Month: June 2025

With the electric consumption triggered by the air conditioning, Singapore has had an idea: buildings that “sweat”

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Fresh news: it’s hot. A lotand it doesn’t look like This summer is going to give us a break. Bet on Fans or by him air-conditioning It is a solution, but there is a problem: temperatures will continue to increase and Electricity consumed by air conditioning devices It is a problem. Urgently Find passive solutionsand Singapore may have found the key thanks to a new painting. Your secret? Makes buildings “sweat.” Short. In 2022, air conditioning represented 7% of world electricity consumption. The estimate It is that, by 2050, that electrical consumption triggers up to 20%. In order to cool buildings, there are already researchers who are experiencing with heat dissipation solutions to create fresher environments without the need for air conditioning, such as The nanomaterials or a Botijo ​​technology nut rotation. Although we are seeing how to make the air conditioners are more efficient. But there is an easier solution that could be applied to already built buildings: a layer of paint. The Insulating paint It already exists, with examples Like the ultrabrabas developed by the University of Purdue that reflects Up to 98% of the light to maintain surfaces up to 7ºC fresher than other solutions, even under direct sunlight. Now, in Singapore they have developed a painting that mimics the sweating for which we regulate our temperature. Buildings that “sweat”. As we read in Sciencenewsa group of researchers from the Technological University of Nanyang is the responsible of a painting baptized as CCP-30 and what has special is not a color, but its operation. It is developed based on cement and combines three cooling strategies: radiative, reflection and evaporative (the latter, the one that uses our skin). And it works like an organism that sweats. The porous structure of the paint can retain up to 30% of its weight in water, which slowly releases the environment. It’s like the function of air conditioning dehumidificationbut passively. By absorbing water and dissipating heat, the released steam is cooler, contributing to cool the environment. SUV. If the sensation can be similar to that produced with ultrabrabic paint, why invest resources in replicating something that already exists? The main reason is that this ultra -ABANCA painting that reflects heat does not work at all well in Wet environmentssuch as Singapore itself, but also in Thailand and other areas where the moisture percentage is important. This reflected light is trapped by water vapor in the environment, and in large cities the creation of heat spotlights is encouraged. Come on, which contributes to embarrassment. The new porous painting, when not working by reflecting light and heat, does not have this problem and allows the buildings to be correctly isolated, fulfilling that passive cooling function. Promising. To hold their arguments, the researchers painted three houses with different types of paintings. One with a common white paint, another with a commercial painting that only uses radiative cooling and another with its new “sweat” painting. After two years exposed to the sun, rain and humidity of Singapore, while the first two became yellowish, the new formula continued with its white color. That is important not so much for aesthetics, but to continue being efficient reflecting the light. In addition, being prepared to absorb moisture, it does not crack, being another advantage. On the other hand, the house painted with CCP-30 reflected between 88% and 92% of sunlight even when it was wet, and emitted 95% of the heat it absorbed. Tandem with air conditioning. CCP-30 is designed to cover the outside of buildings, not homes or interior areas, acting as a first shield to combat heat. According to the area, the use of air-conditioning It will continue to be necessary to endure high temperatures, but researchers claim that a house covered with its new painting meant between 30% and 40% less use of air conditioning. It does not stop turning the building into a botijo. In the end, as we said, the use of paintings against heat is nothing new, but renewed formulas can help not only to refresh interiors, but to eliminate those urban heat spotlights in cities with a high percentage of moisture, calls “Heat islands”And the good thing about being a painting and not something that require a new construction It can be applied to existing structures without complex reform. I only ask that this type of painting arrives soon, but it is nice to know that passive ways of refrigerating households are being investigated, such as the Cement developed by the Public University of Navarra. Images | Ibrahim Guetar, Chromatograph In Xataka | If you want to drink an frozen coffee to fight heat, science has something to tell you: better not

stabilize the network with electric cars

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The great blackout that affected millions in the Iberian Peninsula made it clear that the electrical system needs more than patches. In Utrecht, the Netherlands have decided to try a solution that sounds for science fiction but is already real: electric cars that help stabilize the network. Short. According to Reuters, Vehicle-To-Grid (V2G) technology allows electric cars not only to receive electricity, but also return it to the network at times of high demand. Thus, they become mobile storage units that help balance an electrical system increasingly fed by renewable energy, which are intermittent. Double meaning. Promoted by companies such as We Drive Solar And with the support of Renault, the project transforms electric vehicles into mobile energy storage units. At night, in the so -called “Valley Hours”, cars absorb energy (ideally renewable). During the day, especially at times of high demand, that same energy returns to the network through bidirectional loaders. All this has been possible thanks to the progress in more resistant batteries and intelligent loaders capable of managing this constant input and exit flow. As has pointed out Reuters, Utrecht has deployed 500 Renault R5 E-Tech vehicles compatible with V2G and at least 50 bidirectional recharge points throughout the city. The investment is around 100 million euros. Why Utrecht? The choice is not accidental: 35% of its roofs They have solar panels, and it is the country with greater solar density Per capita of Europe. This creates an energy paradox: sometimes there is too much solar energy that is not used. The storage distributed in shared electric cars not only takes advantage of that surplus, but returns to the network when it is most missing. In pilot phase. The rest of Europe countries are in a preliminary phase, the first major V2G ecosystem in operation, most projects in Europe remain pilots. For example, Volkswagen will launch one in Sweden this autumn with 200 ambibox chargers or, in the case of Spain, some electrroliners already operate with this system, although still limitedly. A new form of storage. Utrecht’s case is more than a local bet: it is an example of how electric mobility can be actively integrated into the energy system. While they are built Great industrial batteriesthousands of connected electric cars can do the same job in a distributed, silent and effective way. What today is an ambitious test in the Netherlands, could be a common infrastructure tomorrow in many cities in the world. Image | Pexels Xataka | In the eyes of the DGT, a Seat Ibiza contaminates more than a Lamborghini. The government wants to end it

38% want to have sex at work

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At this point, we are clear that the Z generation conceives working and personal life from a very different perspective How previous generations did. For newcomers to the labor market, the balance between work and private life not only includes a better balance between working and personal lifea survey reveals that it also seeks to normalize sex in the office, something that until recently was taboo in the professional environment. Teleworking made everything easier. A survey Prepared by Edubirdie, he asked 2,000 young people from generation Z about how their sexual relations were in the current context of change of teleworking model just around the office. 47% of respondents assured that teleworking He had improved his sex life. Being at home, they could better combine their sexual encounters with the workday. On the other hand, 36% said that the return to the office was going to harm their sexual life because they were going to lose that time flexibility for coincide with their partners. In contrast, 14% said just the opposite, that working from home had reduced their sexual encounters. 37% confessed that teleworking had not changed anything in their sexual life. We do not know if that is good or bad. Return to the complicated office. Daily displacements have not turned out the hardest From the return to the office. 30% of the young people surveyed said that having to go to the office conditions the schedule For their sexual encounters and forces them to schedule their sexual appointments in advance, while 70% are not worried in this regard and prefers to leave these experiences at random of the moment. On the contrary, 29% of the youth of the Z generation they have responded, consider that coinciding with other colleagues around the work environment Increase your options To have sex. Greater social interaction. The data show that 42% of respondents feel more confident and attractive when flirting with their classmates while working, while 18% confess that the socialization options provided by the face -to -face contact helps them to lift the mood. On the other hand, being out of home and away from their partners can also impact on their sexual appetite. As for frequency, 40% of young employees do not expect changes with the return to face -to -face work, while 16% claim to be too much Tired when you return home And that reduces the number of relationships. 20% confirms that going to the office does not share so long with their partner, which reduces the time they dedicate to having appointments. “Private” spaces in the office. However, the most surprising fact of the study is that a wide 38% of the young people would want to have a private space in the office for intimate meetings or, say, “Self -care“ This indicates that, to attract and retain younger workers, companies must offer more than free fruit or coffee. The paradox: they are the least “affectionate” generation. Beyond the sexual aspirations demonstrated by the participants in this survey, the paradoxical is that Other previous studies They have shown that gene generation maintains less sexual relations that the previous generations. According to the data collected by the National Family Growth Survey (NSFG) that is carried out periodically, asexuality shot between 2017 and 2023. The data suggests that 10% of men and 7% of women between 22 and 34 years old, that is, of generation Z, never have had sex. 24% of men and 13% of women in that age strip did not maintain sexual relations in the last yearfigures that are much higher than a decade ago with 8% and 9% respectively. If the abstinence period is limited to the last three months, 35% of men and 31% of women say they have not had sexual encounters. Sexuality without taboús. The data of both studies lead to think that although it is possible that generation Z can have less sexual activity than previous generations, seeks to integrate sexuality into their lives at all levels (including the work environment) in an open way, reflecting a deep cultural change. However, the normalization of sex at work can contribute to setbacks in the fight against sexual harassment in the workplace that still records very worrying levels. In Xataka | Norway is giving 2,500 euros in tax cuts to its young people. In return they have to work Image | Unspash (Luke Miller)

It is a strategy to wait less and spend more

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Take a day in a amusement park It is a pleasant activity, but there is something that can ruin the experience (and it is not normal food luxury restaurant price): The tails. Be in a jam by carwaiting for plane or for get into an attractiontails make us waste a lot of time –and money– Every year, but there is something that has reached the rescue of some parks: the artificial intelligence. And it seems that … it works to be less in the tail. And to spend more money. Disney and its Fastpass+. It is one of the companies that most committed to technology in its parts. Well with Robots to interact with visitorsbe Action doubles Or, directly, with invisible technology to not queue in the most popular attractions. We do not refer to your 400 dollars (entrance to the park not included) to skip queues (which also have parks such as Port adventure or the Madrid amusement park), but to something they have called ‘Fastpass+‘. It is a system that uses AI to balance audience peaks in an attraction. Create a virtual tail in which we can reserve access to certain popular attractions through the MY Disney Experience app and that reserve is loaded in the Magic Band (the smart bracelet) or on radiofrequency tickets. Depending on the AI ​​calculations on the use of attraction, he warns us to move to it, being able to enter without making a long tail. LEGOLAND’s great brother. Another example is LEGOLAND. With a technology that they have baptized as’Vision ai‘, The park improves the management of the queues thanks to a camera system placed on the attractions. They analyze in real time the number of people who are in each attraction, visitors who are in the park and the expectation of using each popular attraction so that managers can make decisions in real time. Results. These measures are not implemented by whim and have a double purpose: that the user is happier when wasting less time in the queues, yes, but also spend more time on other sides of the park where he can buy food, objects or services. That they work is something that is polishing over time, but there are already some interesting results. For example, the analysis From Legoland has allowed the park to identify moments in which some of its attractions had 10% of the empty seats. Implementing adjustments, such as the entry to the so -called ‘single riders’ (users who are alone), have increased the average travel by attraction by 30%. This implies enjoying an additional daily attraction per visitor. Another example is that, if virtual things are used, visitors have more time to spend in the park 25% more that those who do not use them. And privacy? The Disney system is like a Excel With AI support, but … What happens to our privacy in a tool that uses cameras to actively monitor park visitors? They already have Chambers for security reasonsbut in the case of Legoland, we talk about a system that is constantly monitoring us. In statements a Business Insiderthose responsible for the park claim that the cameras “analyze the number of people riding in the attractions at any time. It does not identify you in a unique way, but it does detect how many people are in an attraction.” That is to say, Come silhouettes and human movements, not faces What is clear is that the lines in the attraction parks are a problem for the user, so much that there are educational degrees in which you learn how to design them better, and perhaps in their management, AI and their real -time analysis can be the solution. Image | Xataka In Xataka | The catastrophe of the ‘Star Wars’ hotel: 3,000 euros per night in an interactive film of 350 million dollars

It is increasingly easy to see from the road a crop that had never been dominant in Spain: the pistachio

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Its production volume is still far (far) from which the US, Iran or Türkiye, the heavyweights of the sector, but Spain is increasingly A pistachio country. And it has all the meaning that is so. Your cultivation adapts well to certain regions From the Iberian Peninsula and above all it offers background penguins to farmers, who have been planting hectares and more hectares of pistachers for years, hoping to cover a global market In full expansion. “Many people have opted for this crop as a substitute for others less profitable, such as cereal,” They recognized Recently from the sector. Pistacho “Made in Spain”. If it is true that a picture is worth a thousand words, Castilla-La Mancha It probably leaves the best reflects the accelerated expansion of the pistachio cultivation in Spain. A walk comes through the province of Toledo to see hectares of soil that until not so ago they were dedicated to cereals or the grass of cattle and have now been converted into pistachio plantations. Castilla-La Mancha agglutina more than 80% of the national surface and production of the fruit and has achieved put on the top 5 of the great pistache regions of the world. A few days ago, in a forum dedicated precisely to the pistachio, the regional government explained that the community already dedicates about 65,000 hectares to its cultivation and in 2023 reached the 5,600 tons of dry fruit with peel. A figure: 78,500 ha. To understand how the speed has extended pistachio plantations in Spain, it is good to take a look at the report that the agricultural group dedicated last year Agrouptimum: If in 2016 there were barely 15,000 hectares dedicated to its cultivation, in 2022 that surface was already risen to 70,000 and in 2023 it touched 78,500, 68% in the dry land. Last season it is estimated that the 79,200 hawhich explains that the pistachio monopolizes 10.3% of the soil dedicated to producing nuts in Spain. “Win by win”. The success of the pistachio among farmers, especially Castilla-La Mancha, is explained for a very simple reason: his juicy profits. He was openly recognized recently Juan Gallego Arroyo, founder of the Iberopistacho group, to electionomista.es: With gross bottling per hectare that leave a profitability between 10 and 20%, the pistachio is much more attractive to farmers than other traditional crops, including cereals. “The pistachio wins by a win in terms of profitability within the crops in open and permanent. The comparison is with the olive tree, the almond or the vine, for example,” Clarify Galician. Translated into figures and according to the data handled by the manager, “with the pistachio plantations a gross hectare turnover is being achieved that can reach up to 12,000 euros in the case of using irrigation. In the case of dry dryland, we are between 5,000 and 6,000.” “Very profitable alternative”. He is not the only one who has drawn attention to the benefits of this fruit, increasingly demadiated. In 2022 Balam Agriculture made A balance of the most profitable crops of the year looking for the income, expenses, investment and risks assumed. The list was listed by the plantations of olive groves, those of Almendros and (exact) those of pistacheros, which despite requiring a notable initial investment offers benefits and profitability in the medium term. “Its high sale price, close to € 6/kg (with average production of 1,000 kg), as well as the increase in demand for this product, make it a very profitable alternative,” Balam stands out. In optimal conditions, with intensive irrigation and in ecological pistachio crops, electionomista.es Precise that the annual income generated per hectare can even be higher and move between 8,000 and 10,000 euros. The final net profit is lower, but depending on the case, it ranges between 1,200 and more than 10,000. A millionaire market. Although Spain is betting on the pistachio its production is far from what they reach Heavyweights of the cultivation, the USA, Iran and Türkiye, that a large part of the cake of a millionaire and growing business are distributed. Data Bridge estimates that market size reached 4,350 million of dollars in 2024 and will continue to grow to exceed 5,800 in a few years. There are consultants convinced that It won’t take long In passing that figure. With that backdrop, Spain and more specifically regions Like Castilla-La Mancha, Andalusia, Extremadura, Aragon, Castilla y León or Catalonia, they are positioning themselves to participate in that world cake and The increase of domestic demand. “The evolution of pistachio cultivation in recent years has been very large,” Recognize To Efeagro Mario González, from Pistachopro. “Many people have opted for this crop as replacement for others less profitable.” Images | USDA (Flickr), Marcos Paulo Prado (UNSPLASH) and Brad Spry (Flickr) In Xataka | For more than a thousand years Spain was a world power in pistachio production. Then disappeared completely

The ‘Napier bones’ seem a dominoes, but they are the link between the abacus and the modern calculator

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The name of John Napier It may not sound to you anything, but I already tell you that, very possibly, it is a person who does not like you. Because what may sound to you is about Neperian logarithms than so many They brought us head in high school. It was Napier who first defined this function, but to “compensate”, he also gave life to what we can consider as the precursor of the Current calculator. Something called ‘Napier bones’ that looks like a dominoes, but that brought mathematical operations to more people. John Napier. This Scotsman were interested in many things. His family was more than settled and, as a good son of wealthy, he attended the University of Saint Andrews at age 13. It did not last long, but not because I would like to leave the studies, but because it went to others Universities of France, Italy or Flanders. Life living from Castillo in Castillo, where he gave free rein to several of his passions. A magician (but not of the numbers). Was a Protestant and considered A black wizard for its neighbors. He was also an ingenious guy. When the pigeons ate their grain, decided Spread wet seeds in alcohol through the field and, with ‘anesthetized’ pigeons and unable to fly, he dedicated himself to capture them. As always, and more when we talk about this type of stories with several centuries behind them, imagination and exaggeration do their job, but what is undeniable is that Napier liked solve problems. His greatest contribution is the one commented Mirifici Logarithmore Canonis Description in which he defined the current logarithms in 1614, but before and then I publish other treaties of the Mathematics field in which he explored how to simplify the calculation tasks. And not only theorized about them or impulse The comma in the decimals: created tools to solve those calculations more easily. The new abacus. Since we need to solve mathematical problems, humanity has sought ways to support tools. This is how the abacoseither The quipus with those who could do simple operations such as sums, subtraction and multiplications. With more complex mathematics, we had to go around the system, and Napier took off his new abacus, or a protocculator. Napier’s bones. In 1617, shortly before he died, the mathematician invented a manual tool focused on facilitating some more complex operations, such as multiplication and division, but also square roots. It was a set of rectangular rods in which the multiplication tables were recorded, in addition to a board with holes for the rods and with the figures of 1 to 9 arranged vertically on the left side. By placing these rods next to the others, multiplications and divisions operations were reduced to simple sums and subtraction, respectively. Originally, they were manufactured in metal or wood, especially, but these rods could also be built in ivory, and a complete game included 10 rods to represent the numbers from 0 to 9. That? Ok, as with mathematics, let’s see examples. One very simple is seen with multiplication, because we do not need to memorize the tables. If we want to know how much 2 x 6, we simply look for row 2 on the right and the rod that begins by 6 and we see what number is in the quadrant: 12. If we want to do an 8 x 8, we repeat the process and we see that we have a 64. If we do a more complex operation, such as 46785399 x 7, we place the rods corresponding to that number (the one that begins by 4, which begins by 6 and so on) next to each other from left to right and we look at the number that comes out in row 7, which is why we want to multiply. Now, from right to left, we are placing the numbers that appear together in the diagonal box: 327497793. Later mathematicians improved the system by creating a board with a 65º inclination that improved the visual identification of that formula, but the ‘Napier bones’ were a revolution when approaching that more complex mathematical calculation to people without higher studies. The only thing that had to be learned was the rule of multiplication and division with the board system. Variants were created, with circular format tablets A jewel. Dying in 1617, it is complicated that Napier saw the transcendence of his theoretical and practical work, but today his logarithmic foundations continue to be used, also the coma of the decimals, a lunar crater bears his name and that Neperian abacus is one of the jewels of the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid. It is not known who manufactured it, but it is a wooden case of a considerable size with 30 drawers in which the sheets of the two abacos designed by the mathematician are stored. One of them formed by 60 numbered rods built in bone and the second, called ‘Promptuario’, composed of 300 numbered and perforated wool chips to perform multiplications. The ‘promptuary’ of the man of Madrid And it’s like a Megachuletasince in the doors of the boxes are the first powers of the digit numbers, the coefficients of the first powers of the binomial and the numerical data of the regular polyhedra. Curious that calculators, apart from being objects with a specific purpose, have become some cases in authentic works of art. To tell the divisumma. Images | Maksim, Willy, Luis García, Kim Traynor, The Wub In Xataka | The “computer” of 2,000 years ago fascinates us for decades. A new study points out that it might have not served at all

The most legendary magician in history was not the most skilled, but a masked recklessness that revealed the secrets

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If you lived the explosion of the private ones at the end of the 20th century, you lived the success of ‘Magic without secrets’, a program of Antena 3 in which A masked wizard executed classic illusionism on stage And then it meticulously revealed how he had done them. A broken taboo in front of the cameras that beat its responsible, Val Valentino, mortal enemies within the entertainment world. However, over time, the masked magician has found unexpected disciples: on the Internet, dozens of magicians They reveal without stopping The great secrets of magic. If illusionism has always interested, it has not stopped interesting that they tell us “how it is done.” And the masked wizard was the first to do it with a mass audience attached to the TV. Revealed magic In the 1990s, stage magic was … one thing. The scenario magicians were in the zenith of their success, with television specials that, from the eighties, They showed challenges to the laws of logic that fascinated the audiences. Were the times when David Copperfield The statue of freedom flew or disappeared, in which Siegfried & Roy -There are a tragic accident with a white tiger that would withdraw them from the stages in 2003- signed millionaire contracts in Las Vegas and in which even people like David BlaineAt the end of the decade, I was about to carry magic in an entirely new direction with its ‘Street Magic’. In that context, ‘magic without secrets’ came, a series of four specials of 1997 that in Spain issued Antena 3 and that did the unthinkable: explain how the apparently impossible classic tricks of illusionism were carried out. In them, a masked magician accompanied by the inevitable female assistants reviewed the entire repertoire of the magicians. As TV was what it was for those times, special attention was paid to the apparently more dangerous numbers: the magician was sawn in two, crossed with swords, swallowed fire, was shot and buried alive. Everything had a trick, of course, and explained. Double backgrounds, trucades, fire bullets, pussy sabers … The program did not leave triquiñuela without revealingbut the spectator had the feeling that he was accessing knowledge prohibited for a simple reason: the magician hid his features with a mask that remembered those of wrestling. The program was responsible for reminding us the code of the magicians to which the original title of the specials referred: ‘Breaking The Magician’s Code: Magic’s Biggest Secrets Finally Reveled’. Any wizard that broke it would immediately enter a black list of the guild, and would not work again. Black lists This detail is not necessarily true: much more prestigious magicians than this masking, such as the magnificent Penn & Teller, who in that decade were also overly unknown media figures, based on their numbers on revealing classic tricks … to take the enigma much further. They had also been controversial in the guild for playing the three balls and vessels With plastic containersallowing the secret to be seen, 0 revealing the Seven principles of magicand had unleashed a controversy that Even today it is between fans and professionals About whether to reveal the tricks power or fulminates magic. But although Total classics like Paul Daniels They had previously revealed tricks as part of their shows, no one had the media impact of the masked magician. Behind the program was Nash Entertainment, a producer of doccu-realities with titles such as ‘The World’s Deadliest Volcanoes’, ‘World’s Most Dary Dad Rescues’, ‘World’s Scariest Police Shootouts’, ‘When Good Pets Go Bad’ or ‘Prisoners out of control’. ‘Magic without secrets’ became one of his greatest successes: In 1997, the first program was the most watched special in Fox’s history. But … who was the masked wizard? His identity was revealed in the fourth and last special and as expected, it was not a first -class wizard but rather the opposite. Its history seems the secret origin of what ended up being: a comic supervillain between magicians. Val Valentino had been fond of magic since childhood and when he was a teenager he made a number in an exchange program with schools around the world that gave him a considerable audience among the kids of his age. There he played to reveal the tricks as a way to surprise and enhance the effects. And he discovered that no magic game could compete with revealing the secret. In the eighties and nineties he had a moderately successful career as a magician, appearing on television specials and acting, of course, in Las Vegas. When the opportunity arose to shoot the specials for Nash recalled the impact their children’s revelations had and decided to use it in their favor: success was considerable, and although Much of the controversy that the programs were awakened was prefabricated by Fox (There was no “threat of death by secret groups of magicians”), there was some demand for scenario magicians such as Andre Kole or Kevin Spencer. They claimed that the masked wizard had made them lose hundreds of thousands of dollars with their revelations. The courts gave the reason to Valentino, since the secrets of the tricks are not protected by the laws of intellectual property, much less those who had been part of the magical public domain. Although the new century has already entered the show tried to be relaunched with new secrets and new magicians, it did not enjoy the popularity of the four original specials. And in fact, magic, thanks to the Internet, enjoys better health than ever. So no, Val Valentino did not kill magic. In fact, in social networks like Tiktok there are accounts that are dedicated to revealing without rest Small magic gameswhich has given them an unprecedented scope. As Valentino predicted (and Penn & Teller already knew), knowing the secrets does not ruin anything, because what counts is the execution and ingenuity. The Supervillain at the end was a hero, even in that he looked like a comic character. Header | Nash … Read more

Planting the heat of Córdoba in summer is impossible. I have tried a personal thermal dissipator to at least try

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I do not discover anything to anyone if I say that In Córdoba it is hotter than on Charmander’s birthday. We have many good and beautiful things, such as the Mosque-Catedral, Medina Azahara or the Alcazar of the Christian Kings. This is the only city in the world with four assets of humanity, The first person to fly did in Córdoba And for having, we have even A traffic light with artificial intelligence. But if there is something we have and that we are left over, it is, without a doubt, heat. There are those who fight this excess of Celsius degrees leaving Fuengirola (also called Córdoba II). Others put in front of the fanunder the air conditioning or call the friend who has a pool at home with the excuse of “how long without seeing us.” I, for my part, have tried in a less conventional way. I have done it with a personal thermal dissipator of Sony: the Reon Pocket Pro. It is put below the shirt, but so you can see the size better and where it should be placed | Image: Xataka Terus dissipator … what? I know it sounds a bit strange (not as much as Go to the gym with an exoskeletonwhich also made), so we go in parts. The Sony Reon Pocket Pro is a portable thermal device that cools and heats the part of the body with which it comes into contact. That part is precisely the upper back area, just below the neck. It is not a portable air conditioning, much less. How does it work? The device incorporates two independent thermal modules in the rear that cool or heat according to the context (then we return to this) and a fan that extracts the heat from our body and expels it above. The two thermal plates alternate, so that when one reaches a certain temperature, the other is deactivated and activated so that the sensation of freshness is constant. These two plates work independently and cool or heat | Image: Xataka How do you get? We have to place it so that the two plates touch our body and the upper air exit protrudes slightly from the shirt. If we wear a shirt, we can use the adapter. The device is slightly curved, thus respecting our natural curve, and has a pair of flexible tubes that are placed around the neck and keep it subject. These, by the way, are not seen, but they stay under the shirt. And yes, they are noticed. The air exit should stay above the neck of the shirt | Image: Xataka These moorings should also be placed below the shirt | Image: Xataka Is it comfortable? Depends. It is acceptable if we take it while we walk or We are perfectly seated (With a straight back), and that weighs about 200 grams. If we change posture, for example, more reclined in the chair or lying on the couch, impossible. As for noise, I have not appreciated that the fan makes more account noise. I wear it right now and in my office, where only the noise of my mechanical keyboard is heard, I do not appreciate it in excess. However, I must say that it seems like a device too large and that finding the exact location in which it must be placed is complicated. It is not so “of remove and put” as perhaps you could expect a device like this, but you have to place it well, in its place, if we want it to work correctly. That it is more or less comfortable will depend, in large part, on the position we adopt | Image: Xataka Ok, but it cools? Let’s go to the point. The Reon Pocket Pro can be used in two ways: manual or automatic. If we establish it in manual, we can configure (via buttons or via app) the target temperature and the device will be in charge of reaching it. If we establish it in automatic, it will use, in addition to the data of the device itself, those of the Reon Pocket Tag to determine the objective temperature depending on the ambient temperature, the humidity and even the exposure to direct light. The problem is that this small sensor works well if it is abroad. If we carry it in the pocket (it is fully designed to hang it on the keys or in the pants), the data can vary. In any case, it works well and if we are going to use it in a room like an office for a while, just leave it on the table and forget about it. Reon pocket tag | Image: Xataka As for the sensation, it is … curious. As soon as we put it, we will notice how the surface of the neck begins to cool (or heat). It is almost instantaneous. With the passage of the latter, the sensation of freshness is improving and, thanks to the two thermal modules that are alternating, it is constant. And yes, cool. Now, the reality is that the one that is: the sensation of freshness, within that it relieves even going down the street, is very localized in the area near the location of the device. The cold mode sensation is the same as if you carry a bag of ice cubes on the back. In heat mode, it reminds me a lot of thermal blankets for neck pain. Image | Xataka On the battery. Using it at a medium cold temperature, the device lasts practically one day. A working day endures it without problem. At a lower or greater temperature, depending on the way we choose, less autonomy. In that sense, the use of hot mode spends more than cold mode, but for obvious reasons I have not used it just during these days. As for the load, it is completed in approximately three hours. So… Is it pleasant? It is, especially when you put it … Read more

Australia was discovered in 1606 by Dutch. A theory defends that someone advanced a century: the Galicians

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Thinking about Australia is thinking about Rare animals with A single objective: kill you. It also implies thinking about the entire country as a British prison. Obviously, it is an exaggeration, but relating Australia with the British is the most normal when it was they who, in 1770 and under the orders of the captain James Cookthey began to colonize the area. But a historian did not believe in official history and developed his own hypothesis: Australia was discovered by the Spaniards. By a Galician ship, specifically, that was brought eucalyptus and left some granaries. 1606, a busy year. The British did not discover Australia, or from afar. The classic Greeks already theorized about something they called “Terra Australis Incognita“Or” unknown land of the south. “They imagined a continent that should be there for the theory of geometric symmetry and even included in European maps without really knowing if there was something there. In 1606, Things changed. The Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon He explored the northern coast of Australia and other explorers from the same country mapped both the north and the west later decades. In 1770, the British Cook arrived at the east coast, explored it and, that same year, he claimed it for the United Kingdom. So He was born The current new South Wales and the English had a new territory to colonize. As? With prisoners that They sent there in 1788. Lost Spaniards. But in 1606 they were not only the Dutch spinning around Australia. Pedro Fernández de Quirós He was a Portuguese explorer in Spain who, in 1605, decided to start from Peru to find that “Incognite Terra Australis.” He reached the current Vanuatu, an island east of Australia, also to the current Tahiti. After weeks, it landed in a larger territory and finally I thought I had given with “Terra Australis.” The christening as “Austrialia of the Holy Spirit” and was so happy. Currently, it’s called Holy Spirit and is part of the Vanuatu archipelago. Quirós and his other ships threw themselves into the sea again, but the ships separated and the captain of one of them, Luis Váez de Torreshe started looking for the main nave. He returned to Holy Spirit, He turned around for the Strait between Australia and New Guinea … and left. The area is named after ‘Strait of Torres‘In his honor and the Australian writer George Colllingridge affirmed that Torres “had discovered Australia without being aware of it.” Robert Langdon. It seems that the Spaniards/Portuguese did not set foot in the continent, but there are those who grabbed a burning nail, defending yes, that the Spaniards had been the first to reach Australia. And if you are thinking that it would be a Spanish historian taking breast, no: it was Robert Langdonan Australian historian who is called the same as the protagonist of ‘The Da Vinci Code‘. Langdon relied on several pillars to develop his theory. The most important was the discovery of guns of Spanish ships discovered in the Atolón de Amanuan atoll of French Polynesia halfway between Australia, New Zealand and South America, in 1929. Langdon defended in his’The lost caravel‘that those cannons were from the San Lesmesa Galician caravel that was shipwrecked in the territory and that pushed its navigators to start exploring the territories of Oceania. They were also reported findings of Spanish armor and helmets in New Zealand that would support this idea, but there are more details that support that idea of ​​the historian. ‘Patakas’ in Australia. A classic construction of Galicia are the Hórreos. It is a peculiar construction to conserve food, such as grain, moving them from soil moisture. They are like high barns that are associated with Galicia, but really in other European countries and even in Japan. This is important because Langdon speculated on the influence of those explorers who departed from Galicia in the architecture and culture of the area. As? With the supposed presence of Galician granaries in the territories of Oceania. The “problem” is that, as there are barns similar to the granaries in other parts of the world, in Polynesia, New Zealand and Australia. They call them ‘Patakas’. Eucalyptus in Galicia. That Galician granario in Oceania would imply the cultural bond between Galicia and Australia, but Langdon also relies on the presence of eucalyptus in Galicia. It is an endemic species of Australia and yes, they took Galicia from the contine In the nineteenth century. In addition, Langdon also used anecdotes to support his belief, such as the presence of indigenous people with light skin and eyes, morphometric aspects in the face that differ from that of the rest of the residents of the Pacific or who knew the metal. The alleged route made by the descendants of the shipwrecked of the San Lesmes No changes in wiki. The arrival of Australian eucalyptus to Galicia is fine Documented And there is no record of transoceanic contacts before the modern era, and that in Australia there are Patakas such as Galicians also implies causality. The result is that there is a lack of evidence that supports Langdon’s theory, and the majority studies carried out by other historians thanks to the period writings show that yes, the Spaniards made several expeditions, but it was Dutch and English who made the greatest advances in the exploration of the continent and its subsequent colonization. Posts to theorize … Now, Langdon was not the only one who threw himself into the pool with alternative theories. Rowan Gavin Paton Menzies He was a British writer and submarine lieutenant who jumped to fame when he affirmed, without providing evidence, that China had arrived in America before Colon. Their Opinions They were embodied in ‘1421: the year in which China discovered the world’. Not happy with it, and also without evidence, he launched the hypothesis that China had arrived 350 years before Cook to Australia and that, in 1434, China sailed to Italy and sowed the spark of the Renaissance. In the … Read more

What will there be when AI ends humanity

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In a mansion with a view to Golden Gate, the elite of artificial intelligence met last Sunday to discuss a disturbing issue: the end of humanity and what will come later. Among glasses (without alcohol) their around 100 attendees, among which there were philosophers, businessmen and researchers, imagined a future in which humans no longer existed, but an intelligence created by us. How should our successor be? The end of the end of the world. The event we have known through This Wired report It was called ‘Worthy Successor’ and aimed to discuss precisely about that: define a “successor to height” for when humanity no longer exists. This idea is related to the creation of a General Artificial Intelligence or AGIfor its acronym in English. A (for the moment) concept of superintelligence that would overcome the human being in all facets of knowledge, so good that, in the words of Daniel Faggella, host of the party: “You would with pleasure that she (not humanity) determines the future path of life itself.” Who attended. The first: Who is this guy and why should we listen to it? Faggella is the founder of Emerj Artificial Intelligence Research, a consulting firm and analysis of AI. In 2016 he wrote in Techcrunch On the risks of AI and is currently focused on disseminating the moral and philosophical approach, specifically the creation of this ‘Worthy Succesor’ an idea that had been hovering for a long time. According to account On LinkedInhas been contacting different relevant personalities of the industry to, two years later, to hold this meeting. At the party three papers could be heard from the hand of Ginevra DavisNew York writer, the philosopher Michael Edward Johnson and the host itself. The complete list of guests has not transcended, but Faggella presumes that founders of AI companies attended with values ​​of up to 5,000 million dollars, people from the laboratories that are investigating to create an AGI and some of the most important philosophers and thinkers in the sector. The superintelligence that will end with everything. In Faggella’s words: “The great laboratories know that AGI will probably end humanity, but do not talk about it because incentives do not allow it.” It sounds like conspiracy theory, but it is not the first to warn of something like that. A decade ago, Bill Gates told us We should fear the AI. Shortly after Musk demanded regulation To mitigate the dangers of what was to come. More recently, different AI experts signed A message that alerted the “risk of extinguishing for AI”. Openai also thought about The risks of the AGI. There is even talk that his statements about the creation of an AGI would have been The reason for the sound dismissal of Altman months later. What’s true in all this. We cannot know for sure, but we do know that most of the arguments about the IMMINENCE OF THE AGI And their risks are based on opinions and speculation, not on empirical evidence or concrete advances. For example, recent research has shown that current systems They still fail in basic reasoning taskswhich contradicts the idea of ​​a short -term superintelligence. Moreover, there are indications that The generative AI could be close to its roof. There is also no consensus among experts. There are detractors who They consider it ridiculousbut of course, it is less ‘viralizable’ than to say that AI will extinguish us. And most importantly: we cannot ignore the fact that those who make these statements are business people Like Altmanand the business is very expensive And you need to finance. Agite the loop insisting on the imminent arrival of the AGI could be a way to raise more money for its companies. What we will leave when we disappear. The central theme of the party was not so much how humanity will be extinguished (it seems that this is taken for granted), but what kind of intelligence we should create to make our successor. Attendees heard presentations that revolved around the values ​​and capabilities that this new superior intelligence should have. For Faggella, humanity has the responsibility of designing a successor that is aware and capable of evolving. The philosopher Michael Edward Johnson highlighted the remains of creating a conscious AI beyond the possible extinction: “We risk enslaving something that can suffer or trust something that cannot be trusted,” he said during his presentation. Rather than forcing AI to obey, he proposed a joint education of humans and Ias to “pursue good”, whatever that is. In short, an interesting debate from the ethical and philosophical point of viewbut with little anchor in reality. At least for the moment. Cover image | Gemini In Xataka | The secret weapon of the fashion industry in China: this startup uses AI to predict the next tendenci

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