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After the floods in China, the vice president of BYD has had to remember that their cars are not boats. Its owners have not cared

July 10, 2026 by usatoday24

Dozens of BYD electric cars have circulated these days on completely flooded roads in the Chinese region of Guangxi, transporting food, water and emergency supplies to villages isolated by the rains. The striking thing is that it was not a decision organized by the brand, but those who left with their cars for the affected areas were volunteers, and they did so just when a senior executive of the company asked for caution regarding the risk of driving through floods. What has happened? Guangxi has suffered historic rains caused by Typhoon Mesaak, with roads and entire municipalities under water. According to collect According to Chinese media, 163, owners of vehicles from brands such as Denza and Fang Cheng Bao, both from the BYD group, organized themselves through networks of owners to form civil rescue convoys. These groups voluntarily entered the areas most affected by the flood, ignoring the recommendations for driving in extreme weather conditions. In detail. Chinese electric cars they usually boast of a construction designed to resist water, including batteries with a highly protective seal and reinforced chassis to cross flooded areas. In the case of Fang Cheng Bao, its independent chassis architecture allows, according to factory data, to cross up to 800 millimeters deep thanks to a specific structural sealing on the underside of the vehicle. And it is not the first time that we see this type of vehicle going out for a ride in extreme conditions. Last year we already saw vehicles like the Yangwang U8 and the Jetour Zongheng G700 do the goat crossing rivers or in flooded areas. There is certainly no better advertising. The notice that arrived late. While the owners were already circulating through the flooded areas, He Zhiqi, senior vice president of BYD, published a message on social networks reminding that an electric car “is not a boat”, according to his Weibo account. The manager explained that, although the Blade Battery of the brand has watertightness certifications IP67 and IP68and that from the factory it is guaranteed that the vehicle can withstand being submerged up to one meter deep for 24 hours without suffering electrical leaks or risk of fire in the battery, driving through deep water is still a real risk that should be avoided. Models on the ground. Among the vehicles that have been seen in the images, the Denza N9 stands out, the brand’s large luxury plug-in hybrid that, according to account CarNewsChina managed to move through areas of mud and water thanks to its all-wheel drive system with several independent motors. The Fang Cheng Bao Bao 8 has also been seen circulating, an all-terrain vehicle with a harder profile with a suspension designed to better distribute the load, in addition to the Denza B5 and B8, which incorporate active body control systems capable of adjusting the height on the fly to avoid obstacles. The money has also moved. In addition to help on the ground, several Chinese brands They have allocated funds to the reconstruction of the area. The BYD Charitable Foundation has donated 10 million yuan (about 1.47 million U.S. dollars) to fund emergency equipment and repair public infrastructure. Xiaomi has contributed the same amount in cash, and the Chery group has donated another 10 million yuan divided between financial aid and supplies. Cover image | CarNewsChina (Bilibili) In Xataka | Sky Nomad is a reality: Xiaomi’s second car brand aims at one of the jewels in BYD’s crown

“This is the first time China has proposed a new principle for the chip industry.” Not everyone is convinced

July 10, 2026 by usatoday24

Huawei’s path in recent years has been most curious. After being ostracized by the West and being the target of the trade war between the US of Trump’s first term and China, has become the company that thank the United States because of how vetoes have boosted Chinese technology. Because Huawei has become one of the pillars of all the technology companies in the country and they are not satisfied with making chips: they want to lead a new paradigm with a Tau Law that challenges the Moore’s Law. But behind the promises, there are those who can only see one thing: marketing. The Tau Law. My partner Laura exemplified it perfectly. If the chip is a city, the transistors are the buildings, and the cables are the roads, Moore’s Law says: “make buildings smaller to fit more into the same space.” What Huawei proposes, however, goes in another direction: “buildings can no longer be much smaller, so instead let’s make cars travel faster on the roads, and redesign the urban layout so that they travel less distance.” Huawei’s bet is that cars take much less time to go from one building to another, reducing times tremendously so that the chip, without the need to work on smaller lithographs, is much faster. Inside that Tau LawHuawei proposes the LogicFolding architecture, focused on shortening the wiring of the critical paths to increase the density of the transistors. Qionists. And the company is tremendously proud of this to the point that He Tingbo, Huawei’s chip director, affirms that “it is the first time that China proposes a new principle for the global chip industry.” Because, until now, Moore’s Law was the one that prevailed in lithography leaps, but if instead of concentrating on achieving the very complicated objective of making everything smaller, companies focus on shortening the “routes”, the density objective can be achieved in other ways. In fact, Huawei maintains that, before LogicFound, it took three years to go from 126 to 155 million transistors per mm2. In 2026, and with the new architecture, they jumped directly to 238 per mm2. Equivalence, not parity. And if the question is why Huawei is pushing this when there was already another viable way, the answer is that that proven way was not as viable for Chinese companies. Due to the technological veto, they cannot access the most sophisticated machines in Europe ASMLso they can’t “print” chips in advanced lithography as easily as TSMC can, for example. Thus, they have looked for another way to achieve that density, but something important is the terms. Because there is talk that Huawei would reach a transistor density “equivalent” to that of 1.4 nm processes, by 2031, and that is the key. They would be “equivalent” in density and there would be no lithographic parity. With raised eyebrow. In any case, Tingbo is proud of the logo and believes that it can benefit the entire Chinese technology ecosystem, but it makes an appeal. The directive states that “there remain many open questions that no organization can address alone. The tool chain, standards and economic models require contributions from more than one company.” For its part, and as we see in The Registerthere are those who do not see that revolution in the Tau Law. Although they see what the Chinese company is proposing as interesting, they affirm that it is more of a hybrid movement between reality and marketing because “Huawei had to get creative” to overcome the limitations and “they are going in the right direction, but this density is created through packaging and not by making smaller transistors“Indeed, this is what we already had, but they point out that the result will not be equivalent to a true 1.4 nm node from TSMC or Intel in issues such as energy efficiency and temperature. Future. In fact, as our colleagues point out Xataka Mobileit is in thermal management where Huawei is encountering some major problems. But well, the company’s intention is that the results of this Tau Law allow massive AI clusters that they behave as a single chip by 2035 and that the upcoming Kirin chips for consumption also benefit from it. Image | IBM (edited) In Xataka | While the industry obsesses over power, TSMC is clear about where the future of chips lies: in efficiency

If the question is how to prevent our car from being an oven, some German experts believe that we have been making mistakes all our lives.

July 10, 2026 by usatoday24

Beach in the morning, visit to the beach bar and nap in the rented house. It doesn’t sound bad. You leave the beach bar with your belly full and your soul intoxicated with the sweet feeling of carelessness that invades you when dessert arrives and you say “why wouldn’t I eat that three-scoop ice cream.” But when going to the car, the harsh reality. The sun beats like never before. Touching anything inside the car is risking a trip to the hospital with a second-degree burn, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to lower the temperature inside. “But I put the parasol on”you will say. But… oh, friend. What if you have put it wrong? What if you have done everything backwards? That is what the German experts from the ADAC defend, a kind of German RACE famous for its reliability studies but they put the focus on everything that revolves around our cars. And his last publication is a good example of this. More “fresh” The automobile club ADAC has published an article in which it explains what temperature a car reaches in the sun and what measures we can take to reduce the temperature we will find inside. It must be taken into account that the temperature of the cabin in a car is not only important to avoid burns when touching the steering wheel or gear lever. According to the DGTdriving indoors that exceeds 30 degrees can have effects on our body similar to driving under the influence of alcohol. Therefore, when we get to a car that is parked in the sun, it is important to try to lower the temperature as soon as possible. The best idea is to launch what went viral as “the japanese trick”: open the windows and fan the car with the door itself to move the air inside and try to get it out as soon as possible. If you turn on the air conditioning, you must play with it to throw it at the feet or the ceiling depending on whether or not we are driving and the windows are open or not. But to make the task easier, it is very important to take precautions beforehand. One of them is, of course, the parasol. From the RACC they assure that using the sunshade can reduce the interior temperature of the vehicle by up to 11 degrees. We arrive at our destination, we grab the sunshade in the upper area and make sure that it covers the entire surface of the windshield, we close the car and we leave. Sure? What the ADAC experts say, this is not the best way to act. To do this, they have put five exactly identical Dacia Sandero in the sun and have looked for the best way to ensure that the temperature in the cabin is as low as possible. In his study, the car that was unprotected reached an internal temperature of 53ºC (blessed 53ºC if we compare it with the temperatures that the interior of our car can reach in the sun in Spain) and the lowest temperature had been achieved by covering the car with a tarp that reflects the sun’s rays. Obviously, this option is the least practical due to the size of the tarp that must be moved in the trunk and the inconvenience of putting it on and taking it off. Of course, the 43ºC achieved inside made the difference. The second least useful option was to put a white cloth over the car. In this case, the temperature reached was 50ºC. And here comes the interesting thing because it is the option that we use the most. The experts tried putting the sunshade inside the car, under the windshield, and outside the car, over the windshield. And the result was that putting it on the windshield reduced the temperature by 4ºC compared to putting it under the glass. In fact, putting the sunshade over the windshield left the temperature at 45ºC, very close to the best option. On the contrary, installing the windshield in the traditional way left the interior temperature at 49ºC. “Semi-garage” is Google’s translation of putting a tarp on the car to cover it The truth is that it makes sense. When the sun acts directly on the glass of the car, it heats up and acts as a magnifying glass, so the temperature in the cabin rises even more. Besides, his own glass emits more heat inside when it is hot, which is why it is not entirely advisable to buy a car with a sunroof without a curtain if you live in especially hot climates. In this case, the heat from the glass is projected onto the heads of the passengers. By placing the windshield inside we prevent the rays from directly hitting the glass and, therefore, its capacity to retain heat and raise the temperature further is lower. In that case, what we should do before leaving is to “grab” some ribbons from the parasol when closing the doors so that the parasol does not fly away. Photo | Andrew Bone In Xataka | The best way to use air conditioning in the car: the keys to fighting the heat

great Wimbledon match between Sinner and Djokovic with the premiere of ‘Bitter Christmas’ afterwards. Everything in Movistar Plus

July 10, 2026 by usatoday24

It’s so hot that it’s difficult to make plans outside the home at certain times of the day. Today, Friday is one of those days when you want to be cool at home and, to spend the afternoon, today we have several interesting options. In sport, today it is played one of the best tennis matches that can be seen today: you can see it on Movistar Plus for 9.99 euros per month. But there is more to see. Monthly subscription to Movistar Plus The price could vary. We earn commission from these links You can download whatever you want and watch it offline this summer As we always tell you, Movistar Plus is a platform that does not have any type of permanence. That’s great if, for example, you want to see something specific or you just feel like taking a look at their catalog. In addition, you can contract it regardless of the operator and you have to choose two modalities: the Free Plan that includes sports (which is the one that costs 9.99 euros per month) and one with only series, movies and documentaries by 4.99 euros per month. Both can be shared with a friend or family member without problems.. Now, let’s talk about today’s plan. Today, Friday, July 10 at 4:30 p.m., the Wimbledon semifinal is played between Sinner and Djokovic, two of the best tennis players on the circuit. This match will be the prelude to a final that Movistar Plus will also broadcast next Sunday the 12thas well as the women’s final tomorrow Saturday. Now leaving sports aside, it’s time to talk a little about cinema. Today it arrives in the Movistar Plus catalog Pedro Almodóvar’s last film‘Bitter Christmas‘. This joins other films that the platform has and that have won awards of all kinds, such as ‘Sundays‘, ‘Weapons‘, ‘F1: The Movie‘ either ‘One battle after another‘, among many others. Whether you choose the plan with sports or the Free Plan for movies, series and documentaries per 4.99 euros you will have the option of Download whatever you want and watch it offline. This can be great for you this vacation if, for example, you are going to take a plane. One more reason to try the platform this July. 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 | Movistar Plus In Xataka | Movistar Plus activates its Free Plan with complete programs and a lot of content, regardless of which operator you are In Xataka | Less than five euros per month and without permanence: this is the new Movistar Plus plan that you can even share with a friend

These are the 10 things you shouldn’t miss when watching it

July 10, 2026 by usatoday24

If this August 12, 2026 you are going to see a solar eclipse for the first timemaybe, when the time comes, you don’t know very well where to look. It’s normal. The show is in heaven, so it is logical that we get our approved glasses and let’s fix our eyes on the Sun during the partiality. Later, when totality arrives, we know that structures of the star that we normally do not see will appear, so the impulse is to take off our glasses, which at that moment are no longer necessary, and continue looking at the Sun. Once totality ends, you put your glasses back on and continue looking at the Sun. Great, you have seen the center of the eclipse, but you have not observed everything that is happening around you. In reality, a solar eclipse is a unique phenomenon because of everything it entails on a global level. The Sun looks like we have never seen it before, but there is also changes in light, shadows, colors, temperature, animal behavior… It is important that we also look at all this, but of course, we do not have all the time in the world. Therefore, it is essential that we keep an action plan in mind, with all the checks What we want to do during the time the eclipse lasts. This is actually a matter of taste. You may enjoy the Sun more, the shadows, the behavior of animals or everything at the same time. Look wherever you want, but it’s good that you know everything the eclipse can offer you. Here is a list of ideas to choose your ideal observation protocol. What is in the Sun A solar eclipse occurs when what is known as first contact occurs. At that moment, the Moon begins to hide the Sun, as if it had taken a small bite. It is the beginning of partiality and it is important to see it with approved glasses on. Little by little, the Moon engulfs the Sun and we no longer see just a small bite, but an increasingly larger bite. When there is hardly any sunlight left, the Baily beadsa series of circles that surround the Sun as if it had been adorned with a pearl necklace. This is because sunlight filters through the Moon’s irregularities, so you see a lot of little balls. However, when there is hardly any light left, only a bright, somewhat larger ball known as diamond ring Immediately afterwards totality begins. As long as we are within the range in which the Moon will completely hide the Sun, of course. At the beginning of this, you can see the chromospherean area of the solar atmosphere that looks like a red arc. This lasts very few seconds and is not always visible. The ideal is to have your eyes well adapted to the darkness, for example by wearing sunglasses before the eclipse, as eclipse hunter Leo Hernández did in the last total solar eclipse he has seen so far. He told us recently in an interview. Once the chromosphere is no longer visible, the solar corona appears. You can detect it as a white, filamentous halo that surrounds the black ball of the Moon, covering the Sun. Totality can last between a few seconds and a few minutes and, then, everything we have seen begins to happen, but in the opposite order. diamond ring The solar eclipse beyond the Sun In addition to everything we have seen, there are many details that we can observe in a solar eclipse if we look around us. It is not necessary to keep your eyes fixed on the Sun all the time. The temperature When totality occurs, the temperature drops sharply. There is nothing to “see” there, it is only necessary to feel. But it’s good to be prepared for that feeling. This way it won’t come as news to us and we can pay more attention to it. nature During a solar eclipse, many animals change their behavior. There have been cases of turtles mating, cattle returning to their stables, crickets beginning to chirp, owls hooting, or giraffes fleeing for fear of becoming prey to a nocturnal predator. There are also plants that open or close when it is not yet touching. All due to the fact that light is essential in the circadian rhythms of living beings, so that its absence during the day becomes an abnormality and a source of physiological conflict. The sky beyond the sun It is logical that we look at the sky during a solar eclipse, but the ideal is not to focus our gaze only on the Sun. If everything goes well and there is no light pollution, some stars may appear and bright planets in the sky. It is curious how the firmament makes an appearance during the day, so it is also worth extending your gaze due to its immensity. The shadows The shadows are different during a solar eclipse, especially in the last moments of the partiality. To begin with, although they are usually seen with more blurred edges, at this time They look much clearer. This is because, if sunlight normally arrives in many directions, as it comes from a large round disk, during a very advanced partial solar eclipse there is only a very thin strip of light, like a kind of crescent. As a result, under normal conditions, when an object blocks the light and a shadow is formed, there may be many fragments of the solar disk blocked, so that a diffuse transition between the sun and the shadow is formed. In an eclipse, on the other hand, the light comes from a much more specific point, so that transition does not occur. On the other hand, during an advanced partial solar eclipse they are seen under the leaves of the trees. a kind of shadows in the shape of small crescents. These are due to pinhole effectwhich occurs when light passes … Read more

We have been believing for decades that the Great Pyramid was built at one time. The latest analysis places it more than 20,000 years earlier

July 10, 2026 by usatoday24

(Fortunately) the world is full of monuments as ancient as they are impressive, but few, very few, are comparable to the Great Pyramid of Giza. Almost 140 meters high, thousands of years old and an immortal testimony to the power of Ancient Egypt. It has such magnetism that every year they visit it millions of people arrivals from all over the world. But… What if we have been wrong about its origins for decades? What if instead of becoming 2,500 BCas we have always believed, rose up ago more than 20,000 years? What if Pharaoh Cheops was not its true promoter, but simply renewed it? All those questions have been left by launching a new (and controversial) study. What has happened? That Egyptology has just been shaken by unusual news in modern archaeology: a study that has turned upside down the dating (and origins) of the Great Pyramid of Gizaone of the most iconic monuments not only in Egypt or Africa but on the entire planet. Until now, experts agreed that the monument was built in the time of Khufu, around 2589-2566 BCbecoming one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the tallest structure in the world for 3,800 years. For Alberto Doninian Italian engineer from the University of Bologna, that estimate falls short. Very short. In fact, he has published a study in which he traces the origins of the pyramid back to more than 20,000 years. What dates do you handle? After analyzing several points of the pyramid, Donini has come to the conclusion that the reference date to talk about its origins should be another: 22941 BC That is, their calculations indicate that the structure is around 24,900 years old. Before continuing, it is important to clarify one detail: its analysis does not seek to set specific dates, but rather to establish a time frame for the construction of the monument. What does that mean? That, in reality, what Donini has done is calculate that there are 68.2% probability that the period of construction of the pyramid is framed in a window that extends between 38,903 and 10,979 years ago. The calculation of 24,941 years would therefore be a simple arithmetic mean that serves as a reference. If instead of talking about antiquity we talk about calendars, this means that, according to the estimates of the Italian engineer, the most famous structure in Giza was probably built between 36878 and 8954 BC What is it based on? Donini’s work is not controversial only because of its conclusions. It is also because of its methodology, the calculation system it has used. Its main tool is Relative Erosion Method (REM), a formula that dispenses with documentary sources to be based fundamentally on what the rocks say. Literally. What the REM does is analyze the erosion of the pyramid blocks to, based on their level of wear, date them. Said like this, it sounds simple, but what the engineer has done is somewhat more complex: he selected 12 different points spread across the base of the Great Pyramid and then compared their different levels of erosion, looking at aspects such as the holes and cavities opened in the rock by rain or the roots of plants and the natural wear and tear caused by wind, sand and the constant passage of people. And has that been of any use? Yes. The analysis has yielded a disparate range of dates. At one of those twelve points, the REM suggested an estimated age of 5,708 years. In others the estimate was 17,955, 30,375 or even more than 50,000 years. It may sound strange considering that we are talking about a single monument and it is logical to think that all its blocks have been there for the same amount of time, but many factors influence erosion: from the position of each stone, which determines its exposure to wind and rain, to its mineral composition. It’s still a strange thing, isn’t it? Yes. And no. It is true that the engineer obtained very different dates, but this is explained by another peculiarity of the Great Pyramid. The monument did not always have the appearance we see today. In it 1303 AD The area suffered an earthquake that affected the white limestone blocks that originally covered the structure. That material was later reused in buildings in Cairo. Although it may sound like an archaeological tragedy, it offers experts like Donini a real opportunity. The reason? They now have blocks that have been exposed to erosion almost since the construction of the Great Pyramid and others that have only been exposed to erosion for 675 years, when the earthquake left them bare. This contrast partly explains why when applying the REM method Donini obtained such a broad time frame, the same one that later led him to propose an antiquity of 24,941 years. Issue settled, then? No. The study has only served to stir up the debate. And it is more than understandable if we take into account several keys. First, the dating turns upside down everything we thought we knew about one of Egypt’s most famous monuments. Among other things, he questions whether Pharaoh Cheops was its main architect and slips that he could have limited himself to reforming it. Furthermore, Donini’s study has another handicap: it is preliminary and has not been peer-reviewed, which heats up the debate (even) more. He himself has admitted that REM calculations are influenced by factors that must be handled with caution, such as the variability of erosion processes or the wear and tear that mass tourism may have had on certain parts of the base of the pyramid, altering the calculations. Images | Wikipedia, Alessandro Zanini (Unsplash) and 2H Media (Unsplash) Via | 3D Games In Xataka | Egypt is creating a new tourist mega-destination. There are those who see it as a threat to the oldest monastery in the world

How it works and two ways to avoid it

July 10, 2026 by usatoday24

Meta AI has released a new function with which Any user can create images with other people’s faces without permission. This opens the door to all kinds of abuse and unethical uses, since the function allows you to use your profile image or photos of yourself that you have published as a reference. We are going to briefly explain how this function is used and how these images are generated. Then, we will tell you the two methods with which you can prevent others from creating images with your face. Giving permission is enabled by default, but can be disabled. Meta AI takes photos with Instagram users’ faces Whoever uses the Meta AI website or app Now you can ask it to generate photos of other people. You simply have to use a prompt where it is requested to do so, mentioning the user by their account name. For example, if Xataka were a person, we can ask them to take photos of @Xataka doing whatever we want. By default Meta AI will use this user’s profile image as a reference for its composition. But you will be able to ask him to use the photos in his feed as a reference, and also any scenario or action. Come on, you can create images of a person doing whatever you want without them having control over what you do. Prevent them from taking images of you without your permission There are two ways you can prevent Meta AI from accessing your photos to create images. The first is deactivate the permissions that Instagram has activated by default. Come on, if you don’t touch anything, the Instagram settings mean that you have given Meta AI permission to use your photos for whatever other users want. To deactivate this function you have to enter Instagram settings, and click on the section Share and reuse. Once inside, go down to the section Allow people to reuse your content on Instagram with AI Features at Metaa new option that when translated into Spanish should be something like Let users repurpose your content on Instagram with Meta’s AI features. In this section, you have to disable options Publications and Reels. With this, you will prevent all your public photos and your reels from being used to generate any type of content in Meta AI. The second method is to make your account privatebecause Meta AI does not have access to the content of these types of accounts. In other words, if you already have a private account, it is not necessary to touch anything, although it is advisable to deactivate the permissions anyway in case this changes in the future. In Xataka Basics | No, WhatsApp Meta AI cannot be deactivated, but this way you can make it bother you as little as possible

why the Obradoiro gargoyles have unleashed a heritage revolt in Santiago de Compostela

July 10, 2026 by usatoday24

Neighbors have had enough of sodomized gargoyles in Santiago de Compostela. “artistic attack“, “a barbarity“, “creepy“, “absolute aberration“Three months of complaints have led the Xunta to take measures on the facade of the Hostal dos Reis Católicos. Despite the complaints, the architect responsible for undertaking the reform, Fernando Cobos, has considered that this controversy has no reason to exist. Firstly, because metal pipes strung on sculptures were already planned in 1561. Secondly, because in addition to being the “most effective” and “least bad” solution, he believes that it cannot do much more than sodomize a stone gargoyle. The oldest in Spain. This hostel and parador, considered the oldest operating accommodation in Spain and one of the most protected buildings in Plaza del Obradoiro, has been undergoing modernization and rehabilitation works since 2025. Turespaña and the Ministry of Industry and Tourism, with a budget of around eleven million euros, have been in charge of undertaking these improvements. And within the Master Plan it was decided to extend the Renaissance gargoyles with metal tubes – the “spears” – to direct rainwater away from the baroque balcony and avoid humidity that was deteriorating the stone. So far, everything perfect. The General Directorate of Cultural Heritage of the Xunta authorized this intervention on an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC) and the municipal technical organizations did not see anything strange, assuming that this was a functional solution to a real conservation problem. But as soon as the scaffolding was removed and the copper pipes were exposed on the 18 gargoyles of the main façade, spitting water from the anus, it got messy. One complaint after another. The first public complaint was filed by Maite Vieites, the neighbor who spread photographs by networks of “intubated” gargoyles. The debate spread among Compostela residents, pilgrims and heritage associations. The Fonseca neighborhood association described the intervention as an “aberration” and “an attack against our heritage.” Entities like Apatrigal, the Ateneo de Santiago and the Casino Cultural Association They raised their complaints to Icomos-Spain—an organization in which Cobos also serves as an advisor—arguing that the solution contravened principles of the Venice Charter: minimum intervention, reversibility, compatibility and respect for the cultural landscape. An “ass with a pipe” was read differently: more than a mere drain it was a gargoyle “sodomized” by sin, a symbolic violence, an unnecessary eschatological joke. Why PEC tubes. The architect Fernando Cobos, responsible for the Hostel’s Master Plan, has defended actively and passively that this is a measure “reversible and less damaging” for the monument, insisting that the tubes “exit, not enter” and that similar metal channels are common in international historical heritage. The sexual reading also dates back to the Middle Ages. New requirement. Faced with pressure, the Xunta no longer thinks the same: first it announced that it would look for “a better formula” and asked Turespaña for a more aesthetic option. Then, Autonomous Heritage set deadlines to present alternatives and demanded, at least, shortening the spear of the only anthropomorphic gargoyle. Now, the Galician government has ordered the tube of the human figure to be cut and has given the architect 25 days to design an internal and hidden drainage system that maintains functionality without altering that whimsical erotic reading. Asses and throats. Gargoyles are part of hydraulic engineering in medieval architecture. On thousands of facades of cathedrals, abbeys and even public buildings. They are sculpted drains that project rainwater away from the walls to prevent erosion of the stone and mortar. The term, which comes from French gargouilleliterally refers to the “throat”, alluding to the internal channel that transports water and food from one end to the other. Over time, the technical function became loaded with symbolism: grotesque beings, chimeras, hybrid animals and deformed human figures acted as a reminder of the dangers of sin and as apotropaic devices to drive evil away from the temple. The cathedral of Laon, in Picardy, built in the mid-12th century, already had this water injection through pipes coming out of zoomorphic figures. The semiotics of the matter do not have much more. Gargoyles and historical memory. The conflict has its reason for being: when democratic memory or community aesthetic perception collides with certain technical impositions, it is easy to read an “erasure.” Resignifying aesthetic elements alters the genealogy of the building. In Gijón, several memorial associations They demanded the withdrawal of the “Héroes del Simancas” monument, on the façade of the La Inmaculada school, interpreting it as an apology for Francoism. And the law of democratic memory obliges private owners to remove elements contrary to that memory when they project into public space, with the intermediate option of keeping the pieces accompanied by an explanatory plaque in buildings of special historical value. And speaking of plates, in Tarragona and Barcelona removing Francoist plates is costing more than desirablewith neighbors complaining about the paradox that the cost of removing them falls on the communitieswhile the threat of sanctions and the possibility of museumizing these pieces comes from the administrations. In short, these cases open a battle over who decides how to intervene in the skin of untouchable historical monuments. Let us remember that the Supreme Court forced a company to dismantle a metal structure that barely invaded the adjacent facade by 20 centimeters. Luckily, in Spain there is Horizontal Property Law which gives a voice to the neighbors and the authority for the Spanish justice system to take measures on gargantuan works on terraces or structures that alter the exterior configuration of the buildings without the consent of the community. Condemned to understand each other. The legend of Saint Romain and the dragon of Rouen tells that, in the 6th-7th centuries, an amphibious monster called La Gargouille flooded and devastated the surroundings of the city until the bishop subdued it and its fireproof head was hung in the cathedral as a drain and protective amulet. From those dusts, these muds. Because the story was misplaced and rewritten in the 14th century to justify the annual … Read more

news and everything that changes in ChatGPT with the new version of its artificial intelligence model

July 10, 2026 by usatoday24

Let’s tell you what are the news GPT-5.6the new version of the model artificial intelligence of ChatGPT. We are going to do it in a simple way, synthesizing in a list what the improvements are so that you can understand what will change when the model starts to arrive. The first thing you should know is that GPT 5.6 comes with three variants different, each with its own characteristics. But we are going to try to explain all this to you in the simplest way possible. What’s new in GPT-5.6 Next, we are going to give you a list with the main news that brings this new version of the OpenAI artificial intelligence model. We are going to do it in list format with a brief explanation of each news so that it is easier to understand. A family of 3 models: GPT 5.6 has three variants called Sol, Terra and Luna. Sol is the most advanced model, Luna is designed for greater speed and a lower price in tokens, and Terra is the intermediate model that seeks a balance between performance and cost. GPT-5.6 Sun: It is the new OpenAI flagship model, designed to improve especially in programming, scientific research, knowledge-based professional work, computer use and cybersecurity. GPT-5.6 Terra: Terra costs half as much as GPT-5.5, but maintaining competitive performance against that model. It is the most balanced option, the standard for doing general tasks. GPT-5.6 Moon: It becomes the fastest and cheapest OpenAI model. This makes it especially good for use in applications where speed and cost take top priority over more robust and advanced capabilities. Sol has Max and Ultra modes: The Sol model also has different modalities. The Max gives you more time to reason, check and revise your approach. Meanwhile, Ultra coordinates four agents in parallel by default, giving you better results in less time, but spending more tokens. Software Engineering Improvements: OpenAI ensures that GPT-5.6 especially improves in software engineering, where it increases its capabilities to solve more advanced programming tasks, as well as complex development flows. Improvements when using your computer: AI is lately focused on agents, so it is not surprising that its capabilities have also expanded to work with interfaces and execute tasks within computing environments. A big leap in design: With only general indications, this new model can create functional and careful interfaces. Additionally, the aforementioned computer capabilities allow you to inspect and refine the rendered output for visual glitches before submitting the work. Best scientific research: This area has also been improved, with improvements aimed at scientific reasoning and specialized work. Best knowledge-based jobs: OpenAI highlights advances in knowledge-based professional work, with the goal of delivering better results in complex tasks performed by professionals. You can create editable presentations from scratch, and improve results when you follow templates and reference documents to apply to new content. What’s new for developers in the API: In the Responses API, the Programmatic Tool Calling function allows GPT-5.6 to write and execute in-memory programs that coordinate tools and process intermediate results. And the multi-agent feature, initially in beta, allows you to run simultaneous subagents and synthesize their work into a single request. Cybersecurity news: They also improve cybersecurity capabilities, allowing more complex tasks to be solved within this area. More security for AI: OpenAI strengthens protections against high-risk activities, sensitive cybersecurity-related requests, and potential repeat misuse. It also incorporates the most robust security system in the history of GPT, with several layers of protection to reduce risks during the use of the model. Automated network teaming tests: OpenAI claims to have spent several weeks doing automated red teaming, searching for vulnerabilities and stress testing the system. With this, the model has been strengthened against real attacks before its launch. Availability according to your plan: In ChatGPT, Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise users can access GPT-5.6 Sol, and Pro and Enterprise users can also choose GPT-5.6 Sol Pro. In ChatGPT Work and Codex, Free and Go users use Terra, while paid plans can choose between the three models and adjust the effort level of each. The deployment began on July 9 and will be gradually completed within 24 hours.

We have been cooling homes for decades with increasingly expensive machines. The Persian method has not consumed a single watt for 2,500 years

July 10, 2026 by usatoday24

For decades, air conditioning has been the great response to heat. The more the temperatures rose, the more powerful the machine we installed was. However, more than 2,500 years ago, in a city in the Iranian desert, someone proposed an idea completely different: Maybe the problem was not how to cool a house, but how to build it so that it never got too hot. The heat has a new enemy. The planet is going through an escalation of unprecedented temperatures and the buildings are starting to pay the bill. Glass facades turn offices and homes into veritable greenhouses, concrete accumulates heat for hours and cities radiate energy at night. absorbed during the day. The consequence is an increasing dependence on air conditioning. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, cooling systems already consume about 20% of all the world’s electricity, a figure that will continue to grow as heat waves become more frequent. The Persian redesign. In the heart of the Iranian plateau is Yazda city where summer temperatures easily exceed 40 ºC and where survival was never a question of comfort, but engineering. There appeared one of the most sophisticated passive cooling systems ever conceived: he badgirknown as a wind catcher. His approach was radically different from the current one. Instead of combating the heat once it had entered the house, the architecture itself took care of it. to capture the fresh airexpel the heat and maintain a habitable interior without consuming electricity. Yazd The “Persian method”: a way of thinking. At first glance, a badgir It looks like a tall, decorative chimney jutting out from the rooftops. In reality, it is a carefully calculated system to take advantage of two natural phenomena. On the one hand, it captures the air currents that circulate several meters above the ground and channels them towards the interior. On the other hand, even when the wind hardly blows, it acts as a solar chimney: Hot air rises through the tower and, as it escapes, creates a depression that draws cooler air into the building. In many homes, this flow also passed over underground water tanks or connected channels. to the qanatsfurther increasing the cooling effect. A bâdgir in Yazd A city designed for the climate. The truly extraordinary thing about Yazd is that the badgir It did not work in isolation. It was part of an architectural ecosystem where each element fulfilled a function. The thick adobe walls slowly absorbed the heat. The inner courtyards they created microclimates protected from the sun. The qanats They transported groundwater from the mountains and helped cool the air. There were even the yakhchalenormous structures capable of manufacturing and preserving ice for months in the middle of the desert. The result was a city designed to work with the climate, not against it. Yakhchal in Yazd And the air conditioning arrived. During the 20th century, much of the Middle East and other warm regions embraced imported architectural models that had little to do with their climatic conditions. Concrete replaced adobe, glass facades replaced solid walls and passive solutions were giving way. to mechanical systems. Many badgir they were abandoned due to the lack of maintenance, due to the entry of dust or insects and, above all, because the air conditioning offered an immediate response. The problem is that it also moved energy consumption to the center of the equation and made cooling a permanent necessity. The irony of the West. As many wind towers fell into disuse in Iran, their principles were beginning to reappear discreetly in other parts of the world. Between the end of the seventies and the mid-nineties, thousands of modern versions of wind sensors in British public buildings. Shopping centers, hospitals and schools incorporated ventilation systems inspired by those ancient designs. In the United States, the Zion National Park visitor center was able to drastically reduce the need for air conditioning thanks to passive cooling strategies based on the same concept. Today architects and engineers they resort to simulations by computer to optimize a technology that was born centuries ago simply by observing how the wind moved. The future may not be in more efficient machines. Contemporary architecture begins to take on an idea that for decades was relegated to the background: the building is also part of the air conditioning system. Recent regulations in countries like uk They prioritize shade, natural ventilation and reduction of solar gain before resorting to mechanical solutions. Exterior blinds, slats, vegetal covers, materials with high thermal inertia or patios return to gain prominence. Even those who defend the use of air conditioning agree that these measures can significantly reduce energy consumption. The big lesson: don’t repeat the same mistake. The history of the Persian method and its badgir It does not prove that we should give up air conditioning. prove something much more uncomfortable: For decades we have tried to solve heat by adding machines to buildings that, in many cases, were designed as if the climate did not matter. The Persians followed the opposite way more than two millennia ago. Before thinking about how to cool a house, they thought about how to build one that needed to be cooled as little as possible. Perhaps the most revolutionary technology to face the next heat waves is not a new machine, but recover an old idea that had been waiting for centuries on the rooftops of the desert. Image | Mohammad Hosseini, Diego Delso, Pastaitaken, Dinkun Chen In Xataka | In 2020, a Chinese billionaire bought the most expensive and luxurious home in London. Then his nightmare began. In Xataka | In 1972 Italy wanted to put an entire city in a one kilometer building. Half a century later he is still paying the consequences

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