cooling AI is the new gold mine

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The gaming market is a cruel ecosystem, where many brands that once dominated the overclocking forums are today just a vague memory in the memory of more veterans. However, there are exceptions of companies that, far from sinking, knew how to read market signals and pivot in time. This is the case of CoolIT, a brand that manufactured liquid cooling for gaming and that today it is a key piece in the gear that moves artificial intelligence, one that is worth billions. 3,000 million. This is what CoolIT is worth today, or rather it is the value at which KKR is trying to sell it. The controversial investment fund bought the company in 2023 for 270 million dollars and now, just three years later, they aspire to multiply their initial investment tenfold, according to Financial Times. CoolIT is no longer in the business of cooling gaming PCs, its business is now focused on the data centers that power AI. The beginnings. The company was founded by two Canadian gaming enthusiasts in 2001, when the concept of gaming PCs was beginning to take shape. To better understand the moment, it was the time of Windows 98, the most cutting-edge graphics card was the NVIDIA GeForce 3, the processors were Pentium 4 and RAM was measured in megabytes. In this context, CoolIT launched itself into the manufacture of liquid cooling systems and, although it was not one of the top brands (it worked more as OEM for others like Corsair), had several important milestones. One of them was the launch of Domino ALC which was much lighter than other similar systems and hardly required maintenance. In 2009 they patented their SplitFlow cooling plate technologywhich represented an important leap in the sector. From PC to data centers. 2012 marked the turning point for the company. Its focus shifted to data centers, creating direct liquid cooling systems for servers. In 2015 they started a collaboration with Hewlett Packardproviding cooling to its HPE Cray supercomputers and HPE Apollo servers. They also put the cooling of the Dell servers since 2017. CoolIT in the age of AI. At the moment The construction of data centers is at an unstoppable pace and faces various problems. Energy is the most seriousbut refrigeration is not far behind and even has been the subject of controversy due to water consumption. Against this backdrop, CoolIT was in the perfect position to ride the AI ​​wave and currently has a catalog of high-end solutions, such as its distribution solutions (CDU) capable of supplying up to 2,000 kW of liquid cooling capacity for large AI and high-performance computing server farms. The future. At the moment the sale of CoolIT is in an early phase, but KKR would already have several possible buyers. According to the Financial Times, there are around 3,000 data centers under construction in the US alone, which for companies like CoolIT is a very important moment of growth. There have already been other billion-dollar transactions by companies dedicated to refrigeration, such as Boyd Thermal (9.5 billion) either PurgeRite (1 billion). The case of these companies does not remember that AI is not only about OpenAI, Anthropic or Google DeepMind, there is a whole ecosystem of companies making money with this. In Xataka | Jensen Huang has taken a look at the idea of ​​putting data centers in space and has come to one conclusion: let’s not freak out Image | Wikipedia, Microsoft

More than 40 years ago we discovered a mysterious hexagon on Saturn. Today there is only one possible explanation

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If there is a planet within the Solar system as enigmatic as it is striking, it is Saturn. And not just because of their rings, probably caused by a collision of their moons. But it’s not the only thing that baffles the scientific community: if you look at Saturn’s north pole from space, you will discover a perfect geometric shape: a hexagon. 30,000 kilometers in diameter. To get the idea, two planets could fit inside it. Of that mysterious hexagon We know that it is there at least since 1981, when the Voyager 2 probe flew over the planet, leaving testimony of its existence. It is not that nature is not capable of making geometric shapes, but the hexagon is not exactly the most common. The latest and most solid hypothesis that attempts to elucidate what Saturn’s hexagon is to date was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences offering a possible explanation: the internal dynamics of the planet’s atmosphere. The hypothesis. What the research team from Harvard’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences suggests is that the hexagon is not a surface structure, but rather is generated by rotating deep convection inside Saturn. The turbulence of the deep layers of its atmosphere generates vortices that push and bend a high-speed air current that surrounds the north pole, deforming it so much that it acquires its hexagonal shape. The hexagon is not the storm, it is the trace of what happens underneath. Qor why it’s important. Because we have been carrying around the mystery of the hexagon since 1981 and none of the previous theories fit as well as this one, capable of generating the hexagon from basic physics without artifice. Also, it answers a question: how far do Saturn’s winds reach? According to this model, to the bottom. On the other hand, if this explanation is correct, it changes the perception of how we understand the dynamics of giant planets, not just Saturn. Saturn hexagon with images from the Cassini probe. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute context. Before this 2020 theory, there were two clear sides: The forced Rossby wave proposed that the hexagon was an atmospheric wave held in place by an anticyclone, visible south of the pole in Voyager 2 data. When the Cassini probe arrived at Saturn in 2004, there was no trace of that anticyclone. That of the surface jet suggested that the hexagon was a surface wind that, when it becomes unstable, undulates and adopts a polygon shape. The problem was that it needed a starting current. Furthermore, it places the phenomenon in superficial layers, which contradicts the gravitational data of Cassini’s Grand Finale whose gravitational data suggest that Saturn’s winds maintain their intensity up to 100,000 bars of pressure. In both cases, they all reproduced the hexagon if you already gave them a base wind, but none of them generated it from scratch. How have they done it. The methodology is quite abstract, but roughly what they did was simulate a slice of Saturn, spinning it and heating it from below and letting physics act. No winds or hexes in the initial setup. So much the code used in the simulation like the data They are openly available, so anyone can reproduce and verify the results. Yes, but. The hypothesis developed by the Harvard team may be the best so far, but the paper itself recognizes Some objections to take into account. Thus, the simulation polygon is faster than what happens in reality, something that could be solved with a more powerful simulation. The simulation polygon moves faster than what happens in reality, something the authors attribute to the computational power available. Furthermore, the simulation only tests specific conditions and for a relatively short time: no one has yet verified whether the result holds under different parameters or on longer time scales. In Xataka | We have just discovered a true cosmic anomaly: an “invisible” galaxy made up almost 100% of dark matter In Xataka | A new “solar system” has just been discovered. There’s just one problem: it shouldn’t exist. Cover | NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

The liquid tree arrives that does not need soil or space

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In some cities, trees have become a true luxury item: either because there is no space left (or there is no interest in allocating it for this purpose), because the ground is sealed by asphalt or concrete or because pollution prevents their development. This happens in large cities all over the planet, from India to southern Europe. India has released a solution that does not need rain and does not grow: it is a green water tank that does the work of ten trees. A liquid tree. Context. In cities there are two overwhelming realities: They concentrate around 70% of carbon dioxide emissions and almost half of the population lives in them. Some Spanish cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Seville or Murcia deserve special mention, among those with the lowest proportional tree cover on the continent and those with the most deaths due to the heat island effect, according to a study by specialists from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health. published in The Lancet. It is not so much a question of having many trees (Madrid, for example, has them), but of having proportional tree cover and here the Spanish state needs to improve, he says. this study of 744 European cities and the recommendations of the European Commission. Al fresco liquid tree. “Liquid trees” are, in a nutshell, urban photobioreactors. Inside there is a closed system with microalgae in aqueous solution to absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen as if it were a real plant. Up to this point, everything is more or less as if it were a tree, but with the advantage of not needing soil, land to plant it in, or taking root. And that the cleaning function of the liquid tree is equivalent to two 10-year-old trees or 200 square meters of grass, according to the Multidisciplinary Research Institute of the University of Belgrade, to whom they came up with the concept in 2021 following the assignment of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to combat air pollution in the Serbian capital. The first prototype was called LIQUID 3 and was planted in Stari Grad. Why is it important. Because cities are the epicenter of the global emissions problem and if we have already seen that today a good part of the world’s population lives in cities, in 2050 it will be even worse: the UN estimates that the figure will rise to 68%. As explains Dr. Ivan Spasojevicone of the inventors of LIQUID 3, the goal is not to replace forests, but to use this system for urban areas where there is no space to plant trees. Under certain conditions of high pollution, trees suffer to survive, but according to the scientist, algae are not affected. How it works. As you can see in the image on the cover or in the video below, LIQUID 3 is a kind of aquarium with 600 liters of fresh water where there are single-celled microalgae (which we can find in any pond) continuously doing photosynthesis. The contaminated air is introduced in the form of bubbles thanks to the pumping system and a photovoltaic panel provides electricity for both the pump and the nighttime LED lighting. Furthermore, maintenance is minimal: every month and a half you have to remove the biomass generated, which serves as fertilizer (not for the liquid tree, obviously) and replace the water and minerals. They clean more than a lifelong tree. The main reason for this liquid tree compared to a traditional tree is efficiency: while parts such as the trunk, branches or roots do not photosynthesize, everything in the algae is productive. According to the UNDP Serbiathat makes them between 10 and 50 times more efficient than conventional trees. The startup Liquid Trees has quantified the CO₂ removal capacity of its liquid tree at 1.83 kg of CO₂ per kg of biomass produced. From prototype to first street trees. Liquid trees are not something new: as we have already seen, the concept dates back to 2021. However, it has not remained a mere prototype and that’s it. The technology is escalating. In 2024, the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies and the company Lo Carbon Solutions they installed India’s first outdoor liquid tree in Kerala: a 1,000 liter tank equivalent to 10 mature trees. Almost at the same time, the DS business group and the startup Liquid Trees they planted a 1,600 liter unit equivalent to six mature trees. Yes, but. Leaving aside something obvious such as that if the electricity contribution does not come from a renewable source, the real carbon balance is worse than the figures suggest or that it is data provided by interested parties and not externally audited, a scientific review by researchers at the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies published in the International Journal of Plant and Environment lists some limitations of the concept, among them a fairly obvious one: investment in infrastructure and maintenance is not comparable to planting lifelong trees. And that’s without talking about the environmental cost: an architectural design study from the University of Alcalá calculation that a photobioreactor façade takes more than 11 years to compensate for the CO₂ emitted during its own manufacturing. Finally, no city has yet implemented the technology at scale. What exists are prototypes and specific pilots, not deployed urban solutions. In Xataka | The Spanish invention to solve the lack of trees and reduce the heat in squares and parks around the planet. It’s cheap and immediate In Xataka | Madrid thought they had a great idea putting awnings against the heat in Puerta del Sol. It turned out so well Cover | UNDP and Sung Shin

When is it better to use 2.4GHz?

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You connect to the router and see that you can use two networks: 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Thinking that the second one is going to offer better speed, you use it to connect all your devices. Can you do it? Yeah. Is it the best? No. This is a very common error that can lead to problems with the stability of the connection, so today we are going to explain when to choose one network or another. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links How a 2.4GHz network works The 2.4GHz network is the oldest, the one we have had and continue to have for many years. It is slower to transfer a large volume of data, but in exchange waves can reach a greater distance and allows you to pass through objects, walls and furniture. The problem with this network is that it can often become saturated because it is the frequency that is also used by Bluetooth, microwaves and a large part of the routers, especially the older ones. Therefore, if we are in a city and we are surrounded by neighbors and, above all, devices, we may experience a less stable connection. With this we can make something clear: as long as you want to use a device that does not require transferring a lot of data, such as a robot vacuum cleaner, it is advisable to choose this network so that it can move throughout the house without losing the WiFi connection. In other words: Imagine that the 2.4GHs network is like a very long, one-lane secondary road. You go far, but you go slowly and there are potholes (interference). Why do I want to use a 2.4GHz network? For devices that you are not going to use to download anything. The best examples are robot vacuum cleaners, which connect to WiFi to use them with your mobile phone (among other things), and smart plugs or lights, which do not require large data transfers. How a 5GHz network works The interesting thing about the 5GHz network is that it uses a higher frequency to transfer more data in less time than the 2.4GHz network. The good thing is that this network is usually less congested with devices, which favors having a more stable connection. But there is a disadvantage, and that is that 5GHz network waves are shorterwhich means that if you connect the robot vacuum cleaner to this network it is possible that if it goes under the bed it will lose the signal. Keep in mind that the more walls, furniture or objects the waves have to pass through, the less effective the 5GHz network will be. If we explain it in other words: the 5GHz network is a five-lane highway. You go very fast, but it cuts off soon if there is a mountain (wall) in front of you. What do I want to use a 5GHz network for? to download data, especially. It is interesting to use on a computer if you are going to download many files, even more so if they are very large. It is also suitable for playing online with a console or downloading video games, and even for watching a movie on Netflix, especially if it is in 4K. The important thing: know when to use one network or another There are devices that we do not usually move around, such as televisions, consoles or desktop computers, so we will normally prefer that they be connected to the 5GHz network (as long as they are close to the router) so that they can download a lot of data in a short time. We will want many others to be connected to the 2.4GHz network to have greater stability and range in the connection. But there are others who It may be useful for us to have them connected to one network or another depending on the situation.. The best example is found in mobile phones or smartphones: if we are next to the router, we want it to be connected to the 5GHz network so that the speed is much faster. But if we are in the bedroom and we want to surf the Internet or look at social networks, since we are far from the router it is preferable that we use the 2.4GHz network. It is also important that we know what the device we want to connect is like. Some manufacturers use 2.4GHz chips because they are cheaper, offer greater range, and generally consume less power. We normally see this connection in the devices we have already discussed, such as smart plugs. The good and the bad of both options, face to face 2.4ghz network 5ghz network THE GOOD 🟢 The signal will be able to reach a greater distance, passing through doors, objects and furniture more easily, which guarantees better stability in the connection of your robot vacuum cleaner. It is capable of transferring a large volume of data in a short time, making it perfect for watching 4K movies streaming. THE BAD 🔴 The connection is slow, so if you are downloading a large volume of data, it will take much longer. Additionally, sometimes the network can be saturated if there are many devices nearby that are also using it. The more walls, furniture or objects you have to go around or through, the worse the signal will work. Ideal for: Devices that do not require transferring a lot of data, such as robot vacuum cleaners, smart plugs and lights, or smart microwaves and refrigerators. Devices that need to transfer a large volume of data, such as televisions to watch streaming movies, computers or smartphones. We do the math to see which one can compensate you more. Many routers automatically choose the network to connect the devices to, but It may be the case that we have to choose. If on your mobile you only see one WiFi name to connect to, don’t worry, it’s probably because the router … Read more

new homes on old homes

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The accounts don’t work out. New homes are created in Spain much faster from which houses are built, which threatens to aggravate the deficit residential and the housing crisis that the country is dragging. The problem is also that a good part of that demand is focused in points like Madrid, where promoters warn that the gap is getting bigger. The question is, where to build? How to get out of this vicious circle in areas like Madrid, where 98% of developable land is it already built? And above all, how to do it without endless procedures? There are those who believe that the solution is to look up. Literally. The example of the Basque Country. Like many other regions in Spain, Euskadi wants to improve the residential offer in its cities. And like many other regions it faces the dilemma of where the hell to build. In October the Basque Executive presented your solution to that dilemma: building new apartments on existing buildings. To be more precise, his idea is to create 2,000 accommodations in 65 already built properties, blocks with flat roofs to which two set back floors can be added. “without major problems”. Housing yes, but not just any. The Basque initiative has (yes) some important nuances. The idea is not to simply build housing. The 65 buildings that the Executive has in its sights They are publicpart of its rental property park, and the objective is to create “dotational accommodation”. That is, the Basque program has a clear social focus and seeks to increase the housing stock available to vulnerable groups. If Euskadi manages to carry out the initiative, this provision will triple in the region, which right now adds up to 937 accommodations in use and 253 still under construction. Are they just projects? No. Last week the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda made it clear who does not want the plans to build in height to remain just that: simple plans on paper. The Executive already has “six preliminary lifting projects” with which it hopes to win 189 residential apartments, the first of the 2,000 that it hopes to build. If its schedule is met, this year the necessary studies will be processed so that the works begin around 2028 and are completed between 2029 and 2030. “We are not dealing with theoretical exercises, but rather viable and quantifiable proposals,” underlines counselor Denis Itxaso. Going down to detail. The 189 homes They will sit on blocks that are already part of the public park and are spread across five locations. In Miribilla (Bilbao) work will be done on two buildings from 2008 to gain 28 apartments, in Leioa 34 new homes will be enabled on a property from 2019 and in Vitoria-Gasteiz work will be done on two developments to gain 82 new apartments. The regional government’s list is completed by Mutriku and Arrasate (Gipuzkoa). Each one will incorporate around twenty extra accommodations in height. Architecture (and more). To move forward with the initiative, not only has political will been needed. Euskadi has relied on two key legs. The first is the system industrialized constructionbased on prefabricated modules that, as recognized in October the Government, allow “reducing deadlines and costs”. The second is a regulatory change that allows cities to ‘gain height’. Specifically, the counseling remembers the Law 3/2015 of Housing that allows town councils to give the green light to public accommodation “on the edges of residential plots” if certain requirements are met, such as public ownership and social use. Also the Law 6/2025 of Urgent Measures in Urban Planning. “These residential units, being considered residential equipment, do not increase urban buildability and, therefore, can be undertaken without the need to modify the general planning,” claims the Housing Minister, who has announced that the new sections built on top of buildings will be intended mainly for young tenants. Does it only happen in the Basque Country? No. Expanding the height of buildings to gain housing is not an idea exclusive to Euskadi. In Spain it has been proposed (with greater or lesser fortune) in other parts, such as Barcelona, ​​where permits have already been granted to increase the buildability of residential blocks. In 2017 The Country informed that in three years the Catalan City Council had given the green light to build up to 120 homes in “remontas” of around thirty buildings. Another city that has worked along the same lines It’s Palma. Injecting housing. Other interesting case It is the one from Valencia. A year ago the PSOE proposed in the City Council’s Urban Planning Commission to retouch the PGOU so that the buildings could gain height and reinforce the local residential offer. The idea did not achieve the necessary support, but it still yielded interesting ideas. According to its authors, if just one extra floor were added to the city’s buildings, more than 86,600 homes. If historic and protected properties are discarded, the figure drops slightly, but it would still exceed 72,200 apartments. One word: “Optoppen”. Nor is Spain the only one that looks to the sky looking for space with which to reinforce the residential offer, especially in places where developable land is beginning to become a scarce commodity. In Holland an ABN AMOR study assures that the construction of apartments on rooftops will make it possible to gain 100,000 homes facing 2030, which does not mean that the formula is still being used in a discreet way. To be more precise is talked about optoppenwhich consists of expanding buildings vertically prioritizing sustainable materials. Among other advantages, it allows you to gain housing in already urbanized space without demolitions or major works. Are they all advantages? No. Building vertically implies having more population concentrated in the same space. And that entails certain problems, as Madrid is seeing, which has found that the “urban intensification” who proposes his Municipal Strategic Plan to increase the supply of housing has aroused the suspicion of residents of areas such as Tetuán, San … Read more

is building a 2,100 MW mega hydroelectric plant in Tibet

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China has put the turbo into the energy transition towards renewables and for example, a button: only in 2025 will it install more wind electric capacity that the United States throughout its history. That same milestone but with solar panels He achieved it in 2023. But renewable energies have their problems and one of their critical points is storage: what to do with that surplus on a sunny and/or windy day? The answer normally (if there is no storage system) it’s wasting it. But China is also a specialist in mega-constructions, due to its colossal size, its blazing speed of construction or even for setting up facilities in places as inhospitable as a solar park on the tibetan plateau. If we combine these two ingredients we have the next great Chinese recipe: a mega hydroelectric plant in the middle of the Tibetan plateau. The project. Two years ago, the state-owned Yalong River Hydropower Development Company laid the foundation stone for the future Daofu hydropower plant, in the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in Sichuan (southwest China). This plant will have a total installed capacity of 2,100 MW and its infrastructure will consist of two reservoirs, a forced conduction system, an underground plant excavated in the rock and a surface substation. When operational, it will be the highest-altitude pumped hydroelectric power station in the world, surpassing by 700 meters the record-holder, the Yamzho Yumco Lake Pumped Hydroelectric Power Plant in the Xizang Autonomous Region. how to explain Xinhua, China’s official news agency. Why is it important. Fundamentally, because it solves the main bottleneck of renewables. Daofu is integrated into the Yalong River clean energy ecosystem, with a current operational capacity of 21,000 MW between hydro, solar and wind and with plans to reach 78,000 MW in 2035. Without mass storage, a significant part of that energy would be wasted or destabilize the network. On the other hand, it shows that it can be built in extreme conditions and its technical advances will serve to accelerate projects with similar characteristics. Finally, and hand in hand with the global energy transition, China takes a giant step in the global race for storage: it closed 2024 with 58 GW of installed pumping capacity, as the absolute world leader, and plans to overcome 120GW in 2030. Context. The production of renewable energy is becoming increasingly more affordable and simpler thanks to the democratization and evolution of technologies, but the Gordian knot continues to be storage: not wasting energy when more than necessary is produced and, conversely, how to cover demand peaks when there is no wind or sun. Storage is essential for a real energy transition and few countries are interested in it going well like China, which is the largest consumer of energy of the planet and world leader in renewable electricity production. Batteries are a growing solution, but pumped hydroelectric storage remains the technology with the highest cumulative installed capacity in the world and the most convenient to store large volumes of energy for hours. In figures. We have already glimpsed some of the overwhelming data of this mega-construction, but it leaves our jaws open: 2,100 MW of installed power, distributed among six reversible turbine-generators of 350 MW each. A quick comparison: Daofu represents almost 7% of all the wind power installed in the Spanish statebut concentrated in a single installation. 12.6 GWh of daily storage, which according to Xinhua meets the needs of two million households in Sichuan. 3 TWh of electricity generation per year, combining charge and discharge cycles. Between the upper and lower reservoir there is a difference in level of 760.7 meters, according to the construction company PowerChina Chengdu Engineering Corporation. The project investment is 15.1 billion yuan (at current exchange rates, about 1.84 billion euros). What is it like to build at 4,300 meters. At that altitude, the air available to breathe can cause hypoxia (less oxygen available) and temperatures plummet beyond freezing, a challenge for both working personnel and machinery. On the other hand, building in such remote areas represents a logistical challenge in terms of a lack of infrastructure, something to take into account when moving heavy material such as steel or concrete. Or to manufacture it there. As Yu Chuntao, project director of the PowerChina project, explains, to Global Times“The design, construction and manufacturing of electrical equipment for the Daofu project is highly exploratory and challenging” and that the advances made there “will greatly boost the design and manufacturing of pumping station equipment in China.” In Xataka | China needed space to power millions of homes, so it installed 2,934 huge solar panels in the open sea In Xataka | Germany has had a crazy idea to solve one of the problems of renewables: covering a lake with solar panels Cover | CGTN

In 1955, someone secretly stole Einstein’s brain and stored it in mayonnaise jars. That was just the beginning

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Seven hours after Albert Einstein’s death, Thomas Harvey was preparing to perform an autopsy on the body at the Priceton Hospital morgue. It was April 18, 1955 and Otto Nathan, friend and executor of the famous physicist, was present: old Albert had become in the “greatest rock star of the 20th century”but he wanted the cult of his person to end there. The pathologist would perform the autopsy, the family would collect the body and secretly cremate it before scattering its ashes in the Delaware River. And so it was. Or, well, that’s what the family believed. Not in my lair. Because inadvertently, without prior documented permission and as quickly as he could, Thomas Harvey removed Einstein’s brain and kept it (in a jar full of formaldehyde). At first he kept it a secret, but no one steals the brain of the great genius of the 20th century to keep it a secret. The news, in a matter of hours, spread like wildfire. And, in fact, on the 20th the New York Times posted that something was happening with the brain. The family panicked, but shortly before publication (and following a fait accompli policy) Harvey managed to convince Hans Albert Einstein, the eldest son, to give him retrospective permission. I imagine Hans didn’t have much room for maneuver: Harvey had the brain in his possession. It was ‘give him permission’ or, perhaps, lose him forever. Einstein’s son set conditions, of course: the main one is that the organ be used for scientific purposes. It wasn’t going to be possible either. Especially because Harvey ‘fell in love’ with the brain and, despite Princeton Hospital’s efforts to have him deposit it, the pathologist repeatedly refused. To the point where, at the end of the year, he is fired. That’s when he took the brain to the University of Pennsylvania and, in a friend’s lab, divided it into about 240 pieces and created 12 sets of slides. Fired and sidelined, Harvey sent 42 of the samples to different forensic experts and neurologists for investigation. That was their plan to return through the front door: the majority did not respond and those who did did not find anything notable. So things really started to go wrong. As a result of his stubbornness, his marriage breaks down. At some point in the 1960s, divorce forces him to take the glass jars containing his brain out of the basement and go to the Midwest. And, deep down, he was lucky. On the one hand, none of the affected institutions wanted to speak publicly about this so as not to compromise their prestige. On the other hand, the courts were not as involved in American life, nor did information flow with the same ease. So found a job in Wichita and he kept the brain in the same refrigerator where he had the beer. Until someone finds it. That someone is Steven Levy, a journalist for New Jersey Monthly. In August 1978, Levy told your brain search of the physical. When she found him in Kansas, Harvey didn’t want to talk, but he quickly loosened his tongue. And, of course, it was a scandal. Throughout the 1980s, he sent samples to some researchers (a Marian Diamond, Berkeley neuroanatomistsent him four samples in a mayonnaise jar), but his ambition was to study it himself in his free time. Things get complicated. Because at the end of the 80s, Harvey lost his license and moved to Lawrence, Kansas, to work in a plastic extrusion factory. He spends his nights getting drunk with William S. Burroughs and welcoming those who come to see him. Convinced by journalists, he did a lot of strange things: from cutting pieces on a cheese board to taking, now in his eighties, a trip to California to talk to Einstein’s granddaughter. Finally, between 1998 and 2007 (when Harvey died), was donating parts from the brain to Princeton Hospital. However, that is the most interesting thing we have been able to get out of this organ of contention: its delirious history is more interesting than what scientists have been able to get out of it. Something that reminds us of a phrase normally attributed to Richard Feynman: “it’s worth having an open mind, but not so much that your brain falls out” (or has it stolen). Image | Taton Moise In Xataka | Einstein’s first violin had passed unnoticed. Until an auction house put it up for sale.

Years ago the series had more scenes. The platforms are cutting them without warning

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The seasons of the series streaming They are increasingly shorter, and not always by creative decision. Behind the cuts are skyrocketing production costs, subscriber retention strategies and, sometimes, decisions made from the accounting department and not from the writers’ table. The phenomenon is so broad that it also affects altered versions of classic series, eliminating scenes and changing soundtracks without warning. This episode is not how I remembered. You are reviewing a series that you already know and something goes wrong: a scene that you remembered clearly does not appear. Or the opening credits song sounds different. Or the final episode ends earlier than it should. It is not always a failure of your memory. Often, the version you see in front of you is not the same as the one you saw back in the day. This phenomenon has gained visibility in recent months thanks to users who document on social networks the differences between versions, and its scope is greater than it seems. The platforms of streaming They offer, in many cases and without realizing it, degraded or cut versions of series and movies. The reasons behind these decisions are multiple. Sustained contraction. Before entering into the phenomenon of cuts without notice, it is worth remembering some facts. According to the firm Parrot Analyticsthe average number of episodes per season on free-to-air television fell from 16.2 in 2018 to 11.8 in July 2024. On streaming platforms streamingwhich already started from shorter seasons, have also contracted: from 10.7 episodes on average in 2018 to 9.3 in the same period. Some studies talk that production companies and platforms are increasingly stingy when it comes to renewing or ordering series: they simply ask for fewer episodes. One last piece of information about this reduction: in 2025, the number of original series streaming fell by 11% year-on-year. Beyond those series that suffer, against the will of their creators, cuts in the number of their episodes (as it happened at the time with ‘The House of the Dragon’), there are cuts from series already broadcast. For example, the final episode of ‘Friday Night Lights’, which is now on Filmin (in its shortened version) had a duration of more than 60 minutes. When it moved to NBC for free-to-air broadcast, it was cut to less than 45 minutes to fit with advertising. Complete scenes are missing from this mutilated version. Here we can see a similar case with an episode of ‘The Bill Cosby Hour’ streaming. Music, another point of friction. The licensing rights for musical themes do not always extend to all platforms or expire after a period of time, which requires replacing original songs with others. When ‘The Wonder Years’ arrived on Netflix in 2011 after years of being blocked by rights issues, numerous songs had been replaced, including Joe Cocker’s iconic version of ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’ that opened each episode. In ‘Dawson Grows’, Paula Cole’s original tune was replaced in streaming by a Jann Arden song; The fan outcry was so intense that Cole ended up re-recording his own song. It is a common problem, which has meant that legendary series like ‘Luz de Luna’ or ‘Búscate la vida’ have spent years without being able to be seen, not even in domestic formats (in the case of Chris Peterson’s legendary series, we are still waiting). The war of the formats. We’ve already talked about itbut it is not bad to remember that the image format has been manipulated on countless occasions to adapt it to widescreen televisions. The case of ‘The Simpsons’ is perhaps the most popularsince many jokes with the original square format of the first seasons were lost. Also The case of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ is popular‘, which in its panoramic format and retouched colors makes the illusion of night scenes from the original series disappear and allows the filming crew and sets to be seen. A disaster that can only be solved by going to the first editions on DVD before their “remastering”. What to do to solve it. One more time: do not completely rule out the physical format. Until now we were certain (video game fans have been suffering from this for years) that fluctuations in catalogs, even of material that you have purchased and that is theoretically yours, can play tricks on you. We are now convinced that the fact that a film is in a catalog today streaming It does not assure us that it will be within a year: reasons as spurious as saving fees or storage space for platform owners can lead to the elimination of thousands of movies and series. The only way to preserve a movie or series without anyone modifying it, to make sure that no one is going to cut it because they think you are not prepared to pay enough attention to it, is to have your own copy. In physical or digital form, but in a safe place. Until recently, keeping our DVDs, our CDs with games, our cartridges and our vinyl, our records with backup copies was something for nostalgic and paranoid people. Now it is a matter of preserving what the platforms continue to mutilate. In Xataka | Generation Z has found the remedy to streaming subscription fatigue: buying DVDs again

If the controversy is that AI steals works in its training, the European Union has the solution: license them

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A few weeks ago the Washington Post published this image of the “Panama Project”: It is a warehouse with hundreds of thousands of books waiting their turn to be scanned and destroyed in the process. It is part of an internal program Anthropic to train its AI and the result of tens of millions of dollars in purchases to digitize all those works without permission from their authors. They are not the only ones who “they borrow” copyrighted content to train their artificial intelligences and the European Union is clear about something: stop stealing protected content and properly license works to train AI. And AI companies defend themselves by saying that no one is going to think about small companies. Europe is clear: if you want to train AI, pay the author It is curious how the entertainment industry and the regulation of countries shook hands at the beginning of the 2000s with those ads of “you wouldn’t steal a purse. You wouldn’t steal a car. Don’t steal a movie.” They portrayed copying a CD or downloading a movie as if you were breaking into the Pentagon’s systems. Years later, that same industry turns a deaf ear given what big technology companies are doing to train AI. The Washington Post document states that others such as Meta, Google and OpenAI They had also participated in the race to obtain data in bulk for your models. There are kicking examples, like the 81.7 TB of copyrighted books that you have downloaded Meta or that OpenAI will use animation from all the studios to train its AI (earning reproaches by Ghigli and more Japanese studies and complaining that Deepseek has looted ChatGPT). Given the context, it is time to say that the European Parliament has grown tired of this and has one of the things he is best at: legislating. In this case, it makes perfect sense for Europe to take this measure, and the agency issued a report non-binding law that urges the European Commission to develop rules that set minimum standards for these AI companies. “Generative AI should not operate outside the rule of law” Basically, if they use protected content for their training, they must license it and also compensate the authors. with the title “Protecting creative work with copyright in the age of AI”the European Parliament demands a series of measures apart from licensing the works. They are the following: Calls for the transparent and remunerated use of protected content to train generative AI. AI vendors are expected to recognize and pay for the copyrighted work they used to train their systems. Measures so that owners of works with rights can exclude their protected work from training. The reason that they argue MEPs is that “generative AI should not operate outside the rule of law. If copyrighted works are used to train artificial intelligence systems, creators have the right to transparency, legal certainty and fair compensation.” The European Group of Societies of Authors and Composers, or GESAC, points in the same direction. In statements to EuronewsAdriana Moscoso del Prado, general manager of GESAC; assures that “this vote adds to the growing recognition at the EU level of what is at stake. Innovation, equity and cultural sovereignty must go hand in hand.” AI companies fight back From the CCIA, the Computer and Communications Industry Association, it was noted that this is not a measure to protect artists, but rather “a compliance tax.” That is, something that must be fulfilled no matter what and that goes against progress. The group argued that such a measure would not go against large companies, but against small ones. They say that many will have difficulty negotiating complex licensing agreements with major publishers, “holding back Europe’s digital competitiveness on the global stage” and stating that what they would need to do is improve existing laws in the European Union, including the AI ​​Law and the Copyright Directive. In any case, there is nothing on the table at the moment. As we say, it is a self-initiative report by Parliament and is not binding. The Commission can now consider whether to do so or not, but it makes one thing clear: Parliament’s position on any future AI measures by the Commission. The problem is that generative AI has already plundered millions of copyrighted works on which it can build its next interactions. The software has tons of information to pivot on and can evolve in other areas, like stopping hallucinating, for example. And it is another example of the two speeds of this matter: the technological ones taking the first steps and the legislators behind them seeing what can be done when the act they want to legislate on was already carried out years ago. Images | Washington Post, Anti-Piracy Campaign (edited) In Xataka | The AI ​​industry is only sustainable by violating copyright laws. So he’s trying to eradicate them

review with features, price and specifications

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I hate cleaning windows, so when I had the opportunity to try a window cleaning robot I didn’t think about it for a second. The Dreame C1 promises to leave your windows spotless, everything controlled from its app. Let’s see how he did. Dreame C1 technical sheet DREAM C1 dimensions 27 x 27 8.5cm WEIGHT 1.6kg cleaning surface Maximum: 2.5 x 4 meters Minimum: 30 x 40 cm SUCTION POWER 5500Pa noise level 63 dBA other details safety cord Five cleaning modes Control via app Cleaning solution tank price 399 euros DREAME C1 Robot Window Cleaner, 5500 Pa Suction Power, Reliable Safety Protection, CornerClean Technology, Thorough Wet Cleaning, Comprehensive Path Planning The price could vary. We earn commission from these links An elegant design I have never used a robot window cleaner, but I have seen photos of a few and without a doubt the Dreame one is the most elegant of everyone. It has a cream-colored design, with a glossy finish on the top and a leather-effect handle so you can hold it safely when placing it on the glass. The robot is completely square and has a weight of 1.6kg, quite reasonable for its size and the type of product it is. Next to the handle is the power button and next to it is the cap through which the cleaning solution is filled. The most cumbersome thing are the cables since they are very long (necessary) and also have two transformers, one of them quite large. It is easy to connect, the cumbersome part comes when it comes to storing it, especially if you try to put it back in its box. Setup and application The start-up of the robot has no secret. Regarding the robot itself, we only have to fill the cleaning solution and place the cloth on the bottom, which is attached with Velcro. Then, as is usual in devices of this type, it is necessary to download an app to control it from the mobile phone and we must also connect it to a WiFi network. The app is also quite simple and allows us to choose the cleaning mode, if we want it to do one or more passes and also choose between deep or quick cleaning. In the case of deep cleaning, the route that follows makes the passes closer together, so that they overlap each time. With fast mode it covers the entire glass, but makes more spaced passes. The cleaning modes are as follows: Complete: to clean entire windows. Borders– The robot focuses on cleaning the perimeter of the window. Area: allows us to manually select the cleaning area. Remote mode: allows us to control it with a crosshead. Cleaning a window The first thing is to turn on the robot from the physical button so that the fans that make it “stick” to the glass turn on. The suction is powerful and it immediately sticks to the surface, the problem is that it is quite noisy. It is understandable, but the worst thing is that the robot gives voice instructions at the same time as it cleans and the noise of the fans often makes it impossible to understand anything. It has two straps that help it move across the surface, four brushes in the corners and the cleaning cloth that covers the entire perimeter. But let’s get to what’s interesting, which is how he leaves the crystals. Just because I don’t like cleaning windows doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate when they’re spotless. I would like to say that the Dreame C1 makes them perfect, but the reality is very different. After taking several passes at the window seen in the photos, both inside and out, you could see quite a few marks that he had left when passing, especially in the corners where the cloth does not reach. One of the problems I see with the Dreame C1 is that it barely uses cleaning solution. Before starting it, I thought it would spray the cleaning solution from the bottom, but it does so through nozzles on the front and the amount that comes out each time is just a few droplets. In the video you can see the problem: it sprays the product when it reaches the middle of the glass, so the cloth has little travel to spread it. In this way, marks are left from the liquid that has not been able to spread near the edges. I also tested it in an apartment in the city and I was more satisfied here. I used it in two large windows with sliding windows that face the street (I don’t include photos so as not to dox me myself) and they get quite dirty. In order to clean them on the outside I have to take them down and they are quite heavy, so it is not very convenient to say the least. Although they weren’t perfect either, the result was much better than they were and the best thing: I I avoided having to disassemble them. As for cleaning time, in all tests I used it with the deep cleaning mode and it was pretty fast. The large window, the one in the photos, measures 180 x 77 cm and cleaned each side in about 4 or 5 minutes. For the sliding windows (90 x 85 cm) it took even less. Another point to keep in mind is that I dreamed only recommends using your own cleaning solution. In the box comes a 230ml bottle and is then sold in 1 liter bottles that cost 24.90 euros. The tank is 80 ml and according to Dreame it lasts for 60 minutes of cleaning, so it should last a long time. Dreame C1, Xataka’s opinion I really wanted to try a window cleaning robot and I admit that I had high expectations, perhaps that’s why my feeling is a little bittersweet. The Dreame C1 It has half reconciled me with cleaning the windows; It doesn’t … Read more

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