Month: February 2026

features, price and technical sheet

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Dyson is opening its horizons in the vacuum segment. The British firm is an institution in wireless vertical vacuuming and its classic sled vacuum cleaners continue to be a master purchase, but leaving those formats to find its place in others like robot vacuum cleaners It is costing him, among other things, because The competition coming from China is fierce. Well, Dyson has just presented its candidacy in a niche that today speaks Chinese: it has just launched its PencilWash, an ultralight electric mop. An unmistakable stylish design. The format may change, but the design and colors chosen leave no room for doubt: we are looking at a Dyson. Matte finishes, bright shades, those lace pieces with their iconic red button. But it is also differential: while the Roborock F25 Ace Pro either Dreame H15 Pro They are heavy and bulky, the English company is practically a stick in a total display of minimalism. Although this is essentially because what Dyson brings is different and one of a kind. According to the manufacturer, it weighs only 2.2 kilograms and its handle is less than four centimeters in diameter, which anticipates agile handling and good ergonomics (at least, an experience reminiscent of the usual mop) when sliding it across the floor of the entire house. In addition, it bends down up to 170 degrees to clean under furniture. Dyson The roller is the jewel in the crown. Although ergonomics and handling are important, what makes the difference in a cleaning device is what elements it uses. In the case of the Dyson PencilWash, it is a high-density microfiber roller (72,000 filaments per square centimeter) that rotates at 650 revolutions per minute. Dyson Goodbye to stains and spilled liquids. We mentioned above two models of vacuum cleaners-scrubbers from Chinese brands, however Dyson’s is an electric mop without that suction part (it also does not have space to house a powerful motor for suction). Of course, it comes with a hygienic filter to trap bacteria and minimize odors. In addition, the roller provides hydration (which you can adjust) to always use clean water in the cleaning process. And it’s not just limited to mopping floors: it’s capable of dealing with accidents like dropping coffee or dried stains. However, it has a detergent for hard floors for a more thorough cleaning. Dyson The wonder of putting everything on a stick. Dyson has done a true work of engineering art to integrate the components into such a minimal structure. However, its figures are solvent for medium-sized homes: according to the brand, with its 300 ml of clean water tank it is capable of cleaning up to 110 square meters of surface. As for autonomy, it is half an hour but its battery is interchangeable. Dyson Price and availability. The new Dyson PencilWash is available from today, February 19, at an official retail price of 349 euros and can be purchased from its official distributors. In Xataka | Dyson is late to the robot vacuum party. Your ace in the hole is an AI that identifies and removes difficult stains In Xataka | Best cordless upright vacuum cleaners. Which one to buy and seven recommended broom vacuum cleaners from 139 euros

We just discovered that silicon has an invisible bottleneck, and that has a direct impact on our solar panels

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You turn on a solar cell and wait for the electrons to flow. But there is a moment, invisible and very brief, in which a part of them simply stops. A new study published in Physical Review B just explained why. The discovery. Researchers from the Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies in Nanoscience (IMDEA Nanoscience) and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Germany (MPIP) have discovered that, in silicon, photoexcited electrons do not activate immediately when they receive light. For a few picoseconds (millionths of a millionth of a second) they become stuck in small traps of the material before they can circulate and generate current. The person responsible has a name: a phonon bottleneck. What are phonons and why do they matter? Silicon has a peculiarity compared to other materials: for an electron to be released when receiving light, photons are not enough. According to account IMDEA Nanoscience in its note also needs the collaboration of phonons, which are the vibrations of the crystalline lattice of the material itself. As has been discovered, when such timing vibrations are scarce, electrons become temporarily trapped in surface defects near the edge of the energy band. What no one expected to find. Enrique Cánovas himself, one of the authors of the study, recognize that the discovery was accidental. “What we observed was an accident. We expected an instantaneous response, but instead we saw the electrons take a breather,” he says. Until now, the phonon bottleneck was known in high-energy situations, when silicon was excited with very energetic electrons. This is the first experimental record of the phenomenon with low-energy excitations, which occur with near-infrared light, or even below, the absorption threshold of the material. Until now unexplored territory. Why it has practical relevance. Silicon is the heart of the vast majority of solar panels of the world. Any inefficiency in how your electrons respond to light has direct consequences on the performance of those photovoltaic cells. Understanding that this transient delay exists, and that it has an identifiable cause, opens the door to two possible paths: designing materials or structures that minimize this jam, or even taking advantage of it in a controlled way to improve the behavior of the device. It remains to be seen if the impact of this phenomenon is significant enough to justify redesigns in the manufacturing of solar cells and photovoltaic systems. Cover image | yue chan In Xataka | Imitating photosynthesis to transform CO2 into fuel was always a dream. One that has already come true

Perplexity has already marked its path for what it believes is fundamental

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For years, advertising has been the silent fuel of much of the internet. It has financed search engines, web pages, applications and services that we use daily without paying directly for them, something that we have assumed almost as a norm in the digital environment. But the emergence of chatbots and search products powered by AI forces us to rethink that balance, because here the product is no longer just content, but answers that the public should consider reliable. In this area, any suspicion about who influences what is read stops being a technical detail and becomes a central issue. Clash between trust and monetization. In recent months we have begun to see how large AI companies take clear positions, some betting on introducing advertising in their free products and others rejecting it outright due to the impact it could have on user perception. The result is a map that begins to outline a division, just when the sector needs to demonstrate that it can become a sustainable business. And what’s at stake is not just how you make money with AI, but what kind of relationship you build with those who use it. Trust as a product. One of the clearest movements in this division is found in Perplexity. The company even tested ads in 2024, showing sponsored responses under the chatbot’s responses, but it began to withdraw them at the end of last year and now assures that it has no plans to continue down that path. “The user must believe that this is the best possible response to continue using the product and be willing to pay for it,” an executive explained to the Financial Times. The internal conclusion is direct: if the advertisements sow doubts, the value of the product itself is compromised, although the company leaves the door open to revisit that path in the future. War of ads against ads. Anthropic is in the same line as Perplexity, which not only defends keeping its chatbot without advertising, but has turned that decision into a public message. The company launched a campaign prior to the Super Bowl with a direct slogan, “The ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude,” which points to the direction of the sector without explicitly mentioning competing products. The campaign shows scenes that caricature commercial recommendations within personal conversations, underscoring the discomfort that such a scenario could generate. The reaction from OpenAI. Sam Altman rated the campaign of Anthropic as “clearly dishonest” and defended that the ad model his company is exploring would follow different principles, with advertising “separated and clearly labeled” and without influence on the system’s responses. The manager framed this decision as a question of access, arguing that expanding the free use of AI requires new sources of income, and he contrasted this with the idea that Anthropic offers an expensive product for those who can pay for it while OpenAI seeks massive reach with free access. Not everyone wants (or can) do without advertising. Training and sustaining these systems burns cash and has increased the pressure to find sustainable income as usage grows. In this context, some relevant actors are exploring advertising as a way to finance free access, with formulas in which sponsored content appears separated from the responses, with testing on products like ChatGPT and in formats Google Search with AI. It should be noted that Google has not introduced ads to its Gemini chatbot. Images | Perplexity + Nano Banana In Xataka | Claude Sonnet 4.6 promises to do the paperwork for you. Now he has the challenge of his life: dealing with the Spanish administration’s websites

The RAM crisis is great for those who manufacture it. There are those who think that a tsunami will sink many others

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Looking at current technology is peering into a well of contrasts. On the one hand, the optimism of companies that push the narrative of a future supported by AI while spend tens of billions of dollars. On the other hand, the consequences for the consumer segment are a new component crisis. Nobody likes pessimism, but unfortunately the market does not bring good news, and the CEO of Phison has a clear message: Things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. And that means that the RAM crisis It is going to take away some technology companies… in all sectors. In short. RAM and SSDs are the components that best exemplify the cost of data centers. They are elements that They have increased the price a real outrage and are made up of NAND flash chips. It is where the information is stored, but even those components need a ‘brain’, and that is where Phison comes into play. This Taiwanese company is one of the most powerful when it comes to creating something very specific: memory controllers. They are responsible for managing access, reading, writing and deleting data from NAND memory, among other tasks. Without them, these components could not function, so it is evident that Phison is interested in continuing to inflate the market. But its CEO, Pua Khein-Seng, has made it clear in a recent interview that this boom in data centers and artificial intelligence will have a disastrous consequence for the consumer market: there will be companies that go bankrupt. And it will be soon: by the end of 2026. slap. According to the boss of the controller company, this situation will put many consumer brands on the ropes, pushing some to disaster before the end of the year. When we talk about “consumer devices”, we refer to mobile phonestablets, consoles and computersbut also cars and of other devices with RAM and flash memories, such as televisions and even routers. Because it’s not that we can’t buy a couple of RAM pills, it’s that gigantic companies like Apple or Lenovo are already facing the problems involved in not having RAM. Memory production is dominated by just three companies and, although there are others such as Intel, tesla and the Chinese wanting to get their nails in the matterSamsung, Micron and SK Hynix are still the only ones capable of supplying the demands of the one that cuts the cod: NVIDIAas well as from Meta, Google or Microsoft. All production is focusing on creating memory for AI, and that means that Corsair, Dell, HP… but also Xiaomi, Vivo, OPPO, Sony or Nintendo They cannot buy RAM or they have to do so at higher prices. Consequence? That if they buy at a higher price, they must also sell the product at a higher price. And they may make devices that users are not willing to buy if they are more expensive either by price or by a less memory than that of previous generations. Unprecedented. There were already estimates that certain mobile companies were being more cautious with their shipment estimates for this year, but the CEO of Phison give a figure: between 200 and 250 million fewer mobile phones. It also targets the aforementioned PC industries (not those that we can assemble in parts, but to those pre-assembled by the companies) and to that of televisions. If all televisions are already ‘smart’, they need components that have a price through the roof. The executive is not the only interested party that has sent a pessimistic message about the situation. In statements to BloombergMicron’s executive vice president already pointed out that the current shortage is unprecedented, ridiculing even the previous components crisis that we live in 2020. In fact, something that is also unprecedented is that RAM manufacturers request payments up to three years in advance. Big Tech optimism. While users cannot buy components and consumer-focused companies are beginning to see sea level rise, Big Tech continues investing exorbitant amounts. There is not a day that we do not have news about billion-dollar investments in some data center or agreements between the main protagonist companies. And the most curious thing about that is that a lot is being invested in something that does not yet exist. Goal, for example, ends to buy graphics cards from NVIDIA for a data center not yet built. AND NVIDIA depends on Samsung I sent him a memory that he still doesn’t have. But the wheel keeps turning and, as one of the SMIC bosses commentedthe big feature of China, “no one has really thought about what exactly those data centers will do, but companies would love to build the entire capacity of the next 10 years in just one or two years.” We’ll see who gets ahead. Image | Andrey Matveev In Xataka | There was only one way to lower the price of RAM: Samsung and SK Hynix have flatly refused

Ransomware has exploded in Spain and the data confirms it

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He ransomware It is one of those attacks that no one wants to suffer. Companies fear it because, if they do not manage to contain it in time, they can be paralyzed for days, weeks or even months, with million-dollar losses as a consequence. It is not foreign to private users either: we will not always be willing, nor able, to pay a ransom, which in many cases means losing our files. However, this threat continues to advance, gaining presence in our environment and forcing us to remain more alert than ever. Spain, among the most affected countries. The team of Thales Cyber ​​Threat Intelligenceone of the largest European defense and cybersecurity groups, places Spain as one of the most attractive targets for actors operating with ransomware. According to their report shared via email, the country recorded 164 attacks in 2025, with 79 in the first half of the year and 85 in the second. The most relevant data comes when putting these figures in context: Spain ranked sixth in the world in the number of attacks during the second half of the year. A trend that points upward. Thales experts also point out that ransomware attacks in Spain grew by 7.6%, an increase that is part of a general increase in cyber activity. Behind them are factors such as geopolitical tensions, the evolution of ransomware tools, the increasingly rapid exploitation of vulnerabilities and the interconnection of threats between critical sectors. All of this creates a scenario with more mature, organized and difficult to contain actors. The global context changes the scale. Although the situation in Spain invites vigilance, the panorama is transformed when it is expanded to an international level. The United States was the most affected country in the second half of 2025, with 3,946 attacks. They were followed by Canada, with 411, and Germany, with 296. The weight of the United States is especially striking: it accounted for 51.23% of the attacks recorded in that period, which shows a very unequal distribution of this criminal activity. A particularly exposed sector. On a global scale, and always according to Thales, the financial sector continues to be among the main objectives. Banks, payment institutions and fintech companies face not only ransomware campaigns, but also persistent threats from advanced cybercriminals, state-sponsored actors and hacktivist groups. In 2025, this sector accumulated 533 ransomware attacks, the highest number among the industries analyzed. The report also identifies the most active groups. Qilin led the activity with 60 attacks, followed by Akirawith 29, and Inc Ransom, with 17. To them were added two operations that emerged in the second half of the year, The Gentlemen, with 13 attacks, and Sinobi, with 10, which managed to place themselves among the five most active groups against the financial sector. Consequences that go beyond the numbers. When a ransomware attack manages to overcome an organization’s defenses, the impact stops being statistical and becomes tangible. At the international level, Jaguar Land Rover was forced to paralyze its factories for more than a month after an incident of this type. In Spain, several town councils have also suffered similar attacks, with service interruptions and operational problems that show to what extent these threats have ceased to be a theoretical risk and have become a very real challenge. Images | Xataka with Gemini | Thales In Xataka | How often should we change ALL our passwords according to three cybersecurity experts

this is what makes this helicopter so special

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Mexico has been operating a European military helicopter for years that has proven to be versatile in very different missions, from humanitarian support to security operations. This background, added to recent signs about the modernization of the air fleet, once again places the Airbus H225M. The operation would mean expanding the presence of a model that is already part of the Mexican Air Force. The program. A key piece to understand the current scenario provided by Military Zone. The media claims to have consulted an investment program that contemplates the acquisition of three Airbus H225M to reinforce the 101st Air Squadron. The document to which it refers sets an estimated budget of 172 million dollars and includes not only the purchase of the aircraft, but also the training of technical personnel and their long-term maintenance. Confirmed. On February 10, during the Mexican Air Force Day ceremony at Military Air Base No. 1 of Santa Lucía, the Secretary of National Defense, Ricardo Trevilla Trejo, announced that the institution will promote the modernization of its fleet with new acquisitions. In his words, “the permanent updating of its air fleet will be promoted with the acquisition of 10 multipurpose helicopters,” in addition to other aircraft intended to reinforce operational capabilities. The Airbus H225M on scene. This possible fit gains weight when the previous trajectory of the Mexican Air Force itself with this platform is observed. In 2010, it incorporated twelve EC-725 Super Cougar helicopters, acquired from Eurocopter, today Airbus Helicopters. The first units arrived in 2011 and the delivery process was completed in 2014, the year in which the manufacturer’s restructuring led to the adoption of the H225M name. This previous tour outlines a scenario of operational continuity consistent with the idea of ​​expanding capabilities within the same family of aircraft. A multirole helicopter with proven range. Airbus describes the H225M as the most capable member of the Super Puma/Cougar military family, an 11-tonne aircraft whose reliability and versatility have been proven in demanding combat environments. According to the manufacturer, the platform has accumulated more than 300,000 flight hours in different operational theaters since 2007 and has maintained mission availability levels greater than 95% in high threat conditions. Key data. It can carry up to 28 equipped soldiers or be configured for medical evacuation with 11 stretchers and four paramedics, as well as operate from land bases or ships in adverse weather conditions, including severe icing. Its radius of action reaches 920 kilometers, expandable to 1,253 with auxiliary tanks and capable of being extended by refueling in flight. Advanced technology. Beyond its scope or availability, the H225M incorporates a set of systems designed to facilitate mission management and reduce crew workload. Airbus highlights its four-axis automatic flight control system, capable of providing precision and stability both in normal conditions and in scenarios with a single operating engine, in addition to allowing automatic maneuvers such as automatic hovering with a precision of 1 meter. Added to this is a digital cockpit with enlarged screens, integrated navigation systems and safety alerts that are only displayed when necessary. Survival and maintenance. This helicopter was conceived from the beginning with a clear focus on operational endurance and crew protection. The structure incorporates reinforcements, energy-absorbing landing gear and self-sealing fuel tanks, while the cabin can be equipped with armor and warning systems against radars, missiles or laser designators. The model can also integrate the HForce Modular Weapon Systemwith configurations ranging from side machine guns to rockets or guided missiles, although the specific configuration depends on each operator. Images | Mexican Air Force | Airbus In Xataka | Spain has built a laser that shields the backbone of its Navy: the A400M is now ready for combat

Mexico has built a true Latin dubbing empire. And now it’s going to protect you from AI by law

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Mexico produces 65% of the dubbing in Latin America. And until now, no rule prevented an AI from copying the voice of its actors without paying or asking for permission. The government of Claudia Sheinbaum has presented this past February 13, 2026, an initiative to legally recognize the human voice as an artistic tool that cannot be cloned. If it prospers in CongressMexico would become something more than a government that looks after the interests of the actors: it would also be a world pioneer in regulation of voice cloning in a cultural setting. Korea is to blame. The trigger for this reaction was not a native series, but some korean dramas. In May 2024, social media users shared fragments of Korean Prime Video series (‘My Boy is Cupid’, ‘The Beat of My Heart’ and ‘Field to Love’) denouncing an unusual feature: the dubbing into Latin Spanish sounded mechanical, robotic and without nuances. And there was also something very suspicious: there were no credits for voice actors anywhere. Without giving explanations, Amazon removed those dubbed versions and did not confirm the origin of the voices. The straw that broke the camel’s back. It was a turning point: the voice actors guild had been denouncing for months how voice actors from all over the continent were losing jobs in favor of AI tools trained, in addition, with their own voices. Some actors, in fact, denounced the Kafkaesque situation that his voice was the one who had replaced him on a YouTube channel for which he worked. Point of no return. In March 2025, Prime Video announced its AI dubbing pilot program in English and Latin Spanish. According to Amazonare twelve series that would not have been dubbed if it had not been for AI, presenting it as an opportunity for series to be seen that would otherwise remain unpublished. The suspicion of Latin professionals, as we have seen, went in a diametrically opposite direction. To calm things down, Amazon assured that localization professionals would monitor and correct the dubbed episodes with AI. The protest. Mexico produces around 65% of the Latin Spanish dubbing destined for Latin America, according to data from the Mexican Association of Commercial Broadcasters (AMELOC), and has some thirty-five active studios with approximately 1,500 actors working. This human force was manifested last July in Mexico under the slogan “AI does not replace.” Among other requests, it was demanded that the voice be recognized as biometric data, at the level of a fingerprint. The purpose is to prevent its use without consent. The proposal. According to the specialized media CO/AISince the summer of 2025, the National Copyright Institute (INDAUTOR) and the Legal Department of the Presidency have worked with more than 128 organizations to build a legal framework always in touch with the union. The resulting text reforms two existing laws: the Federal Labor Law incorporates dubbing actors and announcers as formal workers in the cultural sector, equating them to singers; and the Federal Copyright Law recognizes the human voice as a “unique and unrepeatable” artistic tool That is, any use of it through AI requires express authorization from the owner, plus financial compensation. None of this prohibits dubbing with AI, it only protects the voices that train or replicate the model with mandatory contracts. Missing. The initiative must pass the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate before becoming law, and it will take a while: the Mexican Congress accumulates proposals since 2020. There are more than sixty initiatives related to AI that have not yet received the corresponding legal response. Of course, this one seems to go faster: in November 2025, the Congress of Mexico City had already approved a similar opinionwhich reformed five federal laws. Mexico, spearhead. This beginning of regulation in Mexico is an advance of what other countries are trying to regulate since 2023. For example, in 2024 in Tennessee, Governor Bill Lee signed the ELVIS Act to explicitly add voice among the attributes protected against unauthorized use with AI, something new in the US. The standard also holds responsible platforms that distribute tools whose main purpose is to generate voice replicas without authorization. California and New York have tried to regulate not the technology, but the contracts signed around these activities. However, the limitations of these laws were soon demonstrated: in July last year, a New York judge did not rule in favor of two voice actors who discovered that their voices had been marketed as AI products. As it had not been made with a fixed recording, but with attributes such as tone, timbre or cadence, the court dismissed the claims. That ruling is the type of thing that the new Mexican legislation will try to avoid, and provide more robust protection to artists. Header | Amin Asbaghipour in Unsplash

Aragón produces so much energy that it no longer knows what to do with it. And that’s great news for data centers

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Aragon has always served as a great battery for the rest of the country, sending gigawatts to the industrial centers of Catalonia or the Basque Country, but now the script has changed. The community now has a “problem” that many would envy: it produces so much energy that it has attracted those who need it most. As if it were a magnet, the technological giants have landed in the Ebro valley to convert the region in what The Country already calls “Spanish Virginia”, in reference to the North American state with the highest concentration of data centers in the world. The x-ray of a bittersweet record. To understand the magnitude of the change, you have to look at the counter. According to the data collected by The Aragon Newspaperthe community once again broke its historical record for electricity production in 2025, reaching 22,365 gigawatt hours (GWh), 2.1% more than the previous year. However, this milestone hides an important small print: the record was not achieved thanks to the wind or the sun, since these fell by 4.8% due to the drought (which sank the hydraulics by 19.1%) and a less windy year. Here comes the bittersweet part, to compensate for the green decline and cover the gap left after the great blackout in April, the gas combined cycles increased their activity by 112.2%. But the data that really confirms the change of era is not how much is produced, but how much is spent. While electricity demand in Spain grew by a modest 2.7%, in Aragon internal consumption shot up by 7.1%, a figure that the provincial media describes as “true structural change” and that it attributes directly to the takeoff of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) complexes in Villanueva de Gállego, El Burgo and Huesca. The rain of millions (and megawatts) This energetic appetite is no coincidence; It is the fuel for an unprecedented investment. As we have explained in Xatakathe autonomous government has given the green light to the expansion of AWS, which contemplates an investment of 15.7 billion euros in a ten-year plan. It is not about building isolated ships, but about creating an “AWS Region” (Europe Spain), a system of eight campuses interconnected by fiber optics that function as a single operational unit protected against failures. But it’s not all servers and algorithms in the cloud. From the Herald have detailed that Amazon will not only save data, but will also build a server recycling factory in Aragon. With an additional investment of 200 million euros, this circular economy plant promises to create up to 1,100 direct jobs, a balloon of labor oxygen that goes beyond highly qualified technical profiles. Jam in the network and flight to Teruel. The Aragonese paradox is that, although there is plenty of energy, there are no “roads” to transport it. The electrical distribution network in the community is at its limit, with an occupancy of 94.3%well above the national average. There is electricity, but there are no free outlets for so much industry. This saturation in the Zaragoza logistics hub has caused an unexpected movement towards “emptied Spain.” As my colleague in XatakaGiven the impossibility of connecting in the capital, AWS has decided to take one of its new centers to La Puebla de Híjar, a town in Teruel with barely 900 inhabitants. The choice is strategic: the N-232 highway acts as the backbone and, there, the electrical grid has the capacity (100 MW guaranteed) to feed the beast. Side B: water and territory. Every revolution has a cost, and in this case it is measured in natural resources. Digital euphoria collides with the physical reality of a dry land. The alarms went off, as reported The Countrywhen Amazon requested to expand its water concession by 48% to cool its servers. The conflict is palpable on the ground, the Gaén irrigation community in Teruel keeps negotiations blockedrefusing to give up water from the Ebro if that compromises the agricultural future of the area. The most critical view brings it Ecologists in Action. Its renewable viewer warns that the deployment is not harmless: there are more than 12,000 hectares of authorized solar plants and thousands of wind turbines in the pipeline. The organization warns that, if all the data center projects in the portfolio are approved, their electrical consumption could reach five times the current demand of the entire community, turning the Aragonese landscape into a continuous industrial estate and drying up its water resources. The new balance. Aragón closed the year 2025 at a fascinating crossroads. How to conclude The Aragon Newspaperthe community continues to be surplus, but less and less. Electricity exports have fallen from 56% to 52% in just one year. The region has achieved what seemed impossible: from being a mere service station to becoming the engine of the digital economy. But the question that remains in the air, between million-dollar investment figures and environmental warnings, is whether the electricity grid and water resources will withstand the weight of being Europe’s hard drive. Image | freepik Xataka | Aragón is not afraid of AI: it has just approved three more new mega data centers in full commitment to renewables

Now the “therians” arrive, people who walk on all fours

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They wear animal masks, move on all fours and publish tutorials on networks to perfect the gallop or feline jump. Therians are not a new phenomenon, but social media has catapulted them into the digital conversation. Who are they, where do they come from, what differentiates them from the fashion of the furriesDo they have the right to their own veterinarian? What is a therian? Perhaps the easiest way to understand it is by going to the community’s own definition: “species dysphoria”, a discomfort analogous (in structure, although certainly not in clinical recognition) to gender dysphoria. A therian does not wear a disguise: the term (which abbreviates therianthropefrom Greek therion -wild beast- and anthropos -human-) designates people who identify themselves psychologically or spiritually as a non-human animal. The Therian Society He assures that it is not a cosplay or costume, but rather a lifelong identity. The animal with which each therian identifies is called theriotypeand canids and felines are the most common, although videos of reptiles and extinct species have already been seen. There is a whole vocabulary around the phenomenon: shifts or changes of state are the moments in which the person experiences instincts, thought patterns or sensations typical of their animal nature. and the phantom shift It is the perception of non-existent limbs or appendages (tail, ears, claws) that have a clear correlation with the well-proven phenomenon of phantom limbs. Therians: Origins. In the infinite Usenet groups (the first forums) of the nineties is where the topic began to be talked about. The forum alt.horror.werewolvesoriginally created for fans of fictional werewolves, led to debates about what it meant. be a werewolf, not just consume fiction on the subject. Soon the therians were separated from otherkin, a term that grouped those who identified themselves as non-human beings (elves, dragons, vampires). Therians limit their identification to animals that exist or have existed and Its symbol is Theta-Delta (ΘΔ): Theta represents the first letter of therian and delta symbolizes change or transformation. Does it have a scientific basis? Let’s just leave it at that academic psychology has not recognized species dysphoria. But there are attempts at recognition: a Lake Forest College thesis He spoke of it as a transversal theme between therians who manifested themselves in very different ways. In ScienceDirect was distinguished between therianthropy clinical (delusional disorder in which the person believes they are transformed into an animal, and which is historically linked to psychosis) and therianthropy as a non-clinical identity, which is not included as a disorder in the DSM-5. One thing is clear, and also investigated: Therian identity acts as a protective factor for those with higher levels of autism or schizotypy, suggesting that the community plays a real psychological support role for certain profiles. TikTok, engine of subcultures. This seemingly specific group has found a meeting point and expansion on TikTok, which has the prepared algorithm to connect statistical neighborhoods of people grouped by common behavior and interests. The result is a unprecedented acceleration of the visibility of subcultures previously confined to forums and Discord servers. For example, in the case of the therians, they are interested in quadrobicsa discipline that makes it possible to move, trot, jump and gallop on all fours (and about which there was already videos on YouTube in 2015) : its practitioners publish tutorials that the algorithm triggers because it is visually striking content that generates polarized reactions. Furry precedent. To understand therians, you have to go back at least four decades, to a fandom that went through a very similar cycle: it emerged on the margins, was distorted by the mainstream media, and ended up being the subject of academic research. The furry fandom took shape at a science fiction convention in 1980, when a drawing from Steve Gallacci’s ‘Albedo Anthropomorphics’ comic sparked a discussion about anthropomorphic characters in speculative fiction. In 1986 the first “furry party” took place and in 1989 they had specific conventions. Although both communities overlap in many aspects (approximately 15% of furries They also identify as therians), a furry relates to anthropomorphic animals, building a fursona that works as a character or avatar; a therian, on the other hand, identifies with a real, non-anthropomorphic animal. However, the media stigma that the furry fandom suffered in the late ’90s is comparable to the scrutiny that the therian community faces today. The furries were identified (mainly due to an unfortunate episode of CSI 2003) with sexual deviants, but the community ended up denying itdemonstrating that the main attraction for fandom was belonging to a community, not any fetish component. llegacy to Spain. There have been no defining moments of the arrival of the therians to Spain, beyond descriptions in the media, simultaneously with what has happened in Mexico or Argentina, of hangouts in parks such as the Retiro in Madrid or the Ciutadella in Barcelona, ​​or groups practicing quadrobics in public places. Many of these media go into topics such as liquid identity in digital times and also in the aggressiveness that they awaken in their detractors, who begin to organize far-right attackspossibly because of the parallels with gender dysphoria. In Xataka | What are urban tribes and how have they evolved until today?

already warns of a new storm on the horizon

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Times of wait of months to receive a car, manufacturers who packaged their vehicles loaded with options to sell them at a higher price with the promise that they would reach their customers sooner and a booming second-hand marketspurred on by the eternal wait to get a new car. They are echoes of a past that is just around the corner, chip shortage caused by the shutdown of factories during the Covid-19 pandemic, the increase in demand for electronic products and the trade war between the United States and China. The consequences were, as we say, diverse but above all harmful for who was waiting for a new car. From cars that arrived with hidden functions to vehicles that, directly, They dispensed with digital instrument panels. Factories stopped or at half gas that caused a 21% drop in world production vehicular. But no information or data summarizes the situation as well as a photograph. The one in which it was seen they visualized 45,000 Ford cars parked outdoors at Kentucky Speedway’s waiting for the necessary chips to arrive to put them on the street. Now, it is Ford that is already warning that a new crisis is on the horizon. AI, of course. We noted yesterday, January 17, that everything indicates that we can expect a long life of the latest generation consoles. Not because their hardware is about to explode or because intergenerational gaming continues to stretch to this day. The reason that will delay the arrival of the successors to the current consoles has a name and a surname: artificial intelligence. The problem is that 90% of world production DRAM is controlled by Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron. Three companies that have in their hands a demand that far exceeds them and that anticipates a productive shortage as a consequence of data centers for artificial intelligence that are sweeping the market. The problem is not only that the companies most interested in promoting artificial intelligence are securing components, the problem is that they pay better than anyone else. And that affects both the manufacturers and the consumerswho have seen a price escalation in components that seems to have no end. The latest alarm comes from Ford. Sherry House, CFO of the company, pointed out that, for the moment, they have enough components to carry out their production but that they are aware of the pressure on their price in the market. “And that is already part of our future plan,” House said in words reported by The Drive. The situation is dangerous. As happened years ago, market analysts already assure Bloomberg who are registering “panic buying”that is, mass purchases to guarantee stock before the component rises rapidly in price. These panic purchases have two obvious problems. The first is that the production of components is compromised. The second is the future price increase. At the beginning of the decade, we discovered the hard way how dependent the automotive sector is on chip production. In December 2023, Micron was already aiming because in just three years the presence of components such as RAM memories was going to triple, going from about 90 GB of memory on average to 278 GB in 2026. It must be taken into account that from May 2024 All cars sold as new in the European Union must have a powerful load of ADAS driving assistance systems. In China, the share of vehicles equipped with this type of aid has skyrocketedpartly due to the boost that BYD has given to the market guaranteeing advanced driving assistance services in lower priced vehicles. My colleague Javier Pastor explained Just a few weeks ago, infotainment systems have needed between 1 and 2 GB of DRAM in recent years to move the graphics own and support Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. But the requirements have doubled in recent releases. And the proliferation of ADAS systems, increasingly complex in the most modern cars, does not help either. Only the Hardware 4 system (the one currently used by Tesla) makes use of 16 GB of RAM. He BMW iX3the company’s most advanced vehicle at the moment, boasted four “superbrains” inside, with chips dedicated exclusively to the vehicle’s dynamic functions, the ADAS systems and the management of the infotainment system. “A modern car makes use of so-called ECUs (Electronic Control Units) for issues such as controlling the transmission, the airbag system or the engine itself. It is normal for them to have between 50 and 150 of these control units or microcontrollers, and almost all of them contain RAM for temporary data and a ROM for the firmware and software.” The problem is deep because it affects all types of components. In October, The Nexperia crisis has already made the wolf see its ears. And it is not only a question of advanced infotainment or driving assistance systems for the most expensive vehicles on the market. The most basic functions of a car, such as rolling up the windows, They also need this type of componentswhich renders a vehicle unusable for the slightest problem. Photo | Ephrain Mairena and Aakash Malik In Xataka | The RAM crisis is so big that even companies that had nothing to do with it are considering manufacturing them. Like Tesla

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