Month: January 2026

the refinery that supplies 90% of its fuel is owned by Russia

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If you travel north of Berlin, in Schwedt you come across a landscape of chimneys and rusty metal that seems stuck in the sixties. It was there that communist Germany and the former USSR sealed their energy alliance, and the amazing thing is that this heritage continues to fuel the Berliners’ tank today. Although the official rhetoric speaks of a total break with the Kremlin due to the invasion of Ukraine, the reality at the PCK plant is different: the majority of the property remains in Russian hands, a Soviet vestige that Germany has not yet dared to completely expropriate. It literally depends on the operation of PCK Schwedt that Berlin does not stop. The plant pumps 90% of the gasoline and kerosene consumed by the capital and the state of Brandenburg; It is the energetic heart that powers everything from domestic heating to airplanes at the international airport. As pointed out by an analysis of Financial Timesany stoppage in their machines – no matter how brief – would cause an immediate strangulation. It is not just a question of figures, but a real threat to the daily lives of millions of people that the energy sector monitors closely. A trapped refinery The PCK situation is a direct result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Following the start of the war, Germany decided to withdraw to the Russian state oil company Rosneft operational control of the refinery, placing it under state trusteeship. The measure was adopted under the Energiesicherungsgesetz (Energy Security Law) with the explicit objective of guaranteeing supply and avoiding an operational collapse of critical infrastructures, as explained by the German Government itself. The guardianship affects the subsidiaries Rosneft Deutschland and RN Refining & Marketing, through which the Russian group controls stakes in three German refineries: PCK Schwedt, MiRo (Karlsruhe) and Bayernoil (Bavaria). On the whole, according to OSW datathese assets represent about 12% of Germany’s total refining capacity, making Rosneft one of the main players in the sector in the country. However, Berlin avoided expropriation of the shares. Rosneft retains 54% of PCK, a decision made out of fear of Kremlin retaliation against German companies in Russia and the risk of international litigation. as explained in the Financial Times. Since then, the German Executive has been forced to renew the guardianship regime every six months by parliamentary vote. The State runs the plant, but cannot sell it freely, nor invest on a large scale in its modernization, nor offer stable legal guarantees to banks and suppliers, a legal limbo. which analysts consider unsustainable in the long term. However, the fragility of this balance was revealed in 2025, when the United States imposed new sanctions on Rosneft as part of its policy of pressure on Moscow. The measure, adopted without prior coordination with Berlin, had immediate effects: banks blocked payments, suppliers suspended contracts and the refinery was on the brink of insolvency. as reconstructed Financial Times. To avoid a collapse of supply in the German capital, Washington granted a temporary exemption of six months, which allows PCK to continue operating until April 29, 2026. At the same time, he made it clear that Germany must once and for all resolve the issue of ownership of Rosneft assets on its territory. Since then, Berlin has been negotiating against the clock with the US administration to achieve a new extension or design a legal framework that avoids future sanctions. Among the options studied is the conversion of the current guardianship into a public law trustlinked to the sanctions regime of the European Union. The goal is to demonstrate that Rosneft lacks effective control over the refinery without resorting to formal expropriation. A key piece of the German energy system Schwedt’s case is not anecdotal. A forced closure would force fuel to be transported to Berlin by thousands of trucks a day, coming from other regions of Germany, a scenario that industry sources describe as logistically chaotic and economically unfeasible. In an economy already hit by high energy prices, the industrial slowdown and the costs of the energy transition, the impact would be immediate. Furthermore, PCK is the main economic engine of Schwedt, a city of about 33,000 inhabitants in the northeast of the country. It directly and indirectly employs thousands of people and is perceived by the local population as a matter of survival. “All buses, all police cars, all rescue services run on PCK fuel,” he explained. to Financial Times the social democratic mayor Annekathrin Hoppe. But the question everyone will be asking: How is it possible that Germany still has a Russian refinery? The answer is in history. PCK Schwedt built in the sixtieswhen the then German Democratic Republic was integrated into the Soviet bloc. The refinery was designed to process Russian crude oil transported through the Druzhba – “friendship” in Russian – pipeline. a pipeline of more than 4,000 kilometers designed to seal energy interdependence between Moscow and Eastern Europe during the Cold War. For six decades, the system operated without interruption. Even after German reunification and the fall of the Soviet Union, the flow of Russian crude oil continued, reinforcing a dependence that today weighs like an uncomfortable legacy. Unlike gas—where Germany nationalized strategic assets like Gazprom Germania, today renamed SEFE—, in oil, Berlin chose not to cross the line of expropriation. Breaking that bond has proven more difficult than expected. Although PCK no longer processes Russian oil and sources mainly Kazakh crude and marine supplies through Poland and Germany, the transition has been more expensive and technically complex. As explained by the public channel Tagesschaualternative supply is largely dependent on the ports of Rostock and Gdansk, and doubts remain as to whether these routes allow sufficient plant load to be maintained. Possible exits: sale, expropriation or permanent patch Given the expiration of the US exemption, Germany is considering three main scenarios. The first is for Rosneft to voluntarily sell its stake. In recent years there have been conversations with the Qatar Investment Authority, … Read more

In 2024 we feared that the asteroid YR4 would impact the Earth. Now NASA believes the Moon is threatened

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For a few weeks at the beginning of 2025, the name 2024 YR4 became an absolute protagonist among the main institutions around the planet. It was no wonder, since this object, with an estimated size between 40 and 60 metersreached the level 3 on the Torino scalea milestone that we have not seen for a long time and that implies a probability of collision greater than 1% with the capacity to produce devastating local damage. We are saved. After this fear, science has managed to reach the conclusion that the Earth is safe now. However, the story of 2024 YR4 is not over, since the latest models suggest that, although it will avoid us, there is a non-negligible probability that it will end up crashing into the Moon. How we knew. Initially, NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) held his breath in early 2025. The first observations showed a worrying scenario for the year 2032 with this possible impact, but the moment more attention began to be paid to this object it was seen that it was not going to end up on Earth. The key to being able to breathe a little calmer again lies in the ‘shoulders’ of the James Webb which began making observations in May 2025. The space telescope made it possible to refine the asteroid’s orbit with a 20% precision improvement, confirming that there is no risk of impact against our planetnor an orbital alteration of the Moon that could affect us secondarily. But by closing a door, the JWST opened a fascinating and destructive window: the probability that 2024 YR4 will impact the Moon has risen from 3.8% to 4.3%. The lunar judgment. According to studies recently published on arXiv, the key date is December 22, 2032. That day is where there is about a 1 in 23 chance that we will see a violent spectacle on the lunar surface with an impact that would release an energy of 6.5 megatons of TNT. This is something very relevant, since this great energy would generate a crater approximately one kilometer in diameter and the ejection of 100 million kilos of lunar debris with a cloud of material equivalent to the weight of about 20,000 elephants. From Earth. Logically, this impact, although it does not occur on the planet, the truth is that it will have important consequences and not exactly physical ones, but rather a visual phenomenon. The debris that will be ejected from the Moon could enter the Earth’s atmosphere some time later, generating an unprecedented meteor shower caused by a secondary impact. The use of technology. Over time, the European Space Agency has also validated this data, placing the size of the object more specifically between 53 and 67 meters and confirming the 4% probability of having an impact on the moon. Although logically we also have a 96% chance that it will completely pass from the Moon. But this asteroid has had a very positive point: it has vindicated the need to improve space detection tools. And right now these objects are hiding in the “blind spot” of the sun’s glare, although with this one we were lucky that the ATLAS system in Chile managed to detect it. A future mission. Given this limitation that we have, the ESA has seen it necessary to activate the NEOMIR missionsince if it had already been active, it would have detected the asteroid a month earlier, offering vital reaction time if the threat had been against the Earth and not against the Moon. And now what. For now, we have to wait. The asteroid has moved away in this case and will not be in an optimal position to make an observation again until 2028. It will be then that astronomers will be able to refine this 4.3% probability and tell us definitively whether we will spend Christmas 2032 looking at the Moon to see how a new crater forms live. Images | Mike Petrucci NASA Hubble Space Telescope In Xataka | Japan has lost a five-ton satellite in the most unusual way imaginable: “it fell” during launch

The change of Google’s search engine with AI was a mystery about its monetization. Finally it will be another subscription

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For months, the technology industry has been closely watching how Google resolves its particular dilemma: how to integrate artificial intelligence into its search engine without destroying the advertising business that supports its empire. The doubts are being cleared up little by little, and everything indicates that the company has already solved it: through AI Plusa subscription with a cost of 7.99 euros per month. Dilemma. The results of traditional search with blue links They generate billions in advertising, being one of the company’s most lucrative businesses and also one of the reasons why it is where it is. On the other side we have his foray into the AI ​​careera business in which they are burning money on infrastructure in the hope that it will be profitable in the long term. This last business also clashes with the traditional advertising system, with which Google also takes great advantage. Embracing the new potentially means burying what feeds you. The company is looking for a solution to this dilemma with Google AI Plus. What does the 8 euro subscription include? AI Plus has recently reached 35 new countriesamong them Spain. For €7.99 per month, users get enhanced access to Gemini 3 Prothe image generator Nano Banana Prothe research tool Deep Research200 GB of cloud storage and the possibility of using Gemini directly in Gmail, Docs, and other Google apps. Also includes 200 monthly credits for flow and Whiskthe company’s AI video creation platforms. Duel with OpenAI. The price is tight and even lower than the offer. ChatGPT Gowhich is found in Spain at a price of 9.99 euros per month. Both companies are fighting to attract users who want more than the free version, an opportunity to obtain more financing for their AI operations and, over time, attract even more customers who want to immerse themselves in more complete and higher-cost plans. Limitations to justify the price. The version of Gemini 3 Pro included in AI Plus has significant restrictions compared to the AI ​​Pro subscription of 22 euros per month. For example, the context window is drastically reduced from 1 million tokens to 128,000, which means that the model will “forget” information much sooner in long conversations or when analyzing long documents. Monthly credits for creation tools are also five times lower: 200 versus 1,000 in the Pro version. Google gives away AI to its storage customers. The company is adding all AI Plus features automatically to existing subscribers of Google One Premium (2 TB for 9.99 euros per month) at no additional cost. This avoids the absurd situation where paying more would result in having fewer features, but it also shows Google’s commitment to getting its users who pay for storage familiar with Gemini without them having to think twice. A change for the media. Google is building a monetization strategy around AI, and that affects the media. In this way, the media goes from being the user’s final destination to becoming data providers to train and feed AI responses. When Gemini responds directly instead of displaying blue links, traffic to the original sites evaporates, along with the advertising revenue they generated. The issue is somewhat tricky and it is still unknown how all the parties involved are going to agree. Subscriptions. Google is betting on a freemium model that allows it to make its investment in AI profitable without completely abandoning its traditional advertising business. The question is whether users will be willing to pay for something that until now they considered free. Unlike Netflix or Spotify, AI subscriptions They are still a relatively new concept to the general public. We will have to wait to find out if this tightrope walk balancing exercise by Google ends up convincing in the long term. In Xataka | The number of new apps coming to the App Store has skyrocketed. We have a culprit: “vibe coding”

Spain has just surprised Europe and the US with an unprecedented operation. It is not a simple rearmament, it is a historic naval coup

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For years, the European rearmament it was more conversation than facts and Spain always appeared in the list of the lagging countries. Now after constant pressure from the United States and the climate of insecurity In Europe, the country has taken an unexpected turn with an unprecedented naval investment that has surprised even its allies. A leap that has not been seen in decades. Spain has activated one of the largest renewal processes of its Navy since the end of the Cold War, an investment of 5.5 billion euros for a plan that combines the incorporation of 37 new warships and four submarines of new generation with the deep modernization of units already in service. This is not a routine replacement, but rather a complete reconfiguration of naval capabilities for a more demanding strategic environment, where sea control, deterrence and the protection of sea routes have returned to the center of the security agenda. The submarine axis and a program. The technological heart of the plan is formed by the four S-80 submarines, developed by Navantiadesigned to return to the Spanish fleet an advanced submarine capacity in stealth, autonomy and combat. With air-independent propulsion, state-of-the-art sensors and an architecture designed for surveillance, intelligence and anti-submarine warfare missions, these units represent a qualitative leap which places the Spanish Navy at an operational level comparable to that of the large European navies, with a delivery schedule that extends until 2030. Submarine S-8 Frigates, ships and balance. The renewal is not limited to the underwater field. The program includes five F-110 frigates multi-mission design, designed to operate in high intensity scenarios, together with the modernization of the F-100 frigates to extend its useful life for two more decades. Added to this are new action ships maritime with anti-submarine capabilities, which seeks to maintain a balance between new generation platforms and proven units, avoiding an operational vacuum during the transition. F-110 Frigate Logistics as a multiplier. A key part of the effort is focused on logistical and technological support. The construction of a new Supply Ship of Combat, the update of minehunters, the incorporation of hydrographic vessels and a specific platform electronic warfare They reflect a broader vision of naval power, where sustaining prolonged operations, gathering information, and dominating the electromagnetic spectrum is as important as direct combat. Geopolitics and deterrence. There is no doubt, this rearmament responds to an international context more unstablemarked due to open conflicts in Europe, tensions in the Mediterranean and the Sahel and greater competition between powers. For a country with a strategic position between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, strengthening the fleet is not only a matter of prestige, but deterrent credibility and real capacity to protect own and allied interests within the NATO framework. Industry, employment and autonomy. Beyond the military level, the program aims to have a direct impact about the naval industry Spanish. The aim is most likely to consolidate a technological fabric with high added value, in addition to generating qualified employment and reducing external dependencies in critical systems. If you also want, the development of the S-80 and of the new frigates It has also served as a catalyst for innovation in propulsion, sensors and combat systems, with effects that transcend the strictly defensive sphere. Spain on the board. The last reflection that comes out of the historic announcement is clear: with this investment sustained over time, Spain reinforces its role as a relevant actor in the European maritime securitya priori capable of contributing more decisively to international operations and the protection of the main lines of maritime communication. I already we had seen the last months in many other nations. In the case of Spain, it is not, or does not seem to be, a simple update of ships without further ado, but rather the confirmation that naval power is definitely once again a central pillar of defense policy in the 21st century. Image | Navy, A Guy Named NyalNavantia In Xataka | Spain may not have F-35, but it is about to make history by sea: it is called F110 and it is ready for any war In Xataka | The United Kingdom will be only the first client: Spain builds a colossus in Galicia to build warships like churros

We have turned sadness into a psychiatric disorder. And that is a problem that is devouring us socially.

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When Roland Kuhn discovered the first antidepressant in history, imipramine, the directors of Geygi hesitated to put it on the market because depression was so rare who did not believe it could become a profitable medicine (Healy, 1999). It was the 50s of the 20th century, but it seems like an alternative reality. Today, depression is omnipresent. Only in Spain, the consumption of antidepressants has grown 200% in the last fifteen years and it is nothing more than the reflection of an unstoppable international trend. How is it possible that, in just over half a century, depression has become “so common”? Are we confusing normal sadness with a psychiatric disorder, as many experts say? Are we pathologizing everyday life? I am not going to enter into terminological debates, no matter how interesting and necessary they may be. When talking about “invention of mental illness” or “pathologization of everyday life” we run the risk of minimizing problems as serious as depression and that is something that is not in question. On the contrary, the idea is understand her better to treat her better. As the neurologist Luis Querol said“if we stick to the conventional concept of diseaseanyone who has seen a melancholic depressive SUFFER (…) will recognize that it is an illness.” It is totally true: that is enough for now. Depression is a particularly insidious and destructive disorder. According to the WHOnot only is it the main global cause of disability, but it affects 350 million people and is behind 800,000 deaths each year. Synopsis of an epidemic However, this does not explain why depression has become an epidemic. Above all, because it is not a disease that we “just” discovered. Melancholy is one of those psychiatric disorders so old that they were already diagnosed by Hippocrates and classical Greek medicine. Since the 19th century, the European diagnostic tradition separated most mood disorders from deep melancholy and included this among the diseases that end up consuming the person (such as senile dementia). At the beginning of the 20th century, psychiatric practice already clearly differentiated between endogenous or melancholic depression (which affected between 1 and 2% of patients) and reactive or neurotic depression (much more common) which was a product of stress, loss or pain. (Unsplash) In 1980, in the middle of a deep reputation crisis for psychiatric practiceDSM-III changed the way we think about depression. It moves from an etiopathogenic model (which asked about the cause of the disease) to a semiological one (which, in its claim to atheoretical nature, was based on symptomatology). A careless eye might think that the change was terminological and that “endogenous” was only replaced by “major” and “reactive” by “dysthymia”; but, in reality, the DSM-III expanded the playing field. Melancholia became one of the five subtypes of major depression and, with this, the underlying depressive disorder went from having a prevalence of 2% to a prevalence of up to 17% (Kessler et al., 2005). In recent years, a good number of historians (and activists) have insisted that this change and the commercial pressure of pharmaceutical companies (Horwitz and Wakefield, 2007) have taken us to overdiagnosis current disease (Mojtabai, 2013; Parker, 2007). At its strongest, it is a difficult argument to reject. Especially because it is not that the existence of depression is denied, but rather that it is argued that the failure of epidemiologists, psychiatrists and social scientists to differentiate ‘normal sadness’ and ‘depressive disorder’ is leading to health policies that condemn many people to taking unnecessary medications and carrying the weight of stigma on their backs. Whys, doubts and conspiracy Basically, although it is not usually said clearly, we are talking about ‘iatrogenesis’; That is, suffering or damage to health caused by health professionals themselves. The current opioid crisis in the US It shows that, far from being pure conspiracy, pharmaceutical companies and their balance sheets can create a health problem of colossal dimensions. However, we must not be unfair, nor fall into banal Manichaeism. Although it may seem counterintuitive and paradoxical, many problems only appear when we have the solution them. Without antidepressants or effective behavioral therapies, depression was deep sadness, black sorrow that wells up, black shadow that amazes me. Something that was between us and there was nothing we could do to avoid it. (Jacob Sedlacek/Unsplash) Horwitz and Wakefield say that “tolerance for normal but painful emotions has fallen” in the West. And it may be true. But they forget two fundamental things: that, for the first time in the history of humanity, we can do without them and that it is not a personal problem, the modern world has tended to prioritize productive optimism and has forgotten how to live with sadness. At this point we realize that, if we want to learn to better separate “illness” from “normality”, it is not just a matter of challenging depressive overdiagnosis, but of claim sadness. The problem is that, why would we want claim sadness? And the answer, honestly, may surprise us. Sadness, said Lazarus (1991), promotes personal reflection after the loss. Focus our gaze on ourselves, promote resignation, invite acceptance (Izard, 1993). It allows us to waste time to update “our cognitive structures” (Welling, 2003); that is, to accommodate the loss. That reflective function of sadness It allows us to stop. And weigh actions, review our goals, modify our plans (Bonanno & Keltner, 1997; Oatley and Johnson-Laird, 1996). It makes us more attentive to detail, more precise. It makes us flee from heuristics and stereotypes (Bodenhausen, Gabriel and Lineberger, 2000; Schwarz, 1998) and distrust first impressions (Schwarz, 2010). Physiological arousal decreases and makes us more prone to slow thinking (Overskeid, 2000). Furthermore, it shapes us as a group. Causes sympathy, empathy and altruism in others (Keltner and Kring, 1998). The complex balance between “normality” and “disease” In 1843, Charles Darwin wrote a letter of condolence to a distant cousin in which he said that “strong affections have always seemed to me the noblest part of man’s character and the … Read more

Free PS4 and PS5 games in February 2026 for PlayStation Plus Essential, Extra and Premium

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Let’s tell you what they are the games that Sony will give you at no additional cost in February 2026 if you have subscription to PlayStation Plus. These are 3 new titles that will be available from February for all subscribers of any of the versions of this service, and which you can play whenever you want at no additional cost as long as you maintain your subscription. PlayStation 5 It is backward compatible with the PS4, which means that you can play all the games from the previous generation on it. In the list of games we are going to put you games with official prices from the official Sony website, which may sometimes be different from what you will find in stores, but which serve as a reference to see the value of the games you get. Free games for PS4 and PS5 Undisputed (PS5), valued at 49.99 euros. A boxing simulator with over 70 boxers and fighters, although some can only be unlocked by punching. It has many different scenarios, with intuitive controls and intense combat. You have the file in 3DGames. Subnautica: Below Zero (PS5, PS4), valued at 29.99 euros. A new episode of the fantastic Subnautica that is sold separately. It takes us to a new frozen region where we face new challenges for our survival. You have the file in 3DGames. Ultros (PS5, PS4), valued at 24.99 euros. A metroidvania with exploration and combat. Locked in a narrative loop, we will have to face multiple challenges while we progress our character. You have the file in 3DGames. Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (PS4), valued at 69.99 euros. A flight simulator where you have to control fighter planes. You can pilot about 30 planes. You have the file in 3DGames.

Fewer and fewer teachers want to go on trips with their students. So in Galicia they are entrusting it to companies

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For students it is usually the best moment of the course, but if we talk about teachers, excursions are something else: a extra burden of responsibility and headaches. So much responsibility and so many headaches in fact that there are teachers who directly renounce participating in them. At the end of the day, a trip to the Prado, a few days visiting Barcelona or even a week in Rome is experienced differently if you are a kid willing to burn the night away than a teacher with the mission of taking care of twenty teenagers. For some faculty, this panorama is so demotivating that are turning to companies specialized. The objective: ‘outsource’ school trips. One trip, two ways to live it. Each student is a world. There are those in science and literature, extroverted and shy, responsible and brainless… but what the vast majority agree on is what is the best moment of the course: the excursions. Especially those that culminate ESO or high school, getaways of several days that involve spending nights away from home, leaving your region (maybe even the country) and savoring a dose of freedom that you normally don’t have in your daily life. It sounds exciting… unless you are not the student, but the teacher. Not given away. A few years ago Laura Gómez (Lauri Math Teacher), teacher and tiktoker, published a video which accumulates almost 145,000 likes and 2,000 comments in which he told what it is like to go on a school trip when you have to do it from the other side, that of the teachers who for a few days act as tutors-night watchmen. And its message is curious to say the least: these getaways are usually free for teachers, but even so, despite the opportunity to spend a few days of tourism in another country, many flee from that responsibility as from fire. “We’re going on a free trip” You know what? There are no teachers who want to go on study trips. In fact, many trips have had to be canceled because there were no teachers who wanted to go with them and, of course, if there are no teachers there is no trip,” the teacher reveals. The next question is obvious: Why? Why are there teachers who prefer to continue with the classroom routine rather than spend a few days in Paris, Tenerife, London, Rome… with a group of students? “You sleep between little and none.” The answer Laura’s story is quite simple: where kids see days and days of fun, freedom and more or less supervised revelry, teachers often see something else: “It’s a tremendous responsibility to go abroad with a group of teenagers, each with their father and mother. They get sick, anything happens to them… You sleep little to nothing and on top of that you have to be running around all day from one place to another.” The influencer She is not the only one who has spoken publicly about the issue. In 2024 I did it too through the pages of The Voice of Galicia José Ramón Alonso de la Torre, retired teacher from Vilagarcía de Arousa. In an article on the subject, he explained that it is one thing to accompany students on one-day cultural trips and quite another to go with them on trips of several days, often hundreds of kilometers from their homes. “The teachers back down, as has happened in some Arousa high schools, because they know they are at risk,” recognize. @laurimathteacher Would you go on a study trip?👩🏼‍🏫✌🏼🥵 ♬ original sound – ➗LauriMathTeacher➗ “What are they going to do?” “In the press there are often news stories about teachers legally accused of abandonment and abandonment because a student, while going down a slide into a pool, twisted his arm. Or because another was mugged on Paseo de Palma and had his phone stolen. And what are the poor teachers going to do, prohibit them from bathing, accompany each walker?” he was wondering Alonzo. “No, it is not easy to go on an excursion in front of 50 boys and girls ready to take on the world, especially the world at night.” Alcohol, scares, unforeseen events, nights guarding nightclubs and hotel hallways, run-ins with students from other schools… Seen that way, who would want to shoulder that enormous burden of extra responsibility? Outsourcing trips. So far nothing surprising. What is curious is what I revealed yesterday Vigo Lighthouse in a chronicle that explains how some teachers in the region are refusing to go on trips with their students. Given this scenario and to prevent kids from being left without the experience, there are centers in which the function is being outsourced directly. What does that mean? That trips are celebrated, but with teachers, but with other professionals. “Two years ago we had to call a company to travel with the children because no teacher wanted to go. This year we preferred to keep only the 4th year ESO excursions. In third year we would have to count on the company and we decided to stop doing it,” comment to Lighthouse Malores Villanueva, director of an institute in Vigo. Yours is not the only center that has covered the lack of volunteer teachers by resorting to a specialized company. “Pretty strict rules”. One of these businesses, Divertos, assures that it is not an exceptional practice, especially since the pandemic. “There are years when the same center calls us for several outings and other courses for nothing; and they call us again years later. There are promotions that are more complex than others,” comment to Lighthouse its manager, Marivíc García. The service provided not only relieves teachers of responsibility. It also marks the focus of travel. “We have quite strict rules and although at first they protest, they later get along well. They know that if they don’t comply the consequence is losing the trip,” explains Garcia before citing some guidelines they give to young people, such as not … Read more

Surfshark is a top tool to protect your privacy on the Internet

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With news of massive hacks almost every week, it is logical that we want to add an extra layer of security while browsing the Internet. Of all the ways there are to do this, the most useful and easy to use is a VPN. If we are actively searching for one of them, we have one of the best VPN available at a discounted price: it is surfsharkavailable now for 1.99 euros per month. Surfshark Starter Subscription – monthly The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A secure, fast VPN that you can use on all the devices you want As we always tell you, a VPN It is one of those tools that does not get in the way and that is always good to have installed on our devices. Yes, there are free options on the Internet that, for specific use, are not bad. The problem is that most of them They are not as safe as they say they are.hence It is advisable to invest a little and get a payment one that is safeas is the case with Surfshark. How can a VPN help us be safer on the Internet? By activating it, what we will be doing is passing our traffic through an encrypted and secure tunnelin such a way that no one will be able to see what we are doing. This is ideal in any scenario, but especially recommended if we are going to use a WiFi network that is not ours, such as that of a hotel. Another thing that a VPN also allows us to do is keep our IP address hidden. By using it, we will be preventing it from being registered anywhere or that no one will be able to intercept it, something ideal, since with it they can even impersonate our identity. Let’s now talk about Surfshark’s offer. This company offers three different plans, the Starter being the cheapest of them. Right now we have it available for 1.99 euros per month if we go for their two-year plan. In this way, in total we will be paying 53.73 euros and we will take three extra monthsso we will enjoy the tool for 27 months in total. And be careful, because you can use it on as many devices as you want without paying more. If we don’t mind investing a little more and are looking for a more complete tool, we can automatically go to your plan Surfshark Onereduced right now to 2.49 euros per month. This, in addition to including the VPN, comes with more additional tools, such as an antivirus or a tool that warns you in case your data is leaked on the Internet. Surfshark One Subscription – monthly The price could vary. We earn commission from these links The improved version of the previous plan, called Surfshark One+is also on sale: it goes for 4.19 euros per month. This includes, essentially, everything from the previous plan, along with a very interesting tool called Incogni. It allows us to delete our data from people’s company databases, which is very useful. Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Image | Nathan Fertig on Unsplash,Surfshark In Xataka | Why it is dangerous to connect to public Wi-Fi and what you should do to protect yourself In Xataka | Free VPN and security: what’s the problem, why you should be careful

It’s called AlphaGenome and it looks for the ‘flaws’ in DNA that no one else sees

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Historically, genetics has had a big problem with our body and the instruction manual that we have in each of the cells and that gives us the possibility of living: DNA. Until now, We could only understand well 2% of all our genetic materialleaving the rest of the information in a mess drawer that came to be called “junk DNA” because we did not understand what function it had in our body. But this has changed thanks to technology. The solution. Google has wanted to collaborate with science to understand much better what 98% of our DNA does that it does not encode proteins and that we did not know its reason for being. But evolutionarily, if it has not been lost over the generations, it is because it must have had some relevant function. In order to shed light on this ‘dark’ region we now have AlphaGenome, an AI model that is capable of reading massive fragments of our DNA and predicting with great precision how small mutations can alter cellular machinery and cause diseases. Like a cancer. What we know. As we have said before, genetics knows that only 2% of the human genome contains instructions for making proteins. The rest of the DNA was a mystery for a long time until it was recently discovered that “switches”, known as enhancerswho decide when, where and how much a specific gene is expressed. The problem arose when the genetic variations in these areas were difficult to interpret due to the great diversity of molecular consequences that it can cause. Until now, computational tools had to choose: either they analyzed very short sequences in great detail or they looked at long sequences in little detail. AlphaGenome has broken that barrier. A million letters. In a very colloquial way, we can understand that human DNA is made up of letters (which are the different nitrogenous bases) and their combination literally generate a language. In this case, AlphaGenome’s great technical innovation is its ability to “zoom” and “pan” at the same time. The model takes as input 1 megabase (1 Mb) of DNA sequence, which is one million letters, and predicts thousands of functional genomic clues at single base pair resolution. And this is a vital range, since genetic regulation occurs at a distance. And although in our minds we can imagine that the ‘switches’ of the different genes are right next to or above their targets, the reality is that they can be very far from it. In fact, 99% of validated enhancer-gene pairs fall within this 1 Mb range. Its importance. It may sound like technical science fiction, but the impact of an AI understanding our “junk code” has very real consequences for patients and medicine in the near future. And AlphaGenome is not just a tool for biologists; It is a key to unblock personalized medicine. One of the most important points is in what are known as ‘rare diseases’ where dedicating a research team is unfortunately not worth it due to the few people who have a disease. In this case, AI, by interpreting all the genetic material, can show many answers ‘hidden’ in that non-coding dark matter to offer new diagnostic avenues. Computer drug. The tool promises to accelerate the design of advanced therapies. By predicting how a DNA sequence affects splicing (splicing) or expression, can be used to design drugs that act on the products generated by the genetic machinery of our cells. In this way, the door is opened to these precise and very non-invasive treatments by acting on a specific protein, which reduces its side effects. Decrypt cancer. As has been demonstrated with leukemia, the model allows us to understand the most complex genetic mechanisms of this disease in which we are facing a constant struggle. It doesn’t just say “there is a mutation,” but explains how that mutation breaks cellular rules to activate an oncogene that is the precursor to future cancer. This is vital to develop drugs that attack the root of the problem and not just the symptoms. Your availability. True to the philosophy of “open science” (with nuances), DeepMind has released the model code and weights for research, in addition to provide an online API for non-commercial use. Although logically AlphaGenome is not the end of the road, it does represent the most detailed map that we have ever woven of that “dark matter” that makes us human. Images | digitale.de In Xataka | Your DNA predicts whether you are going to use cannabis (and how often): the culprit genes have already been identified

Sanderson finally signs the Cosmere adaptations after years of fighting, and Apple gives him more control than George RR Martin has

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Brandon Sanderson has closed an unprecedented agreement with Apple TV to adapt the literary universe of Cosmere. The platform will develop films based on the ‘Mistborn’ saga and a series of ‘The Storm File’, the author’s two main franchises. The pact gives Sanderson a level of creative control higher than even that enjoyed by JK Rowling or George RR Martin with their respective adaptations: he will be the architect of the universe, he will produce, he will be consulted and he will have the power of approval over creative decisions. Several attempts. The announcement comes after years of deals that did not come together. In 2016, DMG Entertainment acquired the rights to the Cosmere for $270 million for three films, but the project never moved forward. own Sanderson recognized in December 2024, in your annual updatebeing “back at square one” after the collapse of negotiations for a film adaptation of ‘Mistborn’ that had reached very advanced stages of development. The project had taken five years of work, had a finished script and linked actors whose identities he could not reveal. Sanderson later detailed on Reddit that the plan contemplated a hybrid model: a first big-budget film followed by a television season covering the period between books one and two of the original trilogy. A second film would adapt the second book, followed by another transitional season. The main actors would have signed contracts for both film and television. An unusual success. The new agreement with Apple represents the culmination of the publishing phenomenon led by Sanderson: his books have sold more than 50 million copies worldwide, a figure that includes both his solo works and his contributions to ‘The Wheel of Time’ by Robert Jordan, which he completed after his death in 2007. In 2022 he established the record for Most successful literary Kickstarter in history by raising 41.7 million to self-publish four secret novels written during the pandemic. But what is the Cosmere? The Cosmere is a shared universe that interconnects multiple fantasy sagas through a common cosmology and interlocking systems of magic. The model resembles Isaac Asimov’s approach with his universe of robots and foundations, although Sanderson planned the connections from the beginning to avoid the need to reconcile items later. The Cosmere encompasses different planets with distinct civilizations, histories and magical systems but based on a shared mythology: the being Adonalsium, whose power fragmented into sixteen shards distributed throughout the cosmos. The agreement. Apple closed the deal after a competitive process in which Sanderson met with most of the top studio executives in Hollywood. In this way, the company is left with a fictional universe that has similarities with another franchise it also owns, ‘Foundation’ (and, in part, with ‘Silo’), which allows it to compete in the field of fantasy and science fiction adaptations with Amazon (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, The Wheel of Time), HBO (Game of Thrones) and Netflix (The Witcher). It is not the first time that Apple has reached agreements with prestigious creators, such as Alfonso Cuarón (‘Disclaimer’) or Martin Scorsese (‘The Moon Killers’), but none had been given as much creative control as Sanderson. The challenges of the Cosmere. The technical and narrative complexity of the Cosmere poses notable obstacles. For example, magic systems: Allomancy in ‘Mistborn’ allows users to “burn” ingested metals to obtain supernatural abilities differentiated according to each metal. Sanderson expressed on Reddit his concern about a possible oversimplification that denaturalizes these systems, designed with coherent internal rules that structure entire plots. The length of the works is another problem: the books often easily exceed a thousand pages. For example, the five Stormlight Archive books add up to nearly two and a half million words, and Sanderson plans ten volumes in total. The expectation. The announcement made by the author on Reddit generated thousands of comments analyzing the implications of the level of creative control guaranteed to the author. The closest precedent to this model could be Peter Jackson with ‘The Lord of the Rings’, although in that case the author of the original work was absent. Meanwhile, Sanderson asks for patience: film development requires years of prior work, usually between two and three, before reaching the production phase. What is clear is that although Sanderson’s presence provides guarantees and Apple is potentially a great option for adaptation, the process is not going to be easy. In Xataka | Brandon Sanderson eviscerates the Cosmere, his narrative technique, which includes an Excel sheet, and the moment that made him a writer

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