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Bob called it and ended up being a loud failure

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Microsoft turns half a century. The Redmond company has exceeded crisis, reinventions and complicated moments, but has managed to stay in the race. It could have been as a distant memory of its golden years, something similar to what comes to mind when we think of brands like Kodak either Blackberry. But it was not so. Microsoft has not only survivedbut is in one of his best moments. It is not just one of the most valuable companies on the planet (At the time of writing these lines, he occupies second place in stock capitalization), but also leads such strategic areas as cloud computing, artificial intelligence or the world of video games. We already commented a few days ago: One of the keys to its success has been its ability to adapt. The previous list has a remarkable absence: Windows. And it is not an oversight. Although it is still an important piece within the Microsoft ecosystem, He had long stopped occupying the leading role in the business. Today it is installed in more than 70 % of the world’s computers And it is difficult to find someone who does not know what it is. But a few decades ago, personal computer science was a thing of a few. The solution to humanize Windows In the mid -nineties, the presence of computers in homes remained limited. Many users signed up for courses to learn to handle an operating system, and sit for the first time in front of a PC could be a disconcerting experience. Microsoft understood that, if I wanted to expand its user base, Windows should do more accessible. And his way of trying was a curious software called “Microsoft Bob”. The program, which internally It was developed under the name “Utopia”He arrived at the stores on March 31, 1995, a few months before the launch of Windows 95. He was compatible with Windows 3.1 and later versions, and his approach was clear: converting the PC interface into a kind of virtual house, with rooms, furniture and animated characters that served as guides. When starting the program, the user was with a door. After touching and introducing the credentials, he accessed a domestic environment where he could choose between different rooms, such as a study, a living room or an office. Each room offered accesses to system tools: a calendar, a address book, a clock or educational applications. Everything was presented with a cartoon aesthetics That, although it was looking to be nice, it was perceived as excessively childish. Each space also had a digital character that guided the user. The most remembered was Rover, an animated dog who worked as an assistant, although a turtle, an elephant and other characters also appeared. Microsoft’s goal was that the experience was more enjoyable than with traditional Windows. But Bob did not finish curdling. Not only for its design, which aroused all kinds of criticism, but also for its technical demands: required a computer with at least 8 MB of RAMa considerable figure for many homes in 1995. The result was the foreseeable: few adopted it and the program was withdrawn from the market less than a year after its launch. By then, Windows 95 was now available and offered a much more intuitive experience, without decorating it with digital pets. When Bob returned without warning But its story has an unexpected turn. When Microsoft prepared the Windows XP installation CD, the team realized that there were about 30 MB of free space. What to do with them? In order not to miss them and, incidentally, hinder illegal discharges a bit, they decided to fill them with fictional data. Instead of generating random files, a developer search in the company’s historical archives, recovered the images of the original Bob disks, combined them, I encrypted them with a random written key … and used them as digital filling. The result was as ironic as unexpected: Microsoft Bob ended up hidden within millions of legal copies of Windows XP, without anyone knowing. Even so, Microsoft Bob left a certain legacy. Rover returned years later as a search assistant at Windows XP. And although Clippythe famous Office clip, was not born within this program, the idea of ​​accompanying the user with animated characters who offered on the screen was already there. For many it was a disaster. For a few, a discovery. Microsoft Bob did not succeed, but for some it was his first contact with computer science lived as a game. Some remember hours designing rooms. Others, parts of his virtual house with a view to the city. Not all Microsoft attempts have gone well. And Bob is part of that list of experiments that did not work, along with products such as ZuneWindows Vista or Windows Phone. But it also demonstrates the company’s ability to prove, make mistakes and move on. Images | Microsoft | Wikimedia Commons | Sweetcoffemug (Reddit) In Xataka | “In a year or two code editors will not exist”: four programmers explain the Vibe Coding revolution

Archaeologists are recovering them in a counterreloj

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Five years ago, NASA published a document as imposing as sad: a Timelapse that showed how Alaska glaciers have melted For half a century. It is not something exclusive to them, since, as The average temperature has increasedglaciers around the world They have diminished. And this, in addition to Increase sea levelallows us to take an eye on the past. The reason? The glaciers are full of garbage, objects and human remains of thousands of years ago. Ötzi. That glaciers lose ice implies that they expose everything that was used once. When that white layer goes, The bodies appearand perhaps, everyone’s most famous is Ötzi. NicknamedIce man‘, Ötzi was a man who died 5,000 years ago in the Ötzal Alps. It was discovered by a couple of mountaineers in 1991 and relevant for several reasons. Ötzi reconstruction. Not so bad to be 5,000 years old The first, because before their finding, archaeologists had not sought in the glaciers because they assumed that, as archaeologist Andreas Putzer affirms BBC“Humans could not pass by because the land was very difficult.” The second, because it was the best preserved ancient body in history. It is something that allowed to rebuild his body, study the reason for his death, Your tattoos And the objects that carried, such as the arch, the arrows, their clothes, tools and bear skin hat. And the third is obvious: the glaciers were losing their ice, exposing elements of the past. Digging up the past. It is not a case as extreme as Ötzi’s, but this corpses that emerge in the thaw It is almost everyday something. Passers -by and ski stations workers are running in Switzerland with corpses that have been there decades. Some, even since World War II. This is the case of Marcelin and Francine Dumoulin, two farmers who went out for a walk along the mountain, suffered an accident in August 1942 and there they stayed. Until Their bodies emerged in 2017. What was wearing Nothing new. In 2012, two British mountaineers who toured the Aletsch glacier found human remains in the middle of the road along with several boots, clothing and mountain equipment. In 2014, near the top of Matterhorn, more than 4,000 meters of altitude, the remains of a British mountaineer disappeared in 1979 were located. That same year, the body of a Czech explorer lost since 1974 was also recovered. In 2016, the thaw of the Morteratsch glacier revealed the remains of a German skier that had been lost in 1963. And, in 2019, another group of mountaineers ran into human remains also in Matterhorn. On this occasion, they were two Japanese climbers missing in 1970 to about 2,800 meters of altitude. Reconstruction of the objects carried Ötzi Not only bodies. They are examples, among many others, of the human remains appeared throughout these years due to the increase in temperatures. But, although recovering those bodies is important, so are the objects that have come to light because it allows us to rediscover the story or relocate the date on which a technology that we consider later, appeared for the first time. Thus, we have found many arrows Prehistoric with stone tips and intact feathers used in hunting, tools such as canes, stakes or hunting utensils, clothing leather that allow us to know the techniques of making stone. Artifacts that suggest spiritual practices, the Ötzi axa comb for lice and rackets To walk in the snow of 1,700 years ago or Roman coins. Also animals with intact internal organs, such as a slut of 4,000 years ago or the bone marrow of a reindeer 4,200 years ago. Bad matter. For archeology, it is a blessing. Ice allows you to conserve organic materials that would not survive in other environments, which allows you to study with great detail how they lived millennia ago. But it is evident that the underlying problem is much more important: climate change seems not to stop, which glaciers melt is one of the dire consequences and that these remains appear forces archaeologists to work against the clock. An example of thaw: the Bouldert glacier, which has backed up more than 400 meters in 30 years Turning off the freezer. Thomas Reitmaier is the director of the archaeological service of the Canton of Grisons, in Switzerland, and in the same article he comments that the thaw and what we are finding is similar to “leaving the freezer open. At some point, the frozen meat rots and disappears”. In fact, and taking into account that many of the discoveries have been made by chance, Reitmaier asks for community help to get all possible archaeological samples before they disappear. “We need to call to the public, who are going to the Alps, so that they let us know if they see a possible finding, because these areas are enormous and we cannot control them all,” says the researcher, adding that you have to save everything that can be known since “even the smallest object can tell an exciting story.” Planetary registration. Reitmaier’s fear is that this archeology of glaciers is “a very short field: Once ice disappearswe will not have that architect file. ”But beyond the amount of human objects that are being discovered, this phenomenon implies that we can also know more about our planet. Glacier ice contains information About the abrupt climatic changes that occurred thousands of years ago, which can help us understand historical patterns, but also to understand that opening a factory in Manchester It has an impact on the other side of the world. And, if in addition to exploring glaciers in search of remains, We stop turning them into a landfillbetter than better. Images | Wolfgang Sauber, 120, Mauri Pelt, Davemor In Xataka | Three hours of tail at 8,848 meters high: Everest is already another tourist monster

Darwin is an Australian city with 250,000 inhabitants. 100,000 of them are protected crocodiles

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Australia is a peculiar country. Not so much for their culture, a mixture of indigenous and western customs, but because it has become in the eyes of the rest of the world into practically, A meme. And it is due to the curious variety of fauna with which he has a recurring joke that Any bug That you find yourself It will be huge and You can kill you. Among them, are the crocodiles, which are not so exotic, but they have a whole town. The town is Darwin, and the 100,000 crocodiles that surround it are of a fairly aggressive species. Irony. You may be thinking about it, and that is: Darwin It is called in honor of the Naturalist Charles Darwin. It was founded in 1869 and, in its short history, it has had to be rebuilt on a couple of occasions. One, due to a Japanese bombing during the Second World War. The other by the action of a cyclone. It has 150,000 inhabitants and is the most populous capital in the north of the country, but much of its population does not walk on two legs. Larrakia. Darwin is located in a privileged enclave for outdoor sport, especially for those who enjoy sea sports. However, that exposure to the sea and one of the few rivers in the country has a small print: a population of overwhelming crocodiles. Currently, it is estimated that there are more than 100,000 crocodiles around the town, but until not long ago, the situation was completely different. The Larrakia are the aboriginal inhabitants of that region and, for 65,000 years, they lived with the crocodiles. The reason? Double: spiritual and useful. They were revered, but because they were of great value to the people due to their flesh and eggs. These crocodiles are of a particularly aggressive species, salt water crocodiles or Crocodylus porosusand his fate changed in the mid -twentieth century. Challenge. After World War II, the Larrakia painted little in a more westernized territory, and the crocodiles began to be dough hunted not due to their flesh, but to their skin. The fashion of the mid -century prevailed and imported little end with entire animals, which reduced The population of crocodiles between 3,000 individuals for the 60s. That hunt was seen as a form of economic development due to the lucrative fashion business, but things changed in the 70s. The little girl. In 1971 I know They implemented conservation policies, preventing the hunt for crocodiles and the population … exploded. If only 3,000, in 50 years they have multiplied until reaching 100,000 copies. Due to the numerous coast and warm temperatures, the territory of northern Australia is an ideal habitat for these crocodiles and, although they are an aggressive species, in recent years there have been less mortal incidents we could think. And, because the area is ideal for both fishing and swimming, or to perform any other outdoor activity, Darwin has a system of traps and park rangers that are responsible for keeping crocodiles at bay. Especially in times of heat, when these reptiles are more restless. Shield. Kelly Ewin is one of these park rangers, whose work is to catch and remove crocodiles from the areas closest to the population. In BBC He says that there is a system composed of 24 traps that surround the city of Darwin and are designed to catch those who approach too much, especially in the port area. “Obviously, we are not going to capture all the crocodiles, but the more we take out the port, the less the risk of a meeting between crocodiles and people will be,” says this former policeman. In addition, another tool is population education. In the northern territory, the government launched a program called “Be wise around crocodiles” to teach people how to behave responsible in the habitat of these animals. Natasha Hoffman directs the program and comments that, living in a country of crocodiles, they must know the answer to how to behave if they cross one. “If you are on a ship when you are fishing you must be aware that the crocodiles are there. They hunt through ambush, they sit, observe and wait. If they have the opportunity to grab some food, that is what they are going to do,” says the educator. There are also these poor people with a bad reputation due to ‘Jurassic Park’ License to kill. Now, although in the northern territory it is not allowed to kill the crocodiles massively due to that protection, but plans have been approved to increase the quota of crocodiles that can be killed annually from 300 to 1,200 with the aim of controlling the population. In addition, when there is a potentially dangerous encounter between a crocodile and a human, the park rangers have permission to end the threat. The problem is that there are too many, they are aggressive if a human approaches too much and, as they expose in BBC, every time a death occurs, the debate that puts the possibility of mass killings is revived. There are politicians who take advantage of say That the population is out of control, something that not everyone agrees. Business. Because not only local die: also tourists. In the same report, Alex Williams is the captain of a cruise focused on the viewing of crocodiles and states that there has been a boom of tourists in the last ten years. In addition, there are impracticable rivers. “If you are going to swim to the Adelaide River next to Darwin, there is a 100% chance of killing you. The only question is whether it will take five minutes or ten. I don’t think you never get to fifteen, you’ll end up shattered,” says Grahame Webb, an expert in these crocodiles. However, there are attractions like the ‘Cage of Death’ that allows you to swim with giant crocodiles. And, apart from tourism, there is a Intensive breeding of crocodiles that spend their lives … Read more

We usually assume that the Wright brothers invented the plane in the US. In Brazil they think they have evidence otherwise

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December 17, 1903. That morning, the brothers wibur and orville wright They got something apparently unpublished until then: A flight of only 12 seconds for posterity and just over 36 meters away that changed the world of aviation forever. They had achieved the first (controlled) flight of a machine heavier than the air, and the United States and the brothers would remain forever in the annals of the story. However, in Brazil they don’t have it so clear. A centenary rivalry. While in most of the planet there is consensus and the invention of the plane is attributed to the Wright brothers, in Brazil the conviction is kept alive that That was not like that. In fact, many think it was Alberto Santos Dumont who made the first flight considered real in 1906. The Brazilian narrative maintains that, unlike the Wright, Santos Dumont managed to take off its aircraft 14-BIS Autonomously and without mechanical assistance, raising before judges and journalists in Paris, without the need for catapults or favorable winds, which would make it, according to its defenders, the true “father of aviation.” To get an idea, he told the weekend The Washington Post That this version He has shown so deeply In the Brazilian culture, to the point that the image of Santos Dumont has figured in tickets, one of the main airports of Rio de Janeiro bears his name and his figure starred in the opening ceremony of the 2016 Olympic Games. Lula and the tests. Not just that. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has also put his grain of sand and has revived the debate During his current mandate, taking advantage of every occasion to discredit the US version and claim Santos Dumont as a pioneer. Lula accuses the United States of having imposed his story thanks to his Powerful film industry And he considers that denying Brazilian merit is a grievance to history and national self -esteem. For the politician and so many other defenders, the difference is very clear: The Wright Flyer In 1903 He needed catapultsconstant wind and auxiliary structures, while the 14-bis of Santos Dumont took off on its own, without any external device, flying 220 meters in front of the look of the public and the international press. Dumont’s 14bis The technical debate and science. And what do experts say? It is the big question, obvious. Historians and experts in aviation outside Brazil, Like Peter JakabEmeritus curator of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, they consider irrefutable that the Wright managed to fly before Santos Dumont. Under this premise, they argue that The use of non -disabling catapults The achievement, remembering that even today combat airplanes take off by catapults from aircraft carriers without its flight capacity. In addition, they emphasize that in 1905 The Flyer III of the Wright already made sustained flights up to 40 minutes and 38 km of travel, demonstrating a much more developed capacity than that of 14-bis. On the other sidewalk, for many Brazilians the crucial detail is not the duration, but The shape of takeoff: Without external aids and before witnesses. National background and mythology. In the end, the dispute has transcended the purely technical and has become a National Identity Question both in Brazil and the United States. For Brazilians, Santos Dumont represents not only a technological deed but A symbol of ingenuity and homeland pride. Its legacy goes beyond aviation: it is remembered for its simplicity, its contribution to the development of airships and its rejection of the military use of airplanes, cause that deeply affected it until its tragic end. In Brazil, in fact, its figure is more revered as A cultural hero that as a purely historical character, while in the United States it could be said that the history of the Wright brothers part of the founding story of the modern technological era. The dilemma: truth vs identity. One thing does seem clear: historical records tend to favor the Wright, although that has not prevented the debate from persists as a symbolic struggle between two nations with quite different visions about the history of aviation. In Petrópolis, saints city of Santos Dumont, its legacy is still alive, and its nephew-bisnieto, Alberto Dodsworth Wanderley, recognized in the post that the dispute has become more A matter of faith than verifiable facts. Polarization is such that, for each side, there are enough emotional and technical arguments to hold your position. If you want also, it is an obvious example (Another one) How nationalism can mold the interpretation of history. Image | John T. Daniels, Jules Beau In Xataka | In the 1960s the planes were going so fast that someone promised trips to the moon. And people bought them In Xataka | A piece of Wright Flyer I will fly on Mars, the NASA placed part of the world’s first plane in its naivety helicopter

In 2019 we discovered some fungi capable of metabolizing gold. There are already those who want to make it the key to space mining

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The story Start more than five years ago In Boddington, south of the Australian city of Perth. Over there, Between murderous animals and gold mines, a team of researchers from the Australian Csiro discovered something truly rare: that certain fungus strains Fusarium oxysporum Not only could they extract gold from its surroundings and integrate it into their structure, but in doing so they managed to spread faster than the rest. It seemed a curiosity without more, but in recent years the situation has begun to change. But, a moment, why is something so “weird”? Good question. After all, we know of good ink that fungi “play an essential role in degradation and recycling of all types of organic material (Like leaves or bark), but also in the cycle of certain metals such as aluminum, iron, manganese and calcium. “Why would it be different with gold? Because, as Tsing Bohu explained, a researcher in charge of the project, “Gold is so inactive (chemically speaking) that this type of interactions is unusual and surprising, he had to see him to believe it.” And he saw it. In fact, lo published in Nature Communications. It was the first solid evidence that fungi could have a relevant role in the gold cycle in the earth’s crust. The “mushroom” of golden eggs. Quickly the mining industry put his eyes on the investigation. Especially right there, in Australia. The continent island is the second largest gold producer in the world, but The consensus among analysts It is that without new deposits the production was going to fall (and much) in a short time. Initially, the industry thought that CSIRO’s investigation could serve to locate these new deposits. As we explained years agoin Australia it is relatively common to do prospects in forests of the Aucaliptos family or near termites because they have a close relationship with the precious metal. Why not analyze the land in search of those strains of Fusarium oxysporum? But there is one more possibility. As Eduardo Bazo explained to Eugenio Fernández In a very interesting interviewin recent years there have appeared companies that work on what we could call “Metabolic mining“That is, in using organisms to extract gold. “And what do you want that?” You could ask. “Isn’t it easier to identify where gold is and extract with industrial methods?” Yes, here on earth, yes. But these companies look a little further: in space mining. For years we have talked about the existence of huge mineral deposits in the solar system and, for almost the same, We have fantasized to be able to exploit them. The problem is that, Beyond the current technological limitationsS, to the danger of normal mining, is added the fact that we talk about processing metal in space. But and if we use ‘metabolic mining’? The idea of ​​sending modified strains of these fungi (or other microorganisms) that They will process the mineral for useverything would become easier. I don’t know if more viable, but simpler. It is much less rare than it seems (this type of approaches we use to innumerable products that we usually use), however to take it to the world of mining seems a little more complex by pure efficiency. However, that’s ‘now’. While I write (and while The era of cheap materials ends) Several research groups They are cultivating all kinds of microorganisms with the idea of ​​being able to grow gold sooner rather than later. Image | Dominik Vanyi | Jaap Straydo In Xataka | The next richest person in the world will come from space: the future millionaire of space mining

In the 70s, wines without vintage were the worst of the worst. Now there are CVC bottles above 700 euros

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Harvesting, parenting, reserve, great reserve and, well, CVC. That is, the acronym of “set of several crops”; A denomination that, at least since 1974, usually designates The worst of the worst of Spanish wine. Or that thought most of the regulators, of the industry and, above all, of the consumers. And so? Because? European standards allow to introduce up to 15% of wine from previous crops to “improve” the wine of the vintage in question. In essence, except in systems such as young and soleras, wine is largely bottled luck. Each vintage is the result of a particular concatenation of human, climatic and geological phenomena: each bottle is the sum of a very long conversation between the world and the human being. Therefore, the usual practice told us that it was a bad signal that a vintage needs more than 15%. There was too much to fix. But they were prejudices. In 2017, Marcos Eguren He took the market A CVC to 750 the bottle. People were scandalized, but did it for pure prejudices. It is not only that the Sierra Cantabria has not stopped growing in price, but that some of the most important (and expensive) wines of the country were already CVC: the best example is The Special Reservethe top of the highest range of Vega Sicily. In a social context in which the “duplicate wines” They begin to appear strongly And in which climate change puts against the ropes to the warehouses of the main wine regions, it makes no sense to produce with one hand tied behind the back: the same wine mixing technique that serves to mask bad vintages can be used to generate exceptional wines. Rudy Kurniawan is The best example. Why were we going to give up it? And the answer is complicated. Above all, because there are a lot of ways of drinking wine. For a good part of consumers, this does not try broths with exceptional organoleptic properties (which also); This is taking sip to sip The history of a small portion of land on the planet. With their dramas, their water stress and the magic of fermentation. Even in wines such as those of the Jerez framework where a very high homogeneity and a higher quality, the differences between centuries of centuries is something wonderful is achieved. The issue is that for another much of the consumers, a glass of wine is not had to carry a oenological, climate and agronomic trip by the Rioja, the Burgundy or Bordeaux. These want a glass of wine to be a glass of wine, because they were not going to aspire to the best wine they can get for a certain price? A revolution that affects everything. It is a general trend: everyone seems to divide into boutiques that do something small, personal and high quality and franchises that produce simple, homogeneous and highly standardized products. Pass with hamburgers, Pass the gyms… How wasn’t it going to happen to the wine? The doubt now is how this wine revolution impacts without vintage in a sector that climate change and international competition is hitting very hard. Image | Klara Kulinova | Kevin Kelly In Xataka | The oldest wine in the world is “Andalusian” and has been resting 2,000 years. If it is good or not, nobody wants to know

The cheaper, the more the electric grid collapses worldwide

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In 1812, a German named Frederick Winsor founded the Light and Coke Company in London. His proposal was to supply gas to multiple homes centrally, instead that each one had to buy and burn their own coal or their own firewood. Thus, public services were born, which today face its greatest transformation in two centuries By effect of renewables. The electricity grid According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), today there are 80 million kilometers of electrical networks in the world. By 2040, 50 million additional kilometers will be needed, in addition to the urgent need to modernize another 30 million kilometers of the current network. The challenge is not only quantity: it is not enough to multiply the electric laying. Wind energy, and especially solar energy, have introduced the need to digitize all infrastructure, Insert control systems and improve your flexibility to handle the intermittent nature of renewables. The paradox of solar energy. The more accessible the photovoltaic panels become, the more users choose to partially abandon the electricity network. This increases the cost for those who stay, and puts in check the stability of the system, pending a deep modernization. In rich and sunny regions Like California either Australiaself -consumption has been about to collapse the network in days of abundant solar generation. But you don’t have to go to the most developed places in the world to find these types of problems. A report in The Economist Review three unsuspected cases: Pakistan, the third largest importer of Chinese solar panels (according to data from 2023), is seeing how companies, farmers and large consumers install photovoltaic systems to self -abuse and stop paying very expensive electrical invoices. Still dependent on old coal plants, the price of electricity in Pakistan is very high, so users with resources have preferred to invest in solar energy South Africa lives another variant of this paradox. Before the mass cuts of the state company Eskom (which are called ‘Load Shedding’), many users install solar panels and batteries to protect themselves from interruptions. The South African municipalities that buy the energy at Eskom and then resell them have to pay increasing invoices to the company and, in turn, charge less to those who migrate to self -consumption. This has generated indebtedness with ESKOM of around 1.2% of the country’s GDP. Solar adoption relieves the dependence of the network, but in turn it is a threat to the income that maintains the infrastructure In Lebanon, the state company only provides electricity a couple of hours a day since 2019. As a direct consequence of this, the photovoltaic facilities on the roofs have multiplied, from 100 to 1,300 megawatts in just three years. This situation, despite partially solving the shortage, is resulting in a fish that bites the tail due to the lack of stability and investments in the network An open gap. As private solar facilities proliferate, fixed network costs (lines, substations …) fall on a smaller user base connected. Those who run out of resources to put panels, generally the poorest, have to pay even higher rates To cover all system expenses, which normally seeks profitability. The numbers in Europe. Europe is at the head of the world in emission and electrification objectives, but this has important economic implications. According to a Bruegel reportthey will need between 65,000 and 100,000 million euros per year to modernize and expand the European electrical infrastructure, especially in distribution networks. At the same time, the European Union promotes solar self -consumption and does not always establish sustainable tarification mechanisms for the network. If many homes are drastically or reduced their consumption of the electricity grid, the user base on which the cost of investment in infrastructure is reduced, the fixed term of the invoice is increased and duttering more consumers, who invest in more solar panels. Cross -border connections. Solar energy itself does not cause instant blackouts, but unbalanced the financial and operational structure of the electricity grid, which has fixed maintenance costs. And he does it for several reasons: the decreasing base of users, the mismatches of supply and demand due to the intermission of renewables and the use of the network as a minimum cost support. In addition to batteries and Pumping plants to stabilize the networkinternational projects such as the hypothetical are needed Transatlantic cable between America and Europe To share renewable surpluses between continents and soften demand peaks, but their development is complex, controversial and quite expensive. Image | US Department of Energy In Xataka | The next drought will be electricity: the electricity grid “is running out of transformers” for the demand for AI

foreigners upload, nationals are stagnant

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2024 was A good year For hotels in Spain. With the already distant memory of pandemic and tourist flow taking strength Internationally, Spanish accommodations reached A historical maximum of overnight stays: they added almost 364 million hired nights, a 4.9% more than 2023 And above even Pre-covid data. When analyzed closely, it is observed, however, this data has a “but”. If the hotels achieved historical value it was basically for foreign tourism, which compensated for the national stagnation. In Spanish hotels it begins to be easier to hear than Spanish. Two -speed tourism. The data of the National Statistics Institute (INE) are clear: although in 2024 the overnight They increased 4.9% In the hotels in Spain, that percentage hides two very different realities. The demand for foreign visitors grows. Not that of domestic tourism. The first paid for 241.7 million Of nights, 7.5% more than in 2023, while Spanish travelers stayed at 121.9 million overnight stays, practically the same (+0.2%) as the previous year. With that backdrop, the annual rate of the hotel price index rebounded 7%. Filling data in hotels published by the INE. Is there more data? Yes. Ine values ​​point in the same direction as the published A few days ago In X by economist Ángel Talavera based on the Tables of Oxford Economics and Harver Analytics. In his graphic it is also appreciated how during the last years (with the Covid break) the gap between the demand of the Spaniards and the foreigner has been widen, especially in the last two exercises. While foreign visitors’s overnightness grew about 17% (20.1%, according to the INE), that of national tourists barely varied. How many tourists are equivalent? In total, a 116.3 million travelers. Of these, 54.3 million resided in Spain and the remaining 61.9 arrived from other countries. Those figures show two conclusions. The first helps to understand the growing weight of foreigners’ overnight stays in the hotels in Spain: on average, their stays are longer. Almost four nights, fry at 2.2 of the Spaniards. The second conclusion is that hotel growth relies mainly on the impulse of foreign tourism. In 2024 the flow of tourists from other countries grew by 8.22% while that of residents remained practically frozen, with a slight fall of 0.7%. In general, the INE shows that the Spaniards look more and more abroad to plan our vacations. In 2024 trips out of the country They grew by 12.1% While the inmates fell 2.3%. British and Germans, the “kings“. Their statistics They allow you to go even further and get an idea where they come and what regions of Spain prefer. With respect to the former, their origin, two large emitting foci, the United Kingdom and Germany, whose travelers starred in 43% of foreigners’ overnight (102.9 million). In addition, both groups grew in 2024. As for the second, in which regions of Spain they stay, the Canary Islands and the Mediterranean stand out. The archipelago monopolized 26.3% of overnight Of the non -residents in Spain, 5% more than in 2023. In second and third are the Balearic Islands (23.9% of the total) and Catalonia (18.2%). That last area is also one of the most busy by the Spaniards, together with Andalusia and Community Valencian. In general, Mallorca was the point in Spain with more number of speakers. Click on the image to go to Tweet. And outside the hotels? All of the above are data from the report of the Hotel Tourist situation of the INE, which focuses the focus basically on the “hotel establishments”, a wide label that covers traditional hotels, hostels, motels and pensions. Another equally interesting fact is that of tourist businesses “Estruosteraros”which includes campsites, shelters, rural tourism and apartments accommodations. His 2024 general photo is very similar. Their businesses closed the year with more overnight than in 2023. To be precise, 3% more. Although that data hides two realities when analyzing travelers due to their place origin. Spaniard overnight pernotations fell 0.5%. On the contrary that those of foreigners, who grew by 5.8%.. Data issue … The record in the hotels in Spain, promoted mainly by travelers from other countries, is not quite a novelty. Before the sector ended 2024 I already pointed out to a historical brand in the flow of foreign tourists, which reinforces the weight of Spain in the international tourist circuit. In fact Google and Deloitte They estimate That in the medium term, in 2040, Spain can be the destination with the highest influx of tourists on the planet, ahead of France or the US. Occupation data in “extrahoteros” accommodations, which include from shelters to apartments. … and challenges. That growth has been rigging, however, important challenges. The tourist boom, especially of foreign visitors with greater purchasing power, has Increased offer of holiday rental, Tensioning (even more) The residential housing market at points such as Balearic Islands, Catalonia, Canary Islands or Madrid. Such is the situation that administrations already They have moved file To try tackle the housing transfer to the tourism market. The neighbors of the most affected areas have also out to the street for claim A tourist model compatible with the day -to -day life of residents. They have seen in the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Madrid or Catalonia, where last summer a group of protesters reached shoot with guns of water to visitors in protest. The image gave the return to the world. To the north, in Cantabria, the residents even They have mobilized Under the motto “We don’t want to be the North Ibiza.” The threat. The great challenge that now the main tourist destinations in Spain, as in Other countriesIt is not to die of success. I may sound exaggerated, but there is already some important travel guide that advise to visit Mallorca, Barcelona and the Canary Islands in 2025 for considering them massive. “Tourists do not tire of Europe, but the discontent residents of many European destinations no longer want to receive them, at least not in … Read more

Half of Catalonia has its contaminated aquifers. And the rains are the perfect excuse to do nothing

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In January of this year, the Catalan Agència de l’Aigua He updated his data on areas vulnerable to excess nitrates of agroganadera origin. The figures are a jug of cold water (and very polluted): 49.2% of Catalan municipalities They have contamination levels by nitrogen compounds above the legal. That is, 39.9% of the surface of Catalonia. It is a huge problem that does not stop growing, but that the rains of these weeks can end up making invisible. And, at a time when the Government began to be forced to take action, postponing them would be a difficult mistake. Doesn’t it stop growing? As Antonio Cerrillo explainedin 1998 “the percentage of municipalities cataloged with vulnerable area was 21.5%of the total; in 2004, the figure rose to 33.7%; in 2009 it reached 44.2%; in 2015 it was 44.5%.” It is true that some municipalities (three: Blanes, Cubells and Tavertet) have left the list because they have allowed the indicators; But, on the other hand, eight (Corbera d’Ebre, Gavet de la Conca, Jorba, Marçà, Pla de Santa Maria, Perelló, Ponts and Sant Sadurní d’Alcoia have entered). According to the Generalitat, the trend was stable, but “with a slight increase in nitrate pollution in certain areas.” Now the indicators will improve. There is no doubt about that. Above all, because a part of the problem was related to drought. The mechanism is simple: agribusiness contamination filters to the subsoil and there meets the huge aquifer system of the country. If there is a lot of water, those nitrates are diluted and the legal limits are not overcome. If there is not, the alarms jump. Right now, the Catalonia reserves They are at 76.46%, those in Barcelona are at 78.83%and those of Girona (the lowest) to 47.28%. Right now, while I write this, aquifers throughout the country are filling with water and, by pure logic, the situation will improve. However, the rest of the problems persist (or increase). Above all, because you have to keep in mind that those nitrates, Those purines They do not appear alone: ​​they are the result of hyperintensive models of agroganade exploitation. Models that base part of their profitability on Not having to put their negative externalities In the results account. And it is not a strictly Catalan problem (although it is true that it affects especially): according to the citizen network of nitrate measurement, almost 60% of Spanish underground waters is contaminated by nitrates and growing. The matter is such a caliber that also reaches reservoirs and evidences the country’s disastrous water management. In summer 2013, 161 municipalities in Castilla y León They discovered that had been drinking contaminated water for years without knowing it. It’s alone An example of the rosary of problems We have been seeing. All reflect and, above all, take action. Antonio Cerrillo saidthat the Generalitat “prepares an order to review the areas of the territory with groundwater contaminated by nitrates from livestock purines.” But the truth is that we always go with the foot changed. A good example was that of “Royal Decree that establishes rules for sustainable nutrition in agrarian soils“which was approved with more than three years of delay. The same three years that it took to transpose the”European Directive related to the quality of the waters for human consumption“It is our way of doing things. As we said days ago, March rains have given us a historical opportunity to save the country’s aquifers. But it will also give a victory (pyrrhic, but victory after all) to those who manage the problem they can use to leave us in worse situation we have. It’s not The first time what’s happening. Image | Copernicus | Scott Goodwill In Xataka | Spain has been overexpling its aquifers. March rains have given us the historical opportunity to save them

In the war cameras vs lidar, Tesla has a lot to learn from an unexpected product: the Chinese aspiring robot

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Light detection and ranging. Or, what is the same, detection and measurement of light. These are the words behind Lidar. This technology uses light pulses to map the environment and discover each and every corner of a stay or an open space almost in real time, as well as to recreate 3D environments with enormous precision. To understand how a lidar radar works, I recommend watching Mark Rober’s video in which it tells the differences between a car equipped with this system and its tesla, which exclusively uses cameras to detect the obstacles that you can find along its path. Beyond the controversy arising in relation to the tests that Rober does, the video explains well Why Lidar is such a complete system. In a simple way, the system takes advantage of the speed of light to emit infrared pulses. These bounce in the object in question and the system calculates how far that object is using the time that the pulse of light has taken to go and return. As light pulses have a very small size and, as we said, it takes advantage of that very high speed of light transmission, can map the objects almost in real time. In recent days, after Mark Rober’s video, the controversy of whether it is better to use an LIDAR or one system that exclusively use cameras and recreations by software is better or worse to guarantee the best behavior in terms of autonomous driving. A controversy that has left people trying launch your tesla against a wall With a road painted in the purest shyesty style. And it is a long time since it made it clear that I would bet everything on the use of cameras for manage your driving aid systems Or, in the future, completely autonomous driving with the robotaxis that wants to put in the streets. At the time, home vacuum robots also lived this moment of indecision. And along the way, Irobot who was the leading market leader has ended up giving millionaire losses and has seen how Chinese manufacturers have eaten much of the market. The secret of the latter: they use lidar instead of trusting everything to the cameras. What can you learn from a vacuum cleaner “We have substantial doubts”, with these words Irobot owners responded to the question of whether they could move forward with their operations. My partner Javier Pastor explained A few months ago when Amazon raised the purchase of Irobot in 2022 (which fell into regulatory terms) The company had a value of 1.2 billion dollars. In the third quarter of 2024, the calculation was about 200 million dollars. Shortly after, The situation has not improved a lot. In 2024, Irobot lost more than 145 million dollars. However, they had reduced their losses by 52%. The company faced a perfect storm. After spending the worst of pandemic, spending on home robots and other products (such as computers) They collapsed. That coincided with the launch of new Chinese products that were faster and faster than Irobot’s: they used the lidar sensor. This system is ideal for improving the capacities of a vacuum robot. It detects better obstacles, mapping the house more precisely and that translates into faster and more effective work. The result is especially good if it is combined with the cameras and artificial intelligence systems to discover smaller obstacles that can go unnoticed or create confusion. In recent years, that has been the trend of the market in cleaning the home. The combination of this system with a more attractive price He has triggered the sales of Chinese aspiring robots, to the detriment of an Irobot that accumulated more than 60% market share. The comparison with Tesla and the electricity car market is evident. The latter are using Lidar sensors in their cars and offer a product equal to or better than Europeans and Elon Musk’s for a fraction of their price. He Xiaomi Su7 and its wide reception He is being a good example of this. Tesla has long since defends that Lidar are not necessary to improve autonomous driving systems but studies say that, as in the case of vacuum robots, the best performance is signed When both technologies are combinedLidar and cameras. In the case of Xiaomi, the videos shown from How your total autonomous driving system operates They are impressive, with very human behavior and managing the smallest spaces very well. This is possible because, among other things, A lidar is better when calculating distances And suffer less when the light falls. Neither does the risk of the camera be dazzled, At least not intentionallygenerating Ghostly brakes. So far, everything indicates that Tesla does not seem willing to return to anything other than the “All Chamber” To save costs. At the moment it has worked but you have to demonstrate that it is as effective as more advanced systems. And there is also the largest electric car market in the world. In China, where foreigners are suffering from the local product, Tesla is hitting a good batacazo in 2025. Photo | Tesla and Irobot In Xataka | “It’s like living millions of lives”: Tesla trusts their own drivers to advance Waymo and Cruise and shoot their value

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