Month: October 2025

just 2 euros a month

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We are on the verge of a new Black Friday. It is an event that offers us bargains of all kinds, ones that we do not usually see during the rest of the year. Furthermore, by being able to buy from the Internet, we can take advantage of these deals at home, on the street or sitting in a cafe. Nothing has to happen to us, but with so many cyber attacks like those that occur every month, there is a certain risk that our data ends up in the wrong hands. It’s not all bad news. If we use a good a VPN When we go shopping, we can eliminate almost all of these risks. There are free ones, but, although they are useful at specific times, the ideal is not to use them frequently. Better to bet on a paid one and even more so considering that We can get a quality one like Surfshark for very little: it only costs 1.99 euros per month. Surfshark Starter Subscription – monthly The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Shopping online is safer with a VPN As we said a little above, there are free VPNs on the Internet. They are useful and may fit us well for a specific moment, but it is better not to use them. The reason? Two main reasons: They are not as safe as they promise to be. and, furthermore, its speed is not the best. If we don’t mind making a small investment per month, it is better to get a paid one. Although we can use them for many things, VPNs can be great when shopping online. By activating it (which we can do by pressing a single button), we will pass all our Internet traffic through a secure tunnel, thanks to which no cybercriminal will be able to intercept it. In simpler terms: our information, such as bank details and credit card details, are kept safe. In the case of Surfshark, we also have a very interesting advantage: it is multi-device. That means that with a single subscription, We will be able to install the VPN on all the devices we want. So, it doesn’t matter if you are at home in front of your PC or in a hotel with your cell phone connected to WiFi: you will always have your Internet traffic protected. Surfshark’s VPN is included in its Starter plan, which is the cheapest subscription this company has. This does not come alone, since it includes for the same price an additional tool called Alternative ID. This allows us to create a series of fictitious data that we can use to register on a portal where we do not want to use real information. As we said above, the Surfshark Starter subscription only costs 1.99 euros if we opt for its 2-year modality. If we do numbers, that means that we are going to pay 47.76 euros in total, a quite affordable price if we take into account everything that we are going to have this tool with us. And the thing doesn’t end there, since Surfshark gives us 3 extra months (so it will be 27 months in total). Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | rupixen on Unsplash In Xataka | Why it is dangerous to connect to public Wi-Fi and what you should do to protect yourself In Xataka | Free VPN and security: what’s the problem, why you should be careful

The aging of its population is about to leave Japan without a key element for the nation: pants

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Japan has entered a unprecedented demographic phase for an advanced economy: retirement mass of the generation that supported its industry coincides with a young one that is too small (and unwilling) to occupy the jobs that this economy requires to continue functioning. On paper, global demand for certain domestically manufactured goods has never been higher, but in the engine room, those who know how to produce them are aging without substitutes. Fabric turned into luxury. He japanese denimslowly woven, dense and dyed with natural indigo in repeated cycles, enjoys a moment of consecration worldwide: Dior, Balenciaga and other luxury houses incorporate it, celebrities exhibit it, the market projects grow more than 85% until 2035 and tourism (supported by a weak yen) triple sales in Kojima’s “Jeans Street.” For an industry that had been hollowed out by decades of cheap imports, the return of demand is not marginal but cultural: the value resides in the texturethe way indigo ages and in that kind of aura of exclusivity that results from real and not cosmetic scarcity. In fact, brands with Japanese only website and without direct export they increase that breath of rarity and price. Without a job when it is most demanded. The apogee has arrived when the productive base collapses: There are barely fifty artisans left in the founding heart of the japanese selvedgethe average age is close to seventy, and apprentices last months before giving up due to noise, heat, grease, discipline and slowness. Bloomberg counted that the skill curve is not linear: it takes six months to five years to operate the loom and up to a decade to maintain and repair it. With the master generation entering retirement and entrepreneurs without time to transmit the trade, continuity is broken by calendar, not by market. Ancient technology. The shuttle looms of the early 20th century (now relics) allow continuous edging what gives the “selvedge” and the density of the weave that produces an unmistakable drape, feel and aging in the fabric. Japan came to have 300,000 machines of this type. The problem? Today there are less than 400 operationsa lower third a single signature. To maintain them you have to remove pieces of other machines already stopped and work at a pace that doesn’t fit with today’s industry. They cannot be replaced by automation without losing exactly what the customer pays for: a finish that only time gives on a slow-made fabric. What is authentic is paid for. Plus: the one who pays For this denim you are not looking just for the feel, but for a product that takes time to make, that ages well and does not depend on the rapid rotation of fashion. In other words, this preference fits with the rejection of fast-fashion and a turn towards objects designed to last. The signs are many and clear: Levi’s sells “Blue Tab” lines for twice the price of a normal 501, Capital places jeans worth several hundred or thousands of dollars, and funds linked to the almighty LVMH they invest in Kojima brands. The problem of aging. Japan is getting older faster than there is time to teach the trade. The factories have plenty of orders, but they cannot get hire or train substitutes. The owners travel and manage, but they do not have hours to teach, and the machines will be lost due to lack of parts and hands that know how to maintain them. If the drift continues like this, the problem will not be a lack of demand but capacity: in about ten years (according to own manufacturers) this type of product will no longer be able to be made because neither the technicians nor the machines will be able to work. There are no shortcuts. The final paradox is that the boom of the sector It doesn’t seem like it’s going to save the job, rather it accelerate towards the limit: The more demand grows, the more it squeezes the few remaining hands and the less time there is to teach others. Thus, the world Japanese denim is faced with a disturbing choice: slow down the pace to transmit the trade (even if that means losing sales in the short term) or exploit the latest generation until it is exhausted, knowing that this would leave a product that will possibly disappear, not due to lack of market, but because no one will be able to do it anymore. Image | PxHere, Liface In Xataka | That Japan has 100,000 people over 100 years old explains a problem: they are literally running out of drivers. In Xataka | Japan’s aging has hit rock bottom with a devastating fact: more and more elderly people want to live in prison

An experiment has put four chatbots from the US and two from China to invest $10,000 in cryptocurrencies. The Chinese are sweeping

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What would happen if you gave GPT-5 $10,000 to invest in cryptocurrencies? What if you gave them to other models at the same time and they competed with each other? That’s just the idea they had in Nof1…and the result is fascinating. Six models investing in cryptos. Those responsible for Nof1 have created Alpha Arena, a new type of benchmark that according to them “gets more difficult the smarter the AI ​​is.” The idea is relatively simple: measure the performance of six cutting-edge models to see how they perform when given $10,000 (real) and invested in cryptocurrencies in real markets. The contenders are the following: GPT-5 Gemini 2.5 Pro Claude Sonnet 4.5 Grok 4 DeepSeek Chat v3.1 Qwen 3 Max DeepSeek has turned his $10,000 into almost $20,000, and Qwen into $15,000, fantastic. GPT-5 and Gemini 2.5 Pro have lost 65% of their value and are both at $3,500. Total disaster. DeepSeek and Qwen triumph, GPT-5 and Gemini sink. The result of these 11 days since this “race” began is fascinating. The two Chinese models, DeepSeek and Qwen, have obtained enormous benefits: in DeepSeek the return is 97% at the moment (it was as high as 123%), while Qwen is not doing badly at 53%. Claude (0.84%) and Grok (-8.2%) are maintaining or losing slightly, but pay attention, because GPT-5 (-65.7%) and Gemini 2.5 Pro (66%) are currently losing two thirds of what they invested. The summary of winners and losers not only shows that positive or negative return, but also something curious: the number of operations. GPT-5 (75 moves) and especially Gemini 2.5 Pro (193!) are extremely restless. Although it does not have to be this way always, those who operate the least are the ones who are earning the most. Crypto fortunes that come and go. For this experiment, the models can invest in six of the most relevant cryptocurrencies on the market: bitcoin, ethereum, dogecoin, ripple, solana and BNB. The models decide whether to take positions in one or several, as well as the amounts and level of leverage. Positions are normally held for a few hours, although in some cases they may be held for days. Learning little by little. All of them have been competing since last October 18 in the “first season” of an experiment that will last until November 3. As explain its creatorsthis first iteration will allow us to obtain the first conclusions about how these models perform in the financial field. Here we come to earn money. The goal is simple: maximize profits and minimize losses (PnL). This first season is just that, because from then on we will apply what we have learned after each season to polish the prompts and add new features to the experiment and thus create models that in theory will perform better and better when investing in financial markets. Algorithmic trading at its best. What these models are doing would be crazy for human investors, especially since all of them not only expose themselves to the volatility of the crypto market, but also multiply it because they make use of the leverage (leverage). With this mechanism one can achieve huge profits much faster, but the risk is also extreme. The models in fact use absolutely extraordinary leverages of 20x or 25x, and can take either short positions (short, you “bet” that the price of an asset will go down) or long (long, you “bet” that the price of the asset will go up). The operation of the benchmark experiment is relatively simple, but it will become more complicated in future seasons. Machines don’t panic. To try to control these risks, the models have clear rules in their prompts regarding risk limits (establishing clear stop loss signals, for example) or confidence in their criteria. And furthermore, they follow them, which allows the models to maintain their position unless these signals occur. Here, by the way, we are talking about medium or low frequency trading: decisions are made in minutes or even hours, not in microseconds. That, the creators say, allows us to answer the question of whether a model can make good decisions if it has enough time and information. Don’t even think about doing it at home.. This experiment is just that, an experiment, and in fact financially speaking it is leaking everywhere. To begin with, because the trial period of this first season is extremely short and does not allow long-term behavior to be evaluated. And finally (among many other things), because the information to which the models have access is very limited. They do not take into account news related to this area and only have numerical data that correspond to average prices and current and historical volumes, and some technical indicators. That information. On the right side DeepSeek v3.1 confesses how it maintains its position because no condition that invalidates it is met, and by clicking on it you can see what it takes into account (value of BTC or ETH, for example) to modify or not modify that criterion. The models tell everything. One of the sections of the interface shows the “Model Chat” where it is possible to see how each model “reflects” on its position. If we click on that reflection we can see all the current and historical data with which he has worked to reach that decision (I maintain my position, I change it) and thus we can find out at all times his reasons for making a move. Just because they win now doesn’t mean they are the best.. Those responsible for Nof1 explain that this is not about declaring the best trading model of the six, because this is just an experiment. As they say, “we are deeply aware of the flaws of this first season, including, but not limited to: response bias, limited sample sizes/lack of statistical rigor, and brevity of the evaluation period.” This experiment will be repeated over different seasons and with new features that will be added to the decision … Read more

From 27 to 36 years old the brain reaches its peak, then everything is downhill

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Concentration is a key skill in our daily lives, influencing how we learn, work, and perform important tasks. Without concentration, errors follow one another and the execution time multiplies. Recent studies have sought to determine at what point in our lives we reach the higher level of care and mental efficiency, a fact that may be very surprising to those who believe that young people are the most concentrated by nature. This information is also important to know what happens after that stage and how we can maintain or improve our ability to concentrate with appropriate exercises and habits. The zenith of concentration A meta-analysis A comprehensive study of 139 studies conducted by researchers from different departments at Hangzhou Normal University found that you can never be as focused as you are between the ages of 27 and 36. According to researchers, attention and memory capacity draws a Gaussian bell marking its peak between 27 and 36 years of age. During this age group, the brain achieves its greatest efficiency in sustained attention and executive skills, surpassing even those of young people as young as 20. From the age of 36, cognitive abilities related to concentration begin to deteriorate little by little, affecting processing speed and working memory. This decline is natural, but progressive, which does not imply that this capacity is lost drastically in a short period of time, the brain simply needs more care and strategies to maintain its optimal performance over time. Train body and mind Although concentration declines as maturity is reached, studies carried out at the Autonomous University of Madrid have revealed physical changes in the cerebral cortex after a cognitive training program based on memory and attention tests. The participants showed an increase in cortical thickness in regions linked to concentration control, suggesting that, with adapted exercises, the brain can develop and strengthen these abilities at any age. Maintain a mental exercise routinepromoting mindfulness and controlling distractions are key to prolonging states of concentration. Constant practice of tasks that require attention and organization techniques They are tools that help keep the brain active and alert. Furthermore, there is scientific evidence about the impact of regular physical exercise in cognitive processes, including attention and concentration, thanks to the increase in cerebral blood flow and the activation of brain regions involved in these functions. The scientific literature agrees that moderate physical activity and enriched environments promote neurogenesis and improve concentration markers. Habits that improve concentration To strengthen concentration and prevent the brain from wandering easily, it is essential to train the mind with specific exercises and adopt effective habits. According the statements By Estanislao Bachrach, a molecular biologist specialized in the relationship between the brain and human behavior, one of the most recommended exercises is daily meditation, which helps reduce stress and improve memory. The excess of distracting elements, such as cell phones or environmental noise, makes it difficult to achieve a state of attention and concentration sustained over time. multitasking He’s not a great ally either. to maintain focus, since with each task change the brain must relocate to the new task, something that takes it out of this “flow” state which Mihály Csíkszentmihályi talked about in his book ‘Flow‘. Finally, motivation plays a crucial role: when a task does not interest us or we feel anxious, nervous or overwhelmed, concentrating becomes more difficult. In Xataka | How to regain the concentration that social networks and multitasking have taken from us Image | Unsplash (Jonathan Borba)

If the war involves electromagnetic catapults, Beijing has a problem

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In mid-September there was a tense scene in China. It happened on the deck of his brand new Fujian aircraft carrierand all the hopes of his Navy were placed on the reliability of that test: If for decades takeoffs were dominated by steam, his new “monster” was going to do it with electricity. Your electromagnetic catapult confirmed They were very serious. Although now the United States has something to say. Structural limitation. The news have given two former US Navy aircraft carrier officers, who conclude, after analyze images of the Fujian, that the deck configuration of the new Chinese aircraft carrier forces takeoffs and landings to be sequenced instead of overlapping them, which reduces its operational rhythm to approximately 60% of a Nimitz no less than half a century. The explanation. As they say, the angle of support of only 6th compared to 9th of the American ships, the greater length of the landing area (which invades the area where the planes are parked in tip before the catapult) and the position of the two forward catapults intercepting the landing system convert the deck into a plane with kinetic conflict pointswhere moving a recovered aircraft can momentarily block the catapult and disrupt the next sortie. Given this risk of collisions in an extremely dense and fast environment, the only realistic mitigation, according to officialsis to lower the tempo, which is equivalent to a direct degradation of the output generation capacity. Technological leap. He FujianAs we said, it is the first Chinese aircraft carrier with electromagnetic catapultsallowing devices to be launched with more fuel and weapons, increasing radius and hit mass. In fact, only Gerald R. Ford American shares this characteristic. It is a radical leap from Liaoning and Shandongwhich continue with ski jumping and limit weight at takeoff. But the material leap does not imply an immediate doctrinal leap: the deck operational culture (cycles, sequences, discipline of human and mechanical flow under hostile climate) is only achieved through years of operation and “with a blood curve,” as veterans remember. Without that accumulated experience, hardware introduces potential capacity that practice does not yet know how to exploit without a penalty in pace (or risk). Quantitative advantage. we have told before: China launches ships at an accelerated pace, building the largest navy in the world in total numberbut its deficit in aircraft carriers is not countable but rather generational: eleven compared to two in service, and decades of know-how compared to a first cohort that is barely entering the real training phase. The Fujian is the first volumetric competitor of the Nimitzbut according to American commanders, it is born with a deck topology that compromises your cadencewhile Washington operates ten Nimitz with doctrine mature and closes the cycle with the Ford class. That the Nimitz, launched in 1975in its last deployment may still surpass Fujian in rate of departures, illustrates that distance between tonnage and competition. The “intermediate link.” The officials, furthermore, interpret the Fujian as a bridge platform: first introduce the catapult, and then clear restrictions in subsequent generations. The next unit (the Type 004) will adjust, a priori, errors and move geometries to unleash the potential that the Fujian contains but does not release due to its disposition. China already shows the industrial pattern of fix in production: fail, learn and launch an iteration in a few years, something consistent with its naval pattern in other ship classes. In that sense, it would not be entirely correct to say that the Fujian fails: rather it fulfills the function of teaching and learning so that the successor is born without those collars. From steam to electricity. Steam catapults dominated shipborne aviation since the fifties: They use steam pressure to drive a piston that drags the plane. They are huge, but energy inefficient, with control thick acceleration and high maintenance requirements. the arrival by EMALS (Electro-Magnetic Aircraft Launch System), first in the Ford class and now in Fujianreplaces thermal hydraulics with digitally controllable induction force: acceleration can be modulated, reducing the structural fatigue of the aircraft, allowing heavier devices to be launched with less stroke and recovering energy more quickly between departures. The “but”. It turns out that the electromagnetic advantage is conditional: to translate into real power requires a deck architecture, doctrine, rhythms and sequence discipline capable of capitalizing on the new margin. In other words, the first generation system in the hands of a fleet without “deck kilometers” inherits the physical power but far from the operational efficiency that decades of steam they taught to squeeze. The key is time. Ultimately, the background thesis of the veteran Marines is not that the Fujian is an unsolvable error, but that its limitation reveals the real nature of naval aviation warfare: it is not pure engineering but engineering amortized with habit, and where the enemy is not design but the chronology. Although it may seem like it, the combat power of an aircraft carrier is not its displacement or its systems, but rather the cycles per hour and the psychological confidence accumulated to sustain them at night, under storms, with low fuel and/or zero margin. That casuistry, which defines lethal performance, cannot be bought. AND, according to officialsChina still operates in the stadium in which only through years of cover will it be able to convert the physical leap from Fujian in sustained air power output. Image | Ministry of National Defense The People’s Republic of China/ LI GANG/XINHUA, Ministry of National Defense In Xataka | China has just tested the Fujian with three different aircraft. The electromagnetic catapult is no longer theory, it is practice In Xataka | For years the Airbus A380 symbolized European power against Boeing. Today he survives like a colossus without a kingdom

a month later, the answers are not so obvious

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Time passes so quickly that it’s hard to believe that the new iPhones have been in stores for more than a month. The truth is that Apple has made a move again, and it has done so with a model that renews materials and promises a more balanced experience. But after three very continuous generations, the question is once again the same: has anything really changed? in a new 24/7 from the Xataka YouTube channel We have tested it for 30 days to see if these changes are noticeable on a daily basis or if history repeats itself. For 30 days, Ana Boria has coexisted with the iPhone 17 Pro Max in all types of situations: recording, working, playing or taking photos outdoors. Their goal has been to see if the change in materials and the new design translate into a different experience or if, in the end, day-to-day life feels the same as before. On Xataka’s YouTube channel We already put the Freestyle Libre 2 glaucometer to the test for a week, and we also dedicated a month to the Xiaomi 15 Ultra now to the Smart Band 10. This 24/7 It follows that same approach of prolonged use to understand the product beyond the technical sheet. iPhone 17 Pro Max: a month of in-depth testing The change of materials is appreciated from the first moment. He iPhone 17 Pro Max It leaves titanium behind to adopt an aluminum chassis with more curved edges and a more pleasant touch finish. Apple justifies this step as a thermal improvement, and in tests a more uniform distribution of heat has been noted when the phone is working at its limit. The flip side is that aluminumsofter, shows marks easily, although for Ana the sensation of use compensates for that loss of hardness: “in that sense it seems to me that the change in design is much more successful and comfortable.” After a week of use, our colleague focused her attention on the screen and sound, two sections that this year arrive with small adjustments. The panel now reaches a maximum brightness of 3000 nits, improves contrast and adds a new anti-reflective coating. In practice, it ensures that the experience does not change too much: outdoors it looks perfect, but not better than before. So we wonder if the new anti-glare really makes a difference outside the laboratory. The new A19 Pro is responsible for making everything work very smoothly. Ana acknowledges that the jump in power is not as noticeable as one would expect: “In practice I cannot tell you that this increase in performance is noticeable.“What does change is the heat management. Thanks to the aluminum body and the vapor chamber, the heat is distributed evenly and localized overheating disappears. The result is a more stable phone, which withstands intense sessions without losing fluidity or reducing brightness. The iPhone 17 Pro Max cameras maintain the level, but the new 4x telephoto lens steals all the attention. Its more practical distance is valued, although it is admitted that the behavior is not always predictable: “it is that at no time do you know with what lens the photograph is being taken.” On the positive side, the 18 MP selfie allows for effortless reframing and the stabilizer “was good before, but now it’s a blast.” Is this really the step forward we were hoping for in mobile photography? After a month of testing, Ana sums it up with a phrase that makes the dilemma clear: “We have the best iPhone Pro that has ever existed, pero doesn’t reinvent the wheel“The interesting thing is in everything behind that conclusion: the nuances, the surprises and the comparisons that can only be understood by seeing it in action. All that, and the final verdict, They are in the video on Xataka’s YouTube channel. Images | Xataka In Xataka | Huawei Pura 80 Ultra, analysis: the dethroned king returns to recover his crown with a telephoto lens

If we don’t see aliens it is because of our “epistemological limitations”

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What if aliens are everywhere, but we are cognitively unable to perceive them? A Serbian philosopher has proposed a disturbing solution to the Fermi paradox: The answer is not in the universe, but in the limits of our own brain. Where is everyone? The Fermi Paradox is one of the most famous questions in modern science. The universe is immense and very ancient. The lights we see in the sky are billions of galaxies and trillions of planets. By mere statistics, intelligent life should be common. If this is so, why haven’t we found the slightest evidence of it? Why haven’t we seen its megastructures, caught its signals or received visitors? “Where is everyone?” physicist Enrico Fermi asked in 1950. The Great Filter. There are many brilliant minds who have dared to use the Fermi Paradox. Many of the answers fall under what has come to be known as “The Great Filter”: something that prevents the development of a higher level civilization in the Kardashev scale. Perhaps advanced civilizations tend to annihilate themselves in nuclear wars, or perish in the face of lethal climate change before they can colonize the galaxy. Perhaps the conditions that allowed life here are an unrepeatable cosmic coincidence. We are alone because we are a rare bird. The ego can get us. All of these solutions have a root problem: they are deeply anthropocentric. They assume that other intelligent life forms are like us, that they use technology that we can detect. What if the great silence of the cosmos was nothing more than the result of searching for radio signals when the intelligent life we ​​seek communicates across dimensions we cannot even imagine? We are dumb as worms. This is where the proposal of the Serbian philosopher Vojin Rakić, published in the International Journal of Astrobiology. Rakić calls it the “solution to enduring human epistemological limitations.” The key is in the term “epistemological”, which in the theory of knowledge is how we know what we know and what the limits of our perception are. Extraterrestrial life could be so radically different from us that it simply our brain is not equipped to recognize it. We are to aliens what worms are to us. So? Well, if Rakić is right, there isn’t much to do. We look for little green men in flying saucers, but intelligent life could exist as a form of non-physical consciousness, an interdimensional energy network, or an intelligence based on dark matter. Rakić uses very powerful terrestrial analogies. We know that octopuses are incredibly intelligent, but their nervous system is completely foreign to ours. Fungal networks demonstrate a complexity that goes unnoticed by us. And few would have imagined that a handful of silicon chips would give rise to AI. How can we explain to someone from a couple of centuries ago that we have taught stones to speak? SETI is already at it. This idea, which might seem like pure philosophy, is catching on in the scientific community. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI) itself has made an appeal to “abandon the anthropocentric perspective” in their exploratory work. It is not about stopping searching, but about expanding our definition of life and intelligence, thinking that “other minds” might have nothing to do with terrestrial biology. For now, our best weapon to stop being dumb as worms is to advance our own science and improve our own cognition. Image | NSF/NSF NRAO/AUI/B.Foott

The future of artificial intelligence is not in the cloud, it is in the nucleus of the atom

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On the outskirts of Palo, a farming town in eastern Iowa, you can still see the gray towers of Duane Arnold Nuclear Power Plant. They have been silent for years, but those who live nearby remember the constant hum that accompanied their childhood. For nearly half a century, that boiling water reactor was part of the landscape and power supply of the Midwest. Everything changed in August 2020, when a right —a wall of storms with hurricane-force winds—ravaged corn crops and damaged cooling towers. Duane Arnold went out and no one thought it would come back on. The plant, already aging and with a license about to expire, was permanently shut down. It seemed like the end. Five years later, that atomic silence will be broken again, driven not by the State or the traditional nuclear industry, but by a technology company: Google. “It’s alive, it’s alive.” Victor Frankenstein shouted in the 1931 film. Nine decades later, that cry echoes symbolically in Iowa: the Duane Arnold nuclear power plant will come back to life. The resurrection will come from Google and NextEra Energywhich will invest more than 1.6 billion dollars to return the pulse to the plant in 2029. According to ReutersGoogle will buy most of the energy generated for 25 years to power its artificial intelligence data centers, while NextEra will assume 100% control of the plant after acquiring the shares of its local partners. A restructuring never seen before. Reactivating a nuclear plant is not as simple as pressing a button again. In the case of Duane Arnold, Google and NextEra Energy plan to redo all critical infrastructure, modernize security systems and pass inspection by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) before receiving a new license. The project is unprecedented: to demonstrate that a closed plant can be revived under current safety standards. “Reopening an existing plant is faster and cheaper than building a new one from scratch,” explain analysts cited by the Financial Times. If all goes well, Duane Arnold will be producing energy again in 2029, along with Palisades and Three Mile Islandthe other two pieces of the American atomic renaissance. It is not the first, nor will it be the last. Big technology companies are betting on reopening nuclear plants. On the one hand, Microsoft signed a similar agreement with Constellation Energy to reopen the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania, which is expected to resume operations in 2028. On the other hand, Amazon is working with Dominion Energy to develop SMR reactors (Small Modular Reactors) in Virginia. Google itself I had already taken steps in that direction: Last year it announced a partnership with Kairos Power to build seven SMR reactors by 2030, with a total capacity of 500 megawatts. These modular reactors are smaller, more efficient and safer, and are presented as the future of civil nuclear energy. Additionally, SMRs can be installed near data centers, reducing electrical transportation losses and costs. The AI ​​energy fever. The trend is unmistakable: Big Tech they are betting on the atom to fuel the era of artificial intelligence. Each new generation of models—from ChatGPT to Gemini to Claude—demands thousands of megawatts of additional power. And the growth is just beginning. In this context, OpenAI – the creator of ChatGPT – has asked the US government for a national plan to drastically expand the country’s electrical capacity. As CNBC reportedthe company asked the White House to commit to building 100 gigawatts of new energy capacity each year, warning that China added 429 gigawatts in 2024 alonecompared to 51 in the United States. In its statement it concludes with a phrase that will become an energy motto of the sector: “Electrons are the new oil.” Risks and doubts. Despite the enthusiasm, the Google project is not without controversy. Physicist Edwin Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists warned in the Financial Times that Duane Arnold has “the same design as the reactors that melted down at Fukushima in 2011” and that it suffered “significant damage, including its cooling towers, during the right “Until a realistic estimate of the cost of reconstruction and safety guarantees is known, we will not know if it can generate affordable electricity,” Lyman said. Likewise, Wall Street Journal collect the criticism from environmental groups such as the Sierra Club, which question the age of the reactor, the degradation of its components after years of inactivity and the management of radioactive waste. However, even among skeptics there is consensus on one point: AI’s energy appetite leaves no alternative to exploring all possible options. lhe electrons of the future. What is happening in Iowa is not a simple industrial reopening: it is a declaration of intent of the new technological capitalism. Google, symbol of the cloud and virtuality, turns to the most tangible and ancient atom to sustain its digital future. The paradox sums up the moment: artificial intelligence needs real matter, megawatts and electrons. The Duane Arnold plant, which once marked the rise and fall of the American nuclear dream, could be reborn as the energy heart of AI. And if OpenAI’s predictions come true, it won’t be the last. In the new global economy, electricity will be the oil of the 21st century. And in Iowa, Google just lit the spark again. Image | Unsplash Xataka | The amount of nuclear energy generated by each country, detailed in this interactive map

Real Betis Balompié has joined the space race to solve a pressing problem: collisions between satellites

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It sounds unlikely, but it is a fact. Real Betis Balompié has entered the space sector. And without leaving Seville. GMV’s new partner. The historic football club and the aerospace company GMV have installed in the Rafael Gordillo sports city a satellite surveillance and tracking antenna. The agreement makes Betis the first football club in the world to host a facility dedicated to the sustainability of the space. More specifically, at pressing space debris challenge and the increasing risk of collisions in orbit. Betis 1 – Space trash 130 million. Earth orbit congestion may not be the main concern of green and white fans, but it is a danger for the satellites we use every daywhether with the car navigator, to see the weather forecast or when we turn on the broadcast of a football match. Thousands of operational satellites coexist with up to 130 million fragments of space debris: pieces of dead satellites and rocket remains that travel at hypersonic speeds and have triggered the evasion maneuvers of the active satellites. It is “one of the great challenges that humanity faces in the orbital environment,” says Miguel Ángel Molina, of GMV. Monitor and prevent. This is where the new 2.7 meter satellite dish installed at the Betis training center in Seville comes into play. Its mission is to track space debris and predict collisions in order to avoid them. To this end, GMV internally developed a system called Focusear. It works by “listening” to the signals that the satellites themselves emit in the Ku band (the same one used by satellite television) from the geostationary orbit, about 36,000 km high. Nanosecond precision. Upon receiving these signals, the system uses radio frequency triangulation techniques (TDoA and FDoA) to determine the position and orbit of the satellites with a margin of error of about three meters, equivalent to 10 nanoseconds. These data are vital to inform satellite operators, who are in charge of managing the evasion maneuvers of their fleets. But also to expand the European Space Surveillance System (EUSST), a catalog of objects that helps prevent large-scale collisions. Why Betis. The Sevillian club had created the Forever Green foundation, whose name has a double meaning. In addition to being green for its kit, Betis has become the most sustainable club in LaLiga (and the second in Europe) in terms of energy efficiency, recycling and water reuse. Expanding this vision of sustainability to space is literally taking its environmental commitment “beyond the Earth,” says Rafa Muela, manager of the foundation. But there is something else. Seville is the headquarters of the Spanish Space Agencyso the choice is not accidental. Somehow the Andalusian capital must be placed on the map of national spatial development. Image | GMV, Real Betis Balompié In Xataka | Three large pieces of space debris reenter every day: “one day our luck will run out and they will fall on someone”

If you were expecting cheap electricity this winter, we have bad news: Holland

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Winter has not yet arrived, but the European energy market has already started to shake. And not because there are new problems with Russian gas pipelines. The winter that awaits us. The warning he issued the analyst Pedro Cantuel illustrates the problem: “The most important regasification plants in Europe, those in the Netherlands, are operating at maximum capacity.” It is not a positive fact. These terminals are the main gateway for liquefied natural gas to the industrial heart of Europe. Its saturation is the prelude to higher gas prices. And gas is what marks the electricity bill in much of Europe. And the Spanish regasification plants? Although Spain has the largest regasification capacity in the European Unionwith six active terminals, its ability to alleviate Europe’s thirst for gas is limited. The problem: the poor gas interconnection with France. The current bottleneck of the Pyrenees It barely allows the export of between 7,000 and 8,500 million cubic meters per year. Therefore, all eyes are on the Netherlands. Its terminals, mainly Gate’s in Rotterdam and Eemshaven, are the true entry point for Germany and European industry. In figures. Netherlands is the main LNG importer of the EU. Between June and August 2025 alone, it regasified more than 2,000 million cubic meters of gas. But according to the data of Gas Infrastructure Europeits terminals are constantly touching the all-time high. The Dutch ports are saturated, there is no more LNG. And this has a direct effect on Germany, which since the sanctions against Russia imports 25% of the gas from the Netherlands. With the terminals of the neighboring country at 90-100% of their capacity, the room for maneuver due to a peak in demand due to a cold wave or any delay of a LNG tanker will immediately strain the system. How it affects the invoice. As we have seen in recent years, any difficulty in accessing natural gas results in higher prices. The Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators documents in your reports a direct correlation between the high utilization rates of LNG terminals in northwest Europe and the increase in volatility and spreads (price differences) in the gas reference index in Europe. We have changed dependence on a single supplier (Russian gas pipelines) for dependence on a single infrastructure that can now become the new bottleneck has moved from the gas pipeline to (European ports). Efforts are already underway to expand port capacity. Gate, for example, is building a fourth tank to reach 20,000 million cubic meters per year. But it won’t be ready until 2026, so the reality for this winter is what it is: the system is operating at the limit of its capacity. Image | Vopak In Xataka | The Castor project was Spain’s great idea to become self-sufficient in gas. Now he is selling it for pieces

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