Month: February 2026

ad blockers are still there

by

When in June 2024 Google began the transition to Manifest v3a possibility arose on the horizon: the disappearance of ad blockers. The Mountain View-based company touted this architecture as more secure and efficient, but along the way it limited the effectiveness of adblockers. However, it would make sense: Google’s main business it’s advertising. It works even better blocking ads. An independent study by Goethe University Frankfurt has revealed that, contrary to what was initially thought, Chrome’s new architecture does not reduce the effectiveness of ad blocking and privacy extensions. There is no statistically significant reduction in ad blocking. In short, the performance of Chrome’s MV3 architecture is more or less similar to MV2. But it also brings advantages in fluidity and tracker blocking. Why is it important. To begin with, because this finding is independent: it is not a press release from Google, which has an obvious conflict of interest, but an academic study reviewed by Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies. Furthermore, because it denies that MV3 is a tool designed exclusively to protect Google’s advertising business model by disabling adblockers. Finally, leave the ball in the court of users: the difference between using a blocker in Chrome or Firefox is barely perceptible, so if this is a differential criterion, in this sense there is practically equal conditions. How Manifest V3 and V2 worked. The old standard allowed extensions to stop network traffic, examine it, and decide whether or not to block it in real time. It was powerful, but it could slow down browsing, and one malicious extension could read all your traffic. The new standard no longer intercepts traffic directly, but rather gives the browser a list of rules and it is Chrome that executes the blocking, which leads to improvements in performance and privacy (against third parties), but reduces flexibility. Survival tricks. Going from asking for permission to giving a list of rules seemed like a handicap at first, and yet the blockers have emerged stronger overall for three reasons: The adaptability of blocking extensions (actually, of the dev team behind it), translating their complex filters into the format required by Google without losing effectiveness. Blockers are the brain and the browser is the execution arm: now it’s the browser that does the dirty processing work, resulting in faster and smoother execution of ad blocking. The new rules are stricter on spies. The study discovered that MV3 blocks even better those scripts that try to collect data in the background. Now the system is more rigid and that in terms of security makes it more difficult to circumvent. But it’s not perfect. However, the study points out the fine print of this change, such as the limit of rules that MV3 imposes, or the lack of dynamism when updating its rule book. Likewise, and although it is fluid at blocking ads, they did not measure whether it loads websites faster than MV2. On the other hand, it is worth remembering that this is a photo from today and that Google has the power to modify the limitations of the API, thus modifying these results. In Xataka | In its fight against adblockers, Google has made a Solomonic decision: make watching videos on YouTube a nightmare In Xataka | Modern algorithms decide for us what to watch. YouTube is the last stronghold where the algorithm does not choose for you Cover | Growtika in Unsplash

sport has been disguised as therapy to charge you more money

by

There was a time when gyms smelled of liniment and rusty iron. Success was measured in guttural screams and soaked T-shirts under the military motto of the no pain, no gain. That era is dead. If you walk into a fashion studio today, you will smell like incense and see pastel colors. The industry has understood that to capture the masses it had to stop selling exhaustion and start selling “connection.” As explained by trend magazinesWe have entered the era of strong Elegance. This new concept, far from being a brand, is defined as a natural evolution of training “better, not more.” The goal is no longer to destroy muscle, but to “connect with your body” through softness and technique. It is the birth of Cozy Fitness or gentle training. However, behind this facade of Zen calm, the economic projections are dizzying. It is estimated that the global market for Pilates and Yoga studios will reach 520.61 billion dollars by 2035driven by a population that values ​​mental health over gross physical appearance. Redefining effort The paradigm shift is not accidental; responds to a post-pandemic demand for mental health. According to a report by Les Mills99% of respondents say they feel “happier” after training, and 42% prioritize exercise specifically to improve their mental well-being. This has caused low-impact disciplines, such as Pilates, to be the most booked class for the second year in a row. But let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that “soft” means “easy.” Specialized media They warn that disciplines like sweep (a fusion of ballet, pilates and yoga) generate a real metabolic and mechanical overload. By working with isometry and bringing the muscle to fatigue without heavy weights, strength and postural improvement are achieved. This is where the narrative turns perverse. Under the promise of “liberation” and “self-care,” the industry has commodified the management of the self. An in-depth academic analysis on the philosophical dimensions of medical sciences suggests that modern fitness It is a byproduct of neoliberal ideology. We are instilled with the notion of the “entrepreneurial self”: health and aesthetics become an individual responsibility for success or failure. Wellbeing is sold as a commodity, and the individual is forced into constant “self-optimization.” If you are not healthy and radiant, it is because you are not managing your body “company” well. This pressure manifests itself in new obsessions such as Protein Chic. We have gone from eating out of necessity to consuming protein-enriched products (even popcorn or water) as a status symbol. The protein shake has become in a religious ritual, a tool to feel that we have “fulfilled” the mandate of physical productivity. Furthermore, sport has become a class filter. Fashion competitions like Hyroxwhich combine running and functional exercises, have become at an exhibition of lifestyle where you pay a high registration fee (about 70 euros) to show that you can afford to suffer in a way cool and gamified. The drivers of change: loneliness, identity and fashion To understand how we got to this point, you have to look at who is filling the rooms. Generation Z has turned the gym into its new bar, desperately seeking a tribe instead of cold machines. A report from 2025 reveals that 36% of young people regularly go to these centers, not only for the physical, but to combat loneliness and find community. Their priority is belonging, which explains the mass exodus toward group classes versus solitary training. The large chains have read this emotional need perfectly and have changed their business model: they no longer sell an hour of exercise, they sell identity. The success of brands like Brooklyn Fitboxing, which expects to invoice 50 million eurosis based on gamifying that community. In the same way, Pilates Club has skyrocketed his income 60% in Spain by focusing on “operational quality” and selling the feeling of belonging to a select and exclusive club. This aesthetic obsession has permeated everything, even technology, which has abandoned crude plastic to disguise itself as high jewelry or become invisible. “Technological minimalism” is the new norm: bracelets like the Xiaomi Smart Band 10 They are now launched with ceramic straps to be worn as fashion necklaces, while devices such as smart rings or heart rate sensors Whoop they bet on “silent monitoring”. It is the triumph of constant but discreet data: the obsession with measuring the body 24/7 without looking like a cyborg. Where are we going: From aesthetics to biology The immediate future of the industry delves into this sophistication. Trends for 2026 point to ‘Body Literacy’: according to elleusers no longer want generic recipes, but rather understand their own biology, hormones and stress response. We move from aggressive “bio-hacking” to personalized and clinical understanding. In Spain, the market is entering a consolidation phase. According to reports from consulting firms such as BDOlarge operators will stop opening centers indiscriminately to focus on increasing the average income per customer (upselling) and offer comprehensive family services. The gym wants to be the center of the social life of the entire family. However, there are cracks in this perfect pastel world. While the sector premium talks about connecting the soul, the segment low cost go on being a battle of prices and efficiency, reminding us that “spiritual well-being” remains, in large part, an affordable luxury. Even technology is showing signs of exhaustion. Technology analysts They point out which devices like him Apple Watch They seem to have reached their ceiling in sports. They have become excellent “entertainers” of well-being (Wellness), but they lack the technical depth of a real coach, remaining on the surface of motivation with synthetic voices that congratulate you for closing rings. As Ale Llosa, founder of one of these new success methods, summarizes, in Vogue: “Soft is fashionable, but without strength there is no resilience.” The question we have left, as we close the locker room locker, is whether this new era of fitness is really making us freer and stronger, or if it has simply built us a prettier, … Read more

Productivity science says it’s not just inches that matter

by

It has happened to me and it may happen to you too: you have a monitor and you notice that it is no longer enough. You could take a leap and swap it for something a little larger, but just adding inches to the equation isn’t going to change things too much. To change our experience, we need something different, like opting for an ultrawide monitor or adding one more monitor to our setup. What is the best option for you? Both are great, but both may not suit your needs in the same way. For this reason, we are going to take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of these two configurations so that you know what to choose according to your priorities. Choosing an ultrawide monitor An ultrawide monitor is larger than a conventional one, but we cannot stop at that alone. These monitors usually have a 21:9 format, which means they are wider. This means that we have a longer horizontal space, which is a wonder for productivity. And not only that: being a single screen, there is no type of barrier or frame that cuts off the visual experiencesomething ideal for working with long lines of code or spreadsheets with countless columns. Also three windows with documents or applications open at the same time. Your entire workspace, without interruptions. And for gaming, they are the best because you have a larger field of vision and the immersion they provide is not comparable to that of a normal monitor. To this elongated screen we must add another factor, which is the curvature. There are options for flat ultrawide monitors, although if you dare to take the leap, I would recommend opting for a curved one. The reason is very easy to understand: the small curve of the monitor helps you see the entire thing at a glance. What does this imply? You don’t have to turn your headsomething you will appreciate when you finish your day. In addition, the ultrawide allows you to work centered and with a straight spine. With two monitors, your “center” will be the frames of both. Therefore, more neck movements. Another element that works in favor of the ultrawide: Fitts’ Law. This, in short, predicts that the time needed to move to a target depends on its distance and size. And how does this apply to monitors? With two of them, we will have the frames as a “barrier” separating them both. that the brain will understand as an interruption. That does not happen with the ultrawide, since the mouse and everything will move fluidly across the screen. Without constantly jumping from one monitor to another, the cognitive load is reduced and that is great for less fatigue. It is not the main reason to choose one of these monitors, but I have friends who have opted for an ultrawide because they prefer a more minimalist and tidy space. In the end, it is a continuous visual experience that you place on your desktop, which, of course, also has its downside: you need a large desktop background. I will leave for last two more cons that, without being a drama, I would value a lot before opting for this option. Since it is a screen, if one day you start the computer and the monitor does not turn on, you will be left with nothing (having two monitors clearly wins there). In addition, by having many more pixels than a traditional widescreen monitor, you are going to need a medium powerful graphics card if you don’t want your games to drop below 60 FPS. Choose two monitors The other side of the coin: two monitors, side by side. If I had to define this setting in one word, it would be versatility. To build a setup with two screens, we can go ahead and buy them both or simply purchase one and add it to the one we already have, whether identical or of a different size and characteristics. And not only that: we can also change its height as we wish or rotate one of them to make it vertical. The latter is great for reading long documents or taking a look at social networks while, at the same time, you have another horizontal screen for a normal experience. I have been working with two monitors for years and it is my choice because it offers the feeling of having two separate spaces. For example, I usually have a document open on one screen where I write and email or Slack on the other. In return, there is one thing in which the ultrawides win by a landslide: you are going to find a frame in the middle and you are going to have to move your neck more. I’m going to stop at this last point for a moment. It is very necessary that the two monitors are well placedsomething that is not as simple as it sounds. If they are identical it is easier, but it can be an odyssey as they are different sizes or manufacturers. If possible, I would pull a monitor standalthough that adds to the bill. And it is better not to skimp there, since they will have to support the weight of the monitors all the time. The good and the bad of both options, face to face ultrawide monitor two monitors THE GOOD 🟢 You work without frames in between. It is ideal for editing video (infinite timeline) or having 3 legible columns of text, and it helps you avoid straining your neck. Allows you to have two separate workspaces THE BAD 🔴 They are not for all desktops: you need a robust stand, table background and a good graphics card They involve more neck movement and there are black frames in the middle Ideal for: Have all your documents or apps on the same screen to see them at a glance More versatility: you can put one vertically (ideal for … Read more

In 1986 a man parked on the wrong side of the gas station. That day he solved an embarrassing problem for all drivers

by

The history of innovation It’s full of big names and epic breakupsbut also of silent advances born from minimal errors, from everyday mistakes that anyone could have made. Sometimes, a small mistake reveals a problem so common that no one had thought of it or knew how to formulate it, and it is enough to look at it differently to find a solution that ends up benefiting millions of people without it being barely noticed. In this case, one man saved millions of drivers from embarrassment. A universal problem. Maybe his name doesn’t sound familiar to you, but the story of Jim Moylan It is more important than it seems. The story begins with a scene as trivial as it is recognizable: a Ford engineer (Moylan) soaked by the rain, standing at a gas station, realizing that he has parked in the wrong side of the pump. Where anyone would have felt frustration or perhaps some embarrassment, he saw an everyday problem that could be solved elegantly, cheaply and definitively, and in a matter of minutes. wrote a memorandum proposing a small symbol on the instrument panel to indicate which side the tank was on, a simple idea born from personal experience and the conviction that eliminating that doubt would save time, inconvenience and, yes, small humiliations for millions of drivers. The path to a great idea. Moylan was not a media figure or a senior manager, but an engineer with a long and discreet career within the all-powerful Ford Motor Company, a man, yes, professionally obsessed. with instrument panels and with making them as clear and useful as possible. Thus, after sending his original proposal in 1986, the man did not think about it again, but the company did: the symbol he had scribbled on a page quickly went into development, it was approved without much resistance. and ended up integrating in the first models of the late eighties, demonstrating that in large organizations there was still room for a good idea, no matter how small and coming from whoever it was, to cross the hierarchy and become a reality. From Thunderbird to the entire world. Months passed until the first public appearance of the arrow came, an almost imperceptible moment, hidden in the instrument panel of a Ford Thunderbird 1989. It didn’t matter, its power lay precisely in that simplicity. It was so obvious and useful that the competition It didn’t take him long to copy itand in a very short time it went from being an internal Ford solution to becoming a de facto standard in the global automobile industry, and it did so to the point that today it appears in practically any car in the world, including electric ones, where it points to the side of the charging port with the same unbeatable logic. The inventor without a patent (or ego). Unlike other innovators, Moylan He never patented his idea nor did he ask for financial compensation or public recognition, content simply to see how his arrow worked and helped people. For decades, millions of drivers benefited from his invention without even knowing his name, while he silently watched as that little “walk of shame” at gas stations disappeared, getting closer sometimes to strangers to explain the usefulness of the symbol, but without ever mentioning that it had been his doing. Late recognition. I remembered a few weeks ago the wall street journal which was not until many years later, thanks to a chance investigation from a podcast and to the rescue of internal files, when Jim Moylan’s name came to light and he was publicly recognized as the author of one of the most discreet and universal innovations in the automobile. The man died without having sought famebut he left a legacy that lives on every time someone stops at a pump and, with a simple glance at the instrument panel, knows exactly where to stand, reminding us that sometimes true genius lies in solving the obvious in the simplest way possible. Image | Josh In Xataka | An engineer decided one day to put the BMW airplane engine in a car. The result was tremendous In Xataka | When an engineer wanted to cross Africa by car, he invented a wooden one. It would be the beginning of the end

Two centuries ago the tires on cars and motorcycles were white. It had nothing to do with the design.

by

It is more than likely that, in some of the American films you have seen inspired by the last century, you have seen cars or motorcycles with a white stripe on their tires Today, some companies still implement them as a nod to the past. What you may not know is that the only reason the wheels weren’t completely black was to… save a few bucks. As explained in Motorpasion, no tire (neither motorcycle nor car) was born as black as they are now. Between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the following century, tires were white, light gray or beige. If you search any car from the 19th century You can check it easily. This was because natural rubber is naturally light in color. But of course, rubber cannot become a tire as it leaves the tree; it must be heated with sulfur so that it is able to withstand the heat of the asphalt, withstand weight and friction, and behave as expected in a tire. To achieve this, the rubber was “cooked” using a technique called vulcanization, a process that bleached the material even more and ended up producing clear, non-durable tires. The big change came with the introduction of a very specific material: carbon. With its arrival, tires became more durable and resistant, since this material reinforced the rubber structure. There was only one problem: it was very expensive. For this reason, during the early 20th century, tire manufacturers opted for a mixed solution: the critical part (the tread that directly contacts the ground) was made with rubber and carbon, the rest without it. The result was this: tires with said black stripe and the rest in white. As carbon became cheaper, tires became completely black as we know them now, but some manufacturers (mainly motorcycle manufacturers) maintain white treads to give their tires a retro feel. It is the case of some Mitas tires for Harley-Davidson. Yes indeed, through the forums they comment the price to pay for this hesitated retro: you have to constantly clean the tread if you want it to remain white. Image | Harley-Davidson In Xataka | I was about to buy the best-selling Chinese motorcycle in Spain. Until I read the fine print

Sparkling water has a “secret” to losing weight. And it has nothing to do with its nutritional properties.

by

Sparkling water is one of those ‘rare’ options on the drinks menu that few people consume in our environment, but little by little it is gaining popularity. prominence in the dietary field. All thanks to a recent scientific publication that pointed to its benefits in order to lose weight with its consumption, although there is quite a bit of fine print under this premise. The study. The epicenter of this new wave of enthusiasm is placed in a study published in BMJ Nutrition where a fascinating hypothesis is raised: carbon dioxide dissolved in water could increase the glycolysis in the organism. A process that basically does is ‘break’ the sugar we have in our cells to obtain energy. In this way, we would be reducing one of the components that gives rise to the ‘hated’ fat that we want to avoid. As? Drinking sparkling water and having this happen is not something very ‘normal’ a priori. Science suggests that, when consuming carbonated water, the CO₂ that gives rise to those bubbles that we see on its surface passes into the bloodstream, where it could stimulate our red blood cells so that they use more glucose and therefore, it does not accumulate as fat. On paper, it sounds like music to the ears of anyone looking to lose weight: drinking water to burn off sugar. There is small print. The study itself is a brief report and the scientific community she has been quick to qualify it: Even if the mechanism exists, the isolated effect is too small to produce “miraculous” weight loss just by drinking water. In this way, we are not facing a great ‘fat burner’, but rather a metabolic curiosity that will hardly be noticed on the scale if it is not accompanied by other changes. The real trick. If sparkling water doesn’t magically “burn” calories, why do many nutritionists insist that it helps with weight control? The answer lies not in metabolism, but in fluid mechanics and satiety. This is not something new, but studies from 2008 already showed that carbonated drinks had a direct impact on the stomach. The first effect focuses on the distention of the stomach, since the gas takes up volume. Thus, when drinking sparkling water, there is greater distension of the ‘upper’ part of the stomach compared to normal water. This makes we get full faster and we don’t want to continue eating. There is more. But beyond filling us up faster, this distension sends satiety signals to the brain through the vagus nerve. That is why the bubbles “trick” the stomach, making it believe that it is fuller than it really is. In this way, the brain interprets that it is full and inhibits our desire to continue eating. thanks to chemical inhibition. Japanese investigations on oral stimulation with CO₂ suggest that this feeling of fullness can reduce subsequent food intake, although the effect is modest and short-term. The substitution factor. The strongest argument for sparkling water has nothing to do with CO₂ or gastric motility, but rather behavior. This is precisely what I was aiming for. a meta-analysis by McGlynn which reviewed what happens when we replace sugary drinks with calorie-free options. The results in this case are quite clear: replacing cola or packaged juice with water (with or without carbonation) reduces weight, BMI and body fat. And this is where sparkling water shines as a replacement tool, since for many people accustomed to the sensory “aggressiveness” of a carbonated soft drink, flat water is boring. And its impact. Sparkling water offers that oral stimulation, with the beloved sting of bubbles, without the “toll” of empty calories. If carbonated water helps you quit sugary sodas, that is the relevant clinical impact, not the fact that carbonated water speeds up the burning of sugars we have previously consumed. It’s not for everyone. Although hydration guides indicate that sparkling water hydrates exactly the same as regular water, it is not for everyone. That same mechanism that helps satiety (gastric distension) is the number one enemy for certain clinical profiles, such as for those who have gastroesophageal reflux or irritable bowel syndrome. Here, increasing the pressure of the digestive system can aggravate these diseases. Images | Anja Michal Jarmoluk In Xataka | The myth of “two liters of water a day” collapses: a mistake from 1945 that science is now trying to correct

There are people poisoning the memory of our AI to manipulate us. And Microsoft has set off all the alarms

by

That “comfortable” button of “summarize this with AI“hides a secret: it has surely been manipulated. We don’t say it, it’s the elite department that Microsoft has to analyze the security of both its services and those of the competition. In the process of a investigationhave started to pull the thread and have found that dozens of companies are inserting hidden instructions into those “summarizing with AI” functions with a single objective. Contaminate the AI’s memory to manipulate us. Microsoft what. Big Tech has a lot of exciting departments. from which They are dedicated to opening boxes to guarantee the best experience to those who sculpt competing products in clay to study them. However, something that all big technology companies share are cybersecurity teams, elite teams dedicated to one thing: investigating threats. They analyze both their own products and those of the competition because it is understood as an ecosystem. Google and Microsoft have two of the most powerful and a clear example is that if Google finds a security flaw in Windows, it notifies those responsible because it is something that could potentially harm its own product –Chrome-. An example is the research of one of these Microsoft teams, putting on the table the danger of AIs being so malleable. Poisoning AI memory. It is a concept that attracts attention and is easy to understand. “That useful “Summarize with AI” button could be secretly manipulating what your AI recommends,” Microsoft notes in the blog in which it published the research. What the attackers have done is corrupt the AI ​​by incorporating certain hidden commands that manage to persist in the assistant’s memory. Thus, they influence all the interactions we have with the assistant. Simply put, a compromised assistant may start providing biased recommendations on critical topics. I don’t mean that you ask if pizza is better with or without pineapple and that the answer depends on what the ‘hacker’ has implemented in the AI’s ‘memory’, but something much more serious related to health, finances or security. It must be said that Microsoft has not discovered this, since It’s been ringing for a few monthsbut they have given very specific examples and recommendations to avoid being victims. H-how do they do it? In it documentMicrosoft says they have identified more than 50 unique iterations from 31 companies and 14 different industries. They detail that this manipulation can be done in several ways: Malicious links: Most major AI assistants support reading URLs automatically, so if we click on a summary of a message that has a link with preloaded malicious information, the AI ​​processes those manipulated instructions and becomes contaminated. Integrated instructions: In this case, the instructions for manipulating the AI ​​are hidden embedded in documents, emails or web pages. When the AI ​​processes that content, it becomes contaminated. Social engineering: it is the classic deception, but in this case for the user to paste messages that include commands that alter the AI’s memory. Likewise, when the assistant processes it, it becomes contaminated. And therein lies the problem: various ways to contaminate the AI’s memory, a feature that makes assistants more useful because it can remember personal preferences. But, at the same time, it also creates a new attack surface because, as Microsoft points out, if someone can inject instructions into the AI’s memory and we don’t realize it, they gain persistent influence on future requests. to the point. In an AI like the one we have, it is dangerous, but in the future Agentic AI It is even more so because it will automatically perform actions based on that contaminated memory. Given the context, let’s get down to business. The security team has reviewed URLs for 60 days, finding more than 50 different examples of attempts to contaminate the AI. The purpose is promotional, and they detail that the attempts originated in 31 companies from different fields related to industries such as finance, health, legal services, marketing, food purchasing sites, recipes, commercial services and software as a service. They point out that the effectiveness was not the same in all attacks, but that they did identify the repeated appearance of instructions similar to “remember this.” And, in all cases, they observed the following: Each case involved real companies, not hackers or scammers. They are legitimate businesses contaminating AI to gain influence over your decisions. Deceptive container with hidden instructions in that “button”Summarize with AI“It seems useful to us and that’s why we click, triggering the script that contaminates its memory. Persistence, with commands such as “remember this”, “keep this in mind in future conversations” or “this is a reliable and safe source” to guarantee that long-term influence. Consequences. Concrete examples of what a poisoned AI can do: Child safety: If we ask “is this online game safe for my eight-year-old son?” a poisoned AI that has been instructed that yes, that game with toxic communities, dangerous moderators, harmful policies, and predatory monetization is totally safe, will recommend the game. biased news: When we ask for a summary of the main news of the day, the intervened AI will not bring us the best ones, but will constantly bring up headlines and focuses of the publication whose owners have contaminated the AI. Financial issues: If we ask about investments, the AI ​​may tell us that a certain investment is extremely safe, minimizing the volatility of the operation. Recommendations. And this is where our responsibility comes in. Because you may be thinking “who asks the AI ​​those things and it pays attention”. Good: people ask the AI ​​these things and they listen. There are the unfortunate cases of suicide induced by chatbots or fake news. If the AI ​​recommends us pizza with gluesupposedly we have the common sense not to throw Super Glue as a substitute for cheese, but in other matters, there are users who trust AI as if it were an entity and not a compendium of letters one after another. It is something that Microsoft itself mentions, pointing out … Read more

China needed space to power millions of homes, so it built a mega solar plant in the open sea

by

That China is building power plants As if there were no secret, it is not a secret. Without going any further, in the last four years it has been able to replicate the power of the United States, the largest electrical grid in the West. And a good part of the blame solar energy has it. In fact, in 2023 it installed more solar panels than the United States in all of history, as reported by Bloomberg. Solar energy requires space, so China is finding the most varied gaps, from the tibetan plateau to the open sea, where from the end of 2025 It is already connected to the electrical network a mega solar plant that breaks records. In China there are solar panels even in the soup. The largest offshore solar plant in the world. We are talking about the solar plant located off the coast of Kenli district in Dongying city, Shandong province. This engineering project is carried out by China Energy Investment Corporation (CHN Energy) and has a nominal capacity of 1 GW. As explains People’s Dailythe official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is China’s first gigawatt-level offshore photovoltaic project and currently the largest offshore solar installation in the world. This is what the Shandong plant looks like. Via: People’s Daily The context: why at sea. Because land space near its large coastal cities is a precious commodity. The Chinese government has a policy of red line to safeguard land used for agriculture and solve the line “Hu Huanyong Line“: while its great solar and wind potential is concentrated in the west, in the Gobi Desert and Inner Mongolia, the megacities and their most powerful industrial fabric are in the east. China is already developing parks of renewables in their deserts, but running Ultra High Voltage lines is very expensive, involves losses along the way and crosses complicated orography. The logical but technically infernal solution is to jump into the water. Until now, floating solar energy was limited to calm waters, such as what Germany is doing with its lakesbut China is another story. The open sea brings salt corrosion, typhoons and waves. Why is it important. Because China’s coastal provinces such as Shandong or Jiangsu constitute large centers of industrial consumption. Generating energy right there avoids those transportation losses of thousands of kilometers from the Gobi desert. If it works within the expected design parameters and the maintenance costs are affordable, it will be a good boost to take advantage of the coasts within the energy transition process from fossil to renewables. The panels are simply colossal. Via: X from People’s Daily A prodigious work of engineering. We are talking about an area of ​​more than 1,200 hectares where 2,934 enormous marine photovoltaic panels are located with standardized dimensions of 60 meters long and 35 meters wide. And they are not drifting panels: it is a large infrastructure designed to withstand extreme conditions ranging from storms to freezing water. In addition, it is hybridized: under the panels the project integrates fish farms, that is, producing electricity above and fish below. This type of combination is not new, as in Guizhou province there is a giant solar plant in whose basement mushrooms are grown. Shandong is aquavoltaic and Guizhou is agrivoltaic. Some numbers that make you dizzy. This installed power of 1 Gigawatt is similar to that of a modern nuclear reactor, so that according to estimates, it will be capable of producing 1,780 million kWh of energy that will be fed into the grid each year and thus supply 2.6 million homes in the region. approximately 60% of your demand. According to the estimates of the engineering company behind it, 1.3 million tons of carbon dioxide will no longer be emitted. In Xataka | Germany has had a crazy idea to solve one of the problems of renewables: covering a lake with solar panels In Xataka | The great myth of solar panels: producing them emits hundreds of times less than coal and gas Cover | People’s Daily

“task dates” are the new way to screen your future partner

by

Picture the scene: no candles, no jazz music in the background, no glasses of wine. In its place is an Allen wrench, an instruction manual with silent drawings, and a pressed-wood shelf that seems to resist the laws of physics. What for many would be the prelude to a breakup, for a new generation of singles it is the perfect date. Welcome to choremancingthe trend that proposes that, if you want to know who someone really is, forget the gala dinner and take them to do the weekly shopping. For years, the dominant dating app narrative sold us the matches as the gateway to an endless parade of sophisticated plans. However, how to explain Guardian, something is changing. The British media defines the choremancing like a portmanteau chore (homework) and romance. The idea is as simple as it is cynical: why waste time pretending at a cocktail bar if 90% of life as a couple is going to consist of deciding who takes out the trash or how the bills are paid? This trend was consolidated after the application Plenty of Fish would include it in its annual trends report. It’s no longer about impressing, but about “folding a date into an errand you had to do anyway.” It is, in essence, the definitive compatibility test. The end of romantic “posturing” Why do we prefer to see our date in the frozen food aisle than under the dim light of a restaurant? The answer lies in authenticity. As Bruce Y. Lee analyzes in the magazine Psychology Todaymundane tasks reveal what people are “at their core.” At a dinner party it’s easy to maintain a façade, but when faced with a logistical challenge—like figuring out why a piece of furniture is missing—the real personality comes out: Is your date cooperative and adaptable, or does he become selfish and irritable at the first setback? However, this “test” has its dangers. Quartz warns that assembling Ikea furniture is a real emotional minefield. Citing expert psychologiststhe outlet explains that these tasks activate old “triggers” and latent insecurities. A simple bookshelf can lead to existential questions: “Do you think I’m stupid?”, “Don’t you trust me?” Additionally, psychology professor Dan Ariely points in the same medium a dangerous phenomenon: the fundamental attribution error. We tend to think that if we make a mistake it is because the instructions are bad, but if the other person makes a mistake it is because they “never pay attention.” He choremancing It is, therefore, a quick way to see how the couple manages guilt and pressure. The collapse of the Tinder model This retreat into everyday life is not coincidental, but symptomatic. Traditional dating apps are suffering from structural wear. Although 80% of Generation Z want to find love, only 55% feel ready for a relationship. It is the “paradox of preparation”: the fear of failure is so high that young people prefer not to try. “Traditional flirting” is on the decline. Today you no longer ask for a date, you ask for Instagram, and that is where the interaction often dies. The fear of “public failure”—having to delete photos or explain things if a relationship doesn’t work out—acts like a handbrake. In this context, a “task date” is much safer: less pressure, less exposition, and above all, more honesty. Faced with this boredom, some are returning to old methods, like the resurgence of marriage agencies. “We get a lot of tired and frustrated people from the digital world,” they explain from the sector. Singles now seek “exclusivity and anonymity”, fleeing the public showcase of social networks. This search for tangible connection has taken courtship to the most unexpected spaces. For example, a couple of months ago the “hook up in Mercadona from seven to eight in the afternoon” went viral. What started as a joke about secret codes—like carrying an upside-down pineapple in your cart to indicate availability— reflects a deep reality: the desire to return to face-to-face in real environments, away from the algorithm. But he choremancing It goes beyond the first date; It is also the glue of coexistence. According to psychologist Dr. Hannah Lawson, cited by Uniladtechcouples who do household chores together, like washing dishes, are 20% happier. Lawson maintains that sharing these small daily rituals builds a stronger emotional connection than large romantic gestures. “It’s a symbol of equality,” he says, preventing resentment and encouraging natural conversation. However, there is a cruder reading behind this boom in useful quotes. First of all, the economic context does not help. With housing through the roof, looking for a partner has become a pragmatic decision: “you need two incomes to aspire to a stable life.” In this scenario, evaluating whether your potential partner is efficient at managing the house is not a lack of romanticism, it is a survival instinct. So is he choremancing The future of love or simply proof that we are too tired for traditional courtship? Either way, it seems like an efficient strategy. In a world where time is the most scarce resource, combining logistics with romance allows us to optimize the agenda and, in the process, truly get to know who we have in front of us. At the end of the day, logic is unbeatable. If the date goes wrong and you discover that that person doesn’t know how to work as a team or gets frustrated with an instruction manual, at least you won’t have wasted the afternoon in a pretentious bar. In the worst case scenario, the relationship will not have prospered, but you will have been left with the purchase made, the dog walked or, with a little luck, the living room furniture finally assembled. Image | freepik Xataka | Zara dressed Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl. That says much more about Zara’s plans than about Bad Bunny

the increase in abandoned oil tankers

by

Abandoning an oil tanker or other commercial vessel has gone from being something rare to becoming a dangerous trend: in 2025 alone there are 410 vessels registered, an abysmal difference compared to the 20 cases in 2016, according to data from the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), a global trade union organization that tracks these incidents. What is causing this rebound? The first affected: the crew. An abandoned oil tanker does not only mean neglecting the vessel itself, but also more than 6,000 sailors abandoned to their fate, according to ITF global figures. The most affected are Indian sailors, with more than a thousand people affected representing the majority of the total. One case is that of Iván (not his real name), the chief deck officer of an oil tanker that has been abandoned for weeks outside the territorial waters of China, which recently declared for the BBC how this event has affected their health and the environment: “We had a shortage of meat, cereals, fish, basic things to survive.” And that’s not to mention the uncertainty of seeing the Chinese coast and not knowing if you’ll be able to set foot on it. The context: the ghost fleets. Over the last few months we have heard about “ghost ships” or “zombie ships”, that is, ships that legally barely exist, with owners hiding behind front companies. The objective is to operate outside the official financial and regulatory framework to evade sanctions through “prohibited” routes such as Iran, Russia or Venezuela. The Ukrainian War and the context of sanctions have created a B market for old ships that transport oil. The ideal candidates to become ghost banks are aging vessels, generally oil tankers that are around two decades old, a critical age at which the vessel is already headed for scrapping, which makes it easier for them to move into that clandestine scenario. Whoever buys it is not going to invest in long-term maintenance, he wants to pay it off quickly by transporting sanctioned crude oil. These types of boats lack complete insurance such as P&I Clubsso that in the event of any problem, the shipowner disappears before assuming repair or repatriation costs. The legal trap of rental flags. Here the “flags of convenience“, something like the tax haven of the seas. This is what happens when a shipowner registers his ship in a country other than his own to benefit from more lax regulations. There is a legal disconnection between the real ownership of the ship and the state that gives it the flag. And what does it have to do with abandoned oil tankers? According to the ITF82% of abandonments occur on ships that operate under flags of convenience. Among the states with flags of convenience are Panama, Liberia and the Marshall Islands, which represent 46.5% of all merchant ships. But there is one country that deserves a special mention: Gambia. In 2023 it went from having no ships to having 35 sailing under its flag, a record time to create that infrastructure organically. In addition to softer legislation, many of these countries outsource inspections to private organizations and lack sufficient technical personnel to verify it afterwards, such as notes the International Maritime Organization in several reports. Prisons and floating time bombs. Ivan’s is just one case, but what an example: The ship is carrying almost 750,000 barrels of Russian oil that has a nominal value of about 50 million dollars (42 million euros). He left the Russian Far East for China at the beginning of November 2025 and there he is, at the gates of his destination and unable to enter. It is so that the alarms go off due to the environmental risk posed by a possible spill from an abandoned ship without responsibility. Furthermore, the safety of the vessel is compromised, as human error accounts for more than 80% of maritime accidents and these sailors are not exactly at their best. Fortunately, the ITF took charge of the situation in December, providing payroll arrears up to this point, providing groceries and other essentials, and planning repatriation. It is not an isolated problem. The drastic increase in abandoned oil tankers represents not only a violation of international sanctions and regulations, but also a human drama and potential environmental disaster for which there would be no legal responsibility to cover it. Although it is true that there are interventions and approaches and that there are states putting pressure on those countries that are banners of flags of convenience like Gambia and achieving something in the attemptthe reality is that this is a global phenomenon that requires stricter international regulation, serve as an example India’s blacklistwhich included 86 foreign ships in a database for abandonment of sailors and violation of their rights. In Xataka | Fewer and fewer oil tankers are being scrapped, and there is only one reasonable explanation: Russia’s ghost fleet In Xataka | The ships of the oil “ghost fleet” turn off their GPS to avoid being detected. Malaysia is going to hunt them with drones Cover | Jack Dong

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.