Month: June 2025

I have asked the AI ​​any bullshit and now I am writing a news about her

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When OpenAI three years ago presented to Chatgpt To the world, millions of people asked themselves the same question: “Will IA replace me at work?“. The concern was not new. The labor history of humanity has been marked in recent centuries by the dispute between human production forces and mechanical production forces. An advance of the latter is interpreted without remedy as a defeat of the former. The difference in 2022 resided in the social group object of the substitution. Before the advent of AI, the “automation“From work was one of economists’ great concerns. Millions of jobs would have lost themselves in industries as important as the car or oil extraction Fruit of the slow but inexorable incorporation of robots and other tool machines. Manual workers, blue collarthey would have seen economic and socially displaced. The impact and severity of the “end of work”, as this debate became pompos, pompos It is in dispute. It is not clear That the incorporation of a robot supposes the end of work human. This was, however, an alien and even trivial issue for millions of workers white collarintellectual production, outside this kind of automation and substitutions. Until Chatgpt arrived. The irruption of AI has resulted in a thousand data and a lot of confusion. There are several The studies They have tried Estimate the loss of jobs caused by Chatgpt and other chatbots. It is soon to reach drastic conclusions. Like some companies They are discoveringget rid of hundreds of workers Thanks to the AI forces act immediately to hire others in tasks that before They were not planned. This has been a constant pattern in the history of human labor substitution: technology kills some works, generates others. The good, old days in which at least the horoscope still wrote it. (Unspash) The fear of this process was immediate in the media. If we attend to the nature of the generative AI, this becomes evident without greater explanation. If ChatGPT is able to generate a coherent and well documented text in a handful of seconds, what need would the newspapers keep dozens of editors on the squad? It would suffice with a couple of editors on the shoulders of a handful of Prompts. You feed the AI ​​with certain data, the kitchens and voilà: you have very cheap news. It has happened and will continue to happen. Some media took advantage of their economic and business difficulties to make blur and new account: dismissing their editors and replacing them with an AI achieved a cheaper means. Also much worse. But this has not been the main function of AI in the journalistic environment. The danger did not reside in the “replacement”, but in something that has been afflicting the media (already their readers) for many years. In a tangible, real, not future problem. In obsession with content. Write my next news, chatgpt It turns out that AI has not eaten our jobs. On the contrary, it has helped us to continue incurring the same perverse practices that we would incur before the arrival of ChatgPT: produce content at all costs, without discretion, covering all fronts and needs self -generated by ourselves. If the “content” was the biggest disease that afflicted the media industry, the AI ​​has not worked as a cure but as a fentanyl: an addictive and accelerating drug, also mortal. Thus, the reader has had to get used to all kinds of AI -related experiments. The most obvious of all of them is futurology. What did many media did when a blackout left without electricity to the entire Spain? Open chatgpt, ask “when it would be the next blackout” and publish the answer as is on its website. Headlines as “What will be the date of the next electric blackout in the world, according to artificial intelligence” either “Neither in 2026 nor in 2030: the date of the next electric blackout worldwide, according to AI“They sneaked into the Google or Discover media module. The point is that the content works. The reader is interested in a complex event in real time and the media can produce quick responses at low cost. Another thing is that the answers are useful. Chatgpt hardly predict the unfathomable designs of a nonagenarian curia isolated in the Sistine Chapel, but that did not prevent the media from publishing things like “Who will be the next Pope according to the predictions of the chatbots of AI?” either “The prediction of artificial intelligence about who the new Pope would be“Deepseek, Perplexity and others gave Paraolin or Tagle favorites. That is, they didn’t even have the most remote idea of ​​what they were talking about, they just regurgited. Is the final of the Copa del Rey approaching? Using tools only slightly more sophisticated than the Paul octopus, we were able to illuminate holders as solid as “The AF forecasts the winner of the Copa del Rey between Madrid and Barça“. Are Google searches disturbed because the Christmas raffle arrives? There we went to look for answers in the chatbots:”What number will be the fat winner this year? The AI ​​reveals it” either “This is the Gordo number of the Christmas Lottery 2024, according to the seers and the AI“(Kudos to the Herald for respecting the worthy trade of seers in front of the machine). A very happy man discovers that he will touch the lottery according to AI. (Unspash) The “according to the AI” search in Google News offers countless examples. We can discover How many years will pass XIV as Pope before saying goodbye to the world of the living; which The ideal work for each zodiac sign; how much money You need to charge Anyone to live without shocks; which The best town in Zaragoza to buy a house; or what is it LaLiga’s ideal eleven. Of course, the most paradigmatic example of this whole process is war. The conflict between Iran and Israel He has aroused certain latent tensions in the planet’s psyche: do we … Read more

A list of six tasks

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Productivity techniques can Be so complex either so simple as is the human mind. Therefore, there are productivity methods in which it is planned Until the last detail And others, such as the one that Ivy Lee devised almost 100 years ago, whose maximum argument is the efficiency and simplicity. The success of the method created by Ivy Lee is due to three main reasons. First, it forces continue with the tasks until its end, which reduces the tendency to leave pending issues procrastine tasks. Second, force to establish real priorities in tasks, helping to distinguish the urgent of the important. And finally, it limits the number of daily taskswhich facilitates commitment to each of them and avoids overload. This apparent simplicity is, in reality, its greatest strength. It is not enormous planning or dedicate more time to structuring tasks to do them. Just a sheet of paper and a pen. But under this simplicity its true importance underlies: it establishes limits that help not to disperse and avoid the temptation to add more tasks than you can really address in one day. Ivy Lee and Charles M. Schwab’s challenge Ivy Lee was a publicist and American productivity consultant, considered the founder of the current public relations methods. In 1918, Charles M. Schwab, one of the richest men in the world in those years, and president of Bethlehem Steel, asked him for help to improve the productivity of his employees. Schwab wanted his company to be still more efficient and competitive. The agreement between the two was simple: Lee promised to analyze how Schwab employees worked and contribute some improvements to work more efficiently. In return, Lee would not charge anything for his advice at the beginning, and agreed with Schwab that would pay what he would consider just after checking the results. After reaching that agreement with the millionaire, the consultant said: “Give me 15 minutes with each of your executives.” Weeks later, Schwab was so impressed with the increase in productivity of his employees that he delivered a check of $ 25,000 in recognition for the work done. Today, those $ 25,000 would be equivalent to about $ 516,000. What is Ivy Lee’s method Ivy Lee’s method It is very simple to implement. At the end of each working day, each Schwab employee had to write a list with only six tasks that he had to complete the next day. These tasks should be ordered by real priorityso that the most important and urgent occupy the first places, followed by the important and not urgent, to close with only the urgent but not important. The next morning, the person had to concentrate only on the first task of the list and not go to the next until he finished it. Thus, I would make task by task, without distractions or jumps between activities. If any task was left without completing, it automatically passed to the list of the next day, ensuring that none of the assigned tasks would be unsolved. As you can see, the system designed by Lee does not seem much. It is easy to implement, does not require a great organizational effort or use complex tools. However, under this appearance of simplicity there is a wolf with lamb skin that hides different psychological tricks They guarantee their success. The keys to the success of the Ivy Lee Method First of all, Its simplicity makes it very flexible. If any unforeseen argument arises, the first reaction should be to try avoid distracting you From your main objective of finishing your task list. However, if it is something unapolable, it is enough to pause it, and resume it at the same point as soon as possible. The time you have consumed to solve that unforeseen event will simply prevent you from completing the latest tasks of the list, so they simply pass the next day. Actually, six is ​​only an orientative number that can vary depending on the nature of tasks. Such and As James Clear indicatesauthor of the Best-Seller ‘Atomic habits‘, limit the number of daily tasks forces to prioritize and “prune ideas”discarding the accessory and focusing on the essential, in the really important. Having too many options can induce a state of paralysis by choiceso limiting the options forces you to commit to those six chosen and complete them. Another of its advantages is that Eliminates starting friction When facing tasks. Having the list made from the previous dayyou just have to get to work. That Elimination of starting barriers They are an elixir for those who have a tendency to procrastination since they should only sit down and get to work on the task that it plays. Your linear progress strategy Avoid multitaskingone of the main enemies of productivity and inexhaustible source of Mental fatigueallowing a deep approach to A single activity at the same time. That facilitates The concentration and improves the quality of the work done because the attention is not dispersed, reducing the possibility of committing failures. The fact of having the objective of completing tasks, contributes to improving the perception of work done And it is obtained A psychological reward for having succeeded. In Xataka | Ed Sheeran lives without mobile phone. The reason is simple: to disconnect is more and more a privilege of billionaires Image | Pexels (Suzy Hazelwood, energypic.com)

Superconductor quantum computers are being sabotaged. Fortunately, several Chinese scientists have found those responsible

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Superconductor cubits are extremely fragile. Even so, if we stick to the number of companies that are working on this type of quantum bits it is reasonable to conclude that this is the technology that has greater support and greater investmentso, somehow, is the one that goes in the lead. This strategy is probably the one that will help us to have more cubits, but also It is more prone to make mistakes That ion traps cubits, which are one of the alternatives to superconductors. In addition, these last cubits are characterized by working at a temperature of about 20 millikelvin, which are approximately -273 degrees Celsius, with the purpose of operating with the greater degree of isolation of the possible environment. IBM is one of the companies that have opted to set Quantum computers With superconductor cubits, and plans to make available to its customers in 2029 ‘Starling’, its first large -scale quantum computer equipped with the capacity to amend your own mistakes. However, something happened that can complicate the plans of this and other companies involved in the development of quantum computers. And is that a group of researchers from the Academy of Quantum Information Sciences (China) has discovered that Cosmic rays and Gamma radiation They have the ability to cause errors in superconductor cubits. This discovery is very important because it justifies the need to develop technologies that allow building reliable quantum computers despite the interference of cosmic rays and gamma rays. These scientists have published the result of their research in Nature Communications. Cosmic rays are putting quantum computers in trouble Researchers from the Academy of Quantum Information Sciences of Beijing have carried out this discovery using a 63 -cubits superconductor quantum processor. However, their most ingenious idea led them to install muones detectors within the quantum computer cooling system. This strategy allowed them to realize that gamma rays and cosmic radiation were inducing the appearance of errors in the extremely fragile superconductor cubits, thus weakening their ability to maintain coherence. It is evident that to solve a problem it is essential to identify it and know its origin, so it is good news that these scientists have made this discovery. However, before concluding this article I propose that we review briefly What are these two forms of radiation. Cosmic rays are constituted by high -energy ionized atomic nuclei that move through space at a speed very close to that of light (which is approximately 300,000 km/s). Cosmic rays are constituted by high -energy ionized atomic nuclei that move through space at a speed very close to that of light That they are ionized indicates that they have acquired electric charge because they have been stripped of their electrons, but, curiously, these atomic nuclei are made of the same matter that constitutes us and everything that surrounds us. However, and here comes the first surprise, the atomic nuclei that constitute the cosmic rays are distributed in a different way to the subject that shapes us. Hydrogen and helium are much more abundant in our solar system than in cosmic rays, while other heavier elements, such as lithium, beryllium or boron, are ten thousand times more abundant in cosmic radiation. One of the most important characteristics of cosmic radiation is its essentially perfect isotropy. This parameter reflects that the rays arrive from all directions with the same frequency, which indicates that they must coexist simultaneously numerous sources capable of generating them. And this invites us to ask ourselves one more question: where cosmic radiation comes from. A good part of the cosmic rays we receive proceed from outside our solar system. Of other stars. And travel through space with enormous energy until impacting with the atoms present in the upper layers of the atmosphere of our planet. Finally, Gamma radiationwhich is the most energetic and the most penetrating of all, requires the emission of a high -energy photon, usually known as Rayo Gamma, so the atomic nucleus maintains its original structure. Some of these high -energy photons are able to cross very thick concrete walls and lead plates, so this is the most dangerous radiation form of all. More information | Nature Communications In Xataka | Bitcoin encryption and other cryptocurrencies will fall. And those responsible will be quantum computers

China already has an army of drones and firefighters. And fight the fire to cannon

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In recent days, a video has gone viral in Chinese networks: that of a skyscraper 150 meters with flames at the top. The special thing is that, fighting the flames there were no human firefighters, but drones. And, however futuristic it is, the craziest thing is that those drones are not alone: ​​next to you there are dogs, Robot dogs that have already been incorporated into the Fire Department. Fire drones. Fire can appear at any time. In Spain we know well, especially in summerand fighting it is dangerous for specialists. A way to give a first response to fire is Through robots and drones. But apart from being able to fight the fire without putting us at risk, the advantage is that they can reach high points to which a human would take longer to access. That’s why being able to fly, basically. In the video that we leave on these lines we can see some maneuvers in which two strategies against fire are raised. One is the most striking: robots that, armed with hoses, expel water and foam to placate the flames that appear abroad. As we say, it is something we carry years Seeing in different maneuvers in China. Fighting the fire to missile. Thus, there are several drones that can already rise to 200 meters and start fighting the flames in less than 30 seconds. It is a figure that a human cannot match and that gives time to land equipment to address the entrance to the building and rescue work. One of those models is the HZH CF30a drone with six blades capable of loading up to 30 kilos of weight and that has an interesting feature: it can be equipped with a multitude of tools, from emergency equipment for survival work to missile pitchers that are thrown into the interior to placate the flames from within. EHANG 216F. But there are also manned vehicles. An example is the EHANG 216-Fsimilar to the one that has already completed Test flights for the National Police of Spainbut focused on tasks of extinction and fire assessment in upper skyscrapers. With 16 propellers, an electric motor per propeller, a maximum speed of 130 km/Hy a flight time of 21 minutes, firefighters can use it in two ways. One, as an identification vehicle. Thanks to the camera and sensors like lidarThey can identify the location of the most critical points to act. The second, as a direct action vehicle thanks to its pressurized nozzle to expel fire extinction fluid and its six projectiles full of dry dust superfine. The payload they can transport is 220 kilos and the idea is that the cities fire stations can respond to fires in high -rise buildings that are within a three -kilometer radius with respect to the station itself. Special Unitree B2. Beyond the autonomous and manned drones, another recent added to the Fire Response forces are the United Square robots. Yes, the New Chinese technological jewel that has put to fight to two of his robots. A few weeks ago, They announced A version of your UNITREE B2 Designed for emergencies in dangerous environments. It is a modular robot that can be used within flames buildings to locate the focus, evaluate the level of gases or, directly, use a water and foam cannon that can be coupled to the spine. This model is reinforced with more resistant joints that help greater security when the robot is move through complicated landsuch as stairs or collapsed buildings. As we say, it has several modules that can be installed, being one of them a kind of “shield” that expels water not to turn off the fire, but to prevent the robot from overheating and can, thus, continue to operate in complicated conditions with fire. Rescue robots. And that there is so much device focused on rescue and emergency work in China is not a coincidence. It is something that is being promoted from companies and Governmentas demonstrates the recent International Emergency Exhibition of the Yangtze River Delta. Although it seems a specific name, the Expo has become a meeting point in which innovations are shown in the field of security, rescue work and disaster prevention. 500 companies from 20 countries gathered to show their technology, being models such as that of Unitree some of the main dishes of the event. Because, in the end, China is not alone in this. Japan already has its “Dragon firefighter”To combat the fire and we are clear that they can also be Help in natural disastersas forest fires. Images | UNITREE, Ehang In Xataka | In China patrol a new unstoppable police robot: identifies objectives, launches networks, gas bombs and almost never rests

24 years later, it is still immortal

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In 2001, David Allen published ‘Getting Things Done‘. In it he created the GTD method. Almost a quarter of a century later, that method is still relevant. It is an achievement that has happened despite the huge current differences with 2001, and it is even more noticeable if we take into account that at this time dozens of apparently superior methods have been born. Most have died. The question It is not what makes a productivity method good, but what makes it immortal. In the productivity ecosystem, GTD It is the crocodile: it has been practically unchanged for decades because it found the perfect evolutionary formula. Other methods have been disappearing in the meantime: Or nobody talks about them, either they move away from the concept of productive method. Or they have simply not fulfilled adoption expectations. GTD survives because it is not a system, but a Framework: It doesn’t tell you how to live your life, it gives you tools to manage it. A difference important enough. Immortal methods Share a specific DNA: Conceptual modularity. Technological agnosticism. Resistance to perfectionism. Examples? GTD works equally well on paper as in Notion. Pomodoro You only need a stopwatch. Kanban can be implemented with post-ps or with Trello. The extincts often died overing the entertainment. ‘43 folders‘It depended on physical archivators. In full digital era. ‘ZTD’ demanded a bestial transformation. ‘Getting Results Agile’ asked to manage six simultaneous approach areas. When a method needs to be another person or do something analog, it is convicted. Neuroscience knows how to explain why the simplest survives: our brain prefers equivalent to ‘System 1‘That advocates Kahneman: automatic, intuitive, without cognitive effort. The methods that survive explode our biases instead of fighting them. Extinct methods demanded a heroic discipline for our efficient nature. Lost battle from day 1. The next time you want to adopt a new productivity method, those that sweep libraries and proliferate in the form of Reels condensing its content in a minute, Do not ask yourself if it is better than the one you already use, ask yourself if it will survive when the technology changeswhen your motivation runs out and when the novelty disappears. Immortal methods are not the most perfect, they are the most adaptable. Like crocodiles. In Xataka | 99 Undecuted Tips on Productivity Outstanding image | Savannah Wakefield in Unspash

Final Traca of the Network friday and Web Gaming Website. Five offers to take advantage of Mediamarkt campaigns during the weekend

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In a few weeks the next Amazon Prime Day 2025 will be held and stores are already launching very powerful campaigns regarding offers. Mediamarkt right now, and Until next July 1it has active two very large campaigns: the Final Friday Final Traca and the Gaming Web Week. In them, we can find an infinity of offers, so in this article we wanted to make a selection of five that we have found very interesting. UHD310X optoma by 599 eurosa projector that offers a maximum brightness of 3,600 Lumens ANSI. Magic7 Pro Honor by 849.15 euros By adding it to the cart in its 512 GB configuration. ‘Bleach: Rebirth of Souls’ by 45.99 eurosthe last video game of the saga in its version for PlayStation 5. SAMSUNG TQ65QN88DBTXXC by 899 eurosa 65 -inch Neo Qled Smart TV. MacBook Air M4 by 1,499 euros in its configuration with 24 GB of unified memory and 512 GB of SSD. UHD310X optoma To have it at home or to take it anywhere in summer, the projector UHD310X optoma It is a very versatile model and is partly thanks to the fact that it offers a brightness of 3,600 ANSI lumens (A quite high figure for the price it has). Right now it costs 599 euros and offers an image projection of up to 300 inches and is compatible with devices and accessories such as consoles, computers or Dongles like the Fire TV Stick. * Some price may have changed from the last review Magic7 Pro Honor Mediamarkt has many mobile offer, but one of those who have a very good value for money is the Magic7 Pro Honor. This is a mobile that has cost 1,299 euros to 849.15 eurosalthough for this price to come out before You have to add it to the store cart. The honor mobile highlights, above all, for its excellent performance (Snapdragon 8 Elite), by its screen, which is excellent, and for its camera system. Honor Magic7 Pro (512 GB) * Some price may have changed from the last review ‘Bleach: Rebirth of Souls’ ‘Bleach‘has resurfaced thanks to the new Disney+ adaptation that covers the last manga arch created by Tite Kubo. And besides, it is very time (about three months) the new saga video game was released: ‘Bleach: Rebirth of Souls‘, an interesting title that covers different manga arches and anime in which we can enter into frantic fighting with a good squad of characters: From the most iconic Shinigami to the Hollow (sword). Its price for PlayStation 5 has not taken long to go down, since in Mediamarkt it is for 45.99 euros. Bleach: Rebirth of Souls (PS5) * Some price may have changed from the last review SAMSUNG TQ65QN88DBTXXC Mediamarkt has also left a good place for offers on televisions, and here the Samsung brand has a lot to say. Despite being a model of last year – on televisions it is not really an inconvenience – the SAMSUNG TQ65QN88DBTXXC (QN88D) of 65 inches has dropped from 2,099 euros to 899 euros. This is a good screening with screen Neo qled 100 Hz and 4K that is compatible with HDR10+. Your speakers are compatible with Dolby Atmos And it comes with the voice assistant Alexa. * Some price may have changed from the last review MacBook Air M4 And there are also offers in Apple! One of the best chollos is found in the MacBook Air M4a laptop that has been released this year. By 1,499 euros (although In pccomponentes it costs a little less), This is the configuration of 24 GB of unified memory and 512 GB of SSD With 13.6 inches screen. Mounts the M4 chip, it is compatible with Apple Intelligence and its battery offers an autonomy of up to 18 hours of video playback. MacBook Air M4 (24 GB, 512 GB) * Some price may have changed from the last review Some of the links of this article are affiliated and can report a benefit to Xataka. In case of non -availability, offers may vary. Images | Mediamarkt and Buyardation (header), Optoma, Honor, Bandai Namco, Samsung, Apple In Xataka | Best televisions in quality price. Which to buy and seven recommended 4K 4K In Xataka | The best mobiles (2025), we have tried them and here are their analysis

The countries with the most immigrant population in the world, exposed on this map

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The number of migrants has not stopped growing in the last 50 years. Since many countries They opened their doors to immigrationinternational migratory flow has not stopped intensifying. In fact, some of those countries, such as the United States, They could not explain without immigrationbut in recent years, economic, labor, war and even climatic issues have caused the number of migrants to exploit. And it is something that is perfectly reflected in the following maps. Immigration map in 2025. On the upper map, prepared by Visual Capitalist With the last data United Nations Migration Reportwe can see the 20 countries with a greater proportion of international migrants until 2024. A migrant is defined as someone who lives in a country other than his birth for at least 12 months, regardless of reason. And what we can see is that Qatar, United Arab Emirates or Monaco are countries in which more than 70% of its population are international migrants. Around 50%, we have both European countries (Liechtenstein, Andorra or Luxembourg) and the Middle East (Kuwait, Baréin or Jordan) and Singapore. Trend. Beyond this map, there are other resources to understand the Magnitude of these migratory movements In recent years. One of them is provided by the United Nations report itself, a graph in which we can see the evolution of the number of migrants in the last 25 years. Of the 150 million of 1990, where there was already an upward trend, we went to 304 million in 2024. Distribution. The region that hosted the most migrants during the past year was Oceania, with 21.5%, followed by North America with 15.9%, Europe with 12.6%, North Africa and the Middle East with 9.3%, Latin America with 2.6%, sub -Saharan Africa with 2%, this of Asia with 1%and south of Asia with just 0.9%. It is very clear what are the regions that welcome those migrants. And another interesting resource to see those migratory movements in the last 25 years is this interactive map in which we can see the total number of immigrants from 1990 to 2024. International runners. Putting the cursor over Mexico, we observed 4.49 million people who migrated in 1990, less than half of the more than 11 million people who left the country last year looking for something better. And, of course, these people go somewhere, there are favorite destinations for cultural reasons, of language or, simply, close. These movements are summarized in the ‘runners’, and the Next graphic It allows us to take an eye on those favorite international corridors. An example, the clearest, is that of Mexico and its almost 11 million inhabitants going to the United States. Others are 3.5 million Indians going to the United Arab Emirates, another 2.8 million traveling to the United States and another 2.5 million moving to Saudi Arabia. Chance. Immigration is an opportunity for those people looking for something better, but also for the countries themselves. For example, thanks to this immigration there are countries that seek to improve their demographic situation. The case of Europe is clear, with countries that They do not approach the replacement rate and others that, thanks to immigrants, The pension system is strengthened. And then there is Japan. It is no longer that they look for that Demographic salvationbut They need labor. They do not find it in the country due, among other things, population agingand that’s why they trust and give You help whoever wants to start a new life In the country. And need. And, obviously, that immigration is the exit for situations that, unfortunately, are becoming more frequent worldwide. From the beginning of the Russian invasion, eight million Ukrainians moved internally due to the crisis, but others six million They became refugees. In Palestine, se esteem that almost six million people are refugees. In total, according to estimatesin 2024 there were more than 123 million people displaced by force around the world. Of these, 42 million were refugees and another 73 million moved internally. In Xataka | Thousands of Americans want to flee from the country because of the political climate. And they have a preferential destination: Spain

Modern tunneladoras are authentic monsters compared to those of 1950. The paradoxical is that they are equally slow

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Each person has His own Roman Empire. This is those five minutes a day that we dedicate to what we are passionate about, and topics such as Megaestructures either absurdly large tractors They can be that personal “Roman Empire.” Speaking of huge machinery, we have the tunneladoras. They are every time bigger and have more technologybut they are not advancing to the rhythm that, perhaps, we would need to Transform cities. Because after a few meteoric years, its speed seems to have stagnated. And … makes sense. Desperately slow beginning. The history Of the tunneladoras it is relatively recent, since it is a machinery that depended on the technological advances in machinery. Inspired by the cranial shell of Los Teredos, which are mollusks with jaws capable of drilling the wood of the ships, the French engineer Marc Isambard Brunel patented in 1818 the Tunnelador shield. It was a revolution and, literally, a shield: it was a cast iron structure that protected the miners while they chopped. As they progressed, the finished section was reinforced with bricks and advanced the shield by huge cats. It was still a manual work, but going protected with that shield and not “discovered” allowed to undertake works as complex as that of Támesis tunnel. And the problem is that this prototumer advanced to the rhythm of the work of the workers: one meter a day, more or less. Brunel’s shield. On the right side we see the operators picing and advance the shield from the rear while, from behind, another group is responsible for placing the supports Electricity does not improve things. In the development of the tunneladoras there were three key moments. The first was the idea of ​​the shield, the second the mechanization of the tool. Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth, different engineers tried Improve the formula of Brunel adding cutting devices to the head of the shield. Several ideas such as drills and cutting discs were tested that were mounted in their arms or on a frontal rotating plate. This mechanization was achieved thanks to pneumatic systems, steamed and, subsequently, electricity. It was clear that they were safer for operators thanks to that automation, but the drilling rate, although it had bent with respect to the manual rhythm, remained slow. The cities were hungry for Tunnels for your rail networks and channels, but the advance of steam machines was one to two meters a day … and the electricity advanced between two and five meters a day. The height is that they had reliability problems and the operators had to hold the tunnel in a traditional way. Mid a century to all fuse. In addition to the technical problems, the tunneladoras continued to have problems with the hard rock. The operators needed to resort to blasting, which made everything slower and more dangerous, but in the 50s, the American James S. Robbins was occurred Something that revolutionized the panorama: a rotating head that mixed the previous advances. The tunnelador of the Oahe dam was the First modern tunnel and had a rotating head that equipped drag cutters and disc. The tandem allowed working on tougher land continuously and, in addition, supposed the culmination of Brunel’s idea: the head perforated and the shield protected the operators who were placing the tunnel lining as the set advanced. It was also safer for these operators and the advances gave way to maximum speeds of about 200 meters a week, according to the land. The head of the tunnelador of Oahe, the first modern tunnelador Stagnation. In half a century, the speed had multiplied by ten at best, but the advances of the 21st century were by other paths. The machines continued to evolve and perfect the idea of ​​that hybrid robbins ‘morro’. They also became larger, efficient, safe and with automated systems when placing reinforcements. But despite all improvements, speed did not multiply as in past decades. He folded, but there is a problem: this speed is the theoretical one, not the real one. Jaws from the front of a double -shaped tunnelador ‘or’ The Boring Company arrives. There it enters Elon Musk on stage with his The Boring Company (An interesting game, since Boring Machine is “Boring Machine”, but it is also how the tunneladoras are known). The businessman had the Hyperloop project, which made sense to have a tunnel company company, and the objective was to drastically increase the excavation speed. Your goal? Get over The speed of 140 meters daily of a snail, 980 a week. PRUFROCK It is its great bet with, a promised speed of more than 1,600 meters per week and an objective of 80,000 meters per week. It is an objective that seems utopian, but its idea is that machines work without stopping to maintain or to install the coating. Instead of installing the traditional transport rails of coating segments, the machine is more autonomous and that rail installation time is eliminated to transport the segments of the tunnel coating. The idea of ​​The Boring Machine is to release the tunnelador, to start excavating uninterruptedly and returns to the surface. It is good, but in urban land and unstable land, it is more utopian It is really not novel because there are other machines that do it, but on soft land, working without coating can be dangerous. In current projects, such as Line 2 of the Lima Metro, the speed round 15 meters a day and everything has to do because the land is complex and urban. There are many factors to consider when talking about the speed of these machines, go. The pruffrock What if the race is no longer the speed? Leaving aside the objectives of The Boring Company, the problem may want faster machines when progress are being made in a more important area: safety. Because, although machines are now more capable and their speed It has increased slightly, that apparent stagnation can respond to a change in objective. The speed of the … Read more

The ruins of a temple located in the Andes can rewrite the history of a forgotten pre -Hispanic civilization

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It is possible that the name Tiwanaku does not sound too much. It is not among the great most famous pre -Hispanic civilizations such as the Incas, Aztecs or Maya. However, this missing society before Europeans arrived in the South American continent reached unique dominance of their surroundings. The last discovery is proof of this. More than 200 kilometers. A team of researchers has documented A temple built by the civilization of Tiwanaku. This temple was found about 210 kilometers south of the power center of this civilization which allows us to better understand the geographical extension of the domain of this pre -Columbian culture. The state of Tiwanaku. There is little we know today about Tiwanaku. This civilization would have emerged south of Lake Titicaca, in what is now Bolivia. Tiwanaku would have managed to be one of the most powerful civilizations on the continent, but disappeared around the year 1000 of our era,, giving rise to the arrival of the Incas that would dominate the region five centuries later. This civilization would have achieved, Explain the responsible team of the new discovery, an advanced social structure and left behind traces of its architecture in the form of pyramids, staggered temples and monoliths, distributed in the vicinity of Lake Titicaca. However, delimiting the area of ​​influence of Tiwanaku is difficult among those who study this civilization. The last discovery can be helpful. The Palaspata temple. The site was baptized as the Palaspata temple in reference to the name by which the natives call in the area. As described, these ruins show a rectangular complex with 125 meters long and 145 wide. I would have had 15 quadrangular enclosures and an inner courtyard. The temple disposition would not have been random since it is aligned with the equinox. In the enclosure, fragments of Keru glasses were found, which were used for chicha consumption, a corn beer. Corn is not a local crop so The team considers that Palaspata’s environment would have been a commercial node in the Tiwanaku civilization. Combining techniques. To study the diffuse brands left by the old temple the team had to combine different satellite images, images that combined with those taken by drones with those who fly over the site. They also resorted to the photogrammetry technique, that is, three -dimensional reconstruction from multiple photographs. The details of the study were published In an article In the magazine Antiquity. Recycling the stones. Although we have just discovered the nature of this archaeological site, the environment was well known by local people. In fact, some of the stones and artifacts that constituted this temple had been “recycled” by local farmers in their own constructions. A triple border. Palaspata’s significance lies in its location as we indicated at the beginning, a “strategic” location for those responsible for the finding. This area, they explain, connected three of the main trade routes that communicated three valleys with two ecosystems: the high and fertile lands next to Lake Titicaca; The Andean Altiplano, livestock zone where the flames grew; and the Andean valleys east of Cochabamba, another agrarian region. In Xataka | We have found 21 human remains of 6,000 years ago in Colombia. They do not look like any current living population Image | José Capriles / Penn State

The parking ‘spine’

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We are all angry at a shopping center and see that there is a car that is occupying two places. And sometimes, it is not the problem of drivers, but of cars themselves. They are getting biggerbut Parking squares do not change. But … Can’t you make larger places more efficiently? On a walk through Redditthere are those who have found the solution: German parking lots with 60% more space. It is not German efficiency, but the fish spine parking. The problem is that the miracle is relative. Fish spine parking. Battery parking is battery parking (also in reverse). The perpendicular is the perpendicular. There is no doubt there, but with the fish spina parking there is a problem: too many names and interpretations. It can be called ‘fish spine’ as a translation of ‘fishbone parking’, but it is also known as’ Angled Parking, ‘Geometric Parking’ or ‘Herringbone parking’. And there are also variants. The one in the image on these lines is the spine parking that they referred to in Reddit and it is easy to imagine the reason: it seems, indeed, the design of the fish thorns. In This parking lotthe vehicles are placed at an angle of 30º, 45º or 60º with respect to the circulation lane, in rows of two cars that coincide by the nose. Advantages. The maneuver when parking is very reduced, since you simply face the car at the right angle. That makes it much easier Occupy the exact point in the square, leaving a good distance with the cars to the sides. We have less maneuvers than in a 90º parking and space is much more optimized than in parallel parking. Another advantage is that it is safer. As is done in single -sense areas, we know where cars will come and, although we have to go back, low speeds in a parking should not be a security problem. The calculations seem contradictory. There are studies that They point That this angle parking is the best way to optimize the space and that the 60º is ideal. In 100 m², parking at 60º allows 5.2 seats. In 45, they are reduced to 4.9 places, in 30º it stays at 3.8 seats and in parallel the figure is 4.4 seats. At first glance, it may seem that the data contradicts themselves. While some studies indicate that the angle of 60º allows more cars per area, others suggest that perpendicular parking offers a similar capacity. The key is how the lines and the total available spaces are distributed. So? David Percy, a professor at the University of Salford, put himself Hands to work With mathematics and discovered that, if in a parking lot at 90º 500 cars entered, in a parking lot with lines drawn at 45º they fit 619. It represents an improvement of 23.8% that is far from the 60% that was stated in Reddit, but that evidently is an advance and contrasts with the previous data that 60º enter the same as 90º. And the key is that it depends on the size of the enclosure. The great advantage when using a fish spine system would be noticed in very large enclosures. It is in those in which the number of places is optimized because it is necessary less space for the car to make maneuvers and, therefore, the traffic lanes can be narrower. In smaller parking lots, the space wasted at the edges of the first and last bays would counteract that intended savings. Others studies In more content parking lots indicate that, with angle parking, 80 cars occupy 7% less than with the parking lot in 90º because this savings come for the lowest space necessary for maneuvers. It seems that the bigger the parking lot, the better it gets to opt for the fish spine parking. Practical use. Therefore, “in Germany they use this pattern that saves 60% space”, is very relative and, as we see, it all depends on the space available in the parking lot. It is easier to enter because you have to maneuver much less, but in great parking lots the priority is not so much that you have it easier (there you have to look for life) but to enter the more, the more. A very easy way to see where this type of parking is used is on Google Maps. And it is really not easy to find them. Where I have seen are in cars and factor concessionaires both in Germany as in other countries (in United KingdomFor example). Here we see that immense space that Percy spoke with the spike parking lot as the best solution, and it makes sense because what they need is to accumulate the more cars, the better. There are also plants such as Berlin Tesla Gigafactoría or BMW that have conventional parking. And others like the BMW of Oerctraubling in which they do what they want: But you don’t have to go to Germany to see a fish spine parking. This Parking of Ciudad Real is dwarf and it seems that when designed they asked “what parking model we applied.” And the answer was “yes.” We have in parallel, in 90º, in fish of fish and in another type of angle In the end, the conclusion is that there are Many types possible parking (some that I neither knew) and that implement one or the other depends on something obvious: the space you have. Images | Google Maps, m In Xataka | Reserve a parking space with the body is possible. And also that they mulitate us for it

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