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace will cost

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Let’s explain to you what is Office EUa new office and productivity suite in the cloud that is presented as a European alternative to Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. Its proposal is simple: give you everything that Google and Microsoft offer, but keeping your data in Europe protected by strict European privacy laws. This service has been operating for a few months in the invitation access phase, and you have to request to join the waiting list. But it has already been given enough shape to be able to know what it is and what its offer is, in addition to what we can expect from its prices. What is Office EU Office EU is a cloud productivity suite created by the Dutch company EUfforic Europe BVbased in The Hague. It is one of the many European companies that have set out to create European alternatives to large American services. Another of its premises, beyond offering you a European alternative, is that both Microsoft and Google are American companies subject to the CLOUD Act. This is a law that allows American authorities to access data stored by these companies, even if their servers are physically in Europe. Office EU is built on Nextcloud Hub, a well-established open source cloud collaboration solution in the European business environment. And for document editing integrates Collaborate Onlinean editor based on LibreOffice which allows you to work with .docx, .xlsx and .pptx files directly in the browser. What Office EU includes Office EU is a complete suite where you are offered all the tools so that you don’t miss any of the ones you are used to using. This is the list of included tools in this service: EU Drive: a cloud storage service where you can save all your files, and with options to share them. EU Docs: A document editor with functions such as real-time collaboration, and that is shareable with the main formats, such as Word’s .docx. EU Spreadsheet: A spreadsheet application that also supports Excel’s .xlsx format. EU Presentation: The PowerPoint alternative of this suite, compatible with .pptx, and which includes templates and animations for your presentations. EU Calendar: A calendar application, where you will be able to keep your agenda, and create reminders and invitations. EUTalk: A video calling service like Google Meet, with screen sharing and recording option. EU Email: An ad-free, encrypted email client. Office EU also ensures that facilitates migration from Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. To do this, it allows you to import emails, calendars and files, in addition to being able to use both platforms in parallel until you are convinced and ready to make the definitive change. How much will it cost Those responsible for Office EU They have not yet announced their official price. At the moment we only know that they will be “comparable to those of Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace”, but they have not yet given specific figures. It will be necessary to see if the price is attractive enough to encourage users, companies and SMEs to make the jump to it. Furthermore, as we have told you, this service still on waiting list and access by invitation, without a specific date announced for its opening to the general public. In any case, taking into account that the price of Microsoft 365 Personal is around 10 euros per month, and that of Google Workspace Starter is around 6 euros per user per month, we should expect similar prices from this European alternative. In Xataka Basics | 61 European alternatives to Google, X, Gmail, Chrome, Maps, DropBox, Google Drive, WhatsApp and other popular services

There are a lot of people who want to turn potato omelette into the “new pizza”

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The potato omelette is almost certainly the most ‘homemade’ dish in the Spanish recipe book. In fact, more than a ‘dish’ it is a ‘symbol’ of traditional cuisine, of all life. And yes, it’s true: it has always been available in bars, cafes and restaurants; but the queen of tortillas was (proudly) something that was made at home. But not anymore. When one stands in front of the Navarra factory of Natural Prepared (the manufacturer of the 60 million tortillas that Mercadona sells each year) it is inevitable to think that this train has already passed. As they say in DAP, the industrial process is fascinating (each tortilla is fried at a different temperature!) and, at the same time, it is a clear piece of how the industry is betting everything to ensure that Juan Roig’s vision comes true: let’s stop cooking. And the tortilla is the battlefield. We will return to the Mercadona tortilla, but it is not the only actor at play. Martinuca was born just after the pandemic and, with the impetus of Maria Pombohas achieved a turnover of more than seven million euros for its premium tortillas at home in 2025 alone – more than double that of the previous year. And that’s only with four locations in Madrid and Barcelona. Its objective is quite clear: “elevate the Spanish tortilla to a global icon, as the Italians did with pizza“. And the reference is interesting because, de facto, the tortilla is following a ‘pattern’ similar to the one that pizza followed 20 or 30 years ago: the sector is growing in the hypermassive industrial product and in the premium (with a huge step in delivery). And why now and not 20 years ago? First of all, for a technical issue. As our colleague Miguel Ayuso explainswe are talking about the first fresh tortillas that hit the shelves. “Until then there were only tortillas that were pasteurized in their own packaging and the juiciness was greatly compromised,” Sergio Beni told DAP. Since Palacios/Fuentetaja began to grow the market a decade ago, until Elaborados Naturales has managed to become the first player at a national level, the technical, logistical and distribution revolution has been enormous. But “being able to do it” has only been part of the process. The other is that we have stopped cooking. We are doing it, in fact. According to the report “Convenience, the super power that changes everything” that has just been published, the average daily time spent cooking has fallen to 24.5 minutes, 41% of consumers usually eat in a hurry and ready-to-eat dishes grew by 55% between 2022 and 2025. Mercadona takes a third of that pie. What’s interesting is that, for the first time, respondents say they go to these products for price. It is not clear that this is true because the prices are high compared to food prepared at home; but even if it were a simple rationalization, it is interesting. It is not in vain that the majority of Spaniards continue to say that they like to cook. But weren’t we wanting to stop cooking? In DAP, Beni explained that “people no longer want to cook at home. They want to cook as a hobby, but you want that time you use to cook for your things, to play paddle tennis, to go to the gym, to read a book, to study or to make your life. You don’t want to spend that time cooking. Before our mothers spent two hours cooking and we don’t want that anymore, we want to spend that time on other things and products that are good and that are good.” However, even though There is a lot of data that proves them right.this is still a business story. “Cooking” is becoming “plating things.” It is true that the 20th century has been a century in which more and more stages of food processing have been taken outside of domestic kitchens. Today, our country only 28% of Spaniards cook from fresh foods. In fact, if we go to the dataWe can see that millennials eat 30% more often in restaurants than any other generation; When they cook, they spend less time (one hour less per week than Generation It’s US data, but we can find a similar process in all Western countries. That is to say, the discourse that kitchens are going to disappear is the framework for the next step of integration between the agri-food industry and domestic kitchens. A regulative ideal, a scenario that helps normalize what we already do (but without feeling bad about it). Will they be successful? Nobody knows, but it is clear that they are going to try hard. The Spanish tortilla is the best example. Image | instagram / Miguel Ayuso In DAP | We visited the Navarra factory where Mercadona’s potato tortillas are made: they make one and a half per Spaniard per year

If the question is whether we can delay aging, Russia has an unusual plan with the “cousin” of the wild boar and humans

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In 1928, a Soviet scientist convinced that young blood could rejuvenate the body exchanged his own with that of a university student. The experiment turned the student into a survivor and the researcher into a of the first victims of the modern pursuit of longevity. The great Russian bet. If the question is whether aging can be delayed, Russia has decided to respond with an initiative of extraordinary dimensions. Under the direct impulse of Vladimir Putin, the weekend counted the wall street journal that the Kremlin has made longevity a national priority through a program valued at about $26 billion that seeks to develop technologies capable of prolonging human life and combating age-related deterioration. What for many Western leaders and businessmen remains a private bet financed by technological fortunes, in Russia has become a state strategy which combines genetic research, organ printing, xenotransplantation and other experimental technologies with the promise of saving hundreds of thousands of lives before the end of the decade. New organs for aging bodies. One of the most ambitious ideas of the project consists of progressively replace the defective parts of the human body as if it were a complex machine. It we have told before and Putin himself even commented publicly on the possibility of achieving a kind of practical immortality through the continuous replacement of damaged organs. To get closer to that goal, Russian scientists are working on two main lines: three-dimensional bioprinting of living tissues and the growth of human organs inside minipigs, a variety of pork considered especially compatible for this type of research. The stated goal is to achieve functional transplants of laboratory-produced organs by 2030, a goal that, if achieved, would represent one of the most important biomedical advances of the century. Genes, tissues and pigs at the service of longevity. The program also includes the development of gene therapies aimed at slowing down cellular aging. According to Russian authorities, these treatments represent some of the most promising tools to combat the biological wear and tear that accompanies the passing of the years. At the same time, researchers they claim having managed to print human cartilage and a mouse thyroid gland using bioprinting techniques, preliminary steps towards much more complex structures. The combination of Genetic engineering, organs grown in animals and the manufacture of artificial tissues paints a vision in which medicine stops limiting itself to repairing damage and begins to replace entire components of the organism. Putin’s daughter and the architects of the project. Behind this strategy appear some of the most influential figures of the presidential circle. Among them stands out Maria Vorontsova, Putin’s daughter and an endocrinologist linked to various state genetics programs, as well as the physicist Mikhail Kovalchuk, director of the historic Kurchatov Institute and one of the Kremlin’s main scientific ideologues. Kovalchuk holds that humanity is approaching an era in which organs can be routinely repaired or replaced, prolonging life for increasingly longer periods. For its defenders, aging will no longer be seen as an inevitable destiny and will begin to be treated as a technical problem susceptible to scientific intervention. Between cutting-edge science and community doubts. However, the program’s promises are far from to generate consensus. Many researchers they point out that much of the progress announced by Russia has barely been published in peer-reviewed international scientific journals. Some scientists who participated in the early stages of these investigations hold that there is a great distance between the proclaimed objectives and the results actually demonstrated. International sanctions, scientific isolation derived from the war in Ukraine and the difficulty of collaborating with Western centers also limit the capacity Russian to validate many of these projects. For critics, some of the statements made by the authorities should be interpreted more as aspirations for the future than as technologies close to becoming a reality. Personal obsession turned into state policy. Putin’s fascination with longevity it’s not new. For years he has cultivated a public image associated with physical strength through exhibitions Carefully constructed for sporting activity, hunting or outdoor adventures. At the same time, their behavior during the pandemic showed a extreme concern due to illness and physical deterioration, with strict quarantines, disinfection protocols and isolation measures that attracted the attention of the entire world. At 73 years old, also surrounded by an aging political and economic elite, the fight against the passage of time seems to have become more than a personal curiosity: it is part of a strategic vision shared by much of the Russian leadership environment. The long Russian tradition. The current project does not come out of nowhere either. Russia and previously the Soviet Union have historically shown a recurring fascination for research aimed at prolonging human life. Since the experiments with rejuvenating blood transfusions carried out by Alexander Bogdanov in the twenties until the theories of Oleksandr Bogomolets Regarding a life expectancy of 150 years supported by Stalin, different generations of Soviet and Russian leaders have pursued the idea of ​​overcoming aging. Paradoxically, many of those pioneers they died long before to reach the extraordinary ages they defended. A race against an uncomfortable demographic reality. The bet is even more striking because it takes place in a country that continues to suffer some of the worst mortality indicators of the developed world. Male life expectancy in Russia He is currently around 68 years, well below that of the United States or Western Europe. In this context, the gigantic longevity program promoted by Putin it reflects both a scientific ambition and a national need. The question is whether printed organs, genetic treatments and minipigs capable of hosting future transplants will bring Russia closer to that vision of a increasingly longer life or if they will end up joining the long list of projects that promised to defeat aging and ended up crashing into a biological reality much more difficult to defeat. Image | IToldYa, Press Service of the President of the Russian Federation, Picryl In Xataka | We knew that living … Read more

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