Month: April 2026

The “bubble” of the eclipse parties reaches Spain and Iceland

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Next August 12 a long-awaited phenomenon will take place: the first of the three eclipses that make up what many have already dubbed the Iberian trio. In three consecutive years, a solar eclipse will be seen from Spain. Those of 2026 and 2027 will be total eclipses, while that of 2028 will be annular. Be that as it may, it is a statistically improbable event, which excites both astronomy lovers and the general population. That’s why many people have chosen to see it at such imaginative events as music and art festivals designed around the eclipse. The eclipses will not be seen equally in all parts of Spain. For example, in 2026 totality will only be reached in a strip that goes from the north of Galicia to almost all of the Balearic Islands, passing through Asturias, Cantabria, La Rioja, the north of Castilla y León and the Valencian Community, La Rioja, and a part of the Basque Country, Navarra, Madrid, Aragon, Catalonia and Castilla la Mancha. In the rest of Spain it will be seen only partially. Therefore, since the famous sunset of solar eclipses will only be experienced in places where totality is reached, Many of the lucky localities are already preparing events to welcome the eclipse. These are events for the local population, but also for tourists. The emptied Spain will be less empty than ever and tourists will forget about the most typical destinations for a few days to travel to places to which they perhaps would not have traveled under other circumstances. Many hotels have been there for months due to the influx of people who will travel to observe the eclipse outdoors, without many more pretensions. However, there are also those who plan to attend what is possibly the most special festival of their lives. The most unexpected festivals around the eclipse The 2026 eclipse won’t be too long. In Spain, the places where totality lasts the longest They will barely enjoy more than a minute of darkness. Still, multi-day festivals have been planned, with musical performances, scientific talks, workshops and, of course, viewing the eclipse at the appropriate time. These are some of the most striking. Eclipse Festival, in Prades. In this town of Tarragona you will only enjoy 51 seconds of totality. Even so, between August 10 and 13 its Astronomical Park will celebrate a festival with music, workshops, conferences, observations, shows, telescopes and a planetarium. It will also be an ideal time to observe the Perseids. EclipsaFest, in Aldea Santillana. This small village in the also small town of Manjirón, in Madrid, will have 1 minute and 15 seconds of totality. In your case it will be a simpler observation, without the rest of the incentives of a festival, but it will very big. It will only be held on August 12 and admission will cost 147 euros for adults and 117 for children, with a welcome pack that includes glasses and the possibility of guided observation. Playabout Radio Festivalin Ibiza. In Ibiza they will have 1 minute and 6 seconds of eclipse and They will celebrate it as they know best. Accompanied by house and techno music, which will last from August 10 to 14. Umbra Festival, in Agolada. This town in Pontevedra will take advantage of the Brocos Reservoir, which is actually a reservoir, to celebrate a 3 day festival in which visitors will enjoy techno and minimalist music. Of course, also the eclipse, although in this case totality will be fleeting, lasting only 34 seconds. Admission costs 62 euros. Iberia Eclipse Festival, in Vinuesa. In Soria, next to the Duero River, this festival will be celebrated which will consist of four scenarios spread across the hillside and the forest, as well as a camping area and pre-installed tents. For 5 days, attendees, who will have paid an entrance fee of 240 euros, will enjoy music, workshops and a wellness area, which will include yoga, meditation, massages, swimming experiences in nature and art exhibitions. Astral Plane, at the La Pinilla Mountain Station. In this Segovian station you will enjoy the minute and a half of totality in the middle of a set by Detroit techno artist Kevin Saunderson. Admission costs 175 euros. Sizigia Eclipse Meeting, in Alcalá de Gurrea. This town in Huesca has also chosen a reservoir to observe the eclipse in its vicinity, whose totality will last only 40 seconds. Even so, attendees will enjoy 5 days of underground music, among other activities. Admission costs 262 euros, and with an extra fee you can add accommodation in a tipi camp. Also in Iceland Iceland will have its own eclipse viewing events. There, in fact, there will be points where totality can be seen for more than 2 minutes. But perhaps because the weather is less favorable or because Icelanders have a less festive spirit, there will not be as many options to choose from. Some of the most interesting will be the hellissander festivalwhich will include live music and TED talks, and the Grindavíkurbær Blue Lagoonwhich will be held in a spa. Attendees will be able to see the eclipse in an idyllic setting, but they will have to pay 750 euros. The price includes a two-course meal, two drinks, a robe, towel and glasses to view the eclipse. Seeing this, Spanish festivals even seem cheap. Image | NASA and Alfonso Scarpa In Xataka | The trio of eclipses that await Spain on the horizon: an unprecedented and historic chain between 2026 and 2028

Inditex made Amancio Ortega a billionaire. Now he is also the richest real estate tycoon in the world

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Amancio Ortega built the largest fashion group on the planet from scratch, became the largest fortune in Spain and the twelfth in the world. Now, he has just added a new record to his career: it is the largest real estate owner in the world thanks to Pontegadea’s investments. According to the calculations of Forbes, After analyzing corporate documents, property records and data from the Regrid and Real Capital Analytics platforms in nine countries, the real estate assets of Amancio Ortega It would be valued at 25 billion dollars, about 21.2 billion euros at the current exchange rate, spread across more than 200 properties in 13 countries. This figure exceeds that of the Australian promoter Harry Triguboff, with 23.2 billion dollars in assets and that of the American Donald Bren, with 19.2 billion, until now the great references in the sector. From hanger to brick. However, what is most surprising about this second empire that has been created is that Inditex and Pontegadea could not be more different, although both have a key point in common: the Inditex dividends. The original wine of Pontegadea emerged in 2001, when Inditex debuted on the stock market. Ortega then sold a 13.5% stake in the textile company for $1.1 billion and with that capital founded Pontegadea, his investment vehicle. From that moment, Amancio Ortega stopped being the beneficiary of the dividends generated by the textile giant and placed Pontegadea and Partler as his representatives and beneficiaries of its millionaire dividends. In 2026, the family office de Ortega will collect 3,234 million euros in dividends for Inditex’s results in 2025, a personal record figure. A portfolio of Premium buildings around the world. Pontegadea’s strategy is simple to explain, but almost impossible to replicate: buy the best buildings of the market, in strategic and irreplaceable locations in the main cities of the world, and find solvent tenants to sign long-term rentals with them, obtaining income from day one. His properties include iconic buildings such as the 43-story Picasso Tower in Madrid (which he bought for $540 million in 2011), the Devonshire House across from Green Park in London for which he paid $671 million in 2013, Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle, and in Canadaor the Royal Bank Plaza in Toronto, which is undoubtedly its crown jewel. In 2025 alone, Ortega closed 13 purchase operations in 10 cities in eight different countries, spending more than 3 billion dollars. Among its tenants we find names like Inditex itself, which rent the premises from its best stores, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Nike, Spotify, FedEx, Home Depot and Walmart, and even its biggest rival in textiles: Primark. Pontegadea has also diversified into logisticsluxury housing for rent and port infrastructure either energy networks. No debt, no rush and very few sellers. What differentiates Pontegadea from the rest of the large real estate investors is that Ortega’s investor seems to have unlimited funds, thanks to the billion-dollar dividends it receives each year from Inditex, and that it annually invests entirely in brick without incurring debt with its operations. A real estate agent who has worked with the firm told Forbes: “They buy collectible assets that are the best on the market. They are more like a art collector that looks for the most exclusive works of art.” Of their entire portfolio, according to the Real Capital Analytics database consulted by the American magazine, they have only sold 10 buildings in more than two decades. This also differentiates them from the rest of the real estate companies, which tend to get rid of their buildings after four or five years. More investment, less taxes. Behind the expansion of Pontegadea and its recent European structuring based in Luxembourg, There is also a very fine-tuned fiscal logic. In Spain, the wealth tax, to which the solidarity tax aimed at large fortunes was added in 2022, penalizes uninvested cash. Therefore, Ortega’s strategy is to keep 100% of the dividends he receives from Inditex invested in productive assets to increase their value and reduce the tax bill. According to Forbes, Ortega has saved about $800 million in wealth taxes since 2001 thanks to this constant reinvestment in real estate, infrastructure and energy with Pontegadea. Furthermore, by channeling the collection of Inditex dividends through Pontegadea and Partler, Ortega benefits from a tax exemption designed for business holdings. paying taxes at 1.25% instead of doing it for the 28% that applies to personal income tax. On the whole, Forbes It estimates that this mechanism has allowed it to save about $7 billion in taxes on these dividends in the last 25 years. In Xataka | Spain has more and more “billionaires” and a big shot who leaves their fortunes as anecdotes: Amancio Ortega Image | GTRES, Unsplash (Sergio Kian)

2025 has been the year with the most sanctions in the history of the DGT

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The DGT has closed 2025 with a record number in Spain. According to official data from the General Statistical Yearbook 2025the number of complaints made has reached 6,106,354 sanctions. To put the figure in context, it is the highest obtained since records began. There is an upward trend that we have been experiencing for years, largely thanks to a greater dependence on surveillance technologies on our roads. Below these lines we tell you the details. Record numbers. For the first time since the historical series began in 1961, the volume of fines has broken the six million barrier. To put it in perspective, in just three years we have gone from exceeding five million in 2022 to this new ceiling in 2025. This is equivalent to an average of 16,730 daily fines, 12 penalties per minute or, if we continue with the calculations, one every 5.2 seconds. The Autonomous Communities that receive the most fines. The map of fines in Spain shows a clear geographical concentration. Andalusia leads the national ranking with 1,526,897 complaints, followed by the Comunitat Valenciana with 939,573 and the Community of Madrid with 721,465. On the opposite side, provinces such as Ourense with 40,904 or Palencia with 42,248 register the lowest volumes. The main reason for these figures continues to be excessive speed, responsible for two out of every three violations. Just like account the COPE, the cinemometer of the M-40 in Madrid, which is one of the most active radars in the entire countryaccumulated more than 150,000 complaints last year. The technological factor. The key to keeping the numbers rising is, of course, the modernization of surveillance equipment. According to point In the meantime, the DGT has invested more than one million euros in state-of-the-art mobile radars and “semi-mobile” trailer-type devices that operate automatically. This infrastructure is also supported by the Aerial Media Unit, whose helicopters and drones process approximately 25,000 violations annually, according to they explain from La Razón. Traffic defends that this deployment has been essential to reduce road mortality compared to past decades. Between the lines. This increase in fines is the result of a determined commitment to automation. From the Pyramid Consulting firm they point out that the direct connection of the devices with the León Automated Complaints Handling Center has boosted the capacity to process these fines. From the Unified Association of Civil Guards (AUGC), they denounce that this modernization coincides with a period of “serious personnel shortages and insufficient planning,” estimating that there are 1,000 fewer personnel than a decade ago. And now what. It does not seem that the strategy for the immediate future will change in any way. With a collection that exceeded 540 million euros in 2025, the DGT continues with the installation of more than a hundred new speed control points. On the other hand, driver defense platforms such as Dvuelta they question if this model has a true deterrent character. Cover image | DGT In Xataka | If you find a Cybertruck parked on a Spanish road, it is probably not a Cybertruck: it is a radar

Ukraine has tested whether Russia was complying with the ceasefire with an optical illusion in the open field. The video is self-explanatory

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during the call Christmas Truce In the First World War, enemy soldiers came out of their trenches, exchanged gifts and even played soccer games in no man’s land, in one of the most unusual episodes of the conflict. That scene, as brief as it was unexpected, showed to what extent war can change shape in a matter of hours. A ceasefire on paper. Russia had announced a ceasefire for Orthodox Easter with a strong symbolic and political component, seeking to project an image of negotiating will in the middle of war. However, on the ground the reality has been very different, with thousands of violations recorded in just 32 hours, including artillery attacks, assaults and a massive use of tactical drones. Although long-range attacks were reduced, information arriving from kyiv They point out that the intensity on the near front was maintained, reflecting a dynamic where pauses are used more as a narrative tool than as a true attempt to stop the fighting. The war of stories. Both Moscow and kyiv tried to position themselves as the party that respected the truce, in a conditioned diplomatic pulse also due to international pressure, especially from the United States. While Russia defended having complied with the ceasefire, Ukraine documented thousands of violations in a matter of hours, showing an obvious gap between the official discourse and what was happening on the battlefield. This duality reinforced the idea that truce announcements are part of a communication strategy as much as the war itself. The unexpected test: an optical illusion. In this context, Ukraine decided to go beyond the accusations and designed a direct test to check Russian behavior: evacuate apparently own soldiers, unarmed and wounded, complying with all the conditions of a ceasefire. It turns out that, in reality, it was Russian prisoners in disguise with neutral uniforms, used as a kind of “visual bait” to verify whether the agreements were respected. The scene functioned as a kind of terrifying optical illusion on the battlefield, where what looked like a legitimate evacuation hid a carefully prepared experiment. The video that dismantles the truce. The outcome was so fast as forceful: because a swarm of Russian drones attacked the evacuees, killing several of them without knowing that they were actually their own captured soldiers. The episode, recorded on video and broadcast Later on different social networks, he crudely exposed the fragility of the ceasefire and the inability (or lack of will) to respect it even in situations clearly protected by the rules of war. Beyond the tactical impact, the incident became in a visual test difficult to refute about what was really happening on the front. An episode that also leaves everyone in a bad light due to the crudeness of the visual piece. An impossible truce. If you also want, the set of events confirms that the ceasefire was, in practice, untenable in a conflict where both parties seek to maintain the military initiative while competing for the international narrative. For Russia, the test reveals the extent to which modern combat (based on the intensive use of drones, quick decisions and targets detected without full verification) can turn against him even in sensitive situations. For Ukraine, the test not only highlighted Russian non-compliance, but also showed the extent to which the battle has entered a phase where even humanitarian gestures can become in strategic tools. In this scenario, the truce was nothing more than a nominal pause in a war that continues to develop with the same intensity under a layer of unfulfilled promises. Image | x In Xataka | If fog was deadly in Ukraine’s winter, spring is offering Russia a key advantage: greenery In Xataka | Ukraine is close to what no one has achieved in a war: shooting down missiles for less than a million dollars

Someone has created the first complete advanced malware by vibecoding with AI. It’s called Voidlink and it leaves an important question

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For a long time, develop malware advanced seemed reserved for actors with experience, time and considerable technical capacity, especially in an environment in which operating systems and many platforms have been tightening their defenses. But the table is changing. What we have seen in recent years is that artificial intelligence not only serves to summarize texts or answer questions, it can also very visibly accelerate the software creation when given precise instructions. And that leaves us facing a reality that is difficult to ignore: the same tool that simplifies legitimate tasks can also reduce part of the effort necessary to create malicious code. That change begins to take concrete form with VoidLink. In his analysisCheck Point presents it as one of the strongest evidence so far of advanced malware developed largely with the help of AI. There is, however, an important nuance in the investigation itself: the company assures that it detected it at an early stage, that it was not deployed against victims and that it was not used in active attacks. But that is precisely why the discovery is so revealing, because it allowed access to development materials that rarely come to light. How VoidLink was built and why it changes the dashboard VoidLink was not, at least on paper, a minor piece or a rudimentary experiment. The cybersecurity firm describes it as a malware framework for Linux with a modular architecture, designed to maintain stealthy and prolonged access in cloud environments. In his analysis he mentions components such as eBPF and LKM rootkits, as well as specific modules for cloud enumeration and subsequent activities in container environments. That level of maturity is just what separates it from other previous cases associated with simpler code. One of the most striking twists in the case is who seems to have been behind it. Check Point explains that, due to its internal structure and the pace of evolution observed, VoidLink gave the impression of having come from a large team, with different profiles and a fairly defined work plan. But the evidence collected by the firm points to something very different: a single actor who, according to the investigation, would have had AI support during different phases of development. There is also another relevant element: that actor would not be a rookie, but rather someone with a solid technical base and previous experience in cybersecurity. The most revealing part of the case is how the project would have been built. The firm describes a working method based on what it calls Spec Driven Development that works as follows: You define what you want to build This idea is translated into architecture, tasks, sprints and delivery criteria The implementation is delegated to the model. In the exposed materials, development plans, technical documentation, coding standards, deployment and testing guides appeared, as well as an organization by teams and phases that supports this model. One of the recovered artifacts, dated December 4, 2025, further suggests that VoidLink had already reached a functional phase in less than a week and exceeded the 88,000 lines of code. That is precisely what separates VoidLink from other precedents. Check Point maintains that this is the strongest evidence of malware created almost entirely with the help of AI. “This is the first confirmed case of advanced AI-generated malware, created with the speed, structure and sophistication of an entire engineering organization,” claims the company. The question now is how far malicious actors can go with these types of techniques. Images | Xataka with Nano Banana | Check Point In Xataka | The Booking hack is a little more disturbing: “Tracking phishing” attacks are here to stay

buying Globalstar’s “candy” for $9 billion

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SpaceX has been positioned as a the great giant of telecommunications satellites thanks to Starlink. However, other seemingly more modest companies have been able to occupy the space left free by their weak points. One of them is Globalstar. For this reason, Amazon has set itself the goal of acquiring it as soon as possible. The facts. According to CNA and ReutersAmazon is currently in negotiations to acquire Globalstar for 9 billion dollars. The final transaction could be announced this week, although at the moment nothing is finalized. It would be a big step forward for the e-commerce company when it comes to telecommunications, but to achieve it will also have to reach an agreement with Apple. Starlink vs Globalstar. Starlink currently has more than 10,000 satellites in orbit. SpaceX’s plan is to initially scale up to 12,000 satellites and, if possible, in the future to exceed 40,000. With this, it is intended that Internet access will be broader and faster, by directly connecting users with satellites located in geostationary orbit, without the need to use ground stations as intermediaries. Globalstar has a similar goalalthough it has many fewer satellites. Just a few dozen. However, Globalstar has something that Starlink craves: licensed spectrum. The VIP area of ​​telecommunications. A licensed band in the radio spectrum is a specific range of frequencies that has been assigned by the competent authorities to a specific operator. For the duration of the license, only that company can transmit in that range. This means that interference is reduced to a minimum. There are no other satellites competing to send their signals. Apple enters the scene. Globalstar’s licensed spectrum is a candy highly desired by any telecommunications company. One of them, without a doubt, was Apple. In 2024, the telephone giant invested $1.5 billion in Globalstar, acquiring 20% ​​of the company. Since then they have used it, for example, to send emergency messages or to use offline maps. Given this situation, Amazon will have to negotiate directly with Apple and reach an agreement. More satellites, but worse positioned. Actually, Amazon already has its own satellite project, called Leo. It currently has 200 satellites in low orbit and many more ready to launch when the necessary permits are obtained. However, many of these permits do not arriveso Amazon has been experiencing delays in its release schedules. This has led the company to make the decision to join forces with Globalstar, as it has a much smaller train of satellites, but clearly better positioned thanks to the licensed band. If they reach an agreement, they will be able to start working at full capacity much sooner. Starlink is not going down. Despite the virtues of Globalstar and the forces it could combine with Leo, Starlink is not positioned as a losing company. The power that having the largest train of telecommunications satellites gives it is still very great. However, the space is becoming saturated and there are more and more entities concerned about what the growth of this company could entail. If your maneuver based on the brute forceperhaps there could come a time when you find yourself at a disadvantage. We will have to wait to see it. Image | Charles Boyer and Christian Wiediger In Xataka | Ukraine’s military has a problem almost as important as Russia: Starlink belongs to Elon Musk

The blockages that we saw in LaLiga make the leap to other sports. Telefónica extends them to the Champions League, tennis and golf

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What began as a controversy associated with LaLiga matches has just taken a much bigger leap. The blockages that we have been seeing for months on football days no longer stop there: they also reach other live sports broadcasts and expand the radius of a measure that was already generating discomfort and complaints. The novelty. According to El Economistathe latter is based on a resolution of the Commercial Section of the Court of Instance of Barcelona in response to a lawsuit from Telefónica Audiovisual Digital. That resolution, dated March 23, authorizes Movistar Plus+ to request the rest of the Spanish telecommunications operators to collaborate in the dynamic blocking of websites that illicitly disseminate content over which Telefónica has rights. Always according to the information published, the measure will begin to be applied this Tuesday with The Champions League match between Atlético de Madrid and Barcelonaand will continue the next day with the meeting between Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. What changes in practice. From here on, the matter stops being just a judicial decision and becomes a concrete operation. As we have seen, and according to the aforementioned source, it will be the operators who must collaborate with Telefónica in the immediate blocking, during the broadcast of the content, of IP addresses, URLs and domain names used for illicit dissemination. The information also places Movistar and O2, as well as MasOrange, Vodafone and Digi operators, within this framework. The scope. The key is not only in who executes these blocks, but in the type of emissions that now come into focus. If before the public conversation tended to revolve around LaLiga, the new information paints a much broader scenario: the authorization refers to “every day of broadcasting of live sporting events” and covers not only the Champions League, but also tennis or golf competitions over which Telefónica has rights. This obviously widens the playing field. Damage to third parties. The controversy around these blockades arises not only from their harshness against illicit emissions, but from what we already saw months ago in services completely unrelated to that circuit. As we published in Aprilseveral companies described traffic and revenue drops in the context of IP blocks that also affected legitimate services. Among the cases that we collected was that of OnlyTenis.com, whose manager placed the monthly billing at a drop from around 70,000 euros to a range of between 40,000 and 50,000 euros. The expansion. In that context, what we have before us is a clear extension of a strategy that is not completely new. The difference is that now the focus is broadening and, with it, so is a discussion that has been open for some time in Spain. On the one hand, there is the will to stop the illicit dissemination of content with faster and more forceful measures. On the other hand, the same underlying question continues to linger: to what extent this tightening can once again affect users, services and companies that are not part of that circuit. Images | LaLiga In Xataka | LaLiga has been at war with Cloudflare for years over piracy. It has just joined forces with its main competitor

The truth behind the medical milestone that has returned activity to a frozen brain

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One of the wishes of many people is to live forever and they may have in mind ending up with their head stuck in a jar like in the Futurama series or becoming cryogenized for an eternity until the key to eternal life is found. But we are still quite far from that, although right now science has been able to recover the activity of a brain after ‘killing’ it. Far from the resurrection. In recent days we have been sold the idea that we are facing a new way of ‘resurrecting’ the dead or achieving the wish of eternal life, but the reality is that the latest thing science has done is recover short-term functional activity in mouse brain tissue after subjecting it to vitrification. What was done. Historically, the great enemy of cryopreservation of human tissue have been ice crystals. This is because when we freeze tissue, the water in the cells expands and crystallizes, perforating the cell membranes and destroying the structure from within, making it impossible for that tissue to come back to life. Something that generates a lot of damage and that goes against the famous cryogenization cabins that promise to wake us up in the future when science has advanced a lot. But now, instead of traditional freezing, the latest experiment used powerful cryoprotectants and took mouse brain tissue to -150ºC. This process transforms the liquids into a glass-like state, preventing the formation of these crystals, and when they wanted to ‘awaken’ the tissue again, ultra-rapid reheating was simply done to prevent crystallization from destroying the samples. What was achieved. The original article shows extraordinary results, since the amount of neuronal properties that survived were many by ensuring that the cells did not collapse and the tissue returned to consuming energy normally. In addition, the neurons maintained their ability to fire signals and also the possibility of creating new connection networks, which is essential for learning and memory. Why does it matter? As he warns Nature Newsthese results must be read with caution, since it is mouse tissue, not a complete human brain. And recovering electrical activity in a cut of the hippocampus is not equivalent to restoring the consciousness, identity or life of an entire animal, much less a person. But even if they do not manage to pause our definitive death, the reality is that this can be crucial in the field of research by facilitating the transport and storage of brain samples for study in other places. But it will also allow drugs to be tested on actual brain tissue that has been preserved, perhaps reducing the need to sacrifice so many experimental animals. Images | rawpixel.com on Freepik In Xataka | Alzheimer’s leaves its mark decades before showing its face: keeping vitamin D at bay is already a promising shield

If anyone thinks that gambling is a modern vice, we just found a game of chance that is more than 12,000 years old

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We are so used to locating the origins of gambling in the civilizations of the eastern Mediterranean (in the Babylonian temples, on the Roman gaming tables) that it is difficult to imagine another scenario. But a study published this month in the magazine ‘American Antiquity‘ changes everything: the oldest known dice do not come from the Old World, but from the western plains of North America, and are at least 12,000 years old. They date back to nothing less than the Pleistocene. Old dice. With his study, archaeologist Robert J. Madden has shown that Native Americans made and used dice at least 12,000 years ago, during the last centuries of the Ice Age. That makes them the oldest known games of chance, more than 6,000 years ahead of the earliest documented dice in Europe. What was believed? Mainstream history placed the origin of dice in the complex societies of the Near East and Eastern Europe, approximately 5,500 years ago. Madden’s findings they relocate that starting point to another continent and to another completely different type of society: groups of nomadic hunter-gatherers of the western Great Plains of North America. Neither palaces, nor cities, nor written culture: games of chance in Pleistocene camps. What are these dice like? Prehistoric Native American dice do not look like the cubes we know. They are known as binary lots: flat, two-sided pieces, made of bone or wood, designed to be thrown on a surface. The result depended on how many marked faces were left face up; Players counted points with small rods and whoever reached an agreed upon number first won. More like a coin toss than the six possible outcomes on a die, but just as useful for generating random outcomes. Why was there confusion? The problem was classification. When archaeologists found pieces of this type, they simply labeled them as “game pieces.” There was no systematic criterion to identify them as given. madden corrected that way of seeing it developing a morphological test based on a catalog that the ethnographer Stewart Culin published in 1907, ‘Games of the North American Indians’, where he documented 293 historical sets of indigenous dice from more than 130 towns. With that framework applied to the published archaeological record from across the continent, he identified more than 600 additional dice. Where were they? The oldest dice come from three sites in the Folsom culture: Agate Basin (Wyoming), Lindenmeier (Colorado) and Blackwater Draw (New Mexico). It is believed that these pieces They are between 12,800 and 12,200 years old. Lindenmeier, north of Fort Collins, has 14 different artifacts that meet the criteria, leading some archaeologists to speculate that it was a large seasonal congregation site for dispersed groups. The density of material found there points to something more than a temporary camp. What is most striking is the continuity. These objects appear in deposits from all major periods of North American prehistory, without detectable interruption from the late Pleistocene until after European contact. A 12,000-year-old tradition that still works: Madden himself found tutorials on YouTube where native groups explain how to play versions of the same games from two millennia ago. How to play. Possibly, these dice were used in games that we can connect with what we tell about the patollithe Mesoamerican board game of the Mayans and Aztecs: that was also a game of chance with a deep ritual dimension, found in the archaeological works of the Mayan Train. The social and religious function of the game seems to have been constant in very different pre-Columbian cultures. Madden describes these games as “social technologies of integration”: neutral spaces, governed by shared rules, where groups with little or no prior contact could interact, exchange goods and information, and build alliances. The religious dimension is equally documented. Numerous native oral traditions describe dice as a sacred activity: the gods themselves participate, and in some cosmologies the creation of human beings is the result of a cosmic game. Image | Robert J. Madden

There were four workers in a van and they ended up crashed

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The new Madrid Formula 1 circuit He has already had his first accident, and he has not even raced a single-seater on its asphalt yet. A van with four occupants he sneaked into the construction siteand at high speed ended up going off the track. Although they had a good scare, it seems that there have been no serious injuries. What happened. A person who was walking through the Valdebebas area, next to the IFEMA exhibition center where the MadRing is being built, heard a loud noise coming from inside the circuit. When he looked out he saw a van driving along the already paved part of the route at a very fast speed, especially for a construction site. He took out his cell phone, recorded, and He sent the video to the ‘MadriZonaNorte’ account in X. In the images you can see how the vehicle ends up overshooting a curve and crashing, triggering the airbag. The four occupants, according to El Motor, were workers working on the construction of the circuit, and they all left on their own. rolling. The MadRing is still far from finished. The asphalting process should be completed by May 31and that includes three layers: base, intermediate and tread. Right now there is only a first layer on a good part of the route. Filming at high speed inside such an enclosure, with the work underway, has been irresponsible that, in this case, ended without serious consequences due to pure luck. A project against the clock. To understand the magnitude of the nonsense, it is worth taking into account the pace at which the work progresses. The Director of Operations of IFEMA Madrid, Carlos Jiménez, counted to Motorsport media that the works are even going a week and a half or two weeks ahead of what was planned for the track. The construction companies ACCIONA and Eiffage Construction are working non-stop to meet a deadline that does not allow for delays, since after the delivery of the circuit, the FIA ​​homologations will come, with two official visits planned during the works, and all of this must be ready before September arrives. Taking into account that the bun oven is not there, any carelessness within the premises is an unnecessary risk that could further complicate a work that has already caused quite a few headaches. What’s to come. When completed, the MadRing will have 22 curves and 5.4 km in length, the estimated lap time is 1 minute and 32 seconds, and on the 589-meter finish line, drivers will be able to reach up to 340 km/h. The jewel in the crown is La Monumentala 550 meter long curve with an extreme bank of 24%, the highest on the calendar, in which the drivers will have to face an inclination of up to 10 meters high for six seconds. A particularity that does not exist in any other circuit in the world in the competition. The when. The Madrid Grand Prix is ​​scheduled for the weekend of September 11-13 this year. More than 80,000 tickets have already been soldwhich is equivalent to 72% of the total capacity. A few weeks ago, A Red Bull car traveled the tracks of the Madrid Metro as part of an advertising campaign for the event. Now the route has made headlines again, although for very different reasons. a test. Before the debut in F1, IFEMA is working on organizing an internal race, probably without an audience and in a lower category, to verify the state of the circuit. The real cars will arrive in September, so the fewer vans there are testing the Stranjis layout, the better. Cover image | MadriZonaNorte, MadRing In Xataka | It turns out that the “good, pretty and cheap” electric car does exist and is manufactured in China. So Citroën has stepped up

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