five great gift ideas for the Three Wise Men

If you still don’t have the gifts of the Three Wise Men and you are looking for inspiration to hit the nail on the head, El Corte Inglés has a section called Geek Universe with ideas to give and take. Therefore, in this article we are going to review some board games, audio devices and also kitchen devices. The K-Pop Warriors ‘The K-Pop Warriors‘have enjoyed (and continue to do so) enormous popularity on the Netflix platform, managing to reach millions of views and breaking records. It is not surprising that the platform launched a karaoke for the little ones, or not so little ones, in the house, although if we prefer to have the physical soundtrack we can opt for vinyl of ‘Las Guerreras K-Pop’ which is available at El Corte Inglés. If you prefer, it is also CD available. The K-Pop Warriors – Vinyl The price could vary. We earn commission from these links DeLorean replica For the most nostalgic there is also a large assortment of products related to movies, being the DeLorean replica one of the coolest. This is the car of ‘back to the future‘ in 1/24 scale which has a good level of detail. It is manufactured by the Welly brand and has dimensions of 17 cm wide, 7 cm high and 6 cm long. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links One Piece Monopoly ‘One Piece‘ has amassed a good audience during the long years in which both the manga and the anime have been (and are) on the air. The Mugiwara (Straw Hats) have made the leap into the field of board games with an adaptation of the Monopoly in One Piece edition. Includes figures of almost the entire crew and both the cards, the board and the coins are personalized. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Iron Man speaker If you liked the first phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (UCM), and especially those related to the character played by Robert Downey Jr., El Corte Inglés has a curious Iron Man Bluetooth speaker which has a pretty cool design. Incorporates Bluetooth, NFC and 3.5 mm Jack connectivityits battery offers a range of approximately 4 or 5 hours and has a hands-free function. Iron Man Bluetooth Speaker The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Pokémon waffle maker If you are passionate about waffles and want to make them with very different designs, El Corte Inglés has a practical waffle maker or waffle machine to prepare them Pokémon style. In this case, the waffle maker has a design of the iconic Pokéball from the series and the video games, but it is also allows you to prepare waffles with the same Pokéball design. In addition, it has non-stick treatment and its dimensions are 10 x 20 x 25 centimeters. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | El Corte Inglés and Compradicción (header), Sony and Netflix, Welly, Monopoly, Ekids, Uncanny Brands In Xataka | Five board and card games to spend a family Christmas with games for between 2 and 18 players In Xataka | Best Bluetooth speakers in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and six recommended models

wants to connect all traffic as they already do in China

The connected V16 beacon becomes mandatory on January 1, but the DGT already suggests that this device would only be the first piece of a much more ambitious project. The director of the organization, Pere Navarro, advanced in an interview in Public Mirror that will soon arrive “the connected cones” and other smart signage elements. And that makes perfect sense, since in the end the objective is nothing more than minimizing the risk of accidents through an interconnected traffic network. Something similar to what is already happening in other countries such as China, Singapore, Japan or South Korea, among others. A fully connected traffic network. If we insist on the example of China, applications like Amap, its equivalent to Google Maps, allow drivers to know how many seconds are left before a traffic light turns green. There they have all their road infrastructure connected. Traffic lights, traffic cameras and the vehicles themselves are part of a digital ecosystem that intends to improve traffic and reduce accidents. Europe, and specifically Spain with the DGT at the helm, seems to look towards this model as a long-term reference. The DGT 3.0 platform as the brain of the system. Behind the connected V16 beacon is DGT 3.0the digital platform that acts as the nerve center of this entire smart network. When a driver activates his beacon after a breakdown or accident, the device sends its position through IoT networks in approximately 100 seconds. This information reaches DGT 3.0 and, from there, is automatically distributed to roadside information panels, navigation applications and other connected vehicles. Pere Navarro insist in that the system does not collect personal data: “When you buy the beacon, you are not asked for any information. We don’t even know the vehicle’s license plate.” “The DGT does not want to know where you are at all times, the beacons have not been created for that,” as stated on Antena 3. Smart cones, next step. Navarro confirmed that connected cones will arrive after V16, designed to inform about workers on the road, sports events, demonstrations or special transportation. These cones will work with the same logic: when activated, they will send their location to DGT 3.0 so that the rest of the drivers receive warnings before reaching the conflict point. The objective is to gain reaction time and avoid risky situations. The idea is that these cones can also help better manage traffic during events that require road closures, allowing vehicles to be diverted along alternative routes more efficiently. The V-27 signal, warning inside the car. Another element that is part of this connected network is the V-27 signala triangle with an exclamation mark and three stripes symbolizing connectivity. This signal appears directly on the instrument panel of compatible vehicles when DGT 3.0 detects a nearby incident, either due to the activation of a V16 beacon or for any other reason that the agency considers dangerous. Of course, it only works on connected cars whose manufacturers or service providers are registered with the National Access Point for Traffic and Mobility Information. On secondary roads, where there are no illuminated panels, this system can make a difference by providing early warning of dangers that would otherwise go unnoticed. Towards the autonomous car. If the DGT knows at all times where the broken down vehicles, construction cones, smart traffic lights and surveillance cameras are, it will be much easier to have an effective accident prevention system. For the DGT, connectivity is a solution to eliminate unnecessary risks, such as get out of the car to signal an emergency. Whether the systems are truly effective remains to be seen. But in addition to that, all this information can lay the foundations for the arrival of the autonomous car. And these cars need precisely that: detailed, real-time information about everything that happens on the road. Flexibility. Pere Navarro made it clear that there will be no massive sanctions campaigns during 2026 with the whole V-16 beacon thing. “The objective is not to fine, the objective is an improvement in road safety,” he stated in the interview. The director of the organization assured that the agents will apply flexible criteria while drivers adapt to the new system, prioritizing information over immediate sanctions. Cover image | DGT In Xataka | Someone has created abstract works of art with one of the most unique forms of engineering: highway “knots”

In 1845, John Franklin’s expedition set sail in search of the Northwest Passage. 180 years later his loss remains a mystery

On the morning of May 19, 1845, Captain John Franklin and his expedition weighed anchor from the Greenhithe Harboralmost at the mouth of the Thames. They were looking for the Northwest Passagethe (at that time theoretical) maritime route that would link the Atlantic and the Pacific through northern Canada. They never came home. 129 men who never returned and who, for 170 years, have been one of the great questions of scientific and naval exploration. We now know why the men of John Franklin’s lost exploration died. There are those who insinuate that the trip started badly from the beginning. It should never have been in the first place. John Franklin. The first option William Edward Parryone of the great English explorers, but he had already traveled to the Arctic five times and “was tired.” So he declined the offer. Secondly, they thought about James Clark Ross. Ross has just arrived from Antarctica where he had explored the Ross Sea and Island. In fact, the ships on that expedition were the same as those that would be used on this mission (two of Ross Island volcanoes They are called Erebus and Terror in honor of the ships). But upon returning to England, he became engaged to his future wife and decided that great explorations were no longer for him. He was followed by James Fitzjames (discarded due to inexperience), George Back (considered too controversial) and Francis Crozier (who, well, was Irish and that was more than enough reason to rule him out). Seeing the yard, John Barrow, second secretary of the Admiralty, called John Franklin. To this day no one knows why Franklin, who was already a legend at the time and was almost 60 years old, he said yes. But the fact is that, as I said, they left the vicinity of London that day in 1845. They stopped in Orkney and the convoy formed by the two main ships (HMS Erebus and HMS Terror), the HMS Rattler (the first English warship with steam propulsion) and a transport headed to Greenland. There they sacrificed ten oxen and the expedition began its solo journey. The search for the Northwest Passage The travels of Marco Polo are a peculiar book. Not only does it remain a very interesting precedent for current anthropology, but it served as an inspiration for many during the era of great exploration. The image you can see above is precisely the annotated copy of ‘The Voyages’ that Christopher Columbus had. In one of its versions, the Italian one from 1559, a Chinese province called Anian. We assume that it was from there that the geographers and explorers who discussed whether America was a new continent or, on the contrary, an Asian peninsula, got the name of the Strait of Anian, the separation between Asia and America that would give access to the Northwest Passage. It is what we know today as the Bering Strait and for years it was pure mythology. But, first, Ferdinand Magellan and his crew turned around Cape Espiritu Santo and found themselves face to face with the southeastern passage; and, second, a Dane in the service of Russia, Vitus Beringrediscovered for the West the strait through which Semyon Dezhniov had already traveled sixty years before. The rest was geopolitics: the quick passage to the Pacific without having to pass near the Spanish territories in America was too juicy. In 1745, an English law promised 20,000 pounds to whoever discovered the pass and the boom began. I have tried to convert the amount to a current currency and I have not been able to do it accurately, but I have drawn one conclusion: it was a lot of money. Favorable weather In early August 1845, two whalers, the Prince of Wales and the Enterprise, encountered Franklin’s ships in Baffin Bay. They were waiting for favorable weather to enter the Strait of Lancaster. That was the last time they were seen. Two years passed. And, little by little, Lady Jane Franklin, some members of Parliament, and the fledgling British press began to ask the Admiralty to send someone to search for the heroes of Franklin’s expedition. The Government sent three expeditions: one by land and two by sea, one through the Atlantic and another through the Pacific. They failed. Fearing that they would be forgotten, Lady Jane Franklin composed her lament, the song you can hear just above. And, although I don’t know if it was for that reason, the truth is that was not forgotten. In fact, the search for the lost expedition “became nothing less than a crusade.” In 1850 alone, eleven British and two American ships tried to locate them. It was then that the first tombs were found. Over the years, the different expeditions found fragments, Inuit stories and objects from the expedition. In 1855, following the indications of some Inuit tribes, pieces of wood were found with the name of Erebus. In 59 two messages were found. The first, dated May 28, 1847, was from Franklin himself and read “Sir John Franklin, Commander of the Expedition: All Well.” It is the document on the right. It was a common practice at the time, documents were left in different places so that, in case of problems, they could be reconstruct the details of the trip. But in this case, something curious happened: on the edges there was another message, dated April 25, 1848, explaining that the ships had been trapped in the ice. Franklin and twenty-three other crew members were dead. And the rest, the survivors, had abandoned the ships looking for an exit to the south. In the next few years some objects, some rumors and some tombs appeared. Nothing else. The ships never appeared and we never, in 150 years, discovered what had really happened to Captain John Franklin’s lost expedition. One hundred and fifty years without news In the 1980s, the University of Alberta launched a project to track the expedition. The different possible routes were traveled … Read more

Someone believed that ‘GTA Vice City’ could be played for free in the browser without consequences. Take-Two has reacted firmly

Whoever played ‘Grand Theft Auto: Vice City‘ You probably remember well that it was not exactly a light game for its time. It was published in 2002 on PlayStation 2 and later came to Xbox and PC in 2003. In those years, installing it and making it work was part of the ritual with requirements that not everyone could meet. That is why it is striking that, more than two decades later, that same title appears running directly in a browser, without installations or disks. The question is inevitable: why now and with what implications. The response has come in the form of a cease and desist request directed at DOS Zone. The notice, that the platform itself has made publicmaintains that the website is “hosting and promoting a browser-based project.” The document demands that the game and any associated functionality be removed, and warns that if this is not done, the company reserves the right to take additional legal action. Where preservation ends and the legal problem begins A cease and desist request is not yet a demand, but rather a notice with clear consequences. Its objective is to force the removal of content that the rights holder considers infringing, leaving a formal record of the claim. From that moment on, the designated platform usually faces a clear decision: comply or assume the risk of the conflict escalating. The letter itself anticipates possible subsequent steps, such as communications to the accommodation provider or legal action if the request is not met. In this case, the notice has not been managed through direct communication between editor and platform, but through EBRANDspecialized in digital surveillance and content removals. This model is common in large catalogs, where the detection and management of potential violations is outsourced to dedicated teams. EBRAND acts as a technical and legal intermediary, in charge of documenting the case and conveying the demands of the rights holder, without publicly assessing the context of the affected project. DOS Zone, for its part, is presented as a project driven by video game enthusiasts with a stated objective of preservation and accessibility. In its own texts, the team emphasizes that it does not obtain financial benefits, does not display advertising and does not monetize access to the games it hosts. It also claims to reject any form of illegal distribution and ensures to operate within the legal frameworks it considers applicable. As part of this positioning, the platform maintains that it is willing to remove content immediately upon official request and to cooperate with rights holders. Screenshot of DOS Zone The version of Vice City accessible from the browser allowed you to start games with local saves and offered, optionally, saves in the cloud through the js-dos platform to continue the session on different devices. Access was limited in demo form, with progress blocked after the first story point at the Ocean View Hotel. To go further, the system required the user to upload an original game file, which was verified to match the commercial assets. The claim comes from Take-Two and is part of a broader debate about access and preservation, where the concept of “abandonware” is often invoked. However, that term has no legal validity: The fact that a work stops being sold or changes format does not extinguish its copyright. In the case of ‘Vice City’, the validity of the copyright in USA extends until 2097regardless of the channel through which you try to access the game. In this specific case, furthermore, the abandonment argument does not even hold up in practical terms. Take-Two continues to sell Vice City and also versions such as ‘Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – The Definitive Edition’ on multiple platforms. Its owners continue to exploit it commercially more than twenty years after its original release. This context reinforces the publisher’s position against any unauthorized execution and helps to understand why the case does not go unnoticed, even in an ecosystem where other similar projects manage to survive without friction. Images | Rockstar Games/Take-Two | DOS Zone Screenshot In Xataka | I can turn on, control and play my PC from anywhere in the world: three ingredients that make it possible

The artificial intelligence race is pushing the US towards an unexpected energy solution: looking to the military sphere

The artificial intelligence race is not only being fought in laboratories, chips or data centers, it is increasingly being played in the field of energy. In the United States, the accelerated growth of electrical demand associated with AI has exposed a barely visible fragility: the network is not expanding at the same pace as technological ambitions. This imbalance is forcing us to look beyond conventional solutions and reopen debates that seemed closed, including some that connect directly with the military sphere. What has been put on the table. HGP has submitted an application formal to the United States Department of Energy to redirect two nuclear reactors removed from Navy ships to a civil project linked to data centers in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The request was channeled through a letter addressed to the Department’s own Office of Energy Dominance Financing, and is part of the so-called Genesis Mission promoted from the White House. According to the documentation, the installation could provide between 450 and 520 megawatts of continuous electricity, aimed at intensive and stable consumption. The main argument in favor of this idea is time. Faced with the construction of new civil reactors, whether large plants or smaller designs, which tend to move on long schedules, or the start-up of large gas plants, also conditioned by permits and infrastructure, the reuse of existing reactors is proposed as a way to gain speed. The logic is simple: start from equipment that is already manufactured and tested, and convert it into a firm supply for the network. It is, at least on paper, a way to add base power while other solutions mature. Behind the scenes of the proposal. The initiative does not come from a newly created startup or from an unknown actor in the energy sector. HGP Intelligent Energy It is a recently created division, but it is presented as part of a developer with previous experience in the US market, supported, according to the company itself, in energy storage projects, electric mobility and development of network-scale assets. At the helm is Gregory Alvaro Forero, president of the division, which appears on your LinkedIn profile as president of HGP Storage since November 2013. That detail helps frame the approach outside of the improvised company pattern. What technology would be reused and at what price. The reactors cited in the proposal come from the US naval nuclear fleet, where aircraft carriers operate with two reactors and submarines typically operate with one. Models A4W, manufactured by Westinghouse, and S8G, developed by General Electric, are mentioned. Adaptation for civil use would have an estimated cost of between one and four million dollars per megawatt, and the project would also require between 1.8 and 2.1 billion dollars in private capital for associated infrastructure. The proposal includes revenue sharing with the Government, a fund for future decommissioning and the intention to request a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, with a first phase “as soon as 2029”. Just because the idea sounds direct doesn’t mean the path is. Bloomberg notes that Reusing military reactors for civilian use would be unexplored territory, and inevitable questions arise: how is it authorized, who operates, under what standards and with what responsibilities if something fails. Coordination between federal agencies and regulators also comes into play, as well as the logistics of moving and adapting equipment designed for ships, not a grid-connected plant. For now, everything remains at the proposal level. Energy sovereignty as a security argument. HGP tries to support its approach with a framework that goes beyond electricity for data centers. In its materials, the company summarizes the idea with an explicit equation, “Energy Supply Chain Sovereignty = National Defense,” and links supply chain resilience to the country’s ability to secure strategic infrastructure, even noting how geopolitical events or social media posts by managers can affect operations and investments. It is the story with which it seeks political and institutional legitimacy. To reinforce the idea that naval nuclear is not synonymous with improvisation, the context of the World Association of Nuclear Operators enters. According to WANOthe US Navy has accumulated more than 6,200 reactor-years of experience without radiological incidents, with 526 reactor cores, as of 2021. The association attributes that history to the standardization of systems, maintenance and quality of training. It is a relevant fact for the public debate, but it does not close it: a solid record in a military environment does not automatically imply that the jump to civilian use will be immediate or easy. Images | General Dynamics Electric Boat | Igor Omilaev | İsmail Enes Ayhan In Xataka | The race to bring data centers to space promises a lot. Physics says otherwise Images | General Dynamics Electric Boat | Igor Omilaev | İsmail Enes Ayhan In Xataka | The race to bring data centers to space promises a lot. Physics says otherwise

Spain produces more electricity than it can manage

Spain has gone from being the renewable envy of Europe to becoming a case study in the dangers of saturation. This summer, the country reached a historic milestone where the combined generation of sun and wind exceeded 10,500 GWh per month. This disconnection has caused an unexpected effect: there is so much electricity that its value has plummeted. For companies that invested millions in solar panels, the business has ceased to be profitable, transforming what was a success story into a “saturation crisis” that puts the Spanish market in check. The “discount” market and its collapse. The current outlook for solar park owners is bleak. “It’s discount season,” says Carmen Izquierdo, co-founder of nTeaser, speaking to the Financial Times. The saturation is such that operational solar plants have seen their valuation fall from €916,000/MW at the beginning of 2024 to just €648,000/MW today. The situation is more dramatic in “ready to build” projects (with land and permits but without work). As detailed by the Financial Timesthe market is so flooded that some developers, desperate to avoid government sanctions for not being able to execute agreed construction plans, have gone so far as to offer projects for the symbolic value of 1 euro. This situation has led to a wave of fire sales or liquidation sales, where companies sacrifice part of their portfolios to try to save the rest of their capital. Anatomy of a bottleneck. Why does the bill continue to rise if there is too much energy? The answer lies in outdated infrastructure. According to an analysis by EmberSpain only invests 30 cents in electrical networks for every euro allocated to renewables, a figure that is less than half of the European average. Added to this lack of investment is the impact of the “Great Blackout” of April 28. After that incident, Red Eléctrica began to operate in “reinforced mode”activating (more expensive) gas plants constantly to stabilize the network tension. This emergency strategy has cost consumers an additional billion euros. Furthermore, given the inability of the grid to absorb all the energy generated at noon, the curtailment (clean energy that is wasted) has tripled, going from 1.8% to 7.2% in just a few months. The race for flexibility. The industry is no longer looking to install more panels, but rather to survive the ones it already has. According to the Financial Timesthe great hope is the batteries. Installing storage allows producers to “save” unprofitable projects by storing energy when the price is zero—or negative—during the day and selling it at night. Other solutions in progress: PPA Contracts: Companies like Zelestra sign long-term agreements with giants like Microsoft or Amazon to power data centers, although the prices requested by buyers are falling dangerously below the profitability threshold of €30/MWh. Export: Spain seeks to break its “energy isolation” with projects such as the submarine cable with Irelandscheduled for 2030, which will allow the solar surplus to be sent to northern Europe. Regulatory reforms: After the rejection of Royal Decree-Law 7/2025 in Congress, the Government is looking for alternative ways to encourage microgrids and grid forming (technology so that batteries stabilize the network as if they were traditional power plants). A structural “January Cost”. Despite technological advances, the citizen’s pocketbook faces a contradictory scenario. According to the latest resolution of the CNMCthe total remuneration that companies will receive for maintaining the transport and distribution networks will rise by 4.1%, reaching 6,608 million euros. However, the final impact is a puzzle of forecasts. The CNMC estimates that for homes (2.0 TD rate) tolls could drop by 1.3%, as long as their forecast that energy demand rises by 3.6% is met. but here conflict appears: while the Ministry for the Ecological Transition is very optimistic and proposes an increase in charges of 10.5% based on a consumption growth of 4.5%, the regulator (the CNMC) is more cautious. This imbalance of figures is dangerous. If demand does not grow as much as the Government expects, the system will not collect what is expected to cover the costs of renewables and networks. This would once again open the door to the feared tariff deficit, a historic debt that took Spain more than a decade to absorb. Furthermore, for those who sought refuge in self-consumption, the lesson of the April blackout was bitter: only the 33% of domestic installations In Spain they have batteries. Without that extra outlay, the solar panels automatically disconnect during a general outage due to safety regulations, leaving the user in the dark despite having the sun on their side. Europe’s energy laboratory. Spain has become the world showcase of the energy transition. It has shown that coal can be expelled from the system — taking place since July without generating it for the first time in 140 years—, but it has also shown that abundance without management is inefficient. How Ember’s analysis concludesthe challenge for 2026 is not to install more panels, but to modernize the network and focus on flexibility. As an executive cited by the Financial Times summarizes:the mistake was not putting up panels, but forgetting about the networks. The bill we pay at the end of the month is not going to improve by breaking production records, but by being able to take advantage of every ray of sunshine. Today, the future of our energy does not depend on it getting warmer, but on cables and batteries finally arriving on time. Image | Unsplash Xataka | 2026 has not yet started but it has already managed to produce the first bad news: the light goes up

Generation Z lists their emotional crises and turns them into infographics

We recently described the Wrapped that have been born in the shadow of Spotify as real monstersand no wonder: companies in principle so barely linked to the recreational use that we give to Spotify, such as Linkedin or Wetransfer, reminding us that during the year, essentially, we have worked more than necessary. But summaries of the year, made by individuals and seen with a little irony and constructive criticism, can be very good. And so we come to the Crying Wrapped or summaries of crying of the year. #llanterawrapped. On TikTok, thousands of users (mostly Generation Z girls) are documenting all the tantrums they’ve had during the year. He hashtag #cryingwrappedand also #crywrapped They accumulate millions of views with videos that present, in PowerPoint presentation format or Spotify-style infographics, personal statistics on how many times they cried in 2025 (and also the year before), where they did it, at what time of day, what caused it and what their “highlight crying episodes of the year” were. Gloriously detailed. The categories include “crying due to personal relationships”, “crying in the office bathroom”, “crying while driving”, “crying caused by episodes of series”, or even rankings of songs that generated the most tears, because (and this is the important thing) we are not facing a list of misfortunes, but rather a fun and original form of emotional overexposure. There are bar graphs with the monthly evolution of the crises, others identify their “peak month of crying”… Following in the wake of the mythical viral video of user @rachel_ginterthis trend turns suffering into gamified content, making vulnerability hide behind the corporate and mechanical language of viral videos and power points. The Wrapped phenomenon. In 2016, Spotify launched its first Wrappedan experiment that would end up redefining how digital brands interact with their users. The streaming platform took the millions of listening data from each user (artists, songs, genres, total minutes) and transformed them into a visual narrative, designed to function as content on social networks. The result was remarkable: in 2024 More than 2 million people already expressed the desire for the feature to arrive in early November, almost two weeks before its official launch. The key to success, as Sprinklr tells it, lies in having converted individual information into “shareable entertainment based on personal data.” Wrapped not only reflects musical tastes: it is a statement of identity, and Spotify understood that, at the same time as giving it the attack on physical formatsunderstood that sharing music has always been a social act. Epidemic Wrapped. Spotify’s success created a domino effect that has transformed December into the month of personalized digital digests. Letterboxd, Duolingo, Reddit, Hulu, all the block streaming services… until the users themselves decided to start creating their own summaries. With Google Sheets, Canva templates to design infographics and apps like Notion To document each crying episode, these users have built emotional monitoring systems. And with this, they have turned Wrapped into viral language. The reality after the tantrum. Behind this epidemic of crying (funny because they themselves take it as a joke, of course), there is a not so funny reality: we are facing a generation going through a mental health crisis without historical precedent. He McKinsey Health Institute global study with more than 42,000 respondents in 26 countries revealed that 18% of Generation Z rate their mental health as poor or very poor. And to this is added that Gen Z’s relationship with social networks is deeply paradoxical: the same study says that this generation is the most likely to report negative effects of the use of digital platforms, but simultaneously more than half identify benefits such as self-expression and social connectivity. The same apps that fuel toxicity and anxiety are also spaces for identity and community construction. Humor as therapy. This is interesting UCLA analysis of dark humor on TikTokwhich analyzed hundreds of comments on videos about trauma, grief and existential crises, and came to the conclusion that for Generation Z these jokes function as “language of solidarity.” They do not trivialize suffering: they make it bearable by laughing at it. While the millennials Using sarcasm to create distance, Gen Z mixes irony with sincerity, adopting a confessional style that embraces vulnerability. But there is a dark side to this mechanism: this analysis explains that there is a fine line between humor as catharsis and the normalization of destructive thought patterns. Cry Wrapped operates exactly in that ambiguity: emotional processing or transformation of suffering into social capital? In Xataka | Someone believes that part of Drake’s 37 billion Spotify streams are fake. And it’s impossible to know

We send fewer and fewer paper letters. So Denmark Post has said goodbye to the service after 400 years

“Denmark is the canary in the mine.” The comment is by Marvin Ryder, researcher at the McMaster University (Canada), and what he talks about is not about markets, finances or geopolitics, but about something that has been part of the daily lives of a large part of the world’s population for centuries: the mail. The postal operator PostNord has decided that on Tuesday, December 30 will send his last letter in Denmark. In fact, it has been removing its characteristic red mailboxes from the streets for months and Monday the 29th will be the last day it accepts certified envelopes. From now on he wants to focus on sending packages, something that makes a lot of sense in view of his results. The question, how Ryder slidesis whether the end of postal mail will be limited to Denmark or will reach more countries. Goodbye letters, goodbye mailboxes. End of cycle in Denmark. The once powerful Danish postal service has decided to adapt to the times and say goodbye to postal mail. It’s not exactly new (the announcement did it months ago), but the effects of the measure will begin to be felt now, with the turn of the year: in 2026 the operator PostNord will stop collecting and delivering letters in Denmark. In fact the company takes time preparing the ground for change: in June it began to withdraw its 1,500 mailboxes from the streets, on the 18th it stopped accepting letters and on the 29th it will collect the last certified envelopes with acknowledgment of receipt. One day later, New Year’s Eve, PostNord will deliver its last envelopes. Chart on letter sending (in millions) from PostNord Danmark. A key figure: 90%. PostNord, a Nordic operator founded in 2009 from the merger of Denmark’s Post Danmarck and Sweden’s Posten AB, has been very clear about its motives. Stop sending letters in Denmark because its users have stopped doing so. Only in the last 25 years has its flow been reduced more than 90% without the demand showing signs of having hit rock bottom. If in 2000 they were distributed more than 1.4 billion of letters, in 2024 they did not reach 200 million. This collapse has coincided with the increase in online commercewhich is precisely where the operator has decided to focus its efforts. From now on in Denmark it will focus exclusively on the parcel service. “We are forced to adapt to the new situation and take the next step to build a strong PosNord for the future,” claims. It makes sense considering that the MitID system already allows Danes to receive all their official notifications digitally, the option chosen by the vast majority of the population. Only 5% of adults has renounced that possibility. Will there be no more letters? Yes. And no. PostNord has decided to turn the page 400 years of postal history (the service operates from the 17th centuryin times of Christian IV), but that does not mean that paper envelopes will no longer be sent. Danes will be able to continue sending letters to each other through Daoa courier firm that is already operational and is now preparing for a considerable increase in activity: if its estimates do not fail, it will go from 30 million letters in 2025 to 80 million in 2026. Of course, the service will be somewhat different for citizens: whoever wants to send a letter will have to go to one of their locations to deliver it or pay extra if they want it to be picked up at home. Question of obligations. In the statement in which it advanced its plans PostNord made it clear that its decision comes preceded by a change at a legal level that, in practice, frees its hands. “Our responsibility for the universal postal service in Denmark was extinguished with the Postal Law which came into force on January 1, 2024, except for mail for the visually impaired, small islands and international mail during a transition period,” clarify. Things will be different in Sweden, where PostNord will continue to operate a mail system “self-financed and profitable” and assuming the postal service. “Difficult decision”. Breaking a tradition that dates back to the 17th century is not easy. And this has been recognized by PostNord, which talks about “a difficult decision” and an “important step” designed to be strengthened in the future. For now, his goodbye has served to unleash collecting fever for his mailboxes: the operator put 1,000 units on sale for between 270 and 200 euros (depending on their state of conservation) and sold out of stock. in just a few hours. It is estimated that its network is made up of about 1,500 mailboxes and in January they will be auctioned another 200. Beyond Denmark. Where PostNord’s movements are probably also followed with interest is in the Post Offices. Although there are signs which suggest that Generation Z is reconnecting with the pleasure of sending written letters, the truth is that postal mail is also going through slow times in Spain. The National Markets Commission calculate that in ten years the exchange of letters has plummeted by 64%, which has forced Correos to try new (and multiple) avenues of business. Parcel shipping is increasing, moving at “record levels”, but precisely for this reason it is a sector with fierce competition in which it is not easy to gain a foothold. In Denmark, the readjustment of the postal service will be accompanied by a snip of staff, with the loss of 1,500 jobs. Images | News Ãresund – Johan Wessman (Flickr) and PostNord In Xataka | Correos wants to be a bank in 2025. It is an eye-catching plan in the face of the continuous closure of bank branches

They have dismantled the latest Huawei phones and what they have found is bad news for the US: 57%

May 2019, this was the date the United States declared that Huawei was “a threat to national security”thus becoming the first major victim of the trade war against China. Without being able to use American technology, the company was mortally wounded, or that’s what we believed so. Today, Huawei has not only achieved return to the top of mobile phones in Chinahas also become the banner of technological independence. 57%. It is the percentage of Chinese-made components that we can find in the Huawei Mate 70 Ultra launched in 2024 and the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra launched this same year. They tell it in Nikkei Asia where, in collaboration with the Japanese firm Fomalhaut Techno Solutionshave disassembled both models to analyze the internal components. It is the result of six years of efforts to become independent despite the vetoes. The turning point. The US veto forced Huawei to look for alternatives and create new national supply chains. In 2020, the percentage of Chinese components in Huawei flagships was only 19% and in 2023 it increased to 32%. Reaching 57% in 2024 represents a jump of 23 points, which is said to be early. The countries where most of the components that Huawei managed to supply came from were Japan, the United States and South Korea. Processor. It is the Kirin 9020, the first manufactured entirely in China and most critical component of all. It is a 7nm chip manufactured by SMIC. To achieve the 7 nanometer process they would have used multi-pattern techniquesquite a technical feat considering that they do not have access to the newer machines, but rather have done so by “tweaking” old ASML machines. More components. There are more key parts that have managed to be manufactured entirely in China, such as the RAM memory, which is produced by ChangXin Memory Technologies, or the storage, produced by Yangtze Memory Technologies. For OLED screens, almost all the components are Chinese, specifically from the company BOE Technology Group. Challenges. The 2019 veto was a near-death blow for Huawei; sales fell dramatically and there were moments when we had serious doubts about its continuity, until it began to resurface. Being able to manufacture critical components in China is an enormous achievement, but there is a reality and that is that, technologically, Huawei is several years behind. To put it in context, the Kirin 9020 that they launched in 2024 is at the level of the Snapdragon 855 or the A12 Bionic launched in 2018. The challenge now is to manage to cut positions and Huawei is already doing it. The Huawei Mate 80 Pro mounts the Kirin 9030which has managed to cross the 7nm barrier and reach 5nm. Furthermore, recent leaks indicate that They have managed to copy an ASML SVU machine which would allow them to go even further, although at the moment it is not ready to produce commercial chips. Image | Xataka In Xataka | Huawei is coming back. And not everyone is prepared for what is coming

In the 15th century Mallorca was a great manufacturer of nautical charts. Now that has allowed him to get hold of a treasure

When almost six centuries ago the cartographer Pere Rossell created a detailed nautical chart of the Mediterranean, its purpose was to help sailors negotiate the winding coasts of North Africa and the Tyrrhenian, Ionian and Black Seas, a vast expanse of water crisscrossed with trade routes. What Rossell probably did not imagine is that in 2025 that Portulan letter full of annotations, lines and the occasional illustration would end up becoming a treasure in itself. One for which the Consell de Mallorca has paid 700,000 euros. The goal: bring him back home. A map, a treasure. That there are maps (and codices) that are worth more than many treasures is nothing new. He reminded us a few years ago an atlas supposedly consulted by Christopher Columbus on his first trip to America that ended up sold for several million euros. And we has remembered again now the Consell de Mallorca, although with a much more modest outlay. The island government has just paid 700,000 euros by a nautical chart prepared in the mid-15th century by one of the most important (and prolific) cartographers on the island at that time: Pere Rossellpart of the Mallorcan cartographic schoolwhich in turn connects with one of the eras of greatest splendor of the region in the preparation of nautical charts. From the workshops of Mallorca came plans so precious that they were in demand from Flanders to Alexandria. The Mediterranean on paper. The Majorcan press assures that the objective of the Consell is to expose the document in the Mallorca Museumbut the truth is that you don’t have to wait that long to enjoy its details, colors and annotations. At least if we don’t mind doing it through a screen. Sotheby’s, the firm in charge of the auction, includes a description and a detailed gallery of images on your websitewhich recalls that the plan was drawn up at the end of the 1440s, is written in Latin and Catalan and shows the Mediterranean and Black Seas in great detail. In the work Rossell reviewed dozens and dozens of place names and multiple navigation routes. As a cherry on top, it included shields, flags and details of nine cities with their fortifications. “Part of our identity”. Sotheby’s also stated that the plan has been valued by between 700,000 and one million of pounds. Mallorca Diary precise that the starting price was 600,000, around 687,000 euros, the amount that the island Government has decided to disburse through a direct purchase. The effort is more than justified for the Consell. Its head of Culture, Antònia Roca, celebrated a few days ago that portulano returns to Mallorca after spending several centuries outside the land where it was made, around the year 1447. “We acquired one of the most important jewels of maritime navigation and our historical heritage and we want to share it with the citizens.” A jewel that comes home. Roca is not the only one who thinks this way. A few weeks ago, prestigious historians such as María Barceló, emeritus professor of Medieval History, they claimed to local institutions to take advantage of the Sotheby’s auction to enrich the island’s heritage with a unique piece. Among other reasons, they alleged that no Majorcan public institution has one of the 15th century letters that came from the island’s School of Cartography. “They are the first who should act, they have the moral obligation to acquire it. We must recover the cultural heritage of this land dispersed throughout the world,” the expert insisted. Days later the Consell seemed to take note. Is it so valuable? Beyond its heritage value, Sotheby’s highlights the peculiarity of the nautical chart within Rossell’s legacy: the work that the Consell has just acquired is “the oldest of the ten navigation maps signed by Rossell”, one of the great exponents of the Mallorcan school. The plan was probably drawn up as a commission from the powerful Florentine Martelli family, in whose archive it was preserved for more than five centuries, until almost the 1970s, when it appears in the book dealer’s catalogue. Kenneth Nebenzahl. In the 80s it passed into the hands of the Pritzker couple and now (after a stop at the Sotheby’s auction house) it returns to Mallorca. Works of art…practical. Pere Rossell’s nautical chart is relevant for another reason. In his day there were ordinary plans in which practical criteria predominated and were basically designed for use on board ships, so they were sparse in decorations and ornaments. Then there were luxury portulans, meticulously decorated objects that usually ended up in palaces. As explains Ramón J. Pujadeshead of research at the Barcelona History Museum, The Worldthe work acquired by the Consell is halfway between both categories. They are premium nautical charts, designed for navigation but that do not give up aesthetics or becoming a status symbol. Images | Shoteby’s and Wikipedia In Xataka | Someone has created abstract works of art with one of the most unique forms of engineering: highway “knots”

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