Month: July 2026

A professor from Malaga decided to rewrite ‘Don Quixote’ in Gothic calligraphy. Now he says it’s worth a million euros

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Manuel Marín Navarro, artistic drawing teacher from Vélez-Málaga, had an idea. “A madness”, rather, as he himself says: rewriting the entire great work of Miguel de Cervantes using Gothic calligraphy. By hand, dedicating between 7 and 8 hours a day. It’s been six years, seven months and 26 days and he still hasn’t completed the 344,000 words that make up the, why not say it, best book in the history of universal literature. Anyone would say of ‘The Quixote’ rots sanity. Wait, I emphasize it well, then Jesús G. Maestro gets angry: ‘The ingenious gentleman Don Quixote of la Mancha’. Miguel de Cervantes gave birth to a textually transmitted virus and, four centuries later, the pathogen is still free. Rewriting the 2.1 million characters in a Gothic font, letter by letter, ink on paper, is his great dream, the legacy of a life. A retiree doing lettering with the pulse of a teenager on TikTok? The difference here lies in the commitment. His company borders on the wild: the final book is on its way to weighing 20 kilos and, if it goes on sale, the author values ​​this monstrosity at one million euros. Shooting low. That million euros is a calculation that obeys pure labor arithmetic. Marín Navarro added hours, days and years, after such a monastic confinement in front of the folio, he estimates a salary equivalent to that of a medieval copyist in the current market. Not in vain has he drawn two million one hundred thousand characters with a pen. Pens that he has made himself. It has filled one thousand three hundred and five giant-sized (A3) pages. His cellulose monster is called ‘El Quixote Axárquico’, an orthographic nod to the princes edition of 1605. A geographical tribute to his native Andalusian region. The best book, the neatest edition. “I play music from the 17th century, I get into the character, I read the chapter first, I get the idea and then I start writing. I’ve enjoyed it a lot.” The devotion of this professor and writer for the work of Cervantes is indisputable. Of his personal library, which houses more than 4,000 volumes, three hundred of them are different editions of the hidalgo from La Mancha. At home he keeps eccentric jewelry and pays fortunes at closed auctions. Its most expensive copy cost 6,000 euros. It treasures absurd physical oddities, like a miniature tome printed on a single sheet. That is, the reader needs a powerful magnifying glass in front of that tiny paper. But his recent Gothic manuscript breaks any balance. The dimensions of the work require a brutal binding, so the professor is looking for a brave craftsman. It will take the entire skin of a cow to cover the caps. From prison to museum. And anyone who knows the biography of the writer from Alcalá de Henares well will know that he set foot on the cobbled streets of Vélez-Málaga. The roots go back a long way: he walked there in the hot summer of 1594, acting as a tax collector for King Philip II. He collected money and wheat for the coffers of an insolvent and corrupt empire. And the crown excommunicated the novelist twice for his zeal. What’s more, Cervantes collected debts from the all-powerful Church and it is said that the priests kicked him out of the atriums. A Sevillian bank went bankrupt with the royal collections deposited and that is how Cervantes ended up in a damp and gloomy cell in Seville. And there the figure of the crazy gentleman was born, influenced by Italian literature. Andalusian tradition venerates this prison origin of the work. And of course, Marín Navarro has decided to return the geographical favor to his land, giving his manuscript to the city Museum. The old San Juan de Dios Hospital will host this literary mammoth as long as no one sells the original volume to private funds, nor prints cheap copies for clueless tourists. He reserves a personal and final facsimile: the mother manuscript will sleep under institutional lock forever. Why gothic letters and not Comic Sans. It’s not because Marín Navarro is reviewing HIM or the work of Bauhaus and The Cure. On the contrary, the man from Malaga listens to lute and harpsichord madrigals locked in his study, assimilating tragedy and comedy in silence, using the best black Chinese ink, writing slowly. It takes a whole day to fill out a single page—the first page took a full week of trial and error. To avoid frustration with marks, ten handmade pens were made from reed and metal and it was imposed not to use modern white correctors, scraping the paper with a sharp blade if a mistake was made. As for the use of Textura font, which imposes straight lines and sharp angles, it is simple: history. Johannes Gutenberg applied it in his first printed Bible and German monks perfected it in monasteries. It is not the natural calligraphy of the Spanish Golden Age but it is the one associated with arcane knowledge. The Gothic line provides a brutal dramatic weight and requires much greater physical rigor in the wrist. Navarro does not give up: infected with COVID-19, during confinement the fever kept him in bed. Giving classes with a webcam, he pondered whether to give up or what, but in the end he pulled through and returned to writing the hard way. Between dirty cottons and blows, he already accumulates typos for the interior endpapers of the book. Illustrated by the best. Pictorial art always attacked the Cervantes novel with obsession. It was Gustave Doré who established the visual image in the 19th century—he traveled through Spain in 1861 and drew 370 detailed engravings. Many others wanted to repeat the play. Pablo Picasso sketched the starving silhouette in 1955, using the same black India ink. Salvador Dalí did the same with an American edition in 1946. And ignoring the works of Salvador Tusell, even the comedian Antonio Mingote contributed his … Read more

The Xiaomi 17 and the Google Pixel 10 at historic lows, offers on TVs, consoles and more. Hunting Bargains

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The week has been full of offers on all types of devices, so in Bargain Hunting we are going to review the best deals we have seen these days and, of course, they are still available. If you are looking for a good mobile phone, a console to make the most of during the summer or an e-book reader, keep an eye out for these offers: Xiaomi 17 by 799 eurosa mobile phone that has dropped to its all-time low price. Philips 65MLED920 by 699 eurosan Ambilight TV that is compatible with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. Kobo Clara Color by 169 eurosdrops to the same price as its BW version with a black and white screen. nintendo switch 2 by 469 eurosalthough if you pay 10 euros more you get a video game. Google Pixel 10 by 549 eurosanother mobile phone that has dropped to its all-time low price. Nintendo Switch 2 + Yoshi and the Mysterious Book The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Xiaomi 17 Although he Xiaomi 17 Ultra It is the most attractive mobile phone of the brand, we cannot forget that it came accompanied by a model that was more concise in features, but with a much lower price. He Xiaomi 17 has not stopped receiving offers since its launch and today at MediaMarkt you can buy at historical minimum price: 799 euros. It is a mobile phone with a good processor (the best, in fact), it has an excellent screen and is compact with a screen diagonal of 6.3 inches. Besides, The cameras are signed by Leicathus offering a very particular photographic experience. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Philips 65MLED920 If we go to PcComponentes, the store right now has a good number of offers that go beyond computers and peripherals. The Philips 65MLED920for example, is a smart TV that costs 699 euros and it is very complete: it is 65 inches, has a QD MiniLED panel, comes with Ambilight technology, is compatible with Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and Dolby Atmos, integrates Alexa (also works with Google Assistant) and also offers a refresh rate of up to 144 Hz through VRR. Not bad for the price it has. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Kobo Clara Color A few months ago Kobo raised the price of its eReader, we assume that due to the RAM crisis which is affecting many devices. However, for the arrival of summer, stores have lowered the price of some models, such as the Kobo Clara Color which right now is found 169 euros (the same price as its BW version with black and white screen). This eReader offers excellent performance, its color screen It serves, above all, to view color illustrations and underline text with different colors and offers water resistance, so you can read your favorite books next to the pool. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links nintendo switch 2 MediaMarkt is, by far, the store that is launching the best offers and most packs in the nintendo switch 2. This time it doesn’t give you a video game to choose from, but if you buy the console for 469 euros and pay 10 euros more (479 euros in total) you can take the video game ‘Yoshi and the mysterious book‘, a friendly title for the whole family. Of course, to access the pack you have to press the button that appears in MediaMarkt and says “Buy pack”, otherwise only the console will be added to the cart. Nintendo Switch 2 + Yoshi and the Mysterious Book The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Google Pixel 10 Last but not least, MediaMarkt has also lowered the price of the Google Pixel 10and has left it at its historical minimum. By 549 euroswe are talking about an excellent mobile: it is quite compact with a 6.3-inch screen, its software will be updated for many years and Their cameras are a real delight.. 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 | Xiaomi, Philips, Rakuten Kobo, Nintendo, Google In Xataka | Best mobile phones 2026. Which one to buy based on use and six recommended models In Xataka | Best televisions in quality price. Which one to buy and seven recommended 4K smart TVs

The definitive map of Ulysses’ journey in ‘The Odyssey:’ Christopher Nolan’s film, explained interactively

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Today is the day. Today ‘The Odyssey’ premieres. Three years have passed since Nolan’s last breakthrough in traditional cinema, ‘Oppenheimer’. And this Homeric feat aspires to nothing less. The new pretty girl from Universal Pictures that uses the most advanced IMAX technology is already placed in the highest position in the career of a director, Christopher Nolan, author of gems such as ‘The Dark Knight’, ‘Memento’ or ‘Interstellar’, who has not surrendered to anything other than his personal vision. Because yes, to the complaints of resorting to white marble instead of classical polychrome, to that mania of making actors very sexy with studded leather and stylized helmets, comes the question of historical reconstruction. Can? Maybe. We have made our attempt and we have something more historically accurate: a map. But not just any one: a dynamic tour that includes the entire journey point by point and draws connections between facts and fictions. Let’s travel together through the great epic of the Mediterranean. We leave the editorial debate to authorities such as Vinzenz Brinkmann, Barry Strauss or Robin Lane Fox. When Homer wrote the Odyssey, probably between the years 750 and 700 BC. c.the map of the Mediterranean ended long before where Europe ends today. Beyond were the monsters, capricious gods, impossible islands and an ocean that no one dared to describe. Two thousand seven hundred years later, the big question remains the same: where did Odysseus really travel? And, why not ask, did it ever reach what is now Spain? The short answer is no. The long one is much more fascinating. We have the historiography of Strabo, Herodotus, Avienus, Pindar, Apollonius of Rhodes, Diodorus Siculus and Pliny the Elder. Their references explain why Gibraltar, Tartessos and southern Hispania ended up being incorporated into the Homeric imagination without Homer having ever mentioned them. That part is often overlooked but we want to review it thoroughly. Let’s travel to the key moment. It all started with a war that (maybe) did happen The Odyssey It starts when the Trojan War has already ended. Ulysses—or Odysseus, as you wish—tries to return to Ithaca after ten years of combat. This is the more or less approximate historical chronology so that we can situate ourselves: c. 1250-1180 BC. C.: possible Trojan War. c. 1170 BC C.: journey of Odysseus. c. 750-700 BC C.: Homer writes the Odyssey. 7th-6th centuries BC. C.: the Greeks arrive in Iberia. Today’s archaeologists rely on a real conflict. Excavations at Hisarlik in Türkiye have shown that Troy existed and that one of its cities It was destroyed around 1200-1180 BC. c., right at the end of the Bronze Age. It is difficult to know if Achilles, Hector or Ulysses existed, but the historical scenario is compatible with a great war between Aegean kingdoms. If that war inspired the poem, Ulysses’ journey would have occurred around 1170 BC. C. However, the story we know was written about four centuries later, when many of those memories had already been mixed with legends. Ten years wandering around the Mediterranean As any reader remembers, Ulysses’ journey begins in the ruins of Troy: “Talk to me, Muse, about that man of multiform genius who, after destroying the sacred city of Troy,” declaims the first verse of Canto I. Violently destroyed around 1180 BC. C., Troy VIIa It is the main candidate for having inspired the conflict, according to the German Heinrich Schliemann, who decided to search for the real place in 1871. From there he sails to Ismaro, the city of the cicones, on the present-day coast of Thrace. Then the lotus eaters arrive, whose fruit makes one forget the desire to return home; the island of the cyclops Polyphemus; the kingdom of Aeolus, guardian of the winds; the laestrygonians, anthropophagous giants; the island of Circe; the descent into Hades; the passage alongside the sirens; the strait guarded by Scylla and Charybdis; the island of the Sun, where his men sacrifice the sacred cattle of Helios; the island of Calypso, where he remains captive for seven years; the land of the Phaeacians and, finally, Ithaca, the small island in the Ionian Sea that some authors insist on not pairing with the Ithaca of the work. Perhaps it was Leucade, Kefalonia, Duliquio, or Corfu? It doesn’t matter to us. The reality is that Odysseus’ route is estimated between 3,800 (from 40º East, that is, Troy, to 6º West, Hades of Gibraltar) and 4,650 kilometers, in an area of ​​more than five million km²perfectly navigable in a much wider sea. Of course, there are proposals for locations that even talk about Ireland, the Black Sea or the Azores. Or that the nymph Calypso kept Ulysses locked up on Parsley Island for seven years. What is clear, because the book says so, is that the journey takes ten years, twenty if we count from the departure to the return: when he returns, his son Telemachus is already an adult and barely retains memories of his father. I repeat it in the list, which is easier this way: Troy Ismaro (cicones) Country of the lotus eaters Cyclops Aeolus Laestrygonians Circe Hades Mermaids Scylla and Charybdis Trinacia Ogygia Esqueria Ithaca Many of these places can be related to real scenarios. The mermaids are usually located off the coast of Campania. Scylla and Charybdis are reminiscent of the Strait of Messina, between Sicily and Calabria. The island of Circe has been identified with Mount Circeo, south of Rome. Other episodes remain open because Homer never offers precise coordinates and whoever reads a specific point on his narrative map is because, too often, it is contaminated by some proximity bias. Your Mediterranean, more than an atlas, is a sandbox. Gibraltar was the true end of the world Even Spain is part of that playground. When Homer wrote the Odysseythe Greeks knew the western end of the Mediterranean, but little else. But between the 7th and 6th centuries BC. C. they began to sail further and founded colonies such as Emporion … Read more

What is an “old man” today?

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In South Korea, December 2024 marked more than just the turn of the year. 2025 came accompanied by news that, although expected, is still relevant: after decades with a birth rate in the red, its society was officially declared “super aged”, a label that reveals that a fifth of the population (20%) has passed the age of 65. In fact, the latest data already places that demographic group in 21%which is equivalent to almost 11 million people. With such data on the table, in Seoul it sounds increasingly louder a question: What is an old man? At what age is that status achieved? “At what age is ‘elderly’?” The question may seem somewhat naive (even inconsequential), but that is the headline with which in 2024 Korea Timesone of the largest English-language newspapers published in South Korea, led an extensive report about the new reality and the demographic challenges facing the country: “How old is ‘elderly?’” At what age can a person be considered “elderly”? What does it mean to be “elderly”? And above all… in a nation that has been dragging on for years serious problem birth rate, aged, in which life expectancy is growing and two out of ten people are already over 65 years old… Would it be advisable to redefine the parameters? Is it Seoul’s turn to rethink what an “old man” is? What does the data say? That the label of “super-aged” society that South Korea won in 2024 hides a more multifaceted and challenging reality. At the end of 2025, 21.21% of the country’s inhabitants were 65 years old or older. That translates into 10.8 million people of a total of 51.1 and (above all) 580,000 more than a year before. The worrying thing is that everything indicates that this percentage will continue to grow and by 2050 more than 40% of the population will be “older.” This increasing weight of sexagenarians, septuagenarians and octogenarians in the registry is explained by several factors. Especially two. The first is the demographic crisis that has been dragging down the country for a long time. Although its latest data is hopefulwith two consecutive years with positive birth indicatorsit is still early to talk about a solid change in trend. Furthermore, 24 months does not solve the decades that the country has been losing babies. And the second factor? It is the increase in life expectancy. The Statista tables show that babies born today in South Korea will live on average between 81 and 87 years, depending on whether they are boys or girls. In 1980, none of these indicators reached 70 years and projections show that in 2100 both will exceed 90. They are just that, projections, but they are eloquent. Why is it a problem? Because these figures reflect much more than a simple demographic curiosity. An aging country, with more and more retired seniors and fewer young people of working age, leads to a series of challenges to which Spain is not foreign. Neither does Seoul. This imbalance directly affects the basic pension system enjoyed by those over 65 years of age in the country and opens a debate that goes beyond how to maintain its financial architecture. “There are young people who earn less than the elderly who receive basic pensions. Taxing them to finance the pensions of the elderly inevitably raises equity problems,” recognize Professor Kim Woo-chang Korea Times. “The system must be gradually reformed to limit payments to seniors living below the poverty line.” What is the country risking? Lee Joong-keun explained it clearly in October 2024, during an event held at the Korean Chamber of Commerce in Seoul: “The number of senior citizens is now 10 million, but will increase to 20 million in 2050. Excluding the 10 million minors, the remaining two million (of working age) will have to support the elderly.” The reflection is interesting for its content, but above all for who raises it. Lee Joong-keun is an octogenarian and spoke as president of the Korean Senior Citizens Association, an entity that has even put a proposal on the table: progressively raising the age from which people can access social benefits for the elderly from 65 to 75 years. “To keep the number of senior citizens at around 12 million, I propose to the Government the idea of ​​increasing the (legal old age) age by one year every decade,” Jonng-keun advocated. Other similar debates have arisen in the country, such as raise the threshold for retirement or review from when the population can access the metro for free, raising the minimum from 65 to 70 years. Is it a new idea? No. The seniors’ association is not the only one that has addressed the issue. Arrives a review to the korean pressor even internationalto verify that in the country there are several open debates, all connected to each other: Is it necessary to redefine the age from which a person is considered “old” in a “super-aged” society? Are you out of date? the reference of 65 years included in the welfare law of 1981 and which serves as a reference in the country? If so… Where to place the new age? ¿In the 70 yearsAs some people propose? Better in the 75? Is that the first step to extending the retirement age? Should the pension system be reformed? Should the rest of the country follow the example of some South Korean government organizations that have begun to selectively raise the retirement age to 65? Are they just proposals? Not at all. The Seoul Metropolitan Government has announced that it plans to raise the minimum age to access free public transportation, placing it at 70 years old. They have done something similar in Daegu, which since 2024 has been increasing progressively that barrier, raising it one year every 12 months. Recent Gallup Korea polls show that 59% of people believes that the criterion for considering an elderly person should be raised to 70 years. In 2015, 46% were in … Read more

The sea in Benidorm has warmed three degrees in just five years. The data is scary, but science has an explanation

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The waters of the Mediterranean have been undergoing drastic changes in temperature in recent years and the coast of Alicante has become “ground zero” for this phenomenon. Here a recent report indicates that the sea temperature on the coast of Benidorm has experienced a rise of 3 °C in the last five yearsand although it may end up scary, it has an explanation. The temperature difference. The thermal jump detected in Benidorm is real and, if we look at the records of the Valencian coast, at the beginning of July 2024 the sea surface temperature was around 24 °C. But now in July 2026, the thermometers read between 26 and 28 °C. That is, an anomaly of up to 4 degrees in just a couple of years in specific areas. However, in climatology a background trend is not the same as an extreme event, and we are clear that the rise of 3 °C in five years reflects a marine heat wave, an extreme peak of the situation. As expected. If we look at the full movie, the data from the Copernicus Marine Service confirm that the long-term warming rate of the Mediterranean is 0.4 °C per decade. This means that the “base” temperature should have risen by about 0.12 °C in the last five years, and not 3 °C, so what is happening off the coast of Benidorm is a radical anomalous event fueled by the lack of winds, the anticyclone and high sunshine. We continue to increase. The fact that it is a peak that can end up being recovered and not the base trend does not mean that we should breathe easy, since marine heat waves are like fever: a symptom that the patient is going through a difficult time, and the Mediterranean is the reality that is not going through its best moment. The data of SOCIB in its 2025 report They pointed out that the year was the second warmest year since 1982, with an average sea surface temperature of 21.1 ºC, only surpassed by 2024. But the most revealing data comes from the CLIVAR-Spain program of the AEMET and the IEO-CSIC when they point out that The waters surrounding Spain are warming at a rapid rate between 60% and 200% higher than the global average. The Mediterranean bears the brunt, warming up to three times faster than the average world ocean. The transition. This summer of 2026 is being especially hard, since at the end of June, the AEMET recorded that the Mediterranean reached 26.63 °C on average, being 2.6 °C above normal. And if we go outside the average, in the western basin, the Copernicus satellites have managed to capture astonishing peaks of up to +8 °C above the historical averages (1991-2020) in very localized areas. The importance for Benidorm. A sea at 28°C alters ecosystems, endangers Posidonia meadows, attracts invasive species and, from a meteorological point of view, acts like a can of gasoline. Such a hot sea does not cool the night atmosphere on the coast, aggravating the torrid nights, and accumulates an immense amount of energy that, when colliding with the first gusts of cold air in September, can trigger more violent damage and torrential rains. Images | Emilio Sanchez Hernandez In Xataka | Sea temperature continues to rise and experts are clear: “It is partly favored by the start of a new El Niño phenomenon”

August 12, 2026 is going to be crazy for astronomy fans

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The solar eclipse of August 12 It’s going to be special for many reasons.. And it will not be the only astronomical phenomenon that also we can enjoy that day. It will come accompanied by the peak of the perseids and, as a tip, a great planetary alignment. The latter will occur at dawn, the morning of the eclipse, although in part it will also be seen in the early morning of the 13th. So, we can see aligned in the sky the planets Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. It is true that not all of them will be seen with the naked eye, but those who have transported their telescopes and binoculars to see the eclipse can continue to pay for themselves with this other cosmic spectacle. From west to east. The solar eclipse will take place very close to sunset. In fact, at some points the Sun will still be eclipsed. Therefore, to see we will have to find a place to the westwhere the king star will be observed very close to the horizon. On the other hand, to see the planetary alignment the next morning we will have to look to the east, since the planets will appear right where the Sun rises. Not all at first glance. Mars, Saturn and Mercury are the planets that will be best seen with the naked eye. Jupiter will be very bright, but being so low on the horizon, the light from the Sun will make visibility difficult. As for Neptune and Uranus, we will need at least some binoculars to see them. In fact, the least visible is Neptune. With that we would need to get a telescope. The good thing is that, on the occasion of the solar eclipse, there will be many sky observation activities with telescopes and we may have someone nearby who can let us look through theirs. In any case, it should be noted that it is not exactly a straight line. The planets will be seen very close together in the sky, something that does not usually happen, since normally when some are seen, others are hidden. But, despite being known as alignment, they do not exactly draw a straight line. It is best to use applications like Stellarium to know where you should look. Neptune and Uranus are in the alignment, but will not be seen with the naked eye. And what about the Perseids? The peak of the Perseids will also be seen on the night of August 12. But only on the actual night. In the two minutes of absolute darkness that totality will leave us, there will not be enough time for our eyes to adapt to being able to see a shooting star. That’s in case we were really lucky enough for one to happen at that time. However, during the early morning we can continue with the post-eclipse hangover by watching Perseids. Many towns, like Borobia, in Soriahave activities organized around the solar eclipse that also include the observation of this meteor shower. End of holidays. If we have the energy to spend the entire night watching Perseids, the perfect finishing touch may be the final blow of the planetary alignment. Of course, August 12, 2026 is an ideal date to mark on the calendar of astro-amateurs. Besides, who knows? Even those who have never experienced that attraction to astronomy may feel the call of the sky on this special day. Image | Illustrative image from Maginific In Xataka | The trio of eclipses that await Spain on the horizon: an unprecedented and historic chain between 2026 and 2028

Demis Hassabis, Nobel Prize winner, warns of the risk of losing control of AI

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Let’s think for a moment about how the technology market moved before November 2022. The artificial intelligence It was already present in search engines, cameras, recommendations and digital services, but it was not yet the label that brands tried to place on each product or the argument around which a good part of their presentations revolved. The industry had other visible priorities and distributed its attention among multiple fronts. Less than four years later, it’s hard to find a large manufacturer or platform that hasn’t reorganized part of its strategy around AI. You only have to look at where the money is flowing to understand the magnitude of this race. Big technology companies allocate huge investments to chips, servers and data centers that span different parts of the world, while seeking to ensure the energy necessary to keep them running. Governments are not just watching, either: the United States and China support the development of infrastructure and computing capacity as part of economic and strategic competition. In the midst of this acceleration, one of its main protagonists has warned that we are advancing faster than we understand. The warning from those who are on the front line of the race The message does not come from outside the sector. Demis Hassabis He is co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind, one of the laboratories that promotes the development of the most advanced artificial intelligence systems. Under his direction, projects such as AlphaGo, who defeated a world Go championand AlphaFold, capable of predicting protein structures. In 2024, Hassabis and John Jumper jointly received half of Nobel Prize of Chemistry for his work on protein structure prediction. His words have weight precisely because of this double condition: he helps build this technology and, at the same time, he calls for mechanisms to contain its risks. Part of the text published by Demis Hassabis in X | Click to see the full message Hassabis starts from a conviction that helps understand the urgency of his proposal: he believes that general artificial intelligence (AGI), defined in its text as a system capable of exhibiting all the cognitive capabilities of the human brain, could arrive in just a few years. He does not present it as a certainty, but as a close possibility that would force us to prepare before technology reaches that point. Their concern covers cybersecurity, possible biological and nuclear risks and, later, increasingly autonomous systems, capable of acting with less supervision and improving their own capabilities. In an extensive article published in Xthe manager tries to hold two ideas at the same time. Artificial intelligence can become an extraordinary tool for science, medicine and the economy, but that potential does not eliminate the need for establish controls and oversight mechanisms. Nor does he propose waiting for a specific threat to appear to react, because then the measures could arrive too late. Before detailing which organization and what evaluations it considers necessary, it sets out the diagnosis that serves as the basis for its entire proposal: “We are currently locked in an extremely intense trade and geopolitical race unfolding at multiple levels. While these competitive dynamics are driving rapid advances and accelerating their extraordinary benefits, progress on the frontier of AI is outpacing our understanding of the technology. No one in the world knows for sure what will happen next, and not even the experts agree. When there is such a high degree of uncertainty and so much at stake, moving forward with cautious optimism is the sensible and correct strategy.” The answer he proposes is to create in the United States a specialized organization in evaluating the most advanced artificial intelligence models. Their proposal takes as reference a public-private partnership or a self-regulatory entity with federal supervision, led by a board that would also include independent specialists and representatives of the open source ecosystem. This institution would define what thresholds make a system a frontier model and design assessments on cybersecurity, biological threats and other high-risk areas, as well as tests to detect attempts to circumvent safeguards or signs of deception. In a first stage, laboratories would voluntarily share their models up to 30 days before launching them. Initial cooperation could later become a mandatory requirement. Once the protocol is validated, any model considered frontier would have to pass the evaluation before reaching the United States market. Tests would be periodically reviewed to replace outdated ones and measure new capabilities, while independent auditors would help expand the control system. The approach goes even further: if the severity of the risks justified it, the framework could be used to coordinate a slowdown in development between major laboratories. The concern is not exclusive to Hassabis. Geoffrey Hinton has recognized that we do not know if we will be able to retain control of systems more intelligent than us, while Joshua Bengio calls for more research and specific mechanisms to monitor them. In 2023, Elon Musk also signed an open letter what he asked for pause for at least six months the training of more powerful AI systems than GPT-4although a few months later it announced xAI and began to compete directly in this market. Many of these voices agree in calling for caution, but there is no consensus on the probability that we will lose control. The history of artificial intelligence still does not have a written outcome, although its first effects have already changed our relationship with technology and the decisions of those who develop it. It remains to be seen whether the body proposed by Hassabis would have a place, whether its evaluations would be truly effective, and whether laboratories and governments would agree to submit to them when they conflicted with their own interests. It may also happen that some of the risks it poses are oversized or do not materialize. For now, his proposal adds a concrete roadmap to a discussion in which there are still more unknowns than certainties. Images | Google In Xataka | Claude has a space … Read more

Your residential antenna is large and expensive. The new generation arrives to correct it

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For years, connecting to Internet via satellite has meant accepting a fairly clear trade-off: getting where fiber doesn’t, but doing so with larger, heavier, and more energy-demanding equipment. It is something that we have seen both in isolated homes and in temporary installations, where each kilo and each watt counts for more than it seems. starlink He has been fine-tuning that formula generation after generation. Now, his next step is not to promise dazzling speed, but to correct just those physical limitations. The new residential kit. Starlink V5 It is the next generation of equipment that SpaceX offers to connect homes to its satellite constellation. The package retains the configuration intended for fixed installations, with an outdoor antenna and an independent router included to distribute the connection within the home. The redesign also does not seek to increase the peak speed announced for the previous generation. The renovation focuses, above all, on transforming the size, weight and efficiency of a fundamental part of the system. A more manageable antenna. The change is first seen in the figures. The Starlink V5 weighs 1.1 kg, compared to 2.9 kg for the Standard 4, an approximate reduction of 62% that leaves it at the same nominal weight as the Starlink Mini. It also goes from dimensions of 594 × 383 × 39.7 mm to 384 × 306 × 34 mm, although it retains a field of view of 110 degrees. For those who are going to install it on their own, transporting it, placing it on a stand or changing its location should be easier. Almost half of consumption. According to specifications published by Starlinkthe V5 operates with an average of between 35 and 50 W, compared to the 75-100 W of the Standard 4. The reduction becomes especially important in installations powered by batteries, generators or portable stations, where each hour of autonomy depends on the accumulated expenditure. It can also allow a backup source to maintain connection for longer when the mains fails. Less speed, but just barely. Starlink puts the V5’s advertised peak download at 375+ Mbps, compared to 400+ Mbps for the Standard 4 and 300+ Mbps for the Mini. There is a 25 Mbps difference between the baseline figures of the two residential devices, not a guaranteed loss on all connections. Although actual performance will also depend on the contracted plan, time of day, available capacity and local congestion. Prepared for the outdoors. Despite being much lighter, the Starlink V5 increases the supported operating wind speed when mounted from the 96 km/h of the Standard 4 to 265 km/h. It also maintains the IP67 Type 4 environmental classification and can operate in temperatures between -30 and 50 degrees Celsius. Its deicing system reaches 40 millimeters of snow per hour, the same figure as the previous generation. Two teams for different uses: Although the V5 is close to the Starlink Mini in weight, SpaceX orients them to different needs. The new terminal is part of a residential kit for permanent installations and works with a separate router that is included. The Mini, on the other hand, integrates its own Wi-Fi connection and can work without that additional device, an advantage when the user needs to move the equipment between locations. The V5 does not directly replace the portable model, but rather renews the alternative designed to remain installed in a home. A still limited release. The new Starlink residential antenna is not officially available in Spain. Its marketing has begun among residential customers in the United States and the company has only announced that it will reach other markets as production increases, without publishing a specific calendar. What the V5 does make clear is the direction chosen by SpaceX: a more compact antenna and much lower consumption, although it is not faster. Images | starlink In Xataka | “The idea of ​​making a cell phone makes me want to die,” said Musk. Two years later, it is very deep with its prototype of a mobile phone with AI

misconfigured routers all over the world

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The router is usually left out of our attention: we install it, check that there is a connection and let it continue working for months or years. However, that small piece of equipment that connects a home or office with the Internet can also become a useful piece for those seeking to hide their operations. The problem is not in what we see, but in what can happen in the background when the configuration is weak or the firmware becomes outdated. And there begins a story that no longer only affects security specialists. The hiding place was in the router. That possibility ceased to be an abstract warning on July 13, 2026. CISA, the United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, warned that Actors from Center 16 of the FSB, the Russian security service, continue to exploit vulnerable or misconfigured network devices in different countries. According to the notice, this activity has already allowed networks in several critical infrastructure sectors to be compromised. The warning was issued jointly with organizations in Australia, Denmark, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. A borrowed identity. The goal is not to stay on the router, but to use it as an intermediary for other operations. When traffic passes through a device installed in a home or small office, the connection may appear to be that of any legitimate user. It is what is known as residential proxy– A domestic connection used as an intermediary to hide where the attacker is actually acting from. For an organization’s defenses, distinguishing at first glance between a normal connection and malicious activity is much more difficult. Tracking begins on the Internet. To find new devices, attackers scan IP address ranges looking for routers with SNMP agents assets, a protocol used to query and manage computers connected to a network. The risk appears when that service is exposed and accepts common credentials or those that were configured at the factory. In that scenario, the team may respond to someone who should not have access. The first step is, therefore, to locate which ones are still advertising on the Internet with a weak configuration. From objective to tool. Finding an exposed router is not enough to control it. According to CISA, the actors send malicious traffic with spoofed source IP addresses and leverage the misconfigured SNMP agent to execute malware on the device. They also do so from networks made up of other already compromised routers, so that the system feeds itself. The process has three phases: first they find the equipment, then they exploit its configuration and, finally, they incorporate it into the network from which they will continue searching for new targets. The attack comes from another house Once incorporated into this network, the router begins to act as an exit node, that is, as the last visible point before the traffic reaches the target. To the person receiving the connection, the activity does not appear to come from systems linked to the FSB, but rather from a legitimate-looking IP address. This coverage can reduce the chances of automatic blocking and complicates the work of those trying to reconstruct the route to those responsible for the operation. A chase that never ends: The usefulness of this network of intermediaries is better understood when we look at its possible destinations. CISA points to communications networks, defense, energy, financial services and public organizations, all sectors where an apparently legitimate connection can facilitate probes or subsequent attacks. The phenomenon, furthermore, did not begin with this warning: Russian and Chinese actors have been fighting and reusing compromised routers for years. Although governments and companies have managed to disinfect devices and dismantle botnets, their operators usually rebuild them by incorporating new equipment. Close the door. CISA recommends disabling SNMP 1 and 2, versions that do not encrypt passwords or incorporate current protections, and using SNMP 3 only when necessary. If we do not use this protocol to manage the network, the safest option is to turn it off completely. The agency also advises disabling Cisco Smart Install, replacing weak credentials, installing firmware updates, and limiting other unnecessary network protocols. The router can go unnoticed for years, but that does not mean that we should leave it running without maintenance. Images | Xataka with Nano Banana In Xataka | Jordi Nebot, CEO of PaynoPain: “Accommodations are uploaded with stolen or AI photographs and an eye-catching price”

Tomorrow one of the most incredibly strange films of the late Nicolas Cage arrives on Prime Video

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There is a scene where Nicolas Cage fills a bottle with cloudy water from a public tap and tries to drink it. Shortly after he is about to eat a dead rat. Neither of them is the strangest image in the film, and that says enough about the terrain in which it moves.The Surfer‘, a psychological thriller that had a very discreet run in theaters in 2025 and now, a year and a half later and since July 17, it shines as one of the strangest pieces in the summer catalog of Prime Video. The film follows an unnamed man (Cage) who takes his teenage son to the Australian beach where he surfed as a child. He wants to buy the family house on the cliff, the same one he grew up in before his father died. The welcome is not what was expected: a group of local surfers, the Bay Boys, led by the charismatic Scally (Julian McMahon, whom we remember from ‘Nip and Tuck’ and The Fantastic Four – no, not that one, the other one… no, that one neither, the other one -), prevents him from entering the water with a mantra that is repeated throughout the film: “If you don’t live here, you don’t surf here.” And what starts as a one-time humiliation turns into a spiral of harassment with the heat of the Australian summer in the background. The Irishman Lorcan Finnegan, director of the film, is not a new name for fans of psychological tension films. Before this, he signed the magnificent ‘Vivarium’, with Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots trapped in a residential neighborhood that repeats itself ad infinitum, and ‘Nocebo Effect’ (2022), with an Eva Green affected by a suffocating exotic disease. In all three titles he works with a closed and oppressive space that begins as everyday and ends up becoming a trap. And this time the film has an excellent plus: the Australian sun, which has given us so many magnificent works of extreme oppression, such as ‘Long Weekend’ or ‘Waking Up in Hell’. On this occasion, in addition, the disturbing desert of the country is contrasted with the beaches where Cage goes, allowing himself to give one of his best manic and out of character performances, for the first time in an environment that does him absolute justice. In Xataka | We won’t have any more ‘Stargate’: the perfect excuse to recover this peak of 90s science fiction

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