Month: November 2025

China has just completed the world’s tallest dam. And what stands out the least is that it is as tall as a skyscraper

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China has a beastly capacity to create pharaonic structures. Impossible roadshighways with infernal ‘knots’, very complex tunnels and one ridiculous amount of bridges so functional and essential to connect areas like ostentatious. But among all his civil engineering works, the ones that are most striking to me are the dams. And, after the largest in the world, now They have one that is as tall as a skyscraper. It is the Zhenjiang pumping stationand is key to adding even more renewable energy to your accountant. Figures. The name is “Zhenjiang/Jurong Pumping Station” and, located in Jiangsu province, it has become the latest milestone in Chinese energy engineering. The project began in 2017 and, as is customary in almost all of these infrastructures in the Asian giant, both its dimensions and construction times are surprising. In these eight years, they have built the highest pumping dam in the world, 182 meters high, equivalent to a 60-story building. Apart from the height, its volcano shape is striking, with a reservoir at the top capable of storing up to 17.07 million cubic meters of water. Context? What 6,800 Olympic-sized swimming pools have (okay, it’s equally difficult to imagine the number). Bowels. It’s not just imposing on the outside. Its engine room is 800 meters deep and has dimensions of 250 meters long, 60 meters high and another 25 meters wide. In this room are the six mixed turbines and, in total, the project has established a dozen records in the sector. Its role in renewables. It is estimated that the investment has been about 9.6 billion yuan, about 1.3 billion euros, and all to feed more than 360,000 homes. Each of the turbines generates 225 MW for a total of 1.3 GW of installed power. Thanks to both the dimensions of the turbines and the difference in level and force of the water, it is estimated that it will consume 1,800 million kWh annually during pumping and will generate 1,350 million kWh during discharge. It is a consumption/generation difference of 25% and, although it is not a figure that attracts attention, it is a milestone, since current pumping (or reversible) installations require hydraulic jumps of about 400 meters to operate under the same conditions. The turbines at the Zhenjiang plant do so with a head of less than 200 meters. That is, it is optimized for low gradient conditions, but maintaining a high volumetric flow. In summary, It’s like a giant battery, but with water. During low demand hours, the plant moves water to the upper reservoir and, during peak consumption, releases it, passing it through the turbines at high speed and generating electricity in the process. According to estimates, it will save 140,000 tons of coal per year, which represents 349,000 tons of CO₂. One more in the Yangtze. Despite everything the plant represents in terms of civil engineering and its role in renewablesthe greatest achievement of this plant is that it has been shown that it is possible to build massive storage systems if artificial elevations are created. In flat areas with unfavorable orography, Zhenjiang demonstrates that pumping structures can be created to help achieve decarbonization objectives without depending so much on wind and solar power. Wang Chenhui, director of the Development Department of State Grid Zhenjiang Power Supply Company -responsible for the dam-, assures that “at full operation it will provide approximately 2.7 million kilowatts of bidirectional power regulation capacity, relieving pressure on the electrical grid during peak load periods.” It will be more help for Jiangsu province than this summer consumed 6% more electricity than in 2024, reaching 156 million kilowatts. And also in the Yangtze are the mammoth dam of the Three Gorges and the next largest dam in the world. The one in Zhenjiang is not so huge nor does it generate as much electricity, but it is the highest in the world and, as we said, a demonstration that, if the terrain is not good, you can always build a huge pool at 190 meters high. Image | Ministry of Water Resources of the People’s Republic of China In Xataka | China has built the highest bridge in the world and has done what it must: turn it into a show

We have found 76 megatraps in the Andes. It’s amazing we hadn’t done it before.

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Beyond being an imposing mountain range, the Andes were one of the great hotbeds of civilization. In their complex networks of passageways they developed highly organized societieswith cultures such as the Caral, Chavin, Tiwanaku or Moche that preceded the powerful inca empire. The most impressive thing is that we continue to discover the secrets of these civilizations and we have just found 76 stone structures that not only represent advanced technology. They also confirm that there were authentic technical laboratories in the passageways of the Andes. In short. In a article published in the magazine Antiquity Researcher Adrián Oyaneder, an archaeologist at the University of Exeter, details how, by analyzing high-resolution satellite images belonging to a remote area of ​​the Camarones River basin, he found a series of structures that were repeated. Using images of both Sentinel-2 as of Google Earththe archaeologist combed more than 4,600 km² and found 76 ‘chacus‘. “My reaction when I saw the first chacu was to check it twice or even three times. I thought it was something unique, but as I went along I realized that they were everywhere in a quantity never before recorded in the Andes,” comment. It seems important, but… what corks are those ‘chacus’? The ‘chacus’. It is a term that comes from traditional Inca practices and, basically, they are very specific constructions. Its characteristics are: Funnel shape consisting of two long dry stone walls that converge to form a corridor that gradually narrows. Dimensions of about 150 meters long and one and a half meters high. Locations that seem strategic, since they are built on steep slopes between 2,800 and 4,200 meters above sea level. Not even if they were coffee plantations… So that? That’s the second question. They were traps. Traps for vicuñasspecifically. It is a relative of the alpacas and what the hunters did was urge the herds to move to the chacus, which with its funnel shape trapped the animals. But those traps could not be left by the hand of God, and Oyaneder continued searching until he found what he was looking for: traces of life. In the vicinity of the chacus, the archaeologist identified almost 800 small-scale settlements that consisted of several shelters built of stone and circular in shape. He estimates that they would be temporary camps, since human groups moved strategically through the highlands following the rhythm of the seasons. During the humid months in which the pass flourished, the settlers would go to the higher areas, but when these dried out, they descended, hunting vicuñas and, probably, some early form of agriculture. The estimate from Oyaneder is that some of these traps are about 6,000 years old. Implications. Finding 76 of these megatraps in one fell swoop is fascinating, but more important than the discovery is seeing how it fits into the story we knew until now. The Andes are a hostile environment and having discovered these structures implies that primitive Andean cultures had great resilience to adapt to the difficulties of the mountains. It also suggests that large-scale hunting coexisted with the development of pastoralism and agriculture in the region. Convergent evolution. It is now being analyzed whether the chacus represent the hunting systems at this scale oldest in the Andes, but something interesting is that there are parallels with structures that are thousands of kilometers away. An example, the ‘desert kites’ of Western Sahara: large ‘V’-shaped stone structures that were used to hunt gazelles or antelopes in a way very similar to that of Andean civilizations. It is curious that two civilizations without contact developed such similar megatraps, but it is not that strange and it is a phenomenon called “convergent evolution.” In any case, the discovery of these 76 structures in the Andes once again puts on the table that the 3D techniques and high-resolution satellite images make investigating remote, huge or difficult-to-access areas easier. Images | Antiquity In Xataka | The Incas did not need writing to forge an empire. And we are closer to solving the key object in your organization

On this island in Japan there is a traffic light that only turns green once a year, and not precisely to control traffic

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On the small Japanese island of Himakajima there is a traffic light which remains flashing amber or red all year round. Only during one day in May does it change its usual behavior and activate its green light (or blue, as they insist in Japan). This is not a fault. It was designed this way for a reason that goes beyond traffic control. An educational traffic light. The traffic light was installed in 1994 at the Himakajima East Port intersection, but not to regulate traffic. The island barely has 2,000 inhabitants and few vehicles circulate on its roads. The traffic light exists solely to teach children of the place how the urban signals work before they leave the island for larger cities. One less problem. According to explains the Himaka Road Safety Association, which promoted its installation, minors grew up without real experience with traffic lights. Before, they used small models in traffic safety classes, but the children themselves asked “what does a real traffic light look like?” account Kazuo Sugiura, former president of the association, to the local media Asahi. One day a year to learn. Every May, the traffic light is activated for a full day. Third and fifth grade students from the local school go to the crossing accompanied by teachers, parents and authorities. There they practice how to cross correctly: they wait for the color to change, look both ways and cross the zebra crossing with their arm raised, just as they would in any city in Japan. More difficult than expected. The children also discover that calculating the time they have to cross the pass is not as simple as it seems. “It was complicated because it turned red when I was trying to cross,” explained a third-grade student after practicing with her bicycle. The exercise helps them understand the real times of light change and develop security reflexes that they cannot acquire in their daily life on the island. An unexpected tourist curiosity. This little anecdote has gained notoriety beyond Japan. Every year videos and photos circulate on social networks showing the peculiar educational ritual. Some users even consult the local government website to find out the exact date of “green day” and witness the event, although it varies slightly each season. It is already part of the island’s identity. Once the annual training is completed, the traffic light returns to its flashing lights routine. It does not serve any practical function in traffic control, but it has ended up becoming a small symbol of how the community of this island prepares its children for the urban world. The rest of the year, Himakajima remains a quiet place known for its beaches and octopus dishes, with a traffic light that counts down the days until it can turn green again. Cover image | Google Maps In Xataka | Convenience stores were an emblem of Japan. Until the demographic crisis has revealed the dark side of opening 24 hours

A new mathematical proof settles the debate over whether the universe is a simulation

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What if everything we see, feel and experience is not real? It is one of the most fascinating ideas in science fiction and modern philosophy, in which it is proposed that everything around us it’s a real simulation of computer of some higher civilizationas if we were literally sims. And such is its magnitude, that science has had to come out to deny this idea. The problem. The ‘simulation hypothesis’ has gone beyond being a simple movie premise to a serious debate in technology circles and physical. The argument is usually statistical: if a civilization can create one simulation of reality, it will probably create many. These simulations could in turn generate their own and in this infinite ‘stack’ of realities, the odds that our universe be original, they are almost non-existent. And although this has been a very restrained topic among philosophers, science has also wanted to fully enter into research to respond to a problem within fundamental physics and pure mathematics. And the answer is quite clear: we are not in a simulation. The study. An international team of physicists, including Dr. Mir Faizal of the University of British Columbia (UBC) and renowned physicist Dr. Lawrence M. Krauss, has mathematically proven that the universe cannot be a computer simulation. His findings, published in it Journal of Holography Applications in Physicsnot only disprove the idea, but reveal something much deeper about the nature of reality: the universe is based on a type of “understanding” that exists beyond the reach of any algorithm. The reality. To understand this test, we must first understand what ‘reality’ is. Modern physics no longer sees the universe as tangible ‘matter’ moving in empty space, but thanks to Einstein space and time merged to now demonstrate that the microscopic world is probabilistic. The most widely accepted theory today focuses on quantum gravity, which suggests that space and time are fundamental. They are “emergent”: they spring from something deeper, something more like pure information. In this way, physicists assume that a “Theory of Everything“(ToE) that unifies gravity and quantum physics would, in essence, be a large axiomatic system: a set of meaningful rules and algorithmic calculations from which the entire universe, including spacetime itself, could be “computed” and generated. Incompleteness Theorems. In 1931, logician Kurt Gödel demonstrated something that blew up the foundations of mathematics: any formal system (such as a computer program or a set of physical laws) that is complex enough to include basic arithmetic will be incomplete or inconsistent. By ‘incomplete’ we mean that there will be true statements within the systems themselves that will never be able to be demonstrated following their own rules. It’s like the famous paradox that says “this statement is true, but it cannot be proven.” Faizal’s team argues that any purely algorithmic ToE would suffer from this limitation. There would always be “Gödelian truths” about the physics of the universe (perhaps about specific microstates of black holes or the nature of the singularity) that such a computational system could not test. Two layers. If the algorithmic universe is “incomplete”, how does our reality seem to work? Researchers propose that reality is not only the algorithm. This is what allows the universe to “know” that these Gödel truths are true, even though the algorithm alone cannot prove them. It is a fundamental layer of reality that transcends simple computing. The final test. With all the pieces on the table, the refutation of the simulation hypothesis becomes clear and elegant. The first of all is that every simulation is logarithmic, that is, a computer executes a problem following very specific rules that leave no room for doubt. In this way, we come face to face with our theories that are not ‘perfect’ in their demonstrations. But they don’t stop there, since scientists have pointed out that an algorithm can only simulate the algorithmic part, meaning that a computer could only, in the best of cases, emulate the computational and incomplete part of our universe. And the most important thing without a doubt is that our universe is more than an algorithm, since as Gödel’s theorems demonstrate, complete physical reality must include a non-algorithmic layer to be consistent and complete. Images | Compare Fiber In Xataka | Exactly 100 years ago we began to understand how the world works. Quantum physics has radically changed our lives

Portable batteries are part of urban infrastructure in China. I have tried them and I need them to arrive in Europe

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After a decade of writing about gadgets and tens of thousands of miles of travel under my belt, a few weeks ago a destination managed to make me nervous. I was traveling, for the first time, to China. A few days before leaving, I realized that I did not have any batteries with the necessary certification and buying them in Spain is complicated. My idea was to get one there, but to my surprise I came across reality: hives of external batteries on every corner. Below I will tell you about my experience renting one and testing its loading speed. Powerbanks as urban infrastructure. A few months ago, my colleague Javier He already commented on his fascination with this ecosystem of external batteries that anyone can rent. It is really not something so new, since it has running since 2017 and its concept is very interesting. In China we need the cell phone for everything (AliPay and Wechat They are two apps that are your bank, your transportation card, your payment card, your way of ordering in restaurants and much more) and it is something that drains the battery. Therefore, the idea arose to locate stations with several external rental batteries at strategic points in the city. The market is dominated by four companies, they are in the main cities and the process is as simple as: Scan the station’s QR code. Take one of the removable batteries. Use them while we eat or move. Return them to any other point on the network (it does not have to be at the station where we took it). Photo: Xataka Photo: Xataka Photo: Xataka Photo: Xataka Photo: Xataka Photo: Xataka renting one. For me, who went with a iPhone 16 in your pocket (whose battery is no wonder), having something like this available was a lifesaver. And, since science doesn’t do itself, during breakfast I rented one available at my hotel with the intention of using it while I ate and returning it just before leaving. The process is indicated just above these lines and, in my case, I used AliPay. Photo: Xataka You have to go with the application previously configured and, in my case, I loaded a Revolut prepaid card. I didn’t have any problems during the week I was in Beijing. I scanned the QR code of the charging station with AliPay itself and… blessed translation system. It works when it wants and it translates some things regularly, but enough to understand it. The price is 0.12 yuan per minute (about 0.014 euros), but since I don’t have a bank account in China, I had to pay a deposit of 99 yuan (about 12 euros). As soon as I paid, the app told me what power bank I had to remove it and the station itself made the corresponding battery LED flash. To load. Charging experience. The first thing I liked is that you don’t need absolutely anything other than the battery. This includes a USB-C, Lightning and even micro-USB cable. They are short cables, but they are appreciated so you don’t have to carry yours in your pocket. It has LEDs that indicate the charge level and there really isn’t much more to say about the design. Regarding their characteristics, it depends, but they usually have 5,000 mAh and the big asterisk is in the power. 5V/2.4A It is about 12 W and that implies that it will charge at a slow speed. But hey, it is designed so that you can carry it for a while or while you eat and spend at least half an hour/an hour with it. Photo: Xataka On my iPhone 16, the charging times were as follows: I started with 26% battery and in 30 minutes I reached 45%. At 60 minutes it had reached 64%. After 90 minutes it was charged up to 82%. As I say, a slow experience, but I see it as feasible to spend an hour eating or walking between stores, and recovering 38% allows you to survive the rest of the day. When you return it, you have a map where you see all the available stations. I simply went to a different one, clicked on the finalize the transaction button, scanned the QR again and inserted it into the indicated slot. The final price was 14 yuan after almost two hours in my possession, about 1.73 euros to my account. And, the next day, I already had the 99 yuan deposit back in my Revolut. Reviews. Discussing the move with our teammates, we agreed that the price is not high for us, that we use the euro and for those 1.7 euros, well… it allowed me to continue the rest of the day. But we also wonder how the Chinese would view those 14 yuan. And it seems not very well. One of the complaints It is precisely that the price has been increasing in some points. If at the beginning it cost one yuan per hour, now it ranges between two and six. The reason is that it depends a lot on the location (more or less tourist areas, hospitals, hotels, bars, etc.). Coupled with the fact that it is a very fair power and cell phones have more and more battery life, it is almost better to buy an external battery if you know that every now and then you have to rent at one of these stations (which, in addition, can be full at times and you have to go around looking for another one to return the battery. The businesses themselves have also been dissatisfied at times, since it is a market monopolized by a few companies that, evidently, control both the rental price and the profits. Future. Despite this, for tourists, it is an extremely attractive option due to its convenience and because, let’s not fool ourselves, the exchange rate to our currency is favorable to us. And for the industry, it represents an important benefit. In 2020, … Read more

the household employees of the ultra-rich who earn more than Pedro Sánchez

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In the month of April we count a trend that was beginning to circulate among that sector of civilization that is capable of having eight or more figures in the bank account. The ultra-rich, after years spending fortunes on home automation of their mansions, had decided to return to analog times by eradicating any trace of technology in homes. But it’s one thing to throw LEDs, and quite another to throw a Picasso. Because they don’t ignore works of art and luxury furniture. In fact, they pay a premium for their care. Even more than a president of the government. The art of cleaning luxury. In the universe of the richest households on the planet, cleaning is no longer a household chore: it is a painstaking science, a highly specialized skill, and a six-figure job. He told it in a extensive Bloomberg report with cases like that of Gina, who with 26 years of experience in domestic service, is today a executive housekeeper in the San Francisco Bay that wins more than $100,000 a year for taking care of mansions where each piece of furniture is a work of art. Her rise from basic cleaning to managing multimillion-dollar residences reflects a global phenomenon: the transformation of luxury cleaning into a skilled profession driven by the sophistication of contemporary design and the shortage of trained staff. In these houseserror is not measured in stains but in thousands of dollars: a miscalculated rub can destroy the original finish of a knob or the shine of a collector’s piece. In this ecosystem, cleaning requires as much technical knowledge as a kind of restorer or even a museum curator. The new frontier of cleaning. All this is understood due to the rise of high-end design, which has raised standards of domestic work at unprecedented levels. In the houses where Gina works, the objects are no longer “furniture”, but investments and fragments of history: tables by Diego Giacometti more expensive than a Ferrarisofas by Jean Royère valued in millions or pieces by François-Xavier Lalanne that reach record numbers at auctions. Cleaning them requires knowing the materials, understanding their chemical reactions and applying precise protocols. Wood, metals, fabrics, glass or rattan become conservation challenges more than hygiene challenges. Common products and tools (such as popular Swiffer) are, according to expertsenemies of conservation: they alter surfaces, remove patinas or introduce chemical residues. The correct thing to do is almost artisanal: moisten your hands, use a cotton cloth and maintain just the right humidity to trap the dust without damaging the material. The border between cleaning and disinfecting, seemingly trivial, is essential: “You cannot disinfect without cleaning first,” repeat the trainers, aware that ignorance can cost more than an annual salary. Shortages and astronomical salaries. The value of these professionals has been triggered. Before the pandemic, a housekeeper with experience maintaining luxury homes earned a few $60,000 annually. Today, that figure easily exceeds the 100,000more benefits and bonuses. In fact, demand has grown at the same pace as extreme wealth and the proliferation of delicate objects. Training companies like that of Charles MacPherson in Toronto they offer five week programs that combine communication with the employer, home security and cleanliness with contemporary design. The lack of qualified personnel has made housekeepers executives in a good scarce and coveted. To give us an idea, they remembered in Bloomberg that some are the subject of “signing” attempts by other millionaires, aware that a good professional can be the difference between preserving or ruining a collection. The competition, Gina explained.is fierce: “There are very few truly professional people in this, and many see it as a minor job.” In reality, luxury has redefined cleaning as a technical discipline where knowledge outweighs strength, and confidence outweighs hierarchy. From home to museum. The cultural change surrounding this new elite of cleaners also reflects a mutation in the relationship of the upper classes with its spaces. Billionaires’ homes have become hybrids between home and gallerywhere maintenance is part of the value of the heritage. Owners not only buy beauty, they buy responsibility: each object requires a conservation regime, and cleaning becomes an extension of curation. Here a mistake can be catastrophic: the case of the housekeeper who, when trying to “reshine” the handles of a door, removed an intentional patina and caused $75,000 damageis already a classic of the sector. In these houses, the hands that clean are not invisible: they are part of the ecosystem that protects the investment and maintains the aesthetics. The paradox is that a historically undervalued profession has become, at the top of the social pyramid, a profession as delicate and exclusive as the objects it touches. Economy of precision. The rise of cleanliness luxury to professional category highlights the contemporary logic of the market: when wealth multiplies and objects become irreplaceable, the care becomes a luxury in itself. In this environment, the shortage of trained personnel raises salaries, but also redefines the prestige of the profession. The professionalization of high-end domestic service marks a new frontier in the care economy: that of maintenance as art. If you like, Gina and her colleagues are no longer cleaners, they are guardians of heritage material of an elite that prefers to pay more than risk a unique piece. Thus, in the meticulous silence of those mansions, where each surface is worth as much as a sports car, the cotton rag has become a symbol of status, precision and trust. Image | Pexels, Pexels In Xataka | Barcelona has surpassed Vienna and Geneva: the rich now prefer to live near the beach, have fiber optics and public healthcare In Xataka | If the question is which is the place in Spain where there are the most millionaires and why, the answer is obvious: in Madrid, of course.

have a server rack

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There are the technological geeks and then there are the tech geeks. Like this, in bold. Some believe that the summum is in achieve a powerful setup in which they combine power, backlighting and a great cooling system. But there are others who go further and are not satisfied with configuring a custom PC, no matter how ambitious that PC may be. No. For these other users, the true summum is to set up a server rack, a “domestic” version of the racks that we usually find in data centers and that allow them to experiment and have self-hosted services of all kinds. Long live homelabs That domestic “homelab” fever of which we talked a few years ago has made it increasingly common to see how these technology and do-it-yourself enthusiasts create mini data centers in which they can execute all kinds of tasks. There are of course homelabs consisting of a server (often a NAS) with several hard drives to host different services, but these server racks go one step further. In these racks, which anyone can buy on the Internet, they combine computers and servers of all types, hard drives and switches and connect all of this with cables—there too #cableporn comes into play— and then take advantage of those servers in areas such as home automation. There are many more possible applications, of course: one can set up one’s own servers for mail, web, multimedia, video surveillance, monitoring of those own systems and small (or not so small) private clouds. They can also use these environments to experiment in the field of cybersecurity and pentesting, or to “tinker” with experiments in the devops field. The possibilities are enormous… if you are willing to face the task. The great showcase for these unique technological DIY projects is Reddit, which has subreddits such as r/homelab where thousands of curious people gather to share their projects —“a homelab is never complete” is a kind of mantra in said community—and, of course, show off those racks that they have assembled with blood, sweat, tears and often a significant financial investment. Because what is clear is that setting up this type of system is not easy. Michael Lynch, one of the users who shares this hobby, he told in his personal blog in April 2024 the entire process that led him to create his first homelab. That post, very long and detailed, shows how when creating a homelab you have to take into account millions of details so that everything works as it should. And even doing so you can always find surprises. This hobby has also been promoted by some internet personalities who already worked with this type of content. Jeff Gerrling launched at the beginning of the year the Project Mini Rack for users who had ambitions of that type but wanted to have a “compact rack”. The result is certainly attractive and can be an excellent starting point for those who want to start in this world, but for those who do, a small warning: these systems are complex and the problem is not just assembling them and starting them up—and controlling things like energy consumption and noise— but, above all, keep them. And update them, of course. Because as we said, “a homelab is never complete”. Image | Jeff Geerling In Xataka | 25 fantastic setups that prove that placing two (or more) monitors in surprising positions makes a lot of sense

AMD will be the one to reinforce it with two new machines

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The AMD history It is full of ups and downs. They started by blatantly copying Intel, they had some of their best models at the beginning of the century, they were made with ATI and they went through hell while Intel dominated with the Dual and Quad Core. A few years ago, they took their Ryzen out of their sleeveswith those who have even managed surpass your great competitor. Now they want to become essential for the United States, which seeks to be “sovereign” in artificial intelligence. Their weapons? Two supercomputers that will help the US achieve its objective. And the ambition is… enormous. AI Action Plan. The United States is investing a huge amount of money with one goal: achieve superintelligence before China. The truth is that the two countries are competing in the same sector, but with radically opposite objectives. The US wants to get that AGI while China is looking for a cheap and functional AI to monetize as soon as possible. With that in mind, the US government launched an initiative designed to maintain and expand leadership in AI. Thus, the AI Action Plan seeks that advances in this segment be discovered, developed and deployed in US territory, strengthening both national security and the country’s competitive position. Billionaire strategy. It is something that costs a ‘mortar’ of money, but being a capital objective allows the funds to appear for the companies involved. And a billion just ended up in AMD’s coffers. As the company and the United States Department of Energy have release$1 billion in public and private funding will create a “secure, federated, standards-based infrastructure for U.S. sovereign science and AI.” Lisa Su is the CEO of AMD and he commented that his two new tools will allow “advance in the country’s most critical priorities in science, energy and medicine.” In addition, he has extolled the “power” of public-private partnerships. And they’ve shared some details about those tools. Lux AI. On the one hand, the Lux AI supercomputer. Jointly developed by ORNL, AMD, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and HPE, this equipment will be deployed in early 2026 as the first “AI Factory” supercomputer designed to train, tune and deploy fundamental AI models to accelerate scientific innovation. It will be driven by the AMD EPYC CPU and for the Instinct MI355X GPUand if with the above it was not very clear what it will do, in the statement they point to an approach to discover revolutionary materials (that can be used in new energy systems in which China leads with an iron fist), accelerate energy innovation, transform biology and biosafety and strengthen both national security and resilience. It’s still quite abstract, really. discovery. On the other hand, the Discovery supercomputer. The GPUs it will use will be the Instinct MI430X, but the CPUs have not yet been presented. AMD says they will be a next-generation EPYC codenamed ‘Venice’, and the set is designed for the nation to train, simulate and deploy AI models. The idea is that it will enter service sometime in 2028 and its function will be to run AI models that, for example, have been trained with Lux. Thus, thanks to enormous bandwidth, it will be able to boost AI to make discoveries in energy, biology, advanced materialsnational security and manufacturing innovation. Translation: It is expected to help design next-generation reactors, batteries, catalysts, semiconductors and critical materials. Something interesting that AMD has highlighted is that the applications developed for Frontier (another of the United States supercomputers) can be easily transferred to Discovery because it maintains the same programming environment. AMD and Intel as tech pivots. Apart from the United States, the great beneficiary of this operation will be the Oak Ridge National Laboratorynew home for both Lux and Discovery when their development is complete. And, apart from the new AMD supercomputers, this operation underlines that the United States considers these companies vital, along with Intel or Apple. Not in vain, Intel has been the star of one of the most ‘curious’ news stories in recent years as it is the first company since the 2008 crisis in which the US Government intervenes. 5 billion dollars to turn it into the country’s semiconductor “factory.” A factory that even It could be the safe passage of an Apple that it must manufacture in the US if it wants to avoid tariffs. In the end, the 1 billion for AMD is not an isolated case, but rather a United States that is focusing on development of a technology that seems to be the one that sets the standard in world research at the moment. Image | amd In Xataka | Europe already has its first exascale supercomputer: one million terabytes and 24,000 NVIDIA chips for a key mission

If when you think of a farm you visualize a red building with white corners, it’s the Swedes’ fault.

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5040-Y80R. That is the approximate designation according to the Natural Color System chart for color ‘red falu‘. It is a registered trademark and It goes beyond being a simple color: implies that a very specific pigment comes into play in its production that gives it that reddish tone and has transcended to the point of being part of the identity of an entire country thanks to its properties. That country is Sweden, and it all started as a waste product from a copper mine. By-product. Dalarna is a region located in the heart of Sweden, and it is home to the Falun Great Copper Mountain. The Vikings They were already exploiting this mine in 850, but the history of color dates back to the 16th century. It was then that they discovered that one of the mining byproducts could be turned into a useful pigment. Leaf From the production of copper they obtained what they called Falu rödfärgor “red mulch,” and was basically a unique mixture of over 20 different minerals. The reddish color was thanks to iron oxide, silica, zinc and copper itself. They started to mix it up with water, but also with other elements such as oils, tar or rye flour, and they discovered that they could obtain a paint with very interesting properties. better than paint. This red mulch mixed with the appropriate ingredients not only gave color to the wood, primary raw material in Sweden for both ships and infrastructure, but also acted especially well as a material protector. It was like an insulating layer, a shield that protected against the elementsprolonging its useful life, making repairs less frequent and, in addition, it was cheaper than importing wood treatments from other countries. The industry soon exploded. HE esteem that, by mid-1760, production was about 25 tons, but by 1930, that annual production exceeded 2,000 tons. Status. Now, it wasn’t cheap. Everyone wanted to paint their house that copper red color, but it turns out that it was a luxury reserved for the highest classes. When the pigment was discovered, and perhaps motivated only by its color, King John III ordered paint the ceilings of his palace with ‘falu red’, imitating the copper of the ceilings of other European palaces. Since then, those with the most power who could get hold of the pigment began to paint their houses. However, as production began to scale and gain traction, the product became cheaper and more people were able to access it, painting, if not all of their houses, the façade that faced the roads (which was what everyone passing by could see). Swedish edges of the 19th century contributed to popularize the image of the red houses of Sweden, immortalizing the idea of ​​rural life in red houses with white corners. One of Carl Larsson’s works The color of a nation. The color 5040-Y80R became the symbol of Sweden to the point that migrants who sought better luck in North America after the dissolution of the norwegian swedish union In 1905 they began to build their farms using this color. The image that many of us have of the red farm was created there. And it became so important to Swedish popular culture that there is a saying that symbolizes that simple life and harmonious in contact with the earth: den röda stugan och potatislandet (the red house and the potato garden). Today, the ‘Falu rödfärg’ is not as vital as it was years ago if we talk about production. The same has descended a lot because there is greater competition and synthetic products for paint the facadesbut it is still an example of “banal nationalism”, a symbol that exists without the need for flags and anthems, since its mere presence evokes belonging. Images| Xauxa Håkan Svensson, FrDr, HCa, Wigulf~commonswiki In Xataka | The world’s technology industry practically depends on a single road: the one that leads to the Spruce Prine mine

If the ship is damaged, they have three options

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Here we go again. Three Chinese astronauts are functionally stranded at the Tiangong space station after the apparent space debris impact with the Shenzhou-20 ship. The China Manned Mission Space Agency (CMSA) has not yet commented on its return. What we know. Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie were due to return to Earth on November 5. Its return flight was postponed to further examine the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft for the possible impact of small fragments of space debris while it was docked with the Chinese station. The three crew members they are safe. The damage to the capsule was discovered “during final checks prior to re-entry.” But the relief crew had already arrived, meaning there are two ships (Shenzhou-20 and Shenzhou-21) and six astronauts aboard a station designed for three. The CMSA focuses its investigations on the integrity of the ship’s heat shield and parachute systems. A failure in any of these elements during the ship’s atmospheric reentry could be catastrophic. What we don’t know. The CMSA is not a space agency counterpart to NASA and ESA, but a unit of the Chinese army that reports to the military command. Your communications are, consequently, limited. We do not know the extent of the damage to the ship or if it was really due to the impact of space debris. There is still no scheduled date for his return. It will depend on whether the ship is considered safe or the level of risks that the CMSA is willing to take. Assuming the ship is damaged, there are three possible options. The three options. The riskiest plan would be to attempt an in-orbit repair with a spacewalk. Commander Chen Dong is the Chinese astronaut with the most hours of extravehicular activity, but certifying a heat shield as “safe” after an impact is something totally new. If the CMSA decides to sacrifice the ship, then two other alternatives are open: the fast one and the slow one. The quick one would be to use the relief ship (Shenzhou-21) as a lifeboat for the three crew members of the Shenzhou-20. The problem is that the seats are molded to the body of each astronaut, so this option would require disassembling the seats of both spacecraft and exchanging them, a complex operation that has never been done in orbit. The slow option would be to prepare the next ship (Shenzhou-22) on the ground for an “emergency service”, launching it empty to the Chinese space station as happened with the Russian Soyuz MS-23 in 2023. It is the safest option, but also the slowest and most expensive to bring back the astronauts. Three times in three years. This is the first time that China has gone through a situation like this, but the third time in three years in which a crew is left in orbit without a clear return ticket. Soyuz MS-22 lost in spurts coolant liquid after the impact of a micrometeorite while it was docked with the International Space Station, which forced Russia to send the empty Soyuz MS-23 capsule to bring back the cosmonauts. In 2024, the two crew members of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft They became part of the permanent crew of the International Space Station waiting for a SpaceX Crew Dragon ship to arrive with two empty seats for their return. On this occasion, space junk had no nothing to see. Image | CMSA In Xataka | China has built a space empire in 30 years after being kicked out of the ISS. His revenge is about to be completed

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