Month: October 2025

Einstein’s first violin had passed unnoticed. Until an auction house put it up for sale.

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Albert Einstein is one of the most outstanding figures of the 20th century, and that means that is surrounded by myths. He “everything is relative”, I wasn’t good at math or in studies in general are some of the most widespread, but if you have ever read that he was passionate about the violin, I have to tell you that that is true. And one of them is so special that just reached a million euros at auction. The interesting thing? What was a fluke?. Einstein started playing the violin from a very young age. His mother was the one who gave him the germ of love for music and that instrument, but although at first he was not enthusiastic about it, when he discovered Mozart… things changed. It makes sense if we think about the mathematical logic after the Amadeus sonatas, and the Austrian composer became a figure of admiration for Einstein. The German physicist continued to play, sometimes in chamber groups with renowned musicians, and stated that music was a source of inspiration and even comfort when he had to solve complex problems. There are conflicting opinions about his skill with the instrument, but the violin was for Einstein a means of escape and relaxation. The violin of relativity Throughout his life, it is believed that he owned a dozen violins and all of them were called “Lina”. It was something that was recorded somewhere on the back of the instrument and it was short for “violin.” And, logically, items like this usually end up in the hands of collectors or enthusiasts, who acquire them through auctions. For example, in 2018, one of his violins ended up selling for $516,500. Aside from belonging to the physicist, it was the violin that was made specifically for him when he arrived in the United States in 1933. The protagonist of this story, however, has ended up reaching the figure of 860,000 poundswhich amounts to one million euros. It is a new record because it is the most expensive violin ever auctioned for someone who was not a professional concert pianist. The bidding started at 150,000 pounds and the estimate She was extremely modest. the house Dominic Winter Auctioneers thought it would end up between £200,000 and £300,000, but it seems that buyers ended up valuing something important: it is believed that This violin was the first that Einstein bought when I feared 15 years. It was made in 1894 by the German luthier Anton Zunterer, something that can be read on the label on the back of the instrument, and was key during the authentication process. Composer Paul Wingfield, who has spent an entire career researching, among other things, Einstein’s musical life, spent six months meticulously researching correspondence, contemporary documents, testimonies and customs regulations until say that he was “as sure as anyone could be that this violin belonged to Einstein.” The curious thing? Which was the instrument that, it seems, accompanied the scientist during the most prolific years of his careerincluding the period in which he developed the famous theory of relativity. In 1932, Einstein was preparing to flee Germany due to the rise of nazism and the growth of anti-Semitism. He decided to give his violin to friend and physicist Max von Laue, who later, in 1952, gave it to Margarete Hommrich, an admirer of Einstein. The violin remained in Hommrich’s family for 70 years, until Margarete’s great-great-granddaughter decided to put it up for auction, reaching this impressive figure. Apart from being the first one he bought and the one who accompanied him during the formulation of the theory of relativity, what is really impressive, and what puts that million euros in context, is what we mentioned about it being the most expensive violin auctioned that has not been owned by a famous concert artist (that honor goes to the violin that was played during the sinking of the titanicthat reached 900,000 pounds) or one made by Stradivarius. These are unattainable, as reflected by the almost 16 million dollars of the ‘Lady Blunt’ of 1721 sold in 2011. Images | Dominic Winter Einstein playing the violin In Xataka | 100 years later, Einstein’s relativity will undergo its most demanding test: two atomic clocks in space

His children and grandchildren turned his inheritance into a nightmare

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Although Disney is today a gigantic company whose ramifications touch all or almost all areas of popular culture, its origins were darker. Both because of its tinyness and because of some of the stories that populate it. The company was founded by brothers Walt and Roy Disney in 1923 and has since been responsible for some of the most iconic and beloved films of all time. However, the history of his Disney heirs It has little of a fairy tale, and a lot of Tarantino film: drugs, betrayals and trusts. The Burbank magician died on December 15, 1966, leaving two daughters and ten grandchildren who would share an enormous legacy of one of the most influential people in the entertainment industry. Less known is the figure of his brother Roy Oliver Disney, co-founder of the company, who also left descendants when he died five years later. Although the descendants were not many, in the history of their legacy one can find touches of Cinderella with her stepsisters, fighting princesses like Pocahontas and some ugly duckling that in the end gave a lot to talk about. Nowadays it is difficult to know precisely the percentage of the company that each heir owns of the company or How much is the fortune of each family member?. The last estimate was made by one of Walt Disney’s grandsons, who calculated that the heirs barely kept 3% of the company’s shares compared to the 20% that his father controlled. To put it a little in context, Steve Jobs left a legacy when he died of 7.54% of Disney shares to his widow. However, although it may seem that 3% of the company is not much, given the size that the company has adopted In recent years, that percentage would imply that Disney’s direct heirs would share a pie of 4.65 billion dollars. Grandpa Walt’s inheritance Walt Disney’s share passed to his two daughters: Diane Marie Disney and Sharon Mae Disney. The first had no less than seven children and lived a quiet life surrounded by vineyards, writing screenplays and honoring his father’s work with philanthropy under the Disney name. Sharon was adopted and was not as restrained with her father’s fortune as her sister. He was married twice. In his first marriage he adopted his daughter Victoria Diane Brownand in her second marriage to Bill Lund she had twins: brad and Michelle Lund Disney. Things in life (and business), Bill Lund was the promoter of the land where it currently stands Disney World in Orlando. Walt Disney’s youngest daughter, Sharon, died in 1993 of breast cancer at the age of 56, leaving her three children a fortune of $400 million as a result of Grandpa Walt’s legacy. The most conflictive since she was a child was Victoria Diane, with a reputation for being manipulative and destructive who, according to publish Hollywood Reporterwas capable of spending $5,000 on a night of debauchery and heroin in Las Vegas in the 1980s. Victoria died in September 2002 at the age of 36. The twins brad and Michelle They were born with some learning problems, so their mother arranged for the deposit of their millionaire inheritance under the supervision of three trustees. These three managers would be in charge of giving them 20 million dollars every five years from the age of 35 until the 400 million that corresponded to them as inheritance were exhausted. If you only knew, Walt. (Commons) In addition, his mother had established a clause ensuring that her children made reasonable use of the money they received. It specified that they would only receive the money if they demonstrated “maturity and financial ability to manage and use the money in a prudent and responsible manner.” As if it were the very story of Cinderella, the managers of the fortune convinced Michelle to declared his twin brother incapable of managing his finances before turning 35, claiming that he suffered from Down Syndrome. That way, he would not receive payment from his mother’s trust fund. Unfortunately for Michelle, luck turned its back on her. She suffered a brain aneurysm and almost died before turning 40. Seriously ill, her father’s second wife offered to take her into her home with the intention of taking control of the succulent inheritance, and they tried to incapacitate her and put Michelle under his guardianship. However, the wealthy heiress recovered from the aneurysm and had to take her stepmother to court to regain control of her finances. Brad, who remained with his father, He didn’t have it easy at all to maintain Grandpa Walt’s legacy. First he got into fights with his sister Michelle and his aunt, who wanted to get their piece of the pie. Ultimately, Brad lost the legal battle and his percentage of the inheritance. The lineage of Roy Oliver Disney The other half of the Disneys are not exempt from controversy either. The line of heirs got off to a good start with the help of his son Roy Edward Disney. The young heir He became involved in the management of Disney until his death in 2009, leaving a legacy of $1.6 billion, approximately 1% of Disney shares. Walt Disney’s nephew left four heirs: Abigail, Tim, Roy Patrick and Susan Disney. Roy Edward Disney’s respectful and continuous nature with the company that his father and uncle Walt had founded was counteracted by the dissident and activist character of his daughter Abigail Disney. Roy Oliver Disney’s granddaughter dedicated a good part of her life to attacking the policies of the company founded by his grandfatheraccusing them of being capitalist exploiters. He even produced a documentary called The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales in which he denounces the labor exploitation situation suffered by some company employees. Abigail Disney was one of the millionaires who signed what was known as manifesto of the Davos millionairesin which a group of 200 millionaires from around the world asked the leaders of the world’s main economies tax large fortunes with higher … Read more

In the midst of the cocaine furor, in 1990 they thought that the message should be clearer. So they called the Ninja Turtles

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Who better than a large group of television animation stars to warn the creatures addicted to the cathode tube of the dangers of drugs (those not related to the cathode tube). This happened in 1990, in a clash of animated titans that had international reach: here we saw it on Antena 3 and presented by the famous Reina Sofía. How and why was this firefighter idea born? Be good. There was something that the cartoons of the eighties were very good at, and that was preaching. We all remember the taglines that Mattel added to the ‘He-Man and the Masters of the Universe‘ to cushion accusations of excessive violence and in which the heroes reminded the kids to brush their teeth and listen to their elders, unless that elder was a stranger who told them to get in his car. And while here a generation was duly seasoned by the messages of disturbing anti-capitalist terrorism of the Electroduendes, in the United States they brought together successful cartoon characters of the time so that the kids could say no to drugs. To the rescue. ‘Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue’ is a 1990 half-hour animated special focused on drug prevention, which brought together popular characters from several animated series (ten in total: the Smurfs, ALF, Garfield, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Winnie from Pooh, the Little Ones, Slimer from ‘The Real Ghostbusters’, some Looney Tunes, a Turtle Ninja and Donald’s nephews from ‘DuckTales’). The plot revolves around a teenager who uses marijuana and puts his younger sister at risk due to his addiction. Cartoon characters come to life for emergency intervention. Important financing. The production was financed by McDonald’s and its children’s charity Ronald McDonald Foundation. The White House supported the invention with an introduction by President George HW Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush, something that would be repeated in different countries with different presenters. The four major American television networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) collaborated to broadcast it and the franchise owners gave up the rights for a good cause. It was produced by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and animated in Taiwan (because shit is shit) by the very prolific Wang Film Productions. To end the avalanche of stars, Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, at the time on the crest of the wave thanks to their soundtrack for ‘The Little Mermaid’ just a year earlier, composed an original song, ‘Wonderful Ways to Say No‘. In Spain, the queen. The version broadcast in Spanish-speaking countries was called ‘Cartoon stars to the rescue.’ In Spain It was broadcast by all television networks, but at different times: La Primera, the international channel, Antena 3, regional channels with programming in Spanish (Canal Sur, Telemadrid, TVG, ETB-2 and Canal Nou), Tele 5 and Canal+. There were also various presenters: in Mexico, President Carlos Salinas; in Chile, the first lady Marta Larraechea; and in Spain, Queen Sofía, at that time very involved in drug prevention campaigns and protection of the rights of minors. Avoid drugs. Since Nixon got muddied in the early seventies in a interested war on drugsthere have been relentless educational campaigns aimed at removing glamor and providing tools so that the youngest people do not fall into addictions. Often sinning naivety and Manichaeism (and this cartoon special has plenty of both), many of its slogans have remained embedded in pop culture: ‘Just say no‘, ‘This is your brain in drugs‘… and in Spain the legendary “Avoid drugs” (which at the very least generated a great song by Esteban Light) and “Say no to drugs“, with cocaine ray worm spot included. In Xataka | Amphetamine consumption in Spain is concentrated in one autonomous community. And we know it with a “simple” trick

A study has just correlated them with a higher risk of cancer

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When we plan to lose weight, one of the first things we do is declare war on carbohydrates in the diet, reducing them as much as possible. All of this is conditioned on many occasions by the ‘advice’ that is seen on social networks in blogs, and which may have severe conditions as it was collected. in a published article in Nature Microbiology which suggests that this type of diet may end up increasing the risk of suffering from colorectal cancer. The study. Researchers conditioned by the increase in the number of people who decide to give up carbohydrates Because they relate it to weight gain, he wanted to test what was happening in a series of mice. In this way, an investigation was created with three different diets: a normal diet, one low in carbohydrates and another Western-style diet with a large amount of fat and carbohydrates. The result. After exposing the mice to these conditions, they analyzed their microbiota discovering a particular strain of E. coli bacteria, which was producing a toxin that damaged DNA called colibactin. A toxin that, in combination with a diet low in carbohydrates and soluble fiber, promotes the growth of polyps in the colon, which may be the first step to cancer. As recognized by the researcher himself, Alberto Martín, professor of immunology at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine of the University of Toronto, at first it was thought that colorectal cancer was caused by a combination of different factors like diet or genetics. But now a door is opening that means that a specific diet can lead to our bacteria enhancing the appearance of cancer. Because. Researchers found that a diet deficient in fiber increases inflammation of the intestine and alters the microbial community that reside here, that offer us many benefits and about which we are beginning to know more and more. Specifically, they focused on E. Coli that produces colibactin as we have discussed before, but what is really important here is that the mice fed a low-carbohydrate diet had a thinner layer of mucus that separates the intestinal microbes from the epithelial cells of the colon. A priori, this mucus barrier that we have in the digestive system acts as a layer of protection that allows bacteria not to come into direct contact with epithelial cells. But if this shield is thinner due to this poor diet, more colibactin can reach the colon cells directly and act as an epigenetic mechanism that alters their structure and drives the deregulation of the factors that control their cell cycle. But the researchers wanted to go a little further, by analyzing the effects on mice that had genetic mutations in their cells in the pathway responsible for repair damage that occurs in DNA. In this case the effect was very clear: the repair of these damages was not favored. This means that all the failures that are generated daily in our cells are not repaired or that the cell simply cannot enter apoptosis (programmed cell death) through these pathways. Something that adds ‘papers’ to have a cancer cell that gets out of control. Lynch syndrome. A genetic health problem which makes the patient have a greater chance of suffering from certain types of cancer, including colorectal cancer. All this due to mutations in genes that repair DNA, such as MLH1 and MSH2, among others. In this way, if a carbohydrate-deficient diet is added to these people who already have a higher probability of suffering from colon cancer, the effect of colibactin will increase these probabilities. That is why the findings made by researchers suggest that people with Lynch syndrome who harbor these colibactin-producing bacteria should avoid stopping carbohydrates so as not to increase the risk. They even suggest that they can take specific antibiotics for these colibactin-producing bacteria to further reduce the risk. Probiotics. With taking antibiotics, I’m sure that on more than one occasion you have been recommended to take probiotics in order to maintain the intestinal microbiota before the treatment. In this case, research suggests that a strain of E. coli called Nissle that produces colibactin is found in these probiotics, which makes us ask many questions about its effect on cancer. In this way, his laboratory is investigating whether long-term use of this probiotic is safe for people with Lynch syndrome or for those who follow a low-carbohydrate diet. The antidote. Given all this, the question is obligatory: how can I avoid this if I have to consume few carbohydrates? To this end, the study has been able to see a correlation between the increase in soluble fiber in the diet with a decrease in the levels of colibactin-producing E. Coli. This is something that translates into less interaction with DNA repair mechanisms and therefore a lower probability of suffering from cancer. “We supplemented fiber and saw that it reduced the effects of the low-carbohydrate diet (…) Now we are trying to find out which sources of fiber are most beneficial,” says Bhupesh Thakur, postdoctoral fellow and lead author of the study. A treatment. The goal right now is to try to counteract the increased risk of cancer due to this bacterial toxin. To this end, the use of inulin is being investigated, which has been seen to reduce the amount of E. coli, which produces colibactin, and improves intestinal health in high-risk people. A treatment that, as it could not be otherwise, is focused on the fiber itself, which will become the best ally in these situations. Images | engin akyurt National Cancer Institute In Xataka | Intermittent fasting is the fad diet. At least among scientists who study its effects on the microbiome

Europe has been working for three years to isolate itself from Russian gas. Two countries have decided to build a direct gas pipeline to Russia

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The European energy map is changing at a speed that few would have imagined just three years ago. The old gas pipelines that linked Siberia to the industrial heart of the EU have been sidelined, while new routes and alliances reconfigure the power table around gas. The old continent proclaims its purpose of isolating Moscow, but in the center of the continent it is drawn an exception that alters the planned script and that may change the balance of forces in the coming winters. A map in transformation. Yes, the European gas map has changed radically in a few years, to the point that this winter of 2025 is the first in decades in which Russian gas ceases to be decisive throughout the European Union. After the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the energy crisis that broke out between 2021 and 2023, Brussels urged urgently diversification of supplies, relying on imports liquefied natural gas (LNG), especially from the United States and Qatar, and in the fortress of norway as a stable partner. The great gas pipelines that for half a century linked the Siberian fields with the European industrial heart have been underutilizeddamaged or reduced to a secondary role, as energy security moves towards the global balance of the LNG market and towards the vulnerability of infrastructures increasingly exposed to cyber attacks and hybrid incidents. On this new board, each molecule counts, but not all of them weigh the same: there are some that define true European autonomy more than others. The two exceptions. Despite the EU’s declared desire to eliminate purchases from Moscow, two countries have kept the valve open: Hungary and Slovakia. In August 2025, according to the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, both added imports of Russian crude oil and gas by more than 690 million of euros, that is, the majority of the European total. In fact, they continue to receive oil through the gigantic Druzhba pipeline, which crosses Ukraine and Belarus from Russian fields to Central Europe, and have used temporary exception granted by Brussels to landlocked countries to justify their dependence. The contrast is evident: while countries like France, the Netherlands and Belgium have limited themselves to importing residual Russian LNG, Budapest and Bratislava continue buying crude oil and gas straight from Moscow, keeping alive the energy artery that the rest of Europe has tried to close. Hungary and Slovakia are investing in gas infrastructure and creating a gas block in the heart of Europe aimed at protecting against any risks USA, Brussels and pressure. The intransigence of Viktor Orbán and Robert Fico has not gone unnoticed. At the UN, Trump accused Europe of “financing the war against itself” and pointed out with their own name to the Central European partners that do business with the Kremlin. Brussels, for its part, debate sanctions growing: the nineteenth package included a ban on Russian LNG starting in 2026 and restrictions on giants such as Rosneft or Gazprom Neft, although it avoided imposing immediate vetoes on crude oil and gas by gas pipeline, fearing a head-on crash with Budapest and Bratislava. However, the Commission is already preparing specific tariffs against imports that are still They arrive through Druzhbaand requires all Member States to submit disconnection plans before 2027the year in which the final cut is expected. The discourse of dependency. Hungary insists that its economy would fall 4% immediately if they were closed russian flowsand both Orbán and Fico speak of “economic suicide” and “ideological impositions” from Brussels. However, experts and analysts dismantle many of these arguments: geography is no excuse in an integrated European market where other equally landlocked countries, such as Austria or the Czech Republic, have reduced drastically reduce its Russian imports. Alternative infrastructures there are. The Adria pipeline, which connects to the Adriatic in Croatia, could supply enough crude oil to Hungary and Slovakia, although the reliability of its capacity tests is disputed. The Croatian oil company JANAF itself assures which can supply both refineries (Százhalombatta in Hungary and Slovnaft in Bratislava) with up to 12.9 million tons per year. In gas, the interconnections with neighboring countries and the expected abundance of LNG after 2026 suggest that the cutoff of Russian flows would be more political than technical. Politics, benefits and a shadow. Budapest’s stubbornness also has an internal political and economic dimension. The MOL company, close to the Orbán Government and owner of the Slovak refinery, has reaped huge benefits thanks to the price difference between Russian Urals crude oil and Brent, which has allowed extraordinary income for both the company and the state budget itself through taxes. In parallel, the speech of the Hungarian Executive associates the continuity of supply russian with stability of its star program of subsidies on household energy bills, despite the fact that the prices that Budapest pays for Russian gas follow the same international references as for the rest of Europe. In Slovakia, Fico also protects contracts with Gazprom valid until 2034, although the national company SPP itself has flexible agreements with large Western companies that would allow demand to be met without Moscow. The new axis of the Black Sea. Be that as it may, the most revealing element of the new energy map is that Hungary and Slovakia not only resist cutting the Russian gas pipelines inherited from the Cold War, but are betting on new connections. The route that arrives through the TurkStream and enters from Türkiye towards central Europe through the Black Sea consolidates a direct link with Moscow at the same time that Brussels seeks to isolate it. Paradoxically, the two Central European countries are becoming the main russian corridor towards the heart of the EU, a role that openly contradicts the energy autonomy strategy and reinforces the structural dependence on a partner considered hostile. Europe contradicts itself. The dilemma is obvious. The European Union proclaims its purpose to end with Russian imports in just two years, but at the same time tolerates exceptions that feed … Read more

Scotland has grown tired of tourists on its difficult inland roads. So he put a special plate on them

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Every year hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of British tourists travel to the Canary Islands to enjoy a relaxing holiday on their beaches. It was not the case of Robert Marshall. From his visit to Tenerife he came back with a much less pleasant experience, the “horrible” feeling he had when he sat behind the wheel of a car and wanted to drive around the island without being accustomed to its signs, its roads or something as ‘simple’ as drive on the right side. From that trip Marshall returned home with something more than “stress” of the experience: an idea so that the same thing would not happen to any other tourist. Marshall is neither a politician nor an expert on mobility, but he does know about tourism. After all, he is the owner of a hotel located in the Highlands, the Scottish Highlandsa region that has experienced its particular tourist boom in recent years thanks to its mountains, castles and coast. When Marshall traveled to Tenerife some time ago and drove around the island, he understood much better the difficulties that foreign tourists encounter when traveling on the roads of their homeland. Added to the challenge that driving a new vehicle, in a new country, with unknown roads, customs and perhaps even rules, is the change of driving direction: on the left in the United Kingdom, on the right in most countries (including Spain). In his case, the result was a “horrible” experience that left him “completely stressed”. “When I reached the roundabouts, the intersections, as soon as I started the trip, I was going in the opposite direction to the one I usually drive. All the controls and buttons were in a different place. I kept shouting at my partner: ‘I wish these people knew that I was a tourist,’” remember. The sensation was not entirely unknown. He himself had seen how stressed foreigners get when they have to do the opposite and get behind the wheel of a car on the narrow, winding roads of the Highlands. To solve it, Marshall had an idea: What if drivers could actually recognize tourists? What if there was a simple way to identify the cars of travelers who do not know the area or are not used to the way of driving in a certain place? Would it help the rest of the vehicles you share the road with to be more understanding or even more cautious? The result of those reflections is the Tourist Platea registration for tourists. The idea is similar to that of the plate that identifies new drivers: a sign that warns other drivers that whoever is behind the wheel is not used to the area, something that the Tourist Plate achieves with an adhesive rectangle designed for the back of the car. White background, a large green T for “Tourist” and reflective surface to ensure that the plate is visible also at night. “It’s a simple idea, but it has generated conversation about road safety,” celebrates Marshall. And so much. The proposal has aroused the interest of media such as BBC, cnn, The Telegraph either The Timesamong others. And although a priori the plates have not been approved by any authority, Transport Scotland recently suggested to the cnn and BBC that in his opinion there is no problem in showing them. Stickers are sold by £9.99 on the Tourist Plate and Marshall website assures which already has orders from countries like the US, Pakistan or India. That the idea arose right in the Highlands is no coincidence. The region is experiencing a particular tourist boom thanks in part to the success of the route North Coast 500where visitors circulate who (like what happened to Marshall in Tenerife) are not used to Scottish roads, single-lane roads and driving on the left, which has resulted in a higher accident rate. Official figures show accidents in Scotland caused by drivers traveling on the wrong side they shot up 46% in one year: from 24 collisions attributable to “inexperience of the driver on the left” in 2022, the following year it rose to 35. The balance of recent years also leaves victims and accidents caused by Italian, German or American travelers. The Scottish police have even worked with the US embassy to raise awareness tourists about the importance of being cautious behind the wheel. For now, the Tourist Plate seems to have worked for Laura Hanser, activist of A9 Dual Action Groupa group that calls for improvements to road safety in the A9 road. Hanser recently decided to go from theory to practice and tested the ‘tourist license plate’ by adhering the sticker to his own car. “I drove down a single lane road at 80 km/h. I let different vehicles catch up with me. You could clearly see that it took them a couple of seconds to notice and then they slowed down when they recognized that I had that license plate on the car,” Hanser relateswho trusts that the sticker will help foreigners “acclimatize to your environmentthe car and the environment in which they are. “The infrastructure of the Highlands is under great pressure from the influx of tourists. Anything we can do to help, prevent or raise awareness can only be seen as positive,” he concludes. In Xataka | Ibiza is fed up with the waves of tourists every summer. And it has begun to limit them by leaving them without a car Images | Tourist Plate, Robert Bye (Unsplash) and Bo&Ko (Flickr)

Someone has analyzed 136 million buildings threatened by rising sea levels. And there are reasons to worry

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One of the biggest threats we have as a society is undoubtedly rising sea levels. A process that is slow, but that can end up changing the mental maps that we now have from world geography to finish coastal areas of some regions completely flooded. Something that a study wanted to shed light on analyzed building by building flood risk in the Global South. And the result is alarming. The study. Published in npj Urban Sustainabilityis the first to analyze the impact on this scale in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Central and South America. “The rise in sea level is a slow but unstoppable consequence of the global warming that is already impacting coastal populations and will continue for centuries,” explains Natalya Gomez, co-author of the study. The numbers. The study analyzes the exposure of buildings to different levels of local sea level rise (LSLR), regardless of a specific time scale. This allows the findings to remain relevant as climate projections are updated. In this case the data is quite compelling. First of all, with just 0.5 meters of sea level rise, 3 million buildings would be submerged under the sea. Something that is inevitable right now, even if the most ambitious emissions cuts on the table are applied. If we talk about a five-meter rise in sea level, a scenario that could occur in several hundred years if emissions do not stop, the exposure would skyrocket to 45 million buildings. And in the most extreme case, with a 20-meter rise in the LSLR, the figure would reach 136 million buildings. How it was done. To achieve this level of detail, the scientific team combined several cutting-edge technologies. They used the database Google Open Buildings V2which identifies the location and outline of billions of buildings by analyzing satellite images. This data was cross-referenced with FABDEM, a digital global elevation model that, thanks to machine learning, removes the height of trees and buildings themselves to obtain the true elevation of the “bare ground.” This is crucial to not underestimate the risk of flooding. Finally, they adjusted the calculations using a global tidal model to reflect the water level during high tide, thus providing a more realistic estimate of the danger. Uneven impact. The risk is not the same in all regions, since the study reveals that in the early stages of sea level rise, Africa is the continent with the highest number of buildings affected. However, as the LSLR intensifies, Southeast Asia quickly comes to dominate the flood figures. A key finding is the non-linear nature of the threat. Building loss is relatively high below two meters LSLR, but accelerates dramatically between 2 and 4 meters. Professor Jeff Cardile, co-author of the study, points out that “we were surprised by the large number of buildings at risk from relatively modest long-term sea level rise.” This means that we are not facing a problem that is gradually worsening, but rather one that could reach tipping points with devastating consequences. Many of these buildings are located in low-altitude, high-density areas, affecting entire neighborhoods and critical infrastructure such as ports, refineries, and cultural heritage enclaves. Planning. Beyond the global warning, the study seeks to be a useful tool. Researchers have created an interactive map available through Google Earth which allows policy makers and urban planners to visualize which regions face the greatest exposure. And on this map you will be able to see, building by building, the risk of ending up below sea level as a consequence of climate change. A global problem. Although this study has focused on the effects that will occur in Africa or Asia, the reality is that it is a problem that affects us all. As the study points out, all of us depend on food, goods and fuel that pass through ports and coastal infrastructure that are exposed to this rise in sea level. Thus, disruption of this infrastructure can cause disruption with serious economic consequences globally. That is why this tool can guide climate adaptation strategies, such as the construction of protective infrastructure, the adjustment of land use planning or, in some cases, the planned relocation of communities. As Maya Willard-Stepan, lead author of the study, concludes: “We cannot escape at least a moderate amount of sea level rise. The sooner coastal communities start planning, the more likely they are to continue to thrive.” Images | Chris Gallagher Marc Pell In Xataka | In the midst of climate change, cities only have one question to answer: become a sponge or a mousetrap

The new trend in AI is “AI agents.” The only problem is that almost no one is clear about what they are.

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It is not the first time that a word becomes fashionable in the technology sector. It has happened with IoT, Big data, Blockchain and even 5G. In English they call it buzzword and refers to those terms that are repeated and repeated until they almost lose their meaning. It has happened with AI and, now that we have overcome that first stage, it was time to give it a surname. The chosen one is agentic AI and, suddenly everything is agentic AI. I experienced it a couple of weeks ago in the Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit. During the different conferences, the most repeated words were “agents” and “agentic”. The problem is that they didn’t show any real products that actually fit this definition. They are not the only ones, there is a whole wave of companies that already call agentic AI literally anything that has minimal automation. Agents all the time everywhere Agentic AI It was going to be a revolution in 2025but reality ended lower the smoke to the gurus of the sector. With this I don’t mean that everything is a hoax, AI agents are very real and they are already here. We can try them If we have the ChatGPT Plus plan. At the development level, Anthropic allows create scheduling agents with Claude and Google with Gemini. Other platforms like Salesforce offer their own custom AI agents for specific sectors such as public or industrial. They are improving a lot, but the reality is that AI agents They are still very green as has been demonstrated in enough tests. There is no real product, not even one that they are developing, everything is part of a dream, one in which AI agents are even in the soup. Being cautious and waiting for technology to develop does not suit many companies. Returning to the case of Qualcomm, in the “The Ecosystem of You” conferenceits CEO Cristiano Amon drew us a future in which “the agent” does everything for us, absolutely everything: “The agent will understand our world and will be helping us, anticipating every need.” The problem is that everything he showed It was simply a demo. There is no real product, not even one that they are developing, everything is part of a dream, one in which AI agents are even in the soup. What is agentic AI It is also known as agentive AI, agential AI or simply “AI agents”. Google defines it as “an advanced form of artificial intelligence focused on autonomous decision-making and action.” For NVIDIA is an AI that “uses sophisticated reasoning and iterative planning to autonomously solve complex, multi-step problems.” For amazon It is “an autonomous system that can act independently to achieve predetermined goals” and they add that, unlike generative AI, agential AI “is proactive and can perform complex tasks without constant human supervision.” It seems pretty clear, generative AI responds to one request at a time, while agentic AI can achieve more complex goals, making decisions autonomously. An AI agent must be able to collect information, use tools and solve problems to achieve the objective we have given it. They call it agentic AI because “AI with slight automation” doesn’t sound so good In another of the Snapdragon Summit conferences they showed us several products that were real, one of them is Page.aian AI assistant that works locally on mobile. During the intervention, the presenteror stopped repeating that the app had agentic functionswhen the most they showed was how the AI ​​was capable of organizing a barbecue: it created an event on the calendar and then invited a friend. What caught my attention is that the creator of the app did not use the word, but was the presenter. The reality is that many of the use cases presented as agents are, at best, a kind of IFTTT on steroids. In this CNBC articlethe head of AI at the consulting firm EY assured that “Many in the market want to take advantage of it. We have witnessed an incredible change of image of everything related to generative AI, which is now presented as agentic AI.” “Agent washing”: when products that are sold as agents are actually products that already existed. At the beginning of the year, Gartner surveyed more than 3,000 companies who promote AI agents and discovered a trend they call “agent washing.” That is to say, many products sold as agents are actually products that already existed. Gartner estimates that of the 3,000 companies, only 130 sell real AI agents. “Most agency AI proposals lack significant value or return on investment,” said analyst Anushree Verma. The firm predicts that more than 40% of agentic AI projects will be canceled before the end of 2027. Why so much hype? In May of this year, a survey of senior American executives revealed that 88% of companies had planned to increase their AI budget before the arrival of agents. Most respondents believed agentic AI was going to change workplaces more than the internet did, and nearly half were worried about competitors adopting AI agents before them. The fear of being left behind has encouraged many companies to jump into the pool without fully understanding what agentic AI is. It makes sense that they want to hype it up and even “cheat” by calling agents who really are not: they are investing a lot in this and they need it to turn out well. Image | Gemini In Xataka | A group of AI experts attended a party at a mansion. The topic of conversation: what will happen when AI ends humanity

Whether we can call vegetable burgers “burgers” (and they look like they will last for years)

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Can a food that is does not contain meat? Is a tofu sausage really a “sausage”? When a manufacturer keeps those old terms in its new products, is it misleading consumers or is it making it easier for itself? The debate comes from afar (from very far away), but seems to be clear for the current European Chamber, exit from the polls in 2024: Plant-based food is one thing and the terms associated with meat are another, so it’s best to separate them. What is not so clear is that it can settle the discussion. Words (and something else). Europe’s food industry has been involved in a debate that has little to do with the raising of livestock, the regulation of agriculture, the competition of other markets or the health of consumers. His main obsession is words. Literally. If an oat drink can be called “milk”, tofu “sausages” must be presented as such or a vegan “burger” is not more of a “vegetable disc”. It may seem like a bureaucratic issue, but there is something more at stake than language: the right to label new products with old labels that are also clearly recognizable by consumers. And that’s gold when it comes to competing in supermarkets. Hence the debate on denominations (far from ceasing) has just written a new and important chapter in Strasbourg. 355 vs 247. What the European Parliament has done is to support with 355 votes in favor (against 247 against and 30 abstentions) an initiative that proposes prohibiting terms such as “hamburger”, “schnitzel”, “steak” or “sausage” from being used on foods that do not contain any meat. In other words, those words (well recognized by customers after decades of use) remain out of the reach of new companies dedicated to marketing food. plant based. “A steak, a schnitzel or a sausage are products of our livestock, not laboratory art or plant products. We need transparency and clarity for the consumer, as well as recognition of the work of our farmers,” claim the MEP Celine Imartauthor of the amendment to community legislation. Imart represents France, the country that clearer is insisting on change, and is also part of the Group of the European People’s Party (EPP). If the proposal has achieved the endorsement of Strasbourg, it is precisely because of the support it has received from the right after the pressure exerted by the livestock and agricultural sectors. In front he met the rejection of the left and the Greens. And now what? That the initiative has received the endorsement of the European Parliament does not mean that the packages advertising hamburgers based on tofu and seitan will disappear, nuggets vegetables or tofu sausages. For this, it is necessary for the proposal to obtain the endorsement of the European Commission and the governments of the 27 countries of the community club. It will now be up to the Commission and the Council to negotiate the measure and (if applicable) approve the initiative and translate it into law. It won’t be easy. And not only because of the rejection of other political formations. The European People’s Party itself does not have a firm position on the matter, as its leader in the European Parliament, the German, has made clear. Manfred Weberwho before the vote acknowledged that he does not believe it is a priority issue. “Consumers are not stupid when they go to the supermarket to buy,” he stressed. The fact that new plant-based foods have to do without terms like “burger” or “steak” has also raised the opposition from large companies in the sector, such as Aldi and Lidl. In September a group of companies including both German chains, Burger King, Green Force and the sausage producer Rügenwalder Múhle (among others) launched an open letter in which they warn that the legislative change “goes against the objective of achieving a resilient and diversified food supply”, “weakens” the rights of customers and “harms companies”. “The proposal results in making it more difficult for consumers to make informed decisions. Familiar terms are practical aids that allow them to make conscious purchasing decisions,” concludes the letter. Click on the image to go to the tweet. (Much) more than a vote. That does not mean that the European Parliament’s vote is a dead letter. At the very least, it reveals that the debate is still very much alive in the European institutions, where it has already accumulated a long legislative history with frustrated attempts, extensive discussions and measures that have come to fruition. Among the last ones is the decision adopted by the Court of Justice of the EU in 2017 on the use of dairy terms for plant-based products, such as soy or oat drinks. The agency concluded that only products of animal origin could use terms such as “milk,” “butter” or “yogurt.” Better “vegetable discs”? Since then the debate around the use of terms associated with meat has continued to rage over the EU. Five years ago the European Parliament already discussed a similar initiative within the framework of the CAP reform, which led the sector to fear that vegetable sausages or hamburgers would have to be renamed “vegetable tubes or discs“. The change of denominations it didn’t go ahead in the House, but its defenders have never thrown in the towel. In 2024 European justice had to speak out against France’s decision to ban words like “steak” on plant foods, and this spring the issue arose during a review of the regulation. Common Organization of Markets. What will happen from now on? For now, Imart and his supporters have achieved a significant victory in Strasbourg, largely driven by the endorsement of a European Parliament. more heeled to the right than five years ago. Curiously, the measure seems to generate more concern in institutional offices and companies than on the street, where the use of the terms does not keep people up at night. This is revealed by a survey carried out five years ago by the European … Read more

literally running out of hot water by 2027

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Brussels has started a new wave of rules designed to protect public health and harmonize standards throughout the Union, and the measure has put manufacturers, regulators and consumers alike on edge… while technicians discuss lists and scientific evaluations in offices and committees, workshops and assembly lines nervously observe the implementation schedule. Therefore, what on paper seems like an unimportant technical detail can lead to something much bigger. A bureaucratic failure. I told it this week the financial times. A cut in a technical list of authorized substances in the European Union – part of an ambitious reform to protect the quality of drinking water that comes into force in 2027 – has unleashed the real possibility that millions of Europeans will become face cold showers. Apparently an administrative omission hafnium and zirconiumkey elements in the enamelling of hot water tanks, do not appear among the recognized substances, and without that authorization more than 90% of current accumulators (water heaters) could be excluded from the European market. What in Brussels is a technical file translates into towns and cities with failing boilers, paralyzed factories and an immediate effect on prices and domestic supply if it is not urgently corrected. Why hafnium and zirconium matter. Hafnium and its “brother” zirconium are not accessories: they participate in the vitrification process inside the tanks and prevent the enamel from cracking. Without them, the protective cover of the tank comes off and the result is obvious and practical: water that does not heat up or premature losses of the equipment. Furthermore, these metals are also used in heat pump varnisha critical component in the thermal electrification that accompanies gas withdrawal. The Times remembered that putting them on the positive list is not a favor to the industry but rather a technical condition for the equipment to work and last as expected. The real economic cost. Replacing hafnium or zirconium with alternatives such as steel or copper would increase the manufacturing cost between four and five timesaccording to the manufacturers, an increase that would inevitably fall on consumers already affected by the energy crisis. For companies the ability to compete on price and supply product in Europe would be at risk facing non-EU rivals that do not face the same regulatory labyrinth, which increases the threat of relocation or loss of industrial investment on the continent. Complexity and absences. The episode reveals two institutional problems: on the one hand, the Commission’s regulatory roadmap did not precisely consider that hot water tanks are part of the drinking water circuit, and on the other, the mechanism to correct the oversight is slow and technocratic. The Commission maintains that it is the Member Statesthose who must notify the need to authorize these substances, and none has done so so far. There are alternative routes (toxicological applications or temporary national authorizations), but the industry considers them too slow and expensive to avoid an interim shortage. Solutions and limits. In practice, there are three exits: a rapid amendment at EU level to include hafnium and zirconium on the list, temporary national authorizations to sustain production while the European assessment is processed, and accelerated toxicological assessment procedures required by the Commission. Each option has its costs and trade-offs: the amendment requires political will and speed in Brussels, the national route can fragment the market and raise costs, and rapid scientific processes must preserve security without becoming an excuse for indefinite delays. In other words, none of the three are perfect, but inaction is possibly the worst alternative. What is at stake. If you also want, the problem is not only domestic or purely technical: it touches on the European ambition of decarbonize heating through heat pumps and electrical appliances. If the regulations induce manufacturers to abandon investments or produce outside the EU due to lack of certainty, the European energy transition would lose momentum and industrial sovereignty. Likewise, the error regulates a greater tension: how to make legitimate health standards compatible with the need to maintain strategic industrial chains and the competitiveness of the European productive fabric. Quick and coordinated correction. I remembered the medium in his report that the solution that best preserves public and private interests involves an expeditious correction in a community key accompanied by scientific safeguards: provisionally authorize use with technical conditions (traceability of supply, quality controls and periodic reviews), accelerate toxicological evaluations and, above all, establish a preventive mechanism for the Commission to integrate the voice of the industry in the technical lists when the standards touch critical industrial processes. Without this coordination, the regulatory shortcut not only aims to cause a equipment cost increase and job losses, but will send the wrong signal to investors considering returning production to Europe. That’s without taking into account the topic nuclearbecause the delay is not only technical, but tangible: it is the difference between a hot shower and a useless radiator. Image | Pixnio, PXHere In Xataka | We are the third country that takes the most showers in Europe. There are scientists trying to find out if this is good news In Xataka | There are people who want to change your life thanks to a cold shower: what science says

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