Month: December 2025

is to have become one of the biggest attention grabbers in history

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Even though the accounts at OpenAI are not so healthy as Sam Altman would likeit’s really not being a problem for continue raising money from your investors. The rain of millions being spent on ChatGPT It draws attention for the way in which they seek to obtain a return: through the attention of users. And it makes more sense than it may seem at first. 7,000 million visits per month. A recent analysis by Similarweb about generative AI has put very interesting figures on the table that are very useful for us to measure the pulse of the internet of our days. In September 2025, AI services added 7 billion visits per monthwhich represents a growth of 76% compared to the previous year and crowns AIs as one of the main rivals of social networks in terms of traffic. ChatGPT remains the undisputed leader: in the aforementioned month it reached 5.9 billion visits, very close to Instagram, with 6.5 billion. The first positions are for Google (with 82.6 billion), YouTube (28.7 billion) and Facebook (11.4 billion). All for our attention. In the age of the Internet, there is something more valuable than money itself: capture users’ attention. It is the reason why social networks are so attractive for companies of any size, becoming more of a commercial showcase that is a place where we can tell our lives. Also, this is the same reason why chatbots are still around, even though they lose money every time someone uses them. Meanwhile, big technology They are resorting to debt. They don’t want to be left out of the AI ​​bubble and the reason is now clearer than ever. The “backbone” of the internet. Not only has ChatGPT managed to become the fastest-rising platform in modern digital history, placing itself on the podium of the five most important websites in the world. The truly important thing about this is that they have managed to capture the most valuable thing: the user’s attention. The next step: fill the ‘chatbots’ with ads. Faced with this paradigm, OpenAI is considering something that was already an open secret: dress up ChatGPT with ads. A possibility that would serve to monetize the tool, especially to obtain financial returns from users of the free plans, but which raises many doubts in the field of privacy and the neutrality of the answers offered. Benefits for when? While, technology companies continue to increase investmenteven if the benefits do not come directly. The bonus, in this case, comes in the form of meteoric growth and several billion views that show that there is a reason to be optimistic about AI. Images | Generated with Gemini In Xataka | Someone has taken a look at the dotcom bubble and compared their data to AI. And it’s not optimistic In Xataka | OpenAI needs to raise an absurd amount of money to continue losing money

30 years ago a young Chinese man set up an ice cream stand. Now he leads an emporium with more stores than McDonald’s

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It’s hard to believe in a world dominated by big brands and multinationals, but there is a hospitality chain with more stores than McDonald’s and Starbucks that you’ve probably never heard of. His name is Mixue (Mìxuě Bīngchéng) was founded in the late 90s by a university student from Zhenghou, China, and today it is considered the largest food and beverage chain in the world. This is how it is recognized, for example, by the magazine TIMEwhich has included it in your listing of the 100 most influential companies of 2025. It is estimated that it has more than 46,000 stores spread throughout Asia, Australia, the Middle East and South America, a vast network of stores offering a menu based on ice creams, smoothies, coffees, traditional teas and bubble teas. Bigger than McDonald’s? Yes, if we talk about the number of establishments. The benefits already they are something else. While McDonald’s boasts of having more than 43,000 restaurants spread across more than a hundred countries and Starbucks managed 40,576 stores At the end of the first quarter of fiscal year 2025, Mixue surpasses (and quite comfortably) both figures. A few months ago the magazine TIME assured that the chain has more than 45,000 spread mainly throughout mainland China, although it also operates in other regions. Do you have so many stores? Yeah. Fortune calculate which exceeds 46,000 points of sale throughout Asia, Austria, the Middle East and South America. Other sources speak of more storesraising the total network to 53,000 points selling. Beyond these dancing numbers, one thing is clear: Mixue is normally considered the food and beverage chain with a greater deployment of establishments in the world. In addition, its branch network continues to expand to good If in the West its brand is less known to us than McDonald’s or Starbucks, it is because (despite the international jump that has given in recent years) most of the Mixue stores they remain focused in China. The firm also has another handicap that helps understand its global expansion: while in the case of Starbucks more than 50% of the stores are in the hands of the company itself, in Mixue practically all They operate through franchises. What is your story? Mixue’s is the typical story of improvement and accelerated growth that gives shine to the classes of coaching business. The father of the company is Zhang Hongchao, who laid its foundation almost 30 years ago from scratch. Your story starts in 1997in Zhengzhou, when Zhang, then a university student, managed to get his grandmother to lend him 3,000 yuan ($420) to set up a small slushie and soft drink stand. Despite the challenges that were encountered along the way (and some other business failure), Zhang moved forward, managed to adapt to the changes in Zhenghou, reinvested in machinery and found the key to creating a million-dollar business. Sam Tang account that his first success came in 2006, when he launched ice creams for one yuan. In 2014, its brand already had 1,000 stores. In 2020 there were 10,000. And how has it succeeded? The big question. Mixue’s business model has several clear characteristics. The first, its commercial approach. The chain basically sells ice cream. soft servesmoothies, tea drinks and bubble teasalthough in your menu coffee and Fortune assures which in the future plans to expand its offering with beer. The other great features of your menu are the affordable priceswith ice creams for less than one euro. Other peculiarities of the company are its commitment to dominate the supply chainits commitment to a clearly identifiable brand thanks to symbols such as its mascot (Snow King) and, above all, an expansion through franchises. In a report from a few months ago the company itself recognizes that almost all of its stores (99%) are opened and operate through franchises. Mixue is responsible for supervising businesses, choosing locations, decoration and assessing the capacity of the staff. For her, the business is not so much in the fee that those stores then pay as in the equipment, merchandise and packaging that she sells to them. And the future? It doesn’t look bad. In spring the company went public in Hong Kong and managed to raise nearly 450 million of dollars, starring in one of its best premieres of the first half of 2025. The company seems willing also to get into the powerful (and disputed) US market. According to precise Fortuneduring the first half of the year the company reached a revenue volume of 2,000 million dollars (40% more than in 2024) with profits of 370 million. Despite its humble origins, its founder and his brother now manage a fortune of billions of dollars. Images | Choo Yut Shing (Flickr) 1 and 2 and Jeremy Thompson (Flickr) In Xataka | One of the biggest wine critics is French and has toured China. There is no good news for French wine

has become a “series to watch in the background”

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The expected ending of ‘Stranger Things’ has unleashed a wave of criticism unusual among his followers. The fifth season, which Netflix launched on November 27, is being pointed out for presenting excessively basic and explanatory dialogues, among other problems derived from an excessive simplification of the series. Not understanding what this is about drop in the quality of the seriesfans have searched for possible explanations and believe they have found it: the “casual viewing” philosophy. What do people complain about? Social networks have been filled with fragments that illustrate a certain decline in writing from the series: scenes where the characters constantly verbalize What they are doing or feeling has generated ridicule and parodies. It has been said of the series slow down the pace “to offer hyper-detailed explanations of what is happening and what will happen next,” robbing viewers of the ability to construct the narrative for themselves. Added to this is a certain drop in the technical level and special effects, which has been seen in sequences such as the one at the beginning of the season, in which Will Byers moves in a completely digital environment and that produces an uncanny valley effect that many believed had already been overcome. Result: on Rotten Tomatoes, this season has barely scratched 84%the lowest score in the history of the franchise. What could have happened. Some fans have traced the possible causes to an extensive report by N+1 Magazine January 2025. Several scriptwriters who had worked for the platform revealed that Netflix executives regularly request that “the characters describe out loud what they are doing, thus allowing viewers who watch the series in the background to follow the plot without problems.” This practice responds to a category that Netflix calls casual viewing or casual viewing. It’s not just a ‘Stranger Things’ thing. There are studies They already talk about Netflix taking into account that we watch many of its series on our mobile screens. And several European producers already they received in 2022 Similar requests: programs that are understandable without having to look at the screen. For practical purposes, dialogues are more descriptive about what the characters are doing and easier to follow without the support of images. Series as popular as ‘Emily in Paris’ have already been described as ‘ambient television’ for having these characteristics. Beyond a specific problem. The demotion of ‘Stranger Things’ goes beyond a simple creative stumble: it represents a fundamental change in how streaming platforms streaming they conceive audiovisual production. The problem now lies in determining whether Netflix is ​​only adapting certain content to allow this viewing in the background, or if this aesthetic is here to stay… and spread. ‘Stranger Things’, symbol of things. But perhaps not what its creators would like. ‘Stranger Things’ closes its career not as the promised cultural event, but as an involuntary emblem of an industry that has decided to optimize content for viewers who, paradoxically, barely look at the screen. A decade later, the iconic Netflix series culminates in the form of a product designed to be watched without paying attention to it. In Xataka | All the unanswered questions left by Netflix’s purchase of Warner: a huge mess

the margin of error is only five centimeters

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If everything goes well, and that is saying a lot when it comes to the work that is taking place in northern Europe, in 2033 one of the most hyperbolic and complicated excavations on the planet will have been completed: that of the longest and deepest tunnel of the world, a work kilometer under the sea whose sides advance irremediably until they find themselves at a point whose margin of error is tiny. Engineering under the fjords. He Rogfast project represents a qualitative leap in the history of European infrastructure: we are talking about an underwater tunnel of almost 27 kilometers long and 400 meters deep that will cross the bedrock under the Norwegian fjords to connect Stavanger, Haugesund, Bergen and the intermediate communities through a continuous route without ferries. Its scale is such that it will reduce travel time between Norway’s two large western cities in forty minuteswill alter the work and logistics patterns of the entire region and will become the axis of the future E39, the great coastal highway that aims to fluidly link the south and center of the country. The most in everything. Conceived to be completed in 2033 and executed by drilling direct into solid rockRogfast will not only be the longest underwater road tunnel in the world, but also the deepest, a work that takes advantage of the experience accumulated in more than forty Norwegian underwater tunnels and demonstrates the national preference for this type of infrastructure over bridges exposed to severe weather conditions. The hidden heart of the project. At 260 meters below sea level, in a cavern carved out of living rock, two underwater roundabouts They allow the main tunnel to be connected with a branch to Kvitsøy, the smallest municipality in Norway. It is a design unprecedented: an internal cruciform that not only guarantees the connection with the island, but also acts as an operational safety valve to maintain the flow of vehicles even in the event of partial closure. The tunnel’s twin pipes function as redundancy and as a refuge: Any driver trapped by an incident can evacuate through internal exits to the other gallery, monitored by location cameras capable of guiding rescue teams with precision. This approach, which avoids exclusive dependence on a single route, responds to both the extreme geology and the Norwegian priority for safetywhich requires at least fifty meters of rock between the tunnel vault and the seabed, a distance that helps stabilize the structure against water pressure. Tunnel map No margin of error. Here comes the trickiest part, because simultaneous execution from both ends requires extraordinary topographical precision: when the two TBMs meet, they must do so with a deviation no greater than, attention, five centimetersa tolerance among the strictest in the world. To achieve this, they use rotating laser scanners capable of capturing two million points per second and creating digital twins of the tunnel, allowing ccorrect any deviation in real time. Such fine control is not a technical whim: a larger deviation would involve removing large additional volumes of rock and a significant environmental and economic cost, in addition to increasing structural risks. Added to this is a challenging environment where, at more than 300 meters deep, the tunnel is already has suffered leaks of salt water, forcing the development of new grout injection techniques to seal the rock mass and guarantee the safety of the crews. Rogfast as a key piece. The tunnel is integrated into a broader program to transform the E39 on a route without ferries, with the aim of reducing the current twenty-one hour journey between Trondheim and Kristiansand by almost half. This involves building additional bridges, tunnels and links that completely redefine mobility on the West Coast, a region historically marked by its fragmented geography. Rogfast is the most complex component of this strategy, due to its depth, length and the integration of technologies longitudinal ventilation, vents to Kvitsøy, surveillance cameras, traffic radars and real-time alert systems to manage incidents. All these elements will not only improve safety, but will also allow dynamic control of vehicle flow and rapid response to breakdowns or congestion within a closed environment at great depth. Economic impact. The project is not limited to its technical feat; its economic influence is (will be) deep and lasting. By eliminating ferries, it reduces logistics costs and expands commercial possibilities for key industries such as seafood, which will be able to reach markets more quickly. Likewise, it creates new employment opportunities during its construction and facilitates access to jobs, education and public services for communities until now isolated by geography. Reducing travel time as well will attract more tourism towards the western Norwegian landscapes, especially towards Bergen and the nearby islands, promoting an already consolidated sector. Official estimates estimate that by 2053 they will circulate daily about 13,000 vehicles through the tunnel, figures that consolidate it as a structural axis of the coastal Norway of the future. The final frontier. Although there are longer tunnels, such as the Seikan in Japan or the Channel Tunnel under the English Channel, none combine the length and depth that Rogfast will reach, which will descend to 392 meters under the seawell below the 240 meters of the Seikan or the 115 of the Canal. In this way, Norway strengthens its position as a world leader in underground engineering and in the construction of rock tunnels under bodies of water. Rogfast will become, when it opens in 2033, the maximum expression of this tradition: a gigantic infrastructure that demonstrates how a country with an impossible geography has learned to move under its own fjordsguided by technological precision, safety as a principle and the ambition to unite what nature separated. Image | ImpleniaStatens Vegvesen In Xataka | The largest hotel in the world is not in Las Vegas or Dubai. It is in Malaysia and has 7,351 rooms In Xataka | 125 kilometers of water separate 140 million inhabitants. China is going to solve it with a mega railway … Read more

Prickly pears are at risk of becoming extinct because no one wants to be a prickly pear anymore. Castilla y León wants to remedy it

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His image is iconic, unmistakable. Capes, doublets, ribbons and patches, with guitars and bands in their hands and setting the rhythm around the campuses. The university prickly pears are part of the cultural heritage of Spain and as such the Junta de Castilla y León wants to protect them, which just declared tradition an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC) of an intangible nature. The measure comes at a particularly delicate moment: with the prickly pear Vivabut stalked by “threats”. What has happened? That Castilla y León has just declared the university prickly pears Asset of Intangible Cultural Interest. In reality, the regional Government Council made the decision several weeks ago, November 27but it had not been consolidated until now, with your publication in it Official State Gazette. Why is it important? To begin with, because it represents public recognition of a cultural tradition that dates back centuries and will now have a new institutional veneer. Among other issues, the BIC label should make it easier for groups to promote themselves. The declaration as immaterial BIC also places the focus on another fundamental issue: the state of health of university students in Spain. At the end of the day, the Junta de Castilla y León itself recognize that one of the objectives of the measure is to “protect the uniqueness” of a tradition that, he insists, remains “alive” and “integrated” on the campuses. Not everyone shares his optimism. From Culture they warned not long ago that the prickly pears face “threats”. Why declare it BIC? The Castilian Government is clear about it: claims “the roots” of the prickly pear in the region and remembers that the tradition arose in the heat of some of its first universities, such as that of Palencia, Salamanca either Valladolidwhich trace their origins to the 13th century. “This has allowed the tradition to take deep roots in the region from an early date,” collects the BOE announcementin which he presents Salamanca as the “cradle of the prickly pear.” Since then the groups have gone through multiple ups and downs. The prickly pears started among the humblest university students of the late Middle Ages, young people who played in exchange for food or a few coins, and remained active throughout the following centuries. In the 19th century they were on the brink of disappearance, but they gained renewed momentum thanks to the Romantic movement. The Civil War threatened its survival again, but the tradition was reinforced during the 40s, 50s and especially between the 60s and 70s, when Spain opened up to tourism that found in those young people who dedicated themselves to singing dressed in capes and ribbons a “picturesque symbol of Spanish student folklore.” Already in the 1980s and 1990s the first female groups were consolidated. And how are they now? The Board assures that “the presence of university prickly pears” covers the entire region, giving shape to “a living mosaic.” “Castilla y León is home to between 20 and 30 active or recently active university tunas, distributed throughout all its provinces,” celebrate the Castilian-Leonese Government before specifying that this estimate includes all types of groups, male, female and those known as fortiesformed by ancient tunos. How are your health? It depends on the source we consult. In June, Ernest Urtasun’s department published a report in which, after emphasizing the cultural and historical interest of these groups, he issues a warning to sailors: “The university prickly pear faces risks and threats derived above all from the aging of its members due to the lack of incorporation of new members in the existing groups, which results in a decrease in their number.” The comment is actually included in an official file which aims to declare the prickly pear “representative manifestation of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.” What are the prickly pears like today? That’s the key. The Country concrete that of the 150 musicians that make up the Law tuna of the Complutense University, only 15 are under 30 years old. “In the end it is a tradition that is championed by people who are not university students,” recognize one of its members. Another veteran of a prickly pear in Valladolid admits that “many fewer performances” are carried out than before. “There is no longer so much influx of people who want to join, whether due to musical tastes, the loss of economic support, fashions or the appearance of other groups, such as charangas,” reflect. “What I am clear about is that tuna continues to be a way to meet with friends who share a taste for music, creating bonds that can last a lifetime.” The situation also varies from one area to another in Spain. four years ago The Galician Post explained that in Santiago de Compostela, another of the main university cities in the country, only one prickly pear remained intact (there are other initiatives), that of Law. Of course, based on musicians who for the most part were no longer linked to the university. The Galician newspaper pointed out, however, that the trend was somewhat different in the southern half of the peninsula. Images | University of Salamanca 1 and 2 and University of Seville In Xataka | The ringing of Spanish bells is a language in itself. And now also a World Heritage Site

It was so good that it made us doubt the Nazis

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When ‘Starship Troopers’ hit theaters in 1997, most audiences expected a light science fiction adventure, perhaps a late heir to the spirit from ‘Star Wars’. What he received was something very different: a film that opened with a propaganda advertisement that was as brilliant as it was disturbing, an exercise in political satire so sharp that many viewers and critics interpreted it backwards. The satire that nobody wanted to see. Director Paul Verhoeven, a European marked by memories of the Nazi occupation and obsessed with dissecting American authoritarianism, conceived from the beginning a work that did not talk about insects or space battles, but about the way in which an apparently democratic society can slide towards militarization, fascism and blind obedience. That inaugural announcement It was not a simple aesthetic resource: it was the thesis of the film compressed into seconds, a direct adaptation of Nazi propaganda filmed by Leni Riefenstahla mirror held out to the viewer so that they could recognize, in the imposed enthusiasm of the young recruits, the mechanisms that make any totalitarianism possible. Fascist future and pop aesthetics. Verhoeven departed from an uncomfortable premise: the Heinlein novelthe basis of the film, was essentially a militaristic text that treated citizenship as a privilege linked to armed service. Instead of softening that vision, he decided to exaggerate it to the point of absurdity, turning his protagonists into stylized versions of the Aryan heroes that Riefenstahl immortalized in ‘Triumph of the Will’. The casting, in fact, was a ideological decision: young, perfect faces, with square jaws, that fit with Nazi iconography so that the viewer, even if they did not recognize it immediately, felt the disturbing familiarity of a historically charged aesthetic. The recruitment announcement (soldiers looking at the camera, declaring “I’m doing my part”) replicated shot by shot the exaltation of duty and obedience of Third Reich propaganda. What on the surface seemed like a visual joke was actually the key to deciphering the entire tone of the film. Let’s see the sequence: The smile that hides the horror. In reality, the false advertisements that Verhoeven had employed already in ‘RoboCop’ and ‘Total Recall’ acted as windows to societies that they represented: board games that trivialized nuclear war, holiday campaigns that promised false lives to evade one’s own. In ‘Starship Troopers’, that language found its final form. The initial announcement shows military victories, a dehumanized enemy and an army enveloped in enthusiasm. The satire, however, lies not in the excess, but in how easy it is for that excess to seem normal. The most disturbing detail (the joyful presence of children in a war environment, collaborating in the propaganda machine) underlines that the fascist ideal does not need explicit violence to function: it is enough to normalize indoctrination from childhood, it is enough to turn war into entertainment and obedience into a virtue. Verhoeven does not show the children being hurt; That emptiness is part of the message, since it points to a future in which they will inevitably also be sacrificed by that same patriotic logic. The original misunderstanding. The premiere of ‘Starship Troopers’ was received with a misunderstanding which today is almost legendary. There were editorials that they even accused Verhoeven and his screenwriter Ed Neumeier of making neo-nazi propaganda. The public, expecting a heroic blockbuster, found a film that laughed at their expectations and that, by showing perfect and enthusiastic heroes, posed the question that no one wanted to hear: what the hell happens when those who seem like heroes represent a morally rotten ideal? The announcement was main trigger of that rejection. His advertising tone, his energy youthits aesthetics cleancaused many to take it literally, unable to perceive that the exaggeration did not glorify war, but rather ridiculed it. Verhoeven, surprised by the misunderstanding, I would remember years later that even actor Neil Patrick Harris appeared in the film dressed in a uniform that evoked that of the SS. And yet, the satire went unnoticed by much of the American public. The advertisement as a masterpiece. Today, with the passage of time, the advertisement inside ‘Starship Troopers’ It is considered a masterpiece of political satire. It works on several simultaneous levels: it pays homage to the cinematic form of Nazi propaganda, parodies American recruiting rhetoric, exposes the ease with which television and advertising language can legitimize dangerous ideas, and serves as an entry point into a universe where war It is spectacle and the enemy. Verhoeven knew that the key to authoritarianism is not explicit repression, but in seductionin the construction of that heroic story that makes desirable what should be disturbing. That is why the advertisement is, in my opinion, so accurate: because it is not a crude parody, but rather a perfectly functional piece of propaganda within the narrative universe itself, capable of deceiving even those who see it from the outside. Reality slap. If you like, the ‘Starship Troopers’ announcement is not just a spectacular introduction, it is the film’s manifesto. If the director had explained his satire through explicit speech, the play would have lost its edge. Instead, he chose a recognizable format (the ad of a lifetime) to show how an entire society can embrace militarism almost without realizing it… and we don’t have to go very far to recognize it currently. Riefenstahl’s conscious copy did not seek to honor, but to denounce, and the luminous aesthetic did not seek to beautify, but to make uncomfortable. In the end, humor did not even seek to entertain, but rather to arouse the viewer’s suspicion. And in that contrast lay the genius of the advertisement: forcing us to ask ourselves a question that, for years, many avoided asking. And if we don’t recognize ourselves in that mirror, maybe (like Verhoeven himself hinted) is because we are uncomfortable with how close fictional propaganda can be to contemporary realities. Image | TriStar Pictures In Xataka | In 1975 a party ended on the beach. What happened next was so chilling that people … Read more

The “my cat is fat” problem is so common that the industry has come up with an idea: “Ozempic for cats”

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In just a few years, drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy or Mounjaro have gone from being discreet treatments for diabetes to become a great social phenomenon. His promise—lose weight through a simple weekly injection—has opened a new chapter in human medicine. Now, this pharmacological revolution is beginning to expand beyond people: cats could be the next to receive an adapted version of these treatments. Goodbye fat cats. Okava Pharmaceuticals, a San Francisco company dedicated to chronic diseases in companion animals, has started a pioneering clinical trial called MEOW-1whose objective is to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of OKV-119, a subdermal implant capable of releasing exenatide—a GLP-1 agonist—sustained for months in overweight or obese cats. The intervention aims to simplify a treatment that, in humans, usually requires weekly injections. Here, everything comes down to a single gesture. “You insert the capsule under the skin, and six months later you come back, and the cat has lost weight. It’s like magic,” says Chen Gilor, the veterinarian responsible for the study. speaking to the New York Times. A pioneering study. Okava’s interests did not arise out of nowhere. Prior to MEOW-1, the company evaluated prototypes of the implant in two preliminary studies. A work published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science demonstrated that the OKV-119 implant could be easily implanted and removed, that it was well tolerated, and that its plasma levels of exenatide correlated with weight reduction in healthy cats for more than one month. Subsequently, research published in BMC Veterinary Research delved into this line: they implanted five cats with the designed prototype for 84 days, what they observed is that during that period stable levels of exenatide were maintained and four of them reduced at least 5% of their body weight, along with a lower caloric intake. These results motivated the move to a trial in real obese cats, which Okava plans to run this summer. According to the companyMEOW-1 will be the first formal feline weight loss study based on GLP-1 agonists. How does the implant work? OKV-119 uses the NanoPortal platformdeveloped by Vivani Medical. According to scientific studiesthis technology uses: a titanium reservoir, a membrane with nanotubes that regulate the passage of the drug, and a system designed to ensure a constant and prolonged release without pronounced peaks. Furthermore, this type of administration allows us to overcome the main difficulty associated with GLP-1 in veterinary medicine: lack of adherence. Studies indicate that giving repeated injections to a cat is complex, stressful and can drastically reduce the continuity of treatment, ithe same as what happens in people with injectable drugs. The implant seeks to solve that problem with an approach one-and-done: a subdermal insertion in a veterinary office, without daily intervention by the caregiver. According to The New York Timesthere are veterinarians who already use human GLP-1 agonists off-label in diabetic cats, but its cost and need for frequent administration limit its use. Hence the relevance of a device that could keep the medication active for half a year. But only in cats? Although MEOW-1 focuses exclusively on felines, Okava and Vivani have confirmed an expansion of the project to dogs, another species with obesity rates greater than 50% in the United States. The company states that its goal is to reproduce in dogs the metabolic effects observed in cats: improved insulin sensitivity, reduction in fat mass and greater energy efficiency. With the expectation that these changes may even promote healthier aging. With both markets, the commercial potential is evident. According to estimates collected in Xatakathe global human obesity drug sector could exceed $100 billion by 2030. Veterinary medicine would be a new frontier. Feline obesity is a global epidemic. The interest in an “Ozempic for cats” is not a whim. It is an answer to a growing problem. A review published in Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery places the prevalence of feline overweight between 40% and 63%, although it continues to increase. When you ask veterinariansthe same patterns almost always appear: cats that live exclusively indoors, very little movement, food available all day, too many treats, sterilization and a very common problem: many owners are not aware that their cat is gaining weight. The consequences are not minor: insulin resistance, diabetes, joint problems, urinary diseases, anesthetic complications and liver disorders, in addition to a reduction in life expectancy. And the latest evidence goes even further. A proteomic analysis that evaluated 288 proteins in cats with obesity found important changes in inflammatory processes, in the complement system, in coagulation pathways and in lipid metabolism. In other words, feline obesity affects the entire organism, it is not just a “fat cat.” Many open questions. Although MEOW-1 is moving forward with positive expectations, mass adoption of an “Ozempic for cats” is far from a fact. The first unknown is the price. In humans, GLP-1 cost several hundred euros a month, and it is not clear whether a semi-annual release veterinary implant will really be affordable for the majority of caregivers. Cost could become the main barrier to entry, especially considering that feline obesity is a common problem, but not always perceived as a health priority. The second uncertainty has to do with the available scientific evidence. So far, studies on OKV-119 have been preliminary and with extremely small samples (between 5 and 15 cats). They work, yes, but we still don’t know what will happen on a large scale, or how animals with diseases or in varied home environments will respond. Finally, there is the question of scientific independence. For now, all published studies on OKV-119 come from teams linked to Okava or Vivani, the companies developing the implant. There is no independent, large-scale evidence, and this matches a pattern already observed in human GLP-1where much of the initial research is driven by the industry itself. A new era in feline medicine? The questions surrounding this new milestone in the treatment of feline obesity are piling up: will these preliminary results be enough to justify regulatory approval? Will caregivers change … Read more

As Japan runs out of children, it’s starting to adopt some ceremonies for one group on the rise: dogs

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Does a few weeks Miki Toguchi, a 51-year-old Japanese woman, went to a temple in Tokyo so that little Kotora could participate in the Shichi-Go-Sanan ancient Shinto ritual during which we thank children for their birthdays and pray for their protection. The ceremony is usually performed by young people aged seven, five and three, which is why it is often called that: ‘7-5-3’. Kotora is now five years old, hence Toguchi’s determination to have him blessed. The funny thing is that Kotora is not a child. Not a girl. It’s a schanuzer miniature that upon arriving at the Tokyo sanctuary for the ‘7-5-3’ ritual, he met other poodles, pomeranians, chihuahuas, bichons… Together represent better than any statistics demographic drift from Japan. A different ‘7-5-3’ ritual. The story of Kotora (and others like it) has just been told The New York Times in an article in which he reveals how in the sanctuary Ichigaya Kamegaoka (Tokyo) dogs are slowly replacing humans in the Shichi-Go-Sana ceremony designed for children. The origins of the ritual date back to Heian period (794-1185 AD), a period with a high infant mortality rate, which explains why the country’s aristocrats celebrated when their children reached three, five and seven years of age. Parents came to the shrines with their little ones, showed gratitude and prayed that their offspring would enjoy long, prosperous and healthy lives. From children to dogs. The ‘7-5-3’ has maintained its spirit for generations, but as Japan ran out of babies Shrines like Ichigaya Kamegaok have had to make a living. The country may have fewer and fewer children, but their homes they have been filling of dogs and cats, so dozens of temples throughout Japan have chosen to adapt the ritual to animals. The idea is the same: the little ones are blessed, thanks are given for their lives and protection is prayed for… although in this case the little ones are not children, but poodles, Pomeranians, Chihuahuas, bichons or Akitas (among many other species), dogs that often appear before the priests with kimonos and amulets. For reference, TNYT remember that the Tokyo temple receives seven times more pets than infants every fall: about 50 children compared to 350 animals. “Obsolete shrines”. Kenji Kaji is a priest at Ichigaya Kamegaoka Temple and explains that he has had to tweak some sentences to fit the pets. It may not be an orthodox practice, but he himself acknowledges that there is a less attractive scenario: “The worst thing would be if both Shintoism and the shrines became obsolete.” So pray that families and their furry friends enjoy “happy” lives. For the ceremony they ask 5,000 yen ($32). In cases like Kotora, the temples have found two things: a new source of income and a way for young people to get closer to tradition. “People have gone from having children to having pets,” Toguchi confesses.. She doesn’t have children, but she wants her pet to participate in ‘7-5-3’. It is not an isolated case. Looking back. In 2023 Reuters spoke already from an ancient temple located 35 km from Tokyo, the Zama sanctuary, which had a special prayer area designed for pets and their families to participate in the Shichi-Go-San. At the time, Natsumi Aoki, a 33-year-old woman who had blessed her Pomeranians, lamented that there were not enough pet-friendly sanctuaries in Japan. Today The New York Times assures that in the country there are already “dozens” of sanctuaries willing to say prayers for dogs. Much more than a ceremony. That the ‘7-5-3’ is opening up to pets and there are temples in which more rituals are already celebrated for more dogs than children is more than a simple anecdote. It is a symptom of the social changes that Japan is facing, mired in a deep population crisis from which it cannot escape. In 2024 the country registered 686,061 birthsa disastrous fact for two big reasons. The first is that it marks a new historical low. Never since records began in 1899 has Japan received fewer babies. The second is that this rate of births was far below the rate of deaths. Last year they died in Japan about 1.6 million peopleso for every baby born, two deaths were recorded. The result is a vegetative balance in the red that cost the country the greatest population loss since at least the late 1960s, which is when records began. Fewer babies, but no pets. During the pandemic the country saw how they increased cats and dogs in homes, although at the beginning of 2024 the Japan Pet Food Association detected that this increase was slowing down. That does not mean that pets have become a business of millionaire with growth forecast. Images | Rosewoman (Flickr), Japanexperterna (Flickr), Radim Jaksik (Unsplash) In Xataka | Japan has been mired in a demographic catastrophe for years. Now you know the price to get out of it: foreign babies

There are people investigating whether AIs are better hackers than human hackers. And we don’t have very nice news

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The technology companies do not stop talking about AGIalthough there are many doubts that it is so close how they want to sell us. General artificial intelligence is one that will be capable of surpassing humans in all facets of knowledge. We don’t know if it will be able to surpass us in everything, but there is already a niche in which it is overtaking us: hacking. The experiment. It was carried out by Stanford University researchers and we have known him through a Wall Street Journal report. What they did was develop a hacking bot called Artemis whose objective is to scan the network in search of possible bugs or vulnerabilities through which it can sneak in. They released Artemis into the university’s own engineering network and confronted her with ten pentestersprofessional hackers who are dedicated to simulating attacks to find bugs and then correct them. The bot had a ‘kill switch’ so it could be turned off at any time if things got complicated and the human hackers had instructions to force and test, but without actually penetrating the network. The results. To the surprise of its creators, Artemis achieved excellent results, outperforming nine of the ten human hackers. The bot managed to find bugs much faster than its competitors and, above all, at a much lower price. It is estimated that a pentester charges between $2,000 and $2,500 per day, while Artemis only “charges” $60 per hour. Another “look”. Artemis didn’t do everything right. At least 18% of his bug reports were false positives and he also ignored a very obvious bug on a website that human hackers saw the first time. Instead, he detected a bug that no human had detected. The reason is that the failure was on a website that did not work in Chrome or Firefox, the browsers used by hackers. Artemis is not a person and does not use browsers, but instead used a program and was able to read the website, finding the bug. AI and hacking. The Cybercriminals have been using AI for some time to make malware more effective. Recently Anthropic discovered that a Chinese hacking group was using Claude Code for a large-scale espionage campaign. What is striking is that Claude functioned as an agent who was in charge of the entire attack cycle, not just a part of the process. AI to do good. AI is lowering the barrier to entry for developing attacks, but it can also be used for protection. Research such as that from Stanford shows that AI can also be used to test insecure systems, find bugs and thus be able to patch them. The problem that arises is where the role of professionals such as pentesters will be if AI ends up doing its job for much less money. Image | Sora Shimazaki, Pexels In Xataka | Agents are the great promise of AI. They also aim to become the new favorite weapon of cybercriminals

a “Made in Europe” label to park wherever you want

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Paris is the most striking case because it has taken it to the extreme. The city has a very simple system to reduce the volume of cars on its most central streets: that you pay 18 euros to leave the car on the street. It doesn’t matter if it is electric or combustion, the intention is to punish parking to reduce car trips. The fee is paid by weight of the vehicle, so SUVs are the most punished. The Parisian idea has been replicated in Spain in one way or another. In Madrid, for example, parking a car in its most central streets has a price if it is labeled B or C: 200 euros fine. And the capital does allow access to the streets that previously formed Madrid Central but it is mandatory that, with these labels, the car passes through a parking lot. If you park on the street, the fine is guaranteed because access is controlled by cameras that exchange data with the parking lots. And it is not the only city that chooses this way of acting. Most of the information that suggests that cars with a B label cannot circulate in the center of a good handful of Spanish cities hides in its headline that yes they can do it as long as they park in a parking lot. The streets of the cities have ended up becoming on the battlefield of mobility. Forced by the States or by their own decision, large cities are trying to reduce the passage of vehicles and deliberately eliminate parking spacesthey roll out the red carpet for shared vehicles or widen sidewalks to absorb the flow of their citizens but also the massive arrival of tourists. Given this situation, the European Union has found an argument for citizens to switch to electric cars. Yeah one of the great attractions of the motorcycle is to reach our destination door to door, European politicians want to propose something equally attractive for cars. Cars, microcars or the luck of kei cars to the European one that wants to move forward to fight with smaller Chinese electric cars, cheaper than European ones. Free way to park According to Financial Timesone of the incentives that the European Commission is preparing for the creation of this new category of vehicles is, precisely, that its owner does not face any restrictions of any kind when parking. The measure would be just one more incentive for the purchase of a car that would also come with regulatory facilities under its arm, both for the customer and the manufacturer. As we have explained previously, the European Commission wants to put on the table a vehicle that straddles the heavy quadricycle and tourism. An alternative with contained dimensions, electric and that would receive a sticker made in Europe as long as most of its production was local. Europe is trying to improve the competitiveness of its vehicles and position a type of car that would require manufacturing on European soil. Manufacturers would benefit because they would have to meet lower standards. For example, security facilities have been targeted. Although everything remains to be confirmed, it seems that the initial idea is that they are cars that are below 4.1 meters long and a contained price, according to Coach. With current knowledge of batteries, this leaves us with cars with very small electrical energy accumulators because the battery is still the main cost of vehicles. Especially the smaller the car. Thus, we can expect vehicles designed by and for the urban environment where excursions outside the ring roads of a city are very unattractive. That’s why has signed up so that these cars did not have to comply with obligations such as the lane departure warning system, now mandatory in all new cars. Raising your hand with those obligations (in whole or in part) would help the manufacturer position the car at a more competitive and attractive price. This last part is essential for the customer since the cost of acquisition and maintenance can be a huge barrier when buying a car of little use on the open road. To make the latter more attractive, the intention is indicated from Financial Timesis to offer tax facilities to the client, rewarding those who opt for this type of car. Those tax facilities that are already present for some electric cars (such as exemptions on registration or circulation tax) would be added to being able to park anywhere in the city for free. The new regulation, therefore, would buy a good part of what Japan already offers with its kei car. These cars cannot exceed 3.48 meters in length and 1.48 meters in height. Furthermore, the engine cannot exceed 660 cc either. This category is a success because in Japan there are cities where it is mandatory to have a parking space to buy a car, given the lack of space. However, the kei car do not adhere to this standard. But, above all, they succeed in Japan because there rational purchasing is well regarded. With those dimensions and that engine, the vehicle is perfectly functional on a daily basis and even allows short getaways as long as the customer accepts some discomfort. The success is such that it even has its own proposal for kei cars sports. Whether Europe will be able to replicate the Japanese model with this new category, so particular due to its own restrictions and philosophy of life, is something that only time will tell. Photo | Dacia and Kadir Celep In Xataka | Europe is eager for cheap electric cars. Europe’s solution: copy Japan

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