Month: March 2026

We believed spring was here to stay. We were wrong and in the worst way

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And that mistake has a name and surname: Therese. It is number 19 of the season and, with its mere existence, it already means an absolute record since we started naming storms. But it’s not going to stay like that. The high-impact storm will suddenly break into Spain and it will be noticed. In a matter of 48 or 72 hours, temperatures will drop up to 8 degrees in the interior of the peninsula while the Canary Islands suffers the most intense storm in more than a decade. And, right after, the polar cold. But let’s start with the storm. Therese formed as a cold low west of the peninsula on Tuesday the 17th and was named by the Portuguese meteorological agency. Its effects will vary a little depending on the area of ​​the country we look at. In peninsular Spain, the thermal decrease started yesterday in the southwestern half and, little by little, it will move to the northwest. If the falls so far are about 3 degrees, will increase up to 6 degrees in the Pyrenees, the interior of the Valencian Community and the Basque Country. That is, for now, it will only be a little cold. The Canary Islands, on the other hand, have some very complicated days. AEMET has already issued the warnings and it is expected that Sunday the 22nd will be very adverse. More than 300 liters in La Palma and Tenerife, wind gusts above 90 km and snow on Teide. And after? Then we will suffer a polar irruption at the gates of Holy Week. Or, at least, that’s what the main meteorological models say: that an anticyclonic ridge will rise towards the north from the Atlantic and will send us a mass of polar air. We expect precipitation in Galicia and the Cantabrian Sea, frost in the northern mountains and cold. quite cold. Not much: Spain has not recorded a single cold day record for four years. But enough to turn many Easter plans upside down. A different spring that looks a lot like a new normal. Be that as it may, the news it is again the extremely twisted polar jet: the same phenomenon that (with the help of some other factor) has been giving us rain for all these months and that, now, returns again. Image | ECMWF In Xataka | The snowiest ski resort in Europe right now is not in the Alps or the Pyrenees: it is in Granada

has confirmed that this war is going to haunt us for a long time

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Every day they circulate around the planet more than 100 million of barrels of oil and enormous volumes of gas that depend on a few strategic points to reach their destination. It only takes one of those nodes to fail for the markets to react in chain in a matter of hours and the impact is noticeable from large industries to the final price of energy in homes. The red line that no longer exists. Because he latest attack on Iran He has not been just another member of the war: he has crossed a border that until now everyone avoided, that of directly striking energy productionnot just its transportation or its peripheral facilities. The sequence is clear and extremely dangerous, because first the gas fields are attacked, then immediate retaliation comes. against equivalent infrastructures in neighboring countries, and in a matter of hours the conflict can enter a logic of “eye for an eye” that has no turning back. In fact, what for years was the worst possible scenario for analysts and strategists (an open war against the energy heart of the Gulf) is no longer a hypothesis for become realityand that changes the very nature of the conflict. War against the system, not against objectives. attack the South Pars gas field It’s not just hitting one more facility, it’s hitting a central piece of the global energy system and Iran’s own internal workings, and the Iranian response. on Ras Laffan confirms that the message has been understood throughout the region. It is no longer about destroying military capabilities or putting political pressure, but rather directly damage the pillars that support states: we are talking about income, social stability and supply capacity. When a facility that concentrates near a fifth of natural gas liquefied planet can be engulfed in flames, the war stops being regional and becomes become systemicbecause its effects spread far beyond the battlefield. A war with the face of Iraq. Plus: the dynamic that has been activated is dangerously reminiscent of the gulf war 1991, when burning oil fields became a symbol of total war against energy infrastructure. If the current escalation continues, it is not difficult to imagine the next step: refineries, petrochemical plants and entire fields become priority targets, with prolonged fires and damage that can take years to repair. The difference is that now global interdependence is much olderwhich amplifies the impact and can turn each attack into a direct hit to the global economy. In other words, the war is no longer fought only with missiles and drones, but with the destruction of the capacity to produce and sustain the energy that moves the planet. An expanding goal board. The Iranian response It also hints at a deeper strategic change: one where, if its energy base is hit, any equivalent infrastructure in the region becomes legitimate objectiveincluding facilities in Saudi Arabia, the Emirates or Qatar itself in the equation. If you like, beyond the energy, the implicit message is even more disturbing: if this taboo is broken, other, perhaps more dangerous ones can also be broken. Because Iran still has the capacity to climb in other directionsfrom attacks on political and symbolic centers to more direct blows against power structures. In other words, if they touch the economic heart, they can begin to point to the political heart, and that opens up a range of scenarios that are much more difficult to contain. The war after the combat. From that perspective, the real problem is not only what is happening now, but what this implies for medium and long term. Destroying energy infrastructure is not something that can be repaired in weeks, and each impact can leave scars that most likely they will last for yearsaltering trade flows, regional relations and power balances. Therefore, possibly this moment be so decisive in the war conflict: because it confirms that we have entered in a phase of the same whose consequences will persist long after the bombings stop. It’s not just another war in the Middle East, it never really has been, but now it’s the beginning of a dynamic that can redefine how conflicts are fought in a region where, from now on, the limits are no longer clear. And that is what makes it more dangerous than any other. Image | nara In Xataka | If the question is where Russia is in the Iran war, satellite images leave no doubt: helping to bring down the US In Xataka | A trick is unblocking the passage of ships in Hormuz without the need for drones or escorts, and the US is not going to be amused

What did Immanuel Kant mean when he argued that patience is not “a force of resistance, but rather one that hopes to make suffering satisfactory?”

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“Patience has generally been considered a virtue, but it has been very difficult to explain why,” said Paul Davies a couple of years ago. And he is right. Not only because we human beings have paid little attention to it, but because patience has something that makes it difficult to understand. After all, patience is too much like passivity, doing nothing, enduring whatever is thrown at us. What can have positive Be patient if the entire modern world has been built around autonomy, personal will and self-determination? Luckily, we have Immanuel Kant to get us out of trouble. An equivocal virtue. As soon as we stop to think about patience, we realize that it has no content of its own: it is always patience “for” something. And, of course, it is difficult to maintain that something is good in itself if it is little more than a psychological ability… Is patience for evil also a virtue? And Kant’s response is… admit it. For him, patience only acquires moral status if we complement it with something else; but staying there would be a mistake. We speak of “the ability to hold oneself in a position that does not offer immediate gratification without this absence of gratification being experienced as suffering”. The Kantian virtuous is not someone who suffers from duty, he is someone who develops sufficient moral strength so that this wait becomes a positive experience. That is, he is someone who is patient in the full sense: he is not someone who resists instinct, he is someone who actively experiences that wait. What the hell does all this mean? Basically, for Kant, although being patient only makes moral sense in virtue of something; If our logic is to “be patient” to obtain a result, everything is wrong. We will have fallen into the trap: if we look for it, we have already lost it. Although formulating it this way would horrify the Konigsberg philosopher, his vision of patience is very similar to the idea of ​​enjoying the process for its own sake. In more Kantian terms, we could talk about ‘moral satisfaction’: “an indirect enjoyment of the inner freedom that arises from the consciousness of mastery over one’s own inclinations.” And can this be trained? In several of his worksthe philosopher addresses the question of whether this ‘moral strength‘What we call patience can be trained. And his answer is yes; although, to tell the truth, in an unusual way. Because it is not about doing self-control exercises, nor conditioning yourself to inhibit specific stimuli. For Kant, what is really important is to train ‘moral attention’: focusing on seeing how our inclinations affect how we see things and the evaluations we make about them; glimpse what is best. Over time, patience will come alone. The most interesting image has to do with ‘writing’: fluency is not achieved by seeking fluency, it is achieved by writing a lot. Image | Xataka In Xataka | 2,000 years ago Epicurus had already understood the secret of pleasure: “Nothing is enough for those who have enough is little.”

Meta hit it big, betting everything on the metaverse. Now they have a Schrödinger metaverse

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We often see large companies change the design of their logos. They do it to maintain consistency with the product they are promoting at that moment, but the logo is one thing and the name and the entire brand are another. Facebook fearlessly jumped into the pool in October 2021 changing its name to Metaof ‘metaverse‘. After lose tens of billions and with the metaverse buried, Meta confirmed the inevitable: it will close the Horizon Worlds platform this year. But there is a twist: after announcing the closure, they now say that they will keep it alive for a while longer. How much? Mystery. In short. One of the most iconic moments of the technology presentations was when, in a packed room, Mark Zuckerberg walked between rows of journalists wearing a Quest helmet. The metaverse had arrived, or so Zuckerberg wanted. Years later, the reality is very different from future they hoped for Facebook Goalbut the name change had already been done and had to be accepted. ‘Horizon Worlds’ was the platform on which we could lead a second life, one that nor the employees of the Meta itself they used. To the metaverse he was doing badly, extremely badand Meta tried to make it stick in every possible way taking it to mobile and integrating it with Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp. Meta announced the plan as one to bring the metaverse everywherebut a few hours ago, Meta took the final step: he announced that on June 15 he would close ‘Horizon Worlds’ in the Quest helmets. Lowering the blind. Although the metaverse is everywhere, it is evident that the most natural way to access it is through virtual reality. However, it is clear that they are not going the way they would have liked and, in a release On Discord, the company confirmed that virtual worlds could no longer be created, published, or accessed in VR after that date. It was announced that the closure would be carried out in stages, killing applications from the Quest store starting on March 31 so that no more users can join, culminating with the definitive closure of the VR worlds on June 15. In the announcement, Meta confirmed that ‘Horizon Worlds’ will, from now on, be a mobile-only app. It seemed like the culmination of a process that, apart from burning money, has led Meta to lay off hundreds of workers and hit a 30% blow to the budget of the Reality Labs division. Schrödinger’s metaverse. But it is clear that those who are still in the metaverse did not like the news at all, to the point that Meta has had to come out to clarify the message… and back away. Although they have done it in a curious way. In a question session on Instagram, the company’s CTO, Andrew Bosworth, came to the fore to comment that the dead man is very much alive, that they have thought better of it and that ‘Horizon Worlds’ will remain in VR for “the near future.” The statements are as follows: “The ‘Horizon Unity Runtime’ games do not work on mobile, only in VR, and we will not be introducing new games. Again, most of our strategy is aimed at mobile, but people who already have games they like will be able to download the ‘Horizon Worlds’ app and use it in VR in the near future.” In the units of measurement, “near future” is not that it is very concrete, but at least it seems that they do not kill it yet due to, according to Bosworth, showing support “to the fans who have contacted us.” He has commented on it in stories (something that, conveniently, will be deleted), but here is the video: Other type of glasses. Come on, where I said I say, I say Diego and the Quest metaverse will continue to live for a while longer. As a user, I wouldn’t throw my hat in the ring because it’s clear that they are planning a closure sooner rather than later, but it is always good news that they have listened to those who continue using the platform. Because the Quest, beyond ‘Horizon World’, is an extremely interesting headset for playing and consuming content, but Meta has been betting on another type of glasses for some time. There are the Ray-Ban Meta, “normal” glasses that are used not to consume, but to create. Already in 2024 we said that Meta was giving a flip from your VR glasses to your everyday glasses because the Ray-Ban Meta is not only a tool for content creators and anyone who wants to record their daily lives: it is a device through which Meta can distribute its AI. And an extremely controversial one, based on what we now know about Where can the images we record end up? with those glasses. And AI, of course. Because if years ago it was the metaverse, now Meta’s obsession is AI. The company is focusing on this technology in which it is not very well positioned. They focused a lot on preparing and presenting very good models, but not very consumer friendly and it was the big loser of the AI ​​race last year. Their change in strategy seeks to gain a foothold in a segment in which they are already ChatGPT, Grok, Claude or the chineseand for this it has a double strategy. On the one handa super team of AI stars whose machine will have to start working at some point. On the other hand, a collaboration with NVIDIA and another with AMD to train the AI, as well as the development of own chips for inference. There is 135 billion dollars at stakean investment in one year that exceeds the total of the Metaverse and that indicates why it is logical for Meta to abandon anything that does not work for him in the slightest right now in order to allocate all possible resources to pursue the new objective. Images | Goal … Read more

Japan has taken a look at the data after the disappearance of thousands of Chinese tourists and it has been said that it is not so bad

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In the recent tourist chronicle of Japan there is a date marked in red. November 7, 2025. That day the prime minister Sanae Takaichi opened the box of thunder announce that Tokyo would not hesitate to deploy its troops in case China invaded Taiwan. The statement fell like a bucket of cold water on Beijing, which further made clear its discomfort at the diplomatic level, asked its citizens to avoid traveling to the country of the rising sun. Taking into account the enormous weight of Chinese visitors in Japanese hotels, that it sounded like a catastrophea punch in the gut for its thriving tourism industry. Well not so much. The latest data of the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) show that this is not the case. It is true that the country receives fewer (much fewer) Chinese visitors than a year ago, but the gap they have left in the hotels has not taken long to be filled by clients from other nations, especially from Asia. A percentage: 6.4%. February has been a good month for the Japanese tourism industry. At least as far as the arrival of travelers is concerned. He last balance from JNTO shows that throughout the month the flow of visitors grew by 6.4% compared to the same period in 2025. From 3.26 million it went to 3.47. The accumulated of the first two months of 2026 is also positive. Japanese tourism now totals around 7.1 million visitors, 0.3% more than last year. Said like that it doesn’t seem like a big deal. The weakness of the yen and its enormous popularity in networks, added to the recovery of the international tourism market after the pandemic stop, have turned Japan into everything a tourist phenomenon. One on a roll and accustomed to record numbers. In 2025, without going any further, the country will receive 42.7 million of foreign visitors, a historical mark that places the nation above 40 million for the first time in its history. So… Why is it news that it rose 6.4% in February? Why does that percentage matter? Countries February 2026 Evolution (%) Accumulated 2026 Evolution (%) TOTAL 3,466,700 +6.4 7,064,200 +0.3 South Korea 1,086,400 +28.2 2,262,400 +24.7 China 396,400 -45.2 781,700 -54.1 Taiwan 693,600 +36.7 1,388,100 +26.1 Hong Kong 233,900 +19.6 433,900 -1.2 Thailand 117,000 +0.2 232,100 +8.7 Singapore 51,300 +21.4 99,800 +13.4 Malaysia 59,700 -8.0 132,200 -5.5 Indonesia 51,200 +8.9 125,200 +13.6 Philippines 71,700 +7.5 150,900 +8.7 Vietnam 61,000 -17.4 113,800 -8.4 The answer: China. What is surprising is not that Japan continues to receive more tourists. The surprising thing is that it does so despite how much the Chinese market, one of its pillars, has become very complicated. We mentioned it before. Takaichi’s statements in November in which he implied that Japan would not sit idly by if Beijing forced its way into Taiwan caused an earthquake that jumped from diplomacy to the economy and from this directly to tourism. As part of their response to punish Takaichi, in mid-November the Chinese authorities they advised its citizens not to travel to Japan. They were even canceled dozens of flights and they refunded plane tickets. From politics to hotels. It didn’t take long for the boycott to be noticed in Japanese hotels. If the flow of Chinese tourists grew at 22.8% in October 2025, the following month (after Takaichi’s speech) that percentage had deflated to 3%. In December it went directly into the red, with a drop in 45.3% which was expanded to -60.7% in January. In February (latest JNTO data available) the balance again marked another puncture of the 45.2%confirming the trend. The percentage is better understood when talking about people: between January and February Japan received 921,700 fewer Chinese than in the same period in 2025. And the alarms went off. The problem is not only the drop in visitors, which is already alarming in itself. If the Japanese sector began to worry, it is because China represents a strategic market. And doubly so. To begin with, it is because of its weight. Along with South Korea, the Asian giant is the main fishing ground for visitors to Japan. In 2025 it added 9.1 million tourists21% of the total. Only South Korea mobilized more. And the data only reflects mainland China. Travelers from Hong Kong (another big market) go separately. The other reason why the Asian giant is so important for Japanese businesses is the profile of its tourists. Not only do many travelers leave China, those who pack their bags to spend their vacations in other countries also do so with full wallets. JNTO itself calculate that last year Chinese tourists spent about 25% more than other travelers during their stays in Japan, something that is especially noticeable in shopping centers. After Takaichi’s words about Taiwan (and the diplomatic storm between Tokyo and Beijing) there were businesses in the sector that they recalculated their forecasts billing, assuming double-digit drops in its earnings estimate. In the absence of Chinese… Other markets are good, which is what the JNTO statistics reflect. Despite the initial fear that Beijing’s boycott would hit Japanese tourism, slowing its unstoppable growth streak, Japan has managed to rebalance the sector. After experiencing a overall flow drop of visitors of 4.9% in January, last month that percentage was corrected and the industry grew again. In total in February they visited Japan about 3.5 million of tourists. How is it possible? This increase actually has little mystery. The JNTO tables show that the 45.2% drop in the influx of Chinese tourists has been offset by an increase in visitors from other nations. The flow of South Koreans shot up, for example, by 28.2%, that of visitors from Hong Kong by 19.6%, that of Singaporeans by 21.4% and Indian tourists by 22.7%. Ironically (or not) one of the markets that has grown the most is Taiwan. Throughout February, 693,600 tourists from the Asian island visited Japan, 36.7% more than in 2025. This is relevant data because Taiwan … Read more

These are the best deals we have found

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We have already passed the halfway point in March and spring is just around the corner. If you are looking to renew some of your technological devices and want good deals, these are some of the best deals in technology that we found today. Apple iPhone Air 256GB The price could vary. We earn commission from these links smartphone Apple iPhone Air by 959 euros: with A19 Pro chip and 256 GB. Outdoor Security Camera System Reolink Argus PT Lite by 299.99 euros: with battery powered by solar panel. air fryer Ninja Max by 149.99 euros: 9.5 liters and with a different design from other air fryers. Wireless headphones Baseus BC1 by 19.99 euros: with clip design and IP55 certification. Wireless adapter for Android Auto and CarPlay Carlinkit Mini Ultra 3 by 32.48 euros: Plug & Play type. Apple iPhone Air Smartphone He iPhone Air It is the thinnest mobile phone ever created by Apple. Its recommended RRP is 1,219 euros (for the 256 GB model), although now on Amazon you can get it with more than 20% discount (something surprising in a device from the firm of the bitten apple). It is available for 959 euros. The main hallmark of this Apple mobile is that it is only 0.56 cm thick. Your brain is A19 Pro chip (which is the same one that mounts the iPhone 17 Pro Max). Its battery provides autonomy of up to 27 hours in video playback and in the photographic section, it stands out for its 48 MP Fusion camera and an 18 MP Center Stage front camera. Apple iPhone Air 256GB The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Reolink Argus PT Lite Outdoor Security Camera System Now is a good time to start equipping our home for the good weather. If you are concerned about the security of your home, this four-pack surveillance cameras of the signature Reolink It is a bargain now on Amazon, since it has gone from costing about 400 euros to 299.99 euros. Each of the cameras in this pack offers 3MP resolution with 355-degree pan and 140-degree tilt capabilities, to offer you complete monitoring. These cameras work without cables, since they have battery powered by solar panel. In addition, the pack includes the hub or bridge to put them into operation. Reolink Outdoor Security Camera System, 4 Argus PT Lite Cameras The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Ninja MAX Air Fryer Have you outgrown your air fryer and are you looking for a model with a larger capacity and a different design from the rest? This Ninja Max It is a good option and now you can get it discounted on Amazon for 149.99 euros. This air fryer from the Ninja firm stands out for having a double independent basket of 4.75 liters each, offering a total capacity of 9.5 liters. It comes with several cooking options and its non-stick base grates are dishwasher safe. Plus, if you’re not a cook, it comes with a recipe book. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Baseus BC1 Wireless Headphones More and more brands have wireless headphones clip in their catalog. If you are looking for one of this type, these Baseus C1 They are now a bargain on Amazon. Its recommended price is 39.99 euros, but now they are at 50%, so 19.99 euros. Its open ring design offers pressure-free comfort without blocking the ear canal. They offer clear highs, detailed mids and deep, punchy bass. They present IP55 certificationwhich makes them waterproof and you can control them using physical buttons. Baseus BC1 Open Ear Headphones, Clip The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Wireless adapter for Android Auto and CarPlay Carlinkit Mini Ultra 3 If you usually use your cell phone a lot in the car, especially for GPS and music, and you are tired of having to plug it in via cable to enjoy Android Auto and CarPlaythis wireless adapter Carlinkit Mini Ultra 3 It’s on sale now and you can buy it for 32.48 euros. This wireless adapter You can only use it with vehicles with factory CarPlay or Android Auto. It is from Plug & Play typeso it is installed easily, following the steps that appear on your phone when you connect it to the USB in your vehicle. Carlinkit Wireless CarPlay and Android Auto Adapter – Mini Ultra 3 The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Jose García (Xataka), Apple, Reolink, Ninja, Baseus and Carlinkit In Xataka | The best mobile phones, we have tested them and here are their analyzes In Xataka | Best mobile phones in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and seven recommended models

We all know it but no politician wants to admit it

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China has won the electric vehicle battery race. He’s not “winning.” He has won. And what is coming now is little more than damage management that no Western government has the courage to explain to its citizens. Why is it important. Lithium batteries are the heart of the electric car, but also the energy infrastructure of the 21st century. Whoever controls the battery supply chain controls, to a large extent, the global energy transition, the industrial autonomy of Western democracies and, progressively, the geopolitics of mobility. and today That chain is almost completely controlled by China.. In figures. More than 80% of the world’s battery cells are manufactured in China. CATL, BYD and Gotion have built or announced at least 68 factories outside China in the last decadewith a joint investment that exceeds 45,000 million dollars. In 2024, for the first time, these companies invested more money building plants abroad than within their own country. Between the lines. Chinese expansion is the next phase of an industry that has matured to the point that opening factories abroad is more profitable than staying at home. CATL declares a margin of 29% in its international operations compared to 23% in China. They have already surpassed their home market. This also explains why political photogenicity is so global: The flags are local but the technology is chinese. Yes, but. The expansion is not painless. In Hungary, CATL has had to face environmental protestsa dispute over water use and collective dismissals of local workers. The promise implicit in each inauguration regarding employment, technology transfer and economic integration frequently collides with a slightly more austere reality. The big question. How long would it take to close this gap even if the West suddenly put its all into it? The honest answer is quite discouraging: It would take decades, not years.. The Chinese advantage in research, supplier ecosystems and accumulated learning curve is not achieved overnight, no matter how many subsidies are awarded or with a speech at a plant inaugurated with local flags. It is built generation by generation. Featured image | Xataka In Xataka | Quietly, Spain is solving its biggest energy problem: becoming the world’s second largest battery power

Waymo robotaxis stop if someone gets in front of them. That’s fine until the passenger suffers the consequences.

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That an autonomous car stops if it detects a person nearby is not just a function, it is the most basic thing to make it safe. The problem is when the person nearby is not simply crossing a pedestrian crossing, but is trying to attack passengers. This is what happened in San Francisco in January. The incident. They tell it in the New York Times. Last January, three passengers were returning home in a Waymo robotaxi when a man suddenly stepped in front of the vehicle and began banging on the windows while berating them for “giving money to a robot.” If it had been a normal car, they could have reversed and avoided the man, but what happened was that the car was blocked with them inside while the attacker continued to threaten them. The incident lasted at least six minutes. Waymo, help us. During the incident, the passengers called the police and then the Waymo helpline to see if they could manually steer the car to get them out of there. However, the company told them that this was not possible because there was a person nearby and the software did not allow it, but that they would be fine because the doors were closed. Speaking to the New York Times, one of the passengers states that “If I had kept hitting a single window instead of alternating, I’m sure I would have broken it in the end.” Why is it important. The Waymo robotaxis have been integrated into the life of cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles, but although their use has been normalized, they are also the subject of strong opposition from a sector of the population. Since the appearance of the first robotaxis there have been protests against this technology and have also suffered damage in demonstrations for other reasons. Last summer, during the anti-ICE protests, Protesters burned several Waymo in Los Angeles claiming they were spy cars (Waymo has shared images from its car cameras with police in the past). It is not the first incident. There have been other similar situations of Waymo vehicles vandalized while there were passengers inside, or cases like that of this woman who was trapped while two men outside asked him for his phone. And there have been more controversies, such as the run over of a well-known San Francisco cat or the day there was a blackout and dozens of robotaxis were left strandedblocking the streets. Security. On your websiteWaymo boasts that its cars have 90% fewer accidents with serious injuries and 92% fewer accidents with pedestrians. Obviously the most important thing is to ensure safe driving, but incidents like these show that there are more angles from which to understand safety than just avoiding accidents. Image | Waymo In Xataka | With Waymo’s autonomous cars we are reaching a legal absurdity: driverless violations

the problem is different and it is much closer

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Bitcoin It has been presenting itself for years as a decentralized system, resilient by design and less exposed to the single points of failure that affect traditional banking. The idea is powerful and, to a large extent, true. But it has an important nuance that is usually left out of the conversation: to function, Bitcoin continues to rely on a very specific physical infrastructure that connects the world and that also conditions its real resistance. The study that puts figures on resilience. A study by the Cambridge Center for Alternative Financebased on eleven years of network traffic and 68 real cable incidents explains something very interesting. The significant disconnection threshold of the clearnet of Bitcoin is between 72% and 92% of submarine cables in random failure scenarios. However, the same work introduces a decisive nuance: this solidity changes noticeably when the problem is no longer random. Decentralization, but not isolation. Just because Bitcoin does not have a central authority does not mean that it works independently of other infrastructures. Its network is made up of distributed nodes that constantly exchange information, but they do so through providers, routes and physical systems that also support the Internet. The Cambridge study itself highlights this interdependence between layers, where the logical and the material coexist. For this distributed network to work, the nodes need to continuously exchange data, and that occurs over a global infrastructure shared with the rest of the Internet. We are talking about submarine cables, terrestrial links, service providers and routing systems that determine where information circulates. Bitcoin’s resilience, according to the study, depends largely on how all these components are organized and connected. Where everything changes is in targeted attacks. Compared to the resistance shown in random scenarios, the study warns of a much more accessible vulnerability when the attack focuses on large ASNs or key routing infrastructures. Damaging cables indiscriminately is not the same as hitting specific surfaces of the network, and this difference paints a very different scenario from that of massive and indiscriminate failures. Researchers support their conclusions with documented events. One of the most significant is the cable cutting recorded on March 14, 2024 off the Ivory Coastwhich affected multiple countries in the region. On a global scale, the impact on the Bitcoin network was minuscule, although at a regional level the consequences were much more visible. Tor’s role in resilience. The study identifies another element that influences the robustness of the network: the growing use of the protocol Tor. According to their data, in 2025 around 64% of Bitcoin nodes will already operate through this network and, in the four-layer model used by researchers, this evolution not only does not weaken the infrastructure, but rather increases its resilience against cable cuts under the current geography of the relays. So, overall, the study paints a less intuitive scenario than is usually proposed. Bitcoin does not seem particularly exposed to a collapse caused by massive and indiscriminate failures in the global infrastructure, but rather to much more focused disruptions. The key, according to researchers, is not so much in the scale of the damage as in where it occurs, which forces us to rethink how we understand its resilience. Images | Jen Titus | Erling Løken Andersen In Xataka | Seedance 2.0 has used Hollywood intellectual property to go viral. Hollywood has used the courts

We knew that mobile phones had an impact on children’s mental health. A study has defined the border: 16 years

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Today, we live in a time of great debate around Instagram, TikTok or X, wondering if they really negatively affect our minors, with several governments promoting the possibility of banning them, including Spanish. Now, a new study longitudinal has shed light on the true impact that using social networks can have on mental health, pointing to a much more complex scenario than we think. The study. It has been a team from the Miguel Hernández University that has decided to put the focus precisely on social networks at a time when research paints a very worrying picture. But in this case wanted to put the focus in the nuances that should really matter to us: age, gender and mental health status prior to entering the world of social networks. And its conclusions change the classical conception. It’s not how much, but how. Until recently, the most classic concept to measure danger was “screen time.” In this way, different reviews suggested that spending more hours in front of the cell phone was equivalent to having a worse well-being. But the UMH research goes a step further and focuses on how networks interfere with daily life, sleep or personal relationships. Here the most striking finding that the research team saw was that the impact of this problematic use on depressive symptoms has a very clear boundary: 16 years. But it fades. Although researchers have observed that increased depressive symptoms It is much more acute in those under 16 years of age, it has also been seen that around this age the effect diminishes. The reason that marks 16 years as a true frontier is precisely the greater capacity for emotional and cognitive self-regulation that adolescents have as they mature little by little. In this way, young people from the age of 16 become less vulnerable to the negative impacts of the digital environment, something pointed out by other external studies that already warned that early pre-adolescence is the true critical period of exposure to social networks as they are more sensitive. A gender gap. Another worrying point raised by science is how digital popularity affects depending on whether the teenager is a boy or a girl. And right now we live in the era of followers where anything is done to see how our accounts have more and more followers. And while it may seem like having more followers is a positive reinforcement for any teen, the data says otherwise. The researchers point out here that having a greater number of followers is associated with a greater number of depressive symptoms, and especially in girls. The reasons lie in the pressure to maintain a perfect image, the fear of being analyzed down to the last detail and, logically, the cybervictimization. A set of factors that act as a toxic cocktail towards mental health. In the boys. Here, having many followers has a neutral or even somewhat protective effect, operating as a status enhancer within a group of friends, for example. That is, the complete opposite of girls, marking a gender gap that has also been investigated by other third-party studies that already warned that the mental health of minors is much more susceptible to the dynamics of online validation. Previous vulnerability. Do social networks depress you or were teenagers already depressed? This is the question we can ask ourselves when addressing this complex issue, and science indicates that adolescents who already suffered from a previous vulnerability before using the networks are the most susceptible. In this way, if a young person already presents depressive symptoms, their evolution will be significantly worse if they develop problematic use of networks. In these cases, the screen becomes a true refuge that ends up worsening the original picture when exposed to a large number of people or by consuming negative content. What should we do? The great conclusion that can be drawn here is that We must protect preteens as they are the most vulnerable, and also give priority attention to girls because they suffer much greater aesthetic and validation pressure. This is where governments come in with the regulations that are already being put on the table to prevent these most vulnerable young people from being exposed to something that can be so harmful. Images | Johnny Cohen In Xataka | We say we are “depressed” beyond our means: where does the illness end and where does the illness begin?

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