They are the tree of golden eggs

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A question: What unites Venus, Steve Jobs’ 78-meter-long superyacht, and a remote forestry farm in León? There were many ways to start this article, but I couldn’t resist doing it because of the most unexpected fact: what unites those two things is the poplar. The story is known: before he died, Jobs designed a spectacular boat that he couldn’t have ready before he died. Well, the wood for the kitchen of that luxurious floating mansion came from León. And this, although it does not explain why Spain is being filled with poplars, does give an idea of ​​why. The poplar boom. In Europe the hectares of poplar have grown at 2% annually during the last few years. But Spain is not Europe as far as poplar fields are concerned. With its epicenter in the province of León, the country has some 81,000 hectares of poplar dedicated to production. And it has been that way for a long time. That is, there have been no substantial changes in the cultivated land. However, genetic improvement and more efficient cultivation practices have done that production does not stop growing. In fact, France and Italy have publicly recognized that “they are being left behind” In that sense, the poplar seemed a calm, safe and powerful sector. But things have changed… for the better. The high industrial demand for its wood (and the environmental benefits associated with its cultivation) have revived interest in this tree. Like Flor Álvarez Taboada, the greatest Spanish expert in the sector, explained in the Voice of Galicia“poplar is paid twice as much as pine and three times more than eucalyptus.” That sums it up. And what is the problem? It is not the profitability of the farms (which, as we see, is skyrocketing), but the capacity of the Spanish forest to produce wood on the scale that the industry needs. Alvarez made it clear that “a plantation where there are only about fifty poplar trees is not viable for companies that work with this wood”, that plantations of “at least two or three hectares in area” are needed. The country needs to “create homeowner associations that coordinate and plant poplar trees simultaneously on their land.” That is to say, it is not just a job for ‘lone wolves’; If we want Spain to take advantage of the populculture boom, a structured effort is needed that integrates the industry, administrations and farmers. Some areas, such as the Granada plain, there are european projects coordinated by the University to recover the traditional poplar groves and convert them into a source of quality structural lumber. It is a key step for an industry (construction) that is rediscovering wood at a forced pace. Against the eucalyptus. This is perhaps its greatest asset. We have been listening for years speak ill of eucalyptus. It is usually unjustified fame, but it opens up a whole world of possibilities. And the poplar is one of them. Because due to its rapid growth, the high profitability of its quality wood, its adaptability to riverine terrain and its important environmental (and social) value, it is an excellent forestry alternative. So the question is twofold: will Spain manage to enter the table of the majors in the timber industry? Are we prepared to see the landscape change — again –? Image | Garnica In Xataka | Converting Portugal to eucalyptus monoculture was a disaster. And the latest fires only remind us of this.

hides a curse in ancient Greek

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In the cities of ancient Greece and Rome and outside the official laws of the state, there existed a dark world of secrets and superstitions. Thus, when someone felt that justice was not on their side or had a pending dispute, they would wait until the dark night to hide small sheets of metal in cemeteries or sacred wells, imploring the help of the gods of the underworld to resolve their earthly disputes. It is precisely in that framework of dark beliefs where one finds the latest discovery deciphered by a research team at the University of Heidelberg: a lead tablet written in Greek that treasures the hatred and fear of someone specific. The discovery. The tablet in question is made of lead, has writings in ancient Greek and was found in Heerlen (Netherlands), in what was formerly an ancient Roman military settlement in the province of Germania Inferior called Coriovallum. The device was in a pit under the town hall square. When the Institute of Papyrology at the University of Heidelberg analyzed its inscription, it found something exceptional: the tablet dated to the 2nd century AD does not have Latin texts, as would be expected given the time and location, but rather an ancient Greek text in the Egyptian style. The lead tablet measures 9.3 by 4.8 centimeters and contains a group of three magical symbols, known as “characters.” According to Dr. Rodney Astdirector of the Institute of Papyrology, were used to transmit the message to supernatural powers. Then, the names of four people appear: two men with Latin names and two women with Greek names, who have been identified as slaves. According to Ast, the tablet served either as a curse against those four slaves or as a curse issued in the name of the quartet against an unidentified person. Why is it important. The most striking thing about the device is that most of the curse tablets found in northern Europe are written in Latin, so this is rare. As explains Professor Dr. Joachim Quackdirector of the Institute of Egyptology at the University of Heidelberg, “in the first centuries of our era, Near Eastern, Egyptian, Jewish and even, at times, Christian traditions merged and spread increasingly throughout the Roman Empire of the time”, that it was in Greek further broadens the spectrum in a kind of ancient cultural globalization. Context. The curse tablets they knew each other as defixiones in Latin or katadesmoi in Greek and were made of lead for a reason: it is a heavy metal, cold to the touch and easy to work with. Once completed, they were buried to “bind” or influence the person targeted by the spell. These types of artifacts existed for about a thousand years, from 500 BC to 500 AD, and have been found in Athens, Rome, Syria and even in England. In detail. Registration also suggests that the author of the tablet could have been one of two women with a Greek name, possibly originally from Roman Egypt, who would have brought with her the knowledge of this form of communication with divine powers. If true, it is direct evidence of mobility of enslaved people with knowledge of rituals throughout the Empire. Yes, but. At the moment all we have are the statements of the archeology team that discovered it and their first analyses, but a more exhaustive analysis is still needed. In short, it’s just a start. On the other hand, there are questions that will hardly be answered, such as who exactly cursed whom or if the author is truly of Egyptian origin. In Xataka | DNA from 64 bones under an underground chamber clarifies who the Mayans sacrificed: children and adolescents In Xataka | Brains boiling until their skulls explode: the deadly horror caused by Vesuvius Cover | Heidelberg University and Gemini

In 2016 Colombia signed a historic peace agreement. Then the area dedicated to cocaine cultivation skyrocketed

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In Colombia the 11-24-2016 It is one of those dates that sneak into history books and that schoolchildren study for generations. Or at least that’s what was expected a decade agowhen (after years of negotiations and a complicated procedure with steps forward and back) the Government and the FARC signed a Peace Agreement which was intended to mark a turning point in the country’s history of drug trafficking and violence. The reality today is that the Colombian coca map may be different from that of 2016, but it has not retreated. Quite the opposite. Taking stock. The second round of the Colombian teams will coincide almost with the tenth anniversary of the agreement signed in 2016 by the FARC-EP and the Government, then headed by Juan Manuel Santos. With that backdrop, this week the British newspaper Financial Times public an extensive analysis in which he examines how the cocaine business, drug trafficking and violence in the country have changed over the last decade. And the result is not exactly good. If it had to be summarized, it could be done like this: more hectares of cultivation, greater yield, more business and less ideology. Change of actors. One of the key ideas that leave bouncing FT is that, far from ending drug trafficking and coca cultivation, the 2016 agreement has only served to change its protagonists. The place that the far-left insurgent organization once occupied FARC It is now distributed to armed groups more motivated by the search for profit. From discourse based on politics we move on to business. Not only that. The logistics chain has become fragmented and specialized, although in the new map they would stand out above all three great actors. One is the National Liberation Army (ELN), left-wing guerrilla organization that expands its influence to Venezuela. Another group is made up of former members of the FARC who are dissatisfied with the 2016 pact and who now act as dissidents. The third protagonist is Gaitanista Armyalso known by its acronym (EGC) or as Clan del Golfo, formed by right-wing paramilitaries. For the director of the Ideas for Peace Foundation (FIP), María Victoria Llorente, the latter is “the largest criminal organization in Colombia.” What exactly happened? That the State has not achieved occupy the place left by the FARC, which has translated into a huge opportunity for other organizations interested in drug trafficking. Toby Muse, reporter and author of ‘Kilo’, summed it up not long ago in an interview with ABC: “The FARC had control of many of the places where coca was planted. When they lowered their weapons they clearly told the Government: ‘Now this territory is yours. A minimum of law must be introduced and the peasants must be protected. That is the peace process. This territory is now yours’. The Government was unable to take control. Other groups did so and it generated a new cycle of violence.” Click on the image to go to the tweet. The figure: 253,000 hectares. Geoff Dyer and Joe Daniels, the reporters who sign the report of FT, have not limited themselves to collecting testimonies from experts and locals. In their chronicle they also slip some figures that help understand how the coca map in Colombia has changed since 2016. Of all, perhaps the most resounding are the UN estimates on the cultivated area: between 2018 and 2023 there would be increased by around 50% until reaching 253,000 hectares. This growth has also been accompanied by another just as solid in the production of pure cocaine hydrochloride. A questionable balance. Just a few days ago, President Gustavo Petro assured that the Executive expects that the area with coca crops this year will be around 253,358 hectares, which, he insisted, represents a reduction compared to 2025. In any case, it is still higher than what was expected. the UN calculated in 2022 and questions the success of the policies promoted a decade ago by the Executive to encourage farmers to abandon coca plantations. In 2017, for example, the Transnational Institute (TNI) informed of how a “crop substitution plan” to, through economic incentives, eliminate 50,000 hectares of coca in just one year. Only part of the ‘photo’. It is not just that the cultivated area has increased. In its 2024 report, the UN also points out a noticeable increase in the yield of cultivated hectares, a phenomenon that coincides with the decision of the Government of dispense with of aerial fumigation with glyphosate as a tool to eradicate coca plantations. The decision was made a decade ago due to its impact on the environment and the health of the population, but the Petro Government has had no choice but to reverse and recover fumigations with the help of drones. More sophisticated. In general the analysis of Financial Times points out that new generations have ‘professionalized’ coca production in Colombia, betting on new varieties of crops, more efficient agricultural practices and more sophisticated processing. Even the laboratories have been improved. The British media reports that, taking advantage of their control of the territory, some groups have even gotten into other businesses, such as illegal gold mining. Beyond Colombia. That coca production increases by Colombian forests It has effects beyond the country or even South America. In your ‘World Drug Report 2025’the United Nations recalled that in 2023 the production, seizures and consumption of white powder had reached “new highs”, confirming itself as “the fastest growing illicit drug.” According to their calculations, production shot up almost 34% between 2022 and 2023 and consumption went from 17 million users in 2013 to nearly 25 million in 2023. hunted caches before reaching its destination, but so does production, something that has even been felt in the quote of the bales. The reflection in Europe. In the global chain they are on one side the big producers (Colombia, Peru and Bolivia) and on the other the main consumer markets. In the latter, important changes can also be seen, something that it is clear in … Read more

3,000 years ago there were no notaries, so in Sweden agreements and marriages were closed with footprints carved in rock

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In Atapuerca there are animals, in Irulegi there is a hand and in Lake Mälaren, in central-eastern Sweden, there are feet. Thousands of footprints carved into rock that are between 2,500 and 3,700 years old. To date, archeology thought that they were a sample of symbolic or religious art, but a recent study proposes something much more practical and not at all ornamental: they were contracts engraved in stone. Take off your shoes and sign here. Fredrik Fahlander, an archaeologist at Stockholm University, has examined hundreds of footprints carved into rock surfaces along the southern coasts of the Scandinavian peninsula and has found that these petroglyphs are not placed at random nor do they belong to the same person, like when you mess around with fresh cement. So that it lasts, exactly like the contracts. In fact, that is their hypothesis: when two people wanted to seal an agreement, a friendship or a marriage, they engraved their footprints together on the rock. Faced with the oral promise, the stone made it permanent. Map of southern Scandinavia where carved footprints have been found. Fredrik Fahlander Why is it important. Because they offer a different vision than what we know about how prehistoric societies worked. Historically we have assumed that formal pacts were typical of cultures with writing, but this study shows that peoples without writing could also formalize commitments using the physical landscape as support. On the other hand, as important as knowing what those footprints mean is knowing what they were not: in the Scandinavian Bronze Age, the sacred and the symbolic was engraved in bronze and deposited in tombs and the foot prints are not in either of those two places. They appear only and exclusively on rock exposed to water. It is no coincidence: it reveals that these traces did not belong to the world of the dead or to that of symbology, but to that of the living and their agreements. Context. The Nordic Bronze Age lasted from approximately 1700 to 500 BC. During that period, Scandinavian people left tens of thousands of rock carvings with various common motifs, such as ships, animals, human figures or circles. The category of footprints is rare within this set: they are very careful, carved to life size and with so much detail that they even show the straps of the sandals. The main site studied is the Mälaren region, which during the Bronze Age was a bay of the Baltic Sea. The uplift of the land after the last ice age has made it possible to chronologically date the engravings: those located at higher altitudes are older. In detail. In the Mälaren region, 627 carved footprints have been documented in 140 sites, although it is not an isolated phenomenon: they are present throughout the province of Småland and on the Bjäre peninsula. They are deliberately arranged around water sources and shallow depressions where rainwater collected and flowed, as well as near natural crevices and mineral areas. In addition, there are certain patterns: most sites have a single footprint or an odd number. When there are two, they are almost always different in size and shape, suggesting that they belong to different people. In some cases, the second print was added some time after the first. Fahlander interprets this as an accepted invitation: the first print proposes the link, the second confirms it. If both were recorded at the same time, the commitment was sealed simultaneously by both parties. Yes, but. The study hypothesis is coherent and well-supported, but it remains a hypothesis. In fact, as Fahlander himself explains, these footprints probably had more than one meaning or purpose. However, there are no written sources from the time that confirm it simply because they do not exist. In Xataka | When they opened a remote tomb in Poland, archaeologists discovered something strange: two women embracing In Xataka | Archaeologists have found a puzzle in a Neolithic tomb: where the hell are the heads of its 77 skeletons? Cover | Fahlander, F. (2026). “A Step in Stone. Ontologies of Podomorphic Petroglyphs in Southern Scandinavian Bronze Age”

“All pollution can be sent into space to return to the state before the Industrial Revolution”

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Taking data centers to space. Although Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, it seems that the idea does not convince him too muchsome of the largest companies in the world have embarked on the race to fill low orbit with satellites. AWS with Blue Origin is there, Google is thereElon Musk says that he already has them with a simple Starlink update and even Nvidia, Eric Schmidt and Sam Altman They have an interest in the matter. The advantages of take these data centers to space They seem clear: without water consumption because they are cooled by the cold of space, without energy consumption because they are powered by inexhaustible solar energy and without taking up space. The astronomers They are not particularly enthusiasticbut it seems that the industry is moving in that direction and one of the most enthusiastic, Jeff Bezos, has left a curious message. By taking data centers into space, “we can make parks like Paris everywhere on Earth.” Playing this card is a dangerous thing. Improve the Earth by taking factories to space We have already discussed the objective: to have space computing power to support terrestrial computing thanks to a power that can scale by carrying more and more satellites that do not require investing in dissipation and power systems. With energy being a problem in some countries due to what these data centers consume, makes sense in the roadmap of these large companies. But Bezos, who has spoken at length about why they want to go to the Moon, why they want to turn the satellite into a gas station and how they plan to achieve the goal, has not been so specific when talking about constellations in low orbit or computing beyond the clouds. It has focused on two things: remembering why they are investing so much and launching a romantic message that clashes with what these data centers are causing on Earth. “We have to build the infrastructure for a constantly changing scenario,” says Bezos. “The price of the space race is very high and if you look back, before the Internet, there were very few actors. Two boys in a workshop could make a huge company. “We’re at that point in the space economy.” “We can make parks like Paris everywhere on Earth” The objective is to collect resources and materials on the Moon because, as he has admitted, “The Moon is a gift”but he has also commented that “many of the resources we need are in space.” And it does not refer so much to the regolith as to the aforementioned dissipation and infinite solar energy. “We are focusing a lot on that to exploit the space economy. It is infinite and it will happen,” he says. Now, he points out that they don’t know when it will happen because orbital computing will be a big step, but he did leave some… curious phrases. “Everything is better than 500 years ago, but we have more pollution on Earth than 500 years ago. If we send all that away, if we can send all the pollution from factories on Earth away from Earth, we can return to the state before the Industrial Revolution.” At this point, someone would ask, precisely, who are the ones that are generating the most pollution with the energy needs of their data centers and the need to return to coal In order to satisfy the demand, the private jet travel, what rockets pollute space, one’s own low orbit pollution with as many satellites or actions as promoting a fast consumer society that wastes so many resources. But, beyond that, it is not easy to send “all the pollution from Earth’s factories to space.” There are industries that are simply impossible to send to low orbit because, beyond the obvious logistical limitations, we are talking about a first-come, first-served space. And America is moving, but also ChinaIndia, Russia and Europe. The message that there are parks like in Paris anywhere in the world is powerful, of course, but start watering those parks in some countries. In Xataka | Data centers are real “heaters”. And they are settling in regions as hot as Aragón

This is the hydroelectric colossus with which China “is trying to tame nature”

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China has proposed a titanic challenge in the heart of the Himalayas: the construction of the Motuo megadam on the Yarlung Tsangpo River, which aspires to become the largest hydroelectric dam in the world. With this project, the Asian country seeks to far surpass the legendary Three Gorges Dam. However, as Tenzin Norgay, a researcher at the International Campaign for Tibetwith this monumental display “They are trying to tame nature.” Your numbers. To understand the scale of this hydroelectric project, just look at the figures, since according to experts, there is nothing on the scale of this dam when talking about numbers that are stratospheric. As a first piece of information, the generation capacity stands out, which will mean between 60 and 70 GW of power. Another important data is the annual energy production that point to 300 billion kWh per year, which is triple the capacity of the already monstrous Three Gorges Dam. In perspective, This means generating the energy for everything the United Kingdom consumes annually, and to achieve this the project requires digging 20 kilometer long tunnels in mountainous terrain. And if that were not enough, more than one wall is needed, making the dam made up of five interconnected hydroelectric plants. Reading these figures we can assume that it is not something cheap at all, and the truth is that we are not wrong, since the cost My dear of the entire work ranges between 167,000 and 170,000 million dollars. It’s a risk. The great technical challenge of the Motuo dam is not only its dizzying size, but also the place chosen to build it, since the Himalayan belt is an extremely unstable at a geological level. A report by Probe International warns that incessant seismic activity puts a big question mark over this superproject, especially in a Tibetan region where 68 dams are already operating and another 101 are in the planning phase. Looking back, recent events have highlighted the real risk of earthquakes for infrastructure located on the “roof of the world.” Internal doubts. Even within China itself there are doubts since Chinese geologist Fan Xiao has warned that the associated risks and lack of electricity demand in sparsely populated Tibet make the project unjustified. Added to this are the enormous economic and energy transmission costs necessary to transport that electricity to the urban centers of the country. Side B. Beijing defends the project as a necessary step towards decarbonization and here experts contextualize that this work is part of China’s strategic sustainability vision to abandon its enormous dependence on coal. However, Darrin Magee, a hydropower expert at Western Washington University, pointed out that this source of energy is not so sustainable in the long term due to the large greenhouse gas emissions produced by the reservoirs and suggests that, in Tibet, alternating with wind and solar plants would be more prudent. Images | Tejj In Xataka | More than 600 dams collapsed in Europe last year alone. The proud responsibility is the European Union

We’ve been looking for aliens the wrong way for decades. The solution could be in the dust of the Moon

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It is possible that we are looking for the wrong traces of extraterrestrial civilizations. According to a study published recently by Oxford astrophysicist Brian C. Lacki, the mistake has been in looking for active technological signatures. That is, signals derived from extraterrestrial technologies that have been emitted directly. These signals are lost over time. On the other hand, technological signatures that passively act on the light of a star are easier to detect. And the best thing is that, if you can’t find them, you could always search in the middle of the lunar regolith. This all sounds very crazy, but it actually makes sense. Active or passive signatures? That’s the question. Traditionally, search projects for extraterrestrial civilizations, like SETIhave focused on the detection of possible radio signals coming from their technologies. These are not signals emitted on purpose so that we can find them, but rather the result of their own technological activity. The problem, according to Lacki in his study, is that, if they have followed an evolution similar to ours, they may not be broadcasting on the radio for more than 100 years. We ourselves have been replacing emissions in this range with fiber optics or satellites with directed emissions and very little “noise” that can reach “intergalactic gossip.” What leads us to think that they continue century after century using the same technologies? They may continue to emit, but no longer in radio waves that disperse into space. The Oxford astrophysicist proposes changing this position by searching for passive technosignatures. That is, signatures derived from the interaction of smart technologies with starlight. three types. There are three types of passive technosignatures: obscuring, flashing and diffusing. The former act in a similar way to an exoplanet passing in front of its star. When a large object, such as an artificial satellite, passes in front of a star, it temporarily obscures it. This could be confused with an exoplanetbut the idea is to look for concealments with unconventional shapes, that do not resemble anything known. In the case of flashing signatures, they would be those produced by devices with mirrors aimed at concentrating the star’s light. As if they had their own solar plants. At some point, these types of mirrors could generate flares observable from Earth. Finally, the diffusion signatures would spread the light in all directions, so that a fainter change would be observed, in the form of a color modification in the light spectrum. What if they are no longer there? If it is already difficult to find other intelligent civilizations, it would be even more difficult to find one that is contemporary with ours. We may simply find technosignatures of a civilization that has already died. In that case, or even if the technologies have simply been abandoned for another reason, there would no longer be intelligent beings in charge of maintaining the devices, so their orbit would end up shifting and they could collide with each other. If this happens, it is possible that very small fragments will be generated, which this scientist calls technograins. They are so small that the star’s gravity is not able to attract them any more than the stellar winds push them away. Therefore, they would end up swept away from their neighborhood and become a cloud of dust that our solar system could eventually encounter on its journey through the galaxy. The Moon comes into play. If all of the above occurs, Lacki considers that it could be that some of that dust settles on the Moon, where there is no wind nor are there geological processes that alter the surface, so it could remain for a long time. Therefore, for him, one way to look for technosignatures would be to inspect the lunar regolithlooking for dust that appears to have a technological origin. That, perhaps, could lead us to some intelligent civilization that has gone unnoticed by us. In short, according to the curious perception of this scientist, when trips to the Moon become more common than anecdotal, we could have an easier time finding technosignatures. Of course, for this, fewer telescopes and more sieves. Images | Leo Visions (Unsplash) In Xataka | TRAPPIST-1 was the most promising solar system to search for life. Now our joy is in a well

In China, ‘bookfluencers’ are the sales engine of the publishing industry. The problem is that no one can read 700 books.

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In China, publishers have discovered a rich vein thanks to bookfluencers. Reviews on social networks such as Douyin (the Chinese TikTok) or RedNote have become the sales engine for many books in recent years. However, the volume of books and the intense competition between these influencers has led to the credibility of the model beginning to be questioned. what has happened. They tell it in world of chinese. A book content creator posted a 25-minute video exposing another professional colleague who has more than half a million followers. In the video, he shows a paper almost 5 meters long with a list of 700 books that this bookfluencer had supposedly recommended on his social networks. There wouldn’t be any problem if it weren’t for the fact that they were the readings of a single year. It comes out almost two books a day. Authenticity not found. There is even more and, when reviewing the reviews, he found something curious. They were full of repeated and very exaggerated phrases. For example, this influencer felt “transformed” by 17 different books and “healed” by 33 more. We don’t know if he used AI to summarize the books and do the reviews, but clearly they weren’t real reviews. The online community of readers had been criticizing the lack of authenticity for some time and this video was the last straw. Read for the algorithm. Reading fans criticize the model that has been created with online recommendations. For several years now, the publishing industry has made these influencers a key resource to promote their launches, but with the passage of time, the volume of readings and the need to keep up to date with all the trendsis transforming reading from a leisurely and private activity to something manufactured for the “by weight” algorithm. The business works. Video reviews are giving publishers very good results, as in the case of the novel ‘The Last Quarter of the Moon’, which went from 600,000 copies to more than 6 million after a famous influencer recommended it. Large publishers allocate a specific budget and pay commissions of between 15 and 30% of the sales generated through their channels. The dependence on this promotional model is such that, according to editor Bai Bai, “In many cases, if no influencer is willing to take charge of a book or promote it, the book is practically doomed to failure at the moment of its publication.” A precarious job. Although publishers turn to these creators and give them good commissions, it does not mean that it is exactly a grateful job. There is enormous competition between creators, who have to constantly be up to date with trends in order to satisfy the algorithm and have their content go viral. Still, income is very unstable, pushing creators to post more reviews and exaggerate the impact the books have had on them. Anqian Reads, one of these bookfluencers, says “The ironic thing is that since I’ve been a book influencer, I have less time to read.” Image | 愚木混株 Yumu in Unsplash In Xataka | Universities are discovering something: fewer and fewer students are reading long essays without losing concentration

The most touristic enclave in Italy has two news programs left. It is quite a warning for the half of the Spanish coast

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The advance of climate change is leaving more or less obvious signs that range from the maturation of fruit trees earlier to intense heat waves even before summer arrives like the one we are livingbut the future is bleak: more torrential rains and floods, more droughts, places that will be uninhabitable due to climatic conditions… or directly because they have been swallowed by the sea. Without going any further, the image you see above these lines is a classic in tourist destinations: the famous and colorful Italian Cinque Terre towns. A research team has elaborated the first map of what awaits them in 2150 and the scenario borders on the apocalyptic. Cinque Terre in serious danger of disappearing. This study analyzes two of the most exposed Cinque Terre towns, Monterosso and Vernazza, projecting how their coast will evolve until the year 2150 under different levels of greenhouse gas emissions according to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). In the worst emissions scenario, the sea level in that area could rise up to 1.17 meters, which means permanently saying goodbye to more than 22,000 square meters of coastline. To make it clear during the World Cup: about three football fields. In the best case scenario, the figure would be “only” 9,931 square meters. The figure may seem low, but in coastal areas with a morphology as narrow and steep as that of the Cinque Terre, they imply the loss of entire beaches, docks and access to transport such as the train that connects them. Thinking more than 100 years ahead may seem far away, but the reality is that the global rate of sea rise has gone from 2.13 mm to almost 5 mm since the 90s, according to the World Meteorological Organization. In short: the process has already started and you have stepped on the accelerator. Why is it important. Because Cinque Terre is the canary in the mine of many other municipalities, touristy or not, that are going to sink in the coming decades in a tragic process that involves demographic, climatic and economic changes. In fact, the decline of beaches and the loss of functionality of ports and infrastructure are already being noticed, which will have a direct impact on the local economy, which depends almost entirely on tourism. But Cinque Terre are more than postcard towns: their cliffs converted into agricultural terraces and their territorial planning have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997. Losing them totally or partially is not like a resort collapsing: it is a tragedy. And it won’t be the only one: this study has calculated that of the 49 World Heritage sites on low-lying Mediterranean coasts, 37 are already at risk of serious flooding today and that this risk could increase by 50% before 2100. Context. In the analysis of climate change on the coasts, the Mediterranean has turned on the turbo: it is rising faster than the global average. Between 2000 and 2018, the Mediterranean Sea rose about seven centimeters, a rate much higher than that of the 20th century as a whole. according to research from the British National Oceanography Center. Liguria, the region where Cinque Terre is located, takes the cake: it combines the rise of the sea with a gradual sinking of the land itself. But the reality is global and even darker: in a generalized way we are losing rocky coast and probably faster than we think: science has records of cliff retreats of just 150 years and projections until 2100. In short: we are underestimating the rise in sea level. In detail. This study stands out for how exhaustive it is and the quality and quantity of sources with which it works: it uses topography obtained with high-resolution drones, high-precision seafloor maps, geodetic data of land subsidence with GPS networks and applied the three main IPCC climate scenarios to calculate the projected flooding in 2030, 2050, 2100 and 2150. The usual thing is to stay at 2100, but the team has expanded that horizon with half a century more to see processes that the shorter models overlook: especially the slow sinking of the own land due to geological causes. In fact, there are already studies that evidence that the IPCC forecasts fall short precisely because they ignore that factor. Yes, but. Although the study is rigorous and solid, as the research team itself clarifies, Cinque Terre will not disappear overnight and this apocalyptic scenario will only happen if adaptation and mitigation measures are not adopted. On the other hand, the most unfavorable scenarios take into account global emissions that current climate agreements seek to avoid. In Xataka | There is a corner of Spain where global warming is wreaking havoc: the Pyrenees are becoming “Mediterraneanized” In Xataka | It turns out that there are invasive land snakes that take to the sea from Ibiza. And they are annihilating a unique lizard Cover | Rahul Chakraborty and The First Relative Sea Level Rise and Storm Surges Scenarios up to 2150 CE for the Coasts of Monterosso and Vernazza, Cinque Terre National Park (Liguria, Italy)

Satellite images revealed that Russia covered a building with an anti-drone cage. Ukraine turned it into an action movie set

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In World War II, the United Kingdom became camouflage entire factories with nets, fake structures and even fictitious neighborhoods built on rooftops to fool German bombers. The idea it was simple– If you can’t stop the attack, make the target disappear from the air. Eight decades later, that logic has returned. Only now the enemy is no longer looking from a bomber, but from a drone. The giant cage. Satellite images made it clear: Russia had done something that until recently seemed unthinkable, wrapping an entire building in a gigantic anti-drone structure. We are not talking about a tank or an armored vehicle, where “cope cages” are already common, but rather about a strategic factory more than 900 kilometers from the front. The facility, part of the VNIIR Progress plant in Cheboksary, had been protected with that kind of metal skeleton for at least a year. Was the test of the extent to which Moscow assumes that Ukraine can strike very deep inside Russia. But it was also a silent admission: the drone threat has already changed even the industrial architecture of warfare. Shield the rear. VNIIR Progress is not just any factory. Produces essential navigation components for a good part of the Russian arsenal: Shahed-136 type drones, Kalibr cruise missiles, Iskander ballistic missiles and gliding bombs. It is, in essence, a critical piece of the Russian military gear. Protecting it with a cage of that size reveals something important: it is no longer enough to move factories away from the front. Russian strategic depth has been eroded and the war has meant that once safe places now need permanent physical defenses. Ukraine changed the rules (again). The problem for Russia is that Ukraine no longer only strikes with drones. In the most recent attack, kyiv used its new cruise missiles FP-5 Flamingoa nationally manufactured weapon with more than 2,800 kilometers of range and an explosive warhead weighing more than one ton. That detail completely changes the equation. The anti-drone cage could make sense against small kamikaze drones or light munitions. But faced with a missile of that size, the structure becomes practically in decoration. Ukraine, in essence, demonstrated that the Russian solution was designed for yesterday’s war. What the defense gives away. The most interesting thing is not only the damage caused, but what it means the very existence of that cage. Every new anti-drone net, mesh or cover that appears over Russian refineries, air bases or factories is a sign of vulnerability. For decades, the industrial rearguard was a sanctuary. Now Russia is spending resources to fortify even its production centers. In other words, what you see is a clear symptom that the Ukrainian deep strike campaign is working at least on a psychological and operational level, forcing Moscow to redistribute protection and assume additional costs. The invisible climb. The episode also reflects a broader evolution: the industrial war is becoming a war constant adaptation. Ukraine began using long-range drones to overwhelm defenses and hit critical infrastructure. Russia, like we have been countingresponded with networks, interference and physical structures. Now kyiv goes up a notch with missiles heavier and more precise. Each defensive layer generates a higher offensive layer. And that turns the conflict into a technological race where no solution lasts too long. The lesson of the attack. The image is very powerful because summarizes all the logic of modern warfare: an entire building wrapped in steel to protect electronic parts that then guide precision weapons… and still reached. The conclusion is inevitably uncomfortable for Moscow. If a facility hundreds of miles from the front needs a giant cage and not even that guarantees your safetythen the real frontier of war is no longer in the trenches. It is anywhere on the map where the military industry continues to function. Image | Ventor In Xataka | Ukraine has found Russia’s weak point in Crimea. And now there is a line of Russian trucks that cannot move forward In Xataka | The drone war has left a clear lesson for Ukraine: you can’t leave home without a 100-year-old machine gun

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