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He obtained permits, hired personnel and negotiated with suppliers. Then he ordered 3,000 rubber gloves

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He OpenClaw release It marked a new one in the AI ​​race, one in which agentic AI takes on complex tasks that until recently it failed miserably at. Although the qualitative leap is undeniable, Giving full control of a business to an AI agent does not always go well. It’s fair what the startup Andon Labs has done: Put an AI agent to run a coffee shop in Sweden. The results have been interesting. Bow. It is the name of the agent who was in charge of the entire process. It is based on Google Gemini and was given a clear mission: to start and manage a cafeteria, making it profitable. For this he was given a budget of $21,000. Andon Labs already performed a similar experiment in the past in which He put Claude to manage a vending machine in an officewith quite disastrous results. Let’s see how Mona has done it. Setting up the business. The agent proved to be quite competent in the initial organization phase; Mona signed up for electricity and internet contracts, obtained permits to set up a terrace and contacted suppliers of bread and pastries. During the process, the agent came across BankID (Sweden’s electronic identification system), so he opted to contract with electricity and internet companies that did not require that requirement. For other things, like opening permission, you had to ask humans to log in to continue. Mona also tried to get a license to sell alcohol, for which she posed as an Andon Labs employee, arguing that they were more likely to respond to human requests over those of an AI. Investigators asked him not to use other identities and he agreed, but shortly afterward he sent another email using another employee’s name. Hiring employees. The agent could run a business, but he soon realized that he needed humans to serve the clafés. To do this, he posted job offers for baristas on LinkedIn and reviewed the resumes they sent him. The agent selected the best candidates, rejecting those who had little experience, and invited them to a face-to-face interview. When he realized that wasn’t possible, he suggested a phone interview. Finally she hired two baristas, with whom she communicates through Slack, as if she were some kind of remote boss. Here came the first problem: an AI agent never sleeps and sometimes sent them messages after midnight. He also asked them to do things like use their personal credit card to pay for orders. Of course, he motivates them a lot by saying things like they are “absolute legends.” The inventory. With the café already set up, Mona began to manage the day-to-day running of the business and that is when she began to make some pretty strange decisions. His inventory management is unfortunate: there are days when he orders too much bread and others when he doesn’t order anything at all, which forces him to remove certain items from the menu, and he also orders when it occurs to him, without taking into account deadlines or shipping costs. He also ordered 120 eggs even though there is no kitchen and, to prevent the tomatoes from spoiling, he ordered 22kg of canned tomatoes. There’s more, Mona ordered things like industrial garbage bags, 6,000 napkins and 3,000 nitrile gloves, quantities well above what a cafeteria needs. The accounts. As we said, Mona had the mission of making the cafeteria profitable, let’s see if she has succeeded. The cafeteria opened in mid-April and has already billed $5,700, the problem is that it is burning the budget unstoppably. Of the $21,000 he had when he started, he has already spent $16,000, meaning he only has $5,000 left. Burning money at that rate, the business is headed inexorably toward bankruptcy. lthe bosses of the future. Despite the lack of control asking for thousands of gloves or tomatoes, Mona has proven to be quite capable of carrying out management tasks, especially if we compare it with the previous experiment of the same startup. Mona has set up a physical business, hired staff and attracted clientele. In statements to Associated Pressbarista Kajetan Grzelczak comments that “workers are safe. Those who should worry about their jobs are the middle managers, the people in management positions.” Image | Xataka with Gemini In Xataka | “AI agents will harass you”: Jensen Huang believes that AI will not replace us but will do something much worse

Spain counted on immigration to reverse its demographic drama. Now immigrants are also stopping having children

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I had never lived so many people in Spain. Not at least since there are official records. A few days ago the INE revealed that at the end of the first quarter of 2026 the country had around 49.7 million residents, “the maximum value in the historical series.” In reality there is little surprising about it. The INE takes time using that tagline in its statements on population, in which it also insists on another idea: if Spain is moving in record numbers it is basically thanks to the increase in people of foreign origin. The balance between births and deaths in the country is far away to be good. The problem is that this demographic salvation table shows symptoms that it will not work indefinitely. What has happened? What Funcas just published a studysigned by Héctor Cebolla and María Miyar, which basically analyzes whether Spain can rely indefinitely on migration to save it from the demographic winter. In fact, the report of think tank seek (literally) explore “the limits” of immigration for “demographic adjustment.” It is an important topic for two reasons. First, because the arrival of foreigners has become the great engine of population growth in Spain. Second, because despite the increase in the registry and the fact that the INE has been registering for some time record numbers of residentsthe truth is that the Spanish demographic engine is not exactly oiled. In 2025, the INE counted 446,982 deaths and 321,164 births, which leaves red numbers vegetative growth. And what is your conclusion? That although the migratory flow is acting as a demographic lifeline, we cannot trust that its effects will continue forever. “Immigration has made it possible to sustain population growth and cushion aging, but it has done so through a mechanism that requires continuous and increasing flows, loses effectiveness over time and does not correct the underlying trends of demographic imbalance,” comment María Miyar Busto, director of Social Studies at Funcas. It is not about denying the positive effects of immigration, but about “recognizing the limits of the model” and placing it “in its rightful place in the analysis of public policies.” Above all, thinking about the future in the medium and long term. “The short-termism that dominates the debate on the benefits of immigration has not allowed the analysis of the long-term consequences and has favored the absence of an explicit demographic strategy,” duck Onion. Why this warning? Because after analyzing data on migratory flows and tables of age ranges, birth rates and population growth, Funcas researchers have reached several worrying conclusions. For example, they have proven that although Spain manages to attract a significant number of immigrants, it is not as effective when it comes to retaining them. They have also confirmed that the population of foreign origin shows signs of a progressive aging and that over time their demographic patterns (such as birth rates) end up being similar to those of Spanish families. What does the data say? To begin with, Spain has a problem when it comes to determining the migrant population. The country is attractive enough to attract foreigners, but only a portion ends up putting down roots here, contributing to the demographics and economy. And to show you a button: although between 2002 and 2024 they entered Spain almost 15 million of people, the population only increased by seven million. That leaves our country in a peculiar situation. Spain is the main recipient of immigration in Europe in relative terms and between 2013 and 2023 it absorbed 16% of the immigration that arrived on the continent, however for years its retention rate has been one of the lowest in the region: 51%. That, remember Funcasforces Spain to maintain “high inflows to sustain a population that is constantly renewed.” Why is that a problem? Because for the model to continue supporting Spanish demographics, it requires “growing and uninterrupted” migration, something complicated every time that population arrives from countries (especially in America) who are also aging. Is it the only warning sign? No. The study de Funcas also questions whether immigration will serve to rejuvenate the registry. Researchers calculate that the foreign population that has already turned 55 years old shot up by 42% between 2021 and 2025. This is almost 20 percentage points more than the growth recorded by the immigrant population between 20 and 54 years old, which increased by 25%. What’s more, the think tank It is estimated that around a quarter (22%) of immigrants have already blown out the 55 candles. How young are the immigrants? “The population born abroad is no longer a young population, but rather less aged than the native population,” they respond from Funcas, which also warns that this “gap” between residents born in Spain and abroad will reduce as the immigrants who moved to Spain at the beginning of the century, between 2000 and 2008, before the great brick crisis, approach retirement age. To underline this idea, the research center provides a revealing calculation. “In absolute terms, the increase in the immigrant population aged 55 or over between 2021 and 2025 (42%) means that more than 615,000 people of that age were added to the Spanish population, a figure equivalent to the population of Malaga, a dynamic that anticipates greater pressure on the health and dependency systems,” slide. The phenomenon is especially clear in Spain, one of the EU countries where the most adult immigrants arrive. If you look at 2024, only 13% of new residents were under 15 years old. At the opposite pole, 18% were over 55. Do they behave differently? That is another of the keys that Funcas focuses on. If we Spaniards ourselves resist having large families or move to rural areas…Why should immigrants, people who often face a more complex economic starting point and lack a family support network, act differently? Onion and Miyar even talk about a “Spanishization” of reproductive behavior. Despite the significant increase in the number of women of childbearing age, the total number … Read more

send a robot with a 300 kilo surprise

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In 1944, during the Warsaw Uprising, some Polish fighters improvised small remote controlled vehicles loaded with explosives to try to destroy German positions without exposing directly to his men. Those rudimentary machines could barely move through the rubble and many ended up unusable before reaching the objective… but they left an idea floating that the battlefield would take decades to recover: perhaps one day the first troops to enter an enemy building would not be soldiers. The new way to assault a building. For decades, clearing an enemy-occupied building was one of the most important tasks. most brutal and dangerous of any war: advancing through rooms, stairs and basements while each door could hide an ambush. They counted in Forbes that Ukraine is beginning to completely change that logic. In Kostiantynivka, Russian troops hiding in an abandoned block were probably waiting for drones arriving from the sky. What appeared It was something different: an unmanned ground vehicle that entered from the rear loaded with 300 kilos of explosives before to detonate the building. The operation, coordinated with other ground robots and support drones, perfectly summarizes where urban warfare is evolving. Ukraine is no longer just using drones to observe or launch small grenades: it is converting kamikaze robots on wheels in assault tools capable of partially replacing the infantry in the most suicidal missions on the front. Coordinated machine warfare. The most important aspect of this evolution is not only the explosive robot, but the way in which starts to combine with aerial drones, sensors and recognition systems. Ukraine is developing a kind of “robotic mixed war” where each machine meets a different function. Aerial drones locate targets, monitor routes and provide an overview of combat, and ground robots advance close to the ground carrying machine guns, mines, supplies or huge explosive charges directly to Russian positions. That cooperation resolves many of the individual limitations of each system. Flying drones have speed and vision, but they can barely carry weight. Ground robots are slow and vulnerable, but can move loads capable of destroying an entire basement or opening breaches impossible for a conventional FPV. The result is a battlefield where different machines begin to act as a coordinated unit which increasingly replaces tasks traditionally reserved for soldiers. Robots to save soldiers. Behind this transformation there is also a much harsher reality: Ukraine needs to reduce the exhibition of his infantry. After years of war of attrition against a larger Russian army, each urban assault has become an extremely difficult human cost to bear. That is why terrestrial robots are rapidly moving from being experimental tools to becoming a real tactical need. Initially they were used mainly to transport ammunition, evacuate wounded or clear mines, but pressure from the front and the proliferation of drones have accelerated their evolution. towards offensive functions direct. Zelensky, in fact, has already ordered tens of thousands of UGVs for this year and kyiv’s stated objective is to automate even a good part of the logistics of the front. In other words: Ukraine is trying to progressively replace people with machines where the chances of survival begin. to be too low. The terror of “Baba Yaga”. Already we have talked of him before. In parallel to these ground robots, Ukraine has also developed an increasingly sophisticated psychological dimension around its aerial drones. The most symbolic case is that of the Vampire, the famous hexacopter named by the Russians. as “Baba Yaga”. Its nocturnal sound has become a real tool of terror on the front. In Sumy, for example, a Vampire managed rescue two soldiers Ukrainians captured after locating their captors, identifying them using thermal cameras and bombing them as they fled. Beyond the spectacular nature of the episode, the drone represents something much more important: the combination between cheap technology, ease of use and enormous operational flexibility. For a few thousand euros, Ukraine has a platform capable of launching anti-tank mines, transporting supplies, resisting electronic jamming and coordinating with other robotic systems on the ground. The consequence is that Russian soldiers begin to face a constant threat that can appear from the sky, from a window or from an apparently empty street. The battlefield of the future. The war in Ukraine is accelerating a military transformation that other militaries will study for years. The most striking thing is not only the proliferation of drones, but how these platforms are starting to physically replace Complete combat functions. A terrestrial robot loaded with explosives Entering a fortified building was a few years ago an image typical of military laboratories or science fiction films, but now it is part of real operations in destroyed cities of Donbas. At the same time, the combination of fiber optics, jam-resistant navigation, and machine-to-machine coordination is making it increasingly difficult to neutralize these systems with conventional electronic warfare. Ukraine continues to lose many of these robots to Russian FPV drones, but even that reinforces the industrial logic of the conflict: destroying machines is more acceptable than losing soldiers experienced. If you also want, little by little, urban warfare begins to look less like the battles of the 20th century and more like an environment saturated with autonomous systems where the first units that come into contact with the enemy are no longer people, but robots loaded with explosives observed from a distance from a screen. Image | x In Xataka | To achieve the milestone of building the largest drone industry without China, Ukraine has found an explosive ally: Taiwan In Xataka | The war in Ukraine is being filled with “Mad Max” ships: metal screens and nets against FPV drones in the Black Sea

They are infrasounds that are not heard but felt

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Who they live nearby of data centers in the US they are denouncing be being affected by so-called infrasound. These are low-frequency sounds that are below the limits of human hearing but can end up causing dizziness, nausea, vertigo and problems falling asleep. And the worst thing is not that: it is that these data centers comply with current regulations. The invisible enemy. Data centers are becoming recurring focus of criticism of neighbors and residents in areas where they are built. The reasons They are forceful and knownbut to all of them we now add one that is worrying for another reason: it affects our health. Damn infrasound. The new invisible enemy of those affected is low-frequency noise pollution. The problem is that unlike the noise generated by a highway, for example, infrasound is not “heard” with the ears, but is felt with the whole body and can cause anxiety, nausea or chronic insomnia. Hmmmmmm. Infrasound operates at frequencies so low that they fall outside the human hearing spectrum. The problem is that despite this, these sounds can pass through walls and travel hundreds of meters to end up reaching neighbors who live near data centers. For them, what is captured is a kind of constant vibration that cannot be turned off. Infrasound is legal, but it shouldn’t be. The local authorities that receive these complaints cannot do much, because they find themselves in a legal loophole: the current regulations They usually measure noise in decibels (dB), but since these sounds are inaudible, decibel meters mark legal levels while neighbors can develop health problems. Is it a bird? is it a plane? Those responsible for these sounds are usually industrial cooling systems that move gigantic volumes of air to keep the temperatures generated in these computing centers at bay. Not only that: many of these centers try to rely on the electrical grid and avoid supply bottlenecks. To do this, they use natural gas turbines, which are a type of modified jet aircraft engines. The bad thing is that these machines work 24/7, eliminating nighttime silence and condemning residents’ sleep. They should be in the desert. Both the US and Europe have vast expanses of uninhabited land that should be ideal for this type of facility, but hyperscalers prefer to build close to existing infrastructure because that saves them a lot of time and money when it comes to putting these facilities into operation. And what about liquid cooling? Experts point out that a potential solution would be to use liquid cooling solutions, which would significantly reduce fan noise. The problem, again, is that these systems are expensive and do not eliminate the need for the use of electric turbines. More and more projects delayed. This is the latest of the problems that is turning data centers into facilities that are especially hated by residents of the areas where they are installed. Protests are becoming more frequent, and these criticisms are combined with problems of water and energy supply. There are platforms that analyze the moratoriums and delays that these projects are suffering, and currently in the US there are 50 active blockades of projects to build data centers in different regions of the country. In Xataka | If the question is “how does having a data center next to my house affect me”, in the US they already have an answer: 267% more expensive electricity

the alternative to OLED for large format screens

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One of the few TCL factories outside of China is located just 40 km from Warsaw, so it is not strange that the brand has chosen Poland to make the official presentation of its TV range for 2026. In that presentation, in addition to knowing first-hand all the Chinese brand catalogwe have been able to test some demos on the RM9L, the brand’s first television in which a system of MiniLED RGB backlight with TCL’s new WHVA 2.0 Ultra LCD panel. I can tell you that the sensations have been really good. TCL RM9L panel RGB MiniLED 4K, 144 Hz resolution 3,840 x 2,160 sizes available 115, 98 and 85 inches image processor TSR Processor (Pentonic 800) hdr Dolby Vision 2 Max, Dolby Vision IQ, HDR10+, HDR10, HLG sound 240 watts (RMS) Dolby Atmos, DTS wireless connectivity Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth 5.3 operating system Google TV 14 price From 5,999 euros The place where the RGB MiniLED and a new LCD panel converge By placing this model in the brand’s catalog for 2026, would replace the C9K of 2025. That is, it is located within the sphere of TCL’s top range. This leadership is shared with the undisputed star of 2026: the X11L, which we could already try in China. For its part, the RM7L, with which it matches RGB MiniLED technology, is one step below as a mid-range in terms of image quality and performance. The RM9L is available in 115″, 98″ and 85″. The unit we have been able to test is the 85″ (although we had the 98″ right next to it). This diagonal has 8,736 local dimming zonesso the light control is so precise that it is increasingly difficult to distinguish its image from that of an OLED panel with the naked eye. Having such a high count of dimming zones gives these displays better control of blacks and dark areas, and better segregation of high brightness areas. There is barely any trace of a minimal halo in subtitles on a completely black background, and the representation of bright points (like a scene in space, for example) allows those bright points to be better displayed, something that OLED panels achieve very easily, but at MiniLED cost a little more…until now. Although the TCL RM9L and the X11L They mount different backlighting technologiesis the closest to TCL’s flagship, with which it shares the latest generation WHVA 2.0 Ultra LCD panel. This panel manages to reduce the distance between the rear lighting LEDs and the LCD panel, which also makes the television somewhat thinner than usual for a MiniLED. This panel also improves viewing angles, since the glass that redirects light has been redesigned, ensuring that no changes are seen in the contrast or brightness of the image when the screen is viewed from the sides. On the other hand, the change in the backlighting system means that when viewed from the right side, the colors on the screen acquire a slight reddish tint, while if viewed from the opposite side, the tint it acquires is slightly greenish. This color nuance is especially noticeable when gray patterns are displayed, but it is difficult to appreciate when watching series or other types of regular content. I was surprised by how well adjusted the FilmMaker mode, with which the full brightness potential of the panel is respected, maintaining very natural skin tones and an excellent color volume with which, using a colorimeter, we have seen that it covers 100% of the BT.2020 color space used in cinema. The mode movies Apply a slightly higher brightness setting and manage to lift more shadow detail, but at the cost of washing out those areas a little more. This behavior makes this mode adjusted by TCL suitable in situations where the television is in a bright room. The 4,000 nits peak brightness they record this. In these first tests we have also been able to change the motion interpolation setting. The preliminary results have represented a notable improvement in this adjustment, a point in which the Chinese brand televisions. However, we are not going to sing the alirón until we can analyze it with more calm and variety of content. Although the display unit we tested was using the high-end 2025 remote control, those responsible for the brand assured us that the versions for sale of this model They will come with a new controller which we already saw in our test of the Google TV 14: fluidity and ease of use The units that we were able to test in Warsaw were fresh off the TCL assembly line, so a message appeared on some of them announcing that a new firmware version existed. Still, the RM9L unit I tested came with Google TV in its version with Android 14 and the December 2025 security patch. The Pentonic 800 processor found in TCL’s high-end 2026 models moves the Google system very fluidly, responding immediately when starting new Netflix, Disney+ or Prime Video apps by pressing the shortcut button on the remote, as well as when navigating through the configuration menus. Since it is a display model, I was not able to test integration with Gemini which arrives in 2026, nor its response to voice commands. Therefore, we added it to our to-do list to see if it responds to the recognition of the content being watched like Alexa+ does on televisions with FireTV. Bang & Olufsen has tried, but you have to add a sound bar If we look at the specifications sheet, TCL indicates that the 85″ RM9L mounts a set of speakers that adds a power of 240 W. On paper everything indicated that sound was going to be a prominent aspect in this model. Reality does not always support the numbers. The Danish brand Bang & Olufsen, specialized in high-fidelity audio, is collaborating with TCL in tuning the sound system of its high-end televisions. While it is true that the audio system adjusted by the Danish company achieves a well-balanced … Read more

We knew that octopuses were very intelligent. But not to the point of having a “brain” in each arm

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Octopuses are invertebrate animals, but the absence of a central nervous system like that of birds or mammals does not make their brains less interesting than the rest. Brains, emphasizing the plural since neuronal systems of each of its extremities They have a degree of independence, which leads many to consider them as such. A nervous system not at all central. In January 2025, a group of researchers has studied the nervous systems of these cephalopods to better understand how these nine neural organs operate together and to what extent they maintain their independence. What they observed is that each of these brains had the ability to operate individually. The team responsible for the study believes that it is thanks to the unique segmentation of the nervous system of octopuses that these animals achieve the level of skill in the management of extremely flexible organs that serve these animals to move, feed, sense their environment, and even copulate. “If you are going to have a nervous system that is going to control such dynamic movement, that is a good way to organize it,” explained in a press release Clifton Ragsdale, co-author of the study. “We think it’s a feature that evolved specifically in soft-bodied cephalopods with suction cups to carry out these worm-like movements.” Studying segmentation. The study focused on segmentation of this curious neuronal system, analyzing the distribution and function of the neurons in these arms, taking as reference an octopus of the species Octopus bimaculatus. Neurons that together add up to a greater number than the neurons located in the “central brain” of the animal, which is responsible for coordinating actions that require the use of various arms. These neurons in the extremities are concentrated, explains the teaminto an axial nerve chord (ANC), which “snakes” the limb to each of the animal’s suction cups. Neural columns. The ANC analysis showed that neurons in the octopus’s limbs were grouped into “columns” that in turn formed segments that the team compared to corrugated pipes. The segments were in turn separated by gaps called “septa” from which nerves and blood vessels made their way to the muscles of the limb. “From a modeling perspective, the best way to organize a control system for this long and flexible arm would be to divide it into segments,” Cassady Olson added.co-author of the study. “There must be some kind of communication between the segments, which you can imagine attenuates their movements.” Job details can be found in an article published in the magazine Nature Communications. Much to investigate. In fact, a subsequent joint study between Florida Atlantic University and the Marine Biological Laboratory analyzed 4,000 arm movements, captured on video, from three different species and came to a surprising conclusion: although all arms can perform any movement, according to his research, the front arms are used for exploration, while the rear arms are used for everything that has to do with movement. The arms of octopuses are very versatile limbs that allow this animal to navigate the seabed, but also, through their suction cups, allow these octopods to perceive the world around them, hunt and feed on their prey. Knowing the details of the functioning of such complex limbs will still require new research. In Xataka | Octopuses are not aliens, and scientists have had to come out to explain why Image | Theasereje, CC BY-SA 4.0 This article was originally published in 2025, but we have updated it with new information

Claude has helped a man recover $400,000 worth of bitcoin he lost 11 years ago. Logged in and forgot password

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An X user named Cprkrn recently told of his odyssey with a (very) happy ending in X. In 2015 he bought five bitcoins (BTC) when the price was around $250. In a fit of university euphoria he decided that his password should be an anti-establishment manifesto and changed it to the phrase ““lol420fuckthePOLICE!*:)”. The problem is that he did it completely stoned, and when he got up the next morning he realized that his money had disappeared. He then began an odyssey to try to remember that password. One with a happy ending. Eleven years of despair. For eleven years, those five bitcoins remained lost while their value continued to increase. Today its value is around $400,000, and our protagonist has not stopped seeing how this fortune had slipped through his fingers. To try to recover the password he tried everything, especially brute force attacks to try to guess the password with thousands of combinations. He looked through old folders that he had saved without success, and then something occurred to him: turn to Claude. Claude didn’t hack your wallet, he was just a spectacular detective. What Cprkrn ended up doing was ask Claude to analyze 1 GB of iCloud backups, old Apple notes, emails, and forgotten system files saved on a computer I had used in college. The challenge was not to “crack” the password, but to find the trace of how it could have been created. Order within chaos. What Claude did was organize all that data that was scattered to turn it into a perfect structured file that could be analyzed. After evaluating all the information, the AI ​​model realized that it was trying to open the wrong file. He located a file called wallet.dat from before the password change that caused the nightmare, and crossed it with a mnemonic phrase that the user had written down in an old notebook that he had discarded. That allowed that password to be reconstructed, and in less than an hour Cprkrn had recovered his fortune and regained access to your BTC wallet. Money safe. The first thing he did after discovering that password was move those bitcoins to another secure wallet to avoid problems: every conversation we have with Claude or other chatbots is recorded on the servers of those companies in plain text, so Cprkrn covered his back to prevent that information from being used to avoid scares. Blessed Darius. The joy of having recovered those five bitcoins led this user to publish a message on Twitter telling the whole adventure. In said message promised who would name his future son “Darío” in honor of Anthropic CEO, Darío Amodei. Needles in the haystack. History shows that great language models are extraordinary tools for finding needles in haystacks. Traditional tools helped, but AI’s ability to analyze information and find patterns is once again amazing. This anecdote is linked, for example, to recent rise of models like Claude Mythos Preview to find security vulnerabilities that seemed impossible to find. Again, everything is based on the ability of these models to “understand” the data provided to them, organize them and extract what is needed from them. Being a digital Diogenes has a reward. For years the recommended practice for those changing or upgrading equipment was “delete/format the old, start from scratch with the new.” This story changes the focus, because in the age of AI, messy data from 15 or 20 years ago is not digital garbage: it can be a treasure that helps us review our past and reveal data that we no longer remember. The story, however, contrasts with that of James Howells, who for years struggled to try to recover the hard drive with thousands of bitcoins that ended up in a landfill. He ended up giving up after the court’s refusal to give him permission to search for that hard drive. Image | Kanchanara In Xataka | The NYT claims to have found Satoshi Nakamoto and the evidence is as conclusive as ever: little or nothing

go for nostalgic adults

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Fashions fluctuate, just like prices or supply and demand curves, but there is one value that is always rising in the market (no matter which one): nostalgia. As we get older, we increasingly value items and experiences that allow us to relive our childhood, which creates a huge business opportunity. It is something that the industry tech or of entertainment has understood well, is driving the creation of arcade rooms and, in general, has converted the “retro” into a valuable asset. Now that desire to relive past times is favoring an unexpected business: that of the sweets. Who eats sweets? The question seems obvious. Sweets are something for children and teenagers, right? Those of us who are between 30 and 40 years old today grew up in a world in which those who went to kiosks to buy gum, candy and other industrial sweets were basically kids. There might be some bigger fans of licorice, mint candies or toffees, for example, but they were the exception. Things today are somewhat different. It is no longer just that adults buy sweets without embarrassment, it is that in some stores they are the majority customer profile and even represent 80% of the business, as revealed a few weeks ago The Confidential in an extensive report in which he analyzes the phenomenon. Is it a novelty? Yes. And no. that the millennials and members of Generation X still eating sweets into adulthood is not exactly new. In 2004, the Spanish Association of Candy and Chewing Gum Manufacturers (Caychi) already published a study which showed that more than half of the country’s adults regularly ate candy, gum and other sweets. About 70% He also admitted that he did it simply because it was considered “a pleasure”, an experience with “a positive effect on well-being”. At that time, however, the ‘photo’ was still somewhat diffuse. Although in the group between 46 and 55 years old, 50.4% of people stated that they consumed candy with some frequency and 34.4% also chewed gum often, the survey presented their consumption with a certain utilitarian perspective: “many” indulged in sweets, it was said thento avoid other unhealthy vices, such as smoking. And now? Now the reality is somewhat different. In his chronicle The Confidential He speaks with companies and representatives of the candy sector who clarify that adults demand their merchandise for an added reason: nostalgia. Maybe they like the taste of sticks, worms, dextrose necklaces, Peta Zetas and heart-shaped lollipops, but for them their consumption incorporates an equally or even more valuable bonus: memories. It is merchandise of 2026, but also a ‘passport’ to evoke the decade of the 80s and 90s. There are even businesses dedicated to sweets whose turnover basically depends on people who already have gray hair. “Normally people think they are for children, but if we depended on them we would have to close,” recognize the commercial head of a Galician company in the sector who estimates that around 80% of his clientele is made up of adults. Your case is not unique. Other companies in the industry confirm the increase in demand for retro gummies, both in the retail channel and among businesses that, in turn, use them in dishes that incorporate ingredients such as Peta Zetas or cotton candy. Is there data to support it? The trend can be followed in two ways. One is the testimonies that are shared from the sector and confirm the change. Others are the statistics on domestic consumption of the Ministry of Food, which they confirm that the consumption of sweets is especially pronounced in households made up of adults between 45 and 65 years old who live alone. Those where young adults and couples without children reside also stand out. The statistics of the Government on domestic consumption show that, at least in November 2025, the per capita consumption of candy, chewing gum and sweets was around the 0.77 kg and, in general, the volume consumed had grown by 6.9%. In October the Produlce employers’ association I remembered that the candy and gum category is the one that grows the most in the sweet sector, with a production that was around 1,500 million euros and 311,000 tons. Against that backdrop, nostalgia-driven sales have found especially fertile ground on the Internet and networks. There you can often find items that are difficult to see in kiosks or the supermarket. In fact, there are websites specialized in that niche, such as Retro candy either Xianaand on Amazon you can also find them searching by categories such as retro sweets. Does nostalgia weigh that much? Not all sales among the adult population are explained by nostalgia, but it is undeniable that this factor has an important weight. It is assumed by Produlce himself, who points out that the fact that “many adults today return to the sweets of their childhood demonstrates the extent to which we are talking about products with strong emotional and cultural roots.” In Retrochuches in fact the catalog of jelly beans is combined with another toy from the 80s and 90s, such as four-in-a-row games, cardboard masks, spinning tops, Tetris machines, marbles, dolls trolls or plastic pendants in the shape of a pacifier, among a long etcetera. Is it something exceptional? No. It’s nothing strange. Nor exclusive to the world of snacks and sweets. The “nostalgia economy” It has reached other sectors, such as fashion, technology and entertainment, focusing its efforts on an audience with greater purchasing power than younger customers. As they explain From some companies in the sector, it is not so much that adults buy more as that they can spend much more money. In the process, nostalgia for the past works some miracles, such as making Generation Z embrace retro technologies that in reality are totally new to her (those who are in their twenties today have never enjoyed games that today are presented to them as ‘vintage’) or that the candy industry finds a new niche despite the … Read more

Madonna, Shakira and BTS are going to perform at halftime of the World Cup final. But the regulations only allow it to be 15 minutes

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For years, Gianni Infantino watched with envy the spectacle of American football breaks. This year, the president of FIFA is going to have what he has been wanting for years: the final of the July 19 World Cup in New Jersey will have the first halftime show from the history of the tournamentwith none other than Madonna, Shakira and BTS as headliners. A decision clearly conceived from the point of view of not stopping to think about the differences between soccer and American football. Elmo tells you. The most watched event on the planet debuts, 96 years after its first edition, a concept that American football has been perfecting for decades. The advertisement came in video form with Chris Martin of Coldplay, Elmo, Gustavo, Miss Piggy and other Muppets to break the news, that at one point they made a call with BTS. The tone was curiously lighthearted for the announcement of an event that handles astronomical figures. Good causes. The production of the event is carried out by the NGO Global Citizenfor which Chris Martin and Coldplay’s manager Phil Harvey are creative curators. The show is linked to the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fundan initiative that wants to raise 100 million dollars to expand access to education and soccer for children around the world, and which has already raised more than 30 million. One dollar from every ticket sold is donated to the fund. There are no precedents. No World Cup final had ever included a half-time show. There are ceremonies (opening, closing, before the opening whistle), but the break was always to rest (and the corresponding commercial break). The Qatar 2022 final, between Argentina and France, had a closing ceremony before the start of the match, with performances by Gims and Ozuna, but no shows in between. What changes. The scale, without a doubt. The 2022 final reached an average live audience of 571 million viewers worldwide, with more than 1.4 billion people watching at least one minute of the match. The 2024 Super Bowl brought together, in comparison, an average of 123.7 million viewers in the United States and about 62.5 million internationally. The platform that FIFA offers to artists who appear in the intermission has no comparison with any other. The problem. The laws of the game established by the IFAB, the international body that regulates football, set the break at a maximum of 15 minutes. A rule that few people notice, but that has a physical reason, which the ESPN analyst explained Gabriele Marcotti: Professional soccer players are conditioned for that maximum recovery interval. Extending it carries real risks of players getting cold or stiff. In the Super Bowl, the break is usually extended to 30 minutes, because the NFL sport includes regular breaks and players are accustomed to long timeouts. According to FIFA has confirmedthe show is planned to last 11 minutes, which in theory would keep it within the regulatory limit. However, it wouldn’t be entirely strange to see the IFAB modify its rules to accommodate the spectacle. But then… who thinks about the players? Little risk. On the other hand, the choice of Madonna, Shakira and BTS is a safe bet. All three have more than proven experience in mass events of this caliber. Madonna’s performance at the 2012 Super Bowl set the audience record for the halftime show with 114 million viewers, a figure that Bruno Mars would surpass two years later. The 2020 show, starring Shakira and Jennifer Lopez, attracted 103 million viewers. Shakira is also already linked to the World Cup thanks to the release of two official anthems: ‘Dai Dai’ in 2026 with the Nigerian Burna Boy, and ‘Waka Waka’ in 2010. BTS, for its part, arrives in the moment of greatest visibility for the band since the group interrupted its activity to complete mandatory military service in South Korea. Your album’ARIRANG’published in March 2026, debuted with record on US chartswhich makes this concert especially suitable for the band. Since April, the group has also been immersed in a world tour. Header | Julio Gómez Braojos

Iceland has had a four-day work week since 2019. Seven years later, it delivers on all the promises of Gen Z

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Iceland was one of the first countries that dared to experiment with the four-day workday and new working day models maintaining the salary. Today, Iceland has not only managed to reduce the working hours of 86% of its population, but it is also among the most dynamic European economies. These data show that the four-day work week and the reduction of working hours are not incompatible with growth. Pioneers of the four-day work week. Between 2015 and 2019, the country implemented a pilot program in which 2,500 public employees reduced their working hours from 40 hours a week to between 35 and 36 hours. The Iceland test data indicated that productivity levels were maintained and the well-being of workers who reported lower levels of stress and well-being was considerably improved. improvements in work-life balance. The reactions were immediate and the Icelandic unions reached agreements with the companies to take this model to other sectors. According to the study monitoring of the experiment of reduction of working hours carried out by the Autonomy Institute of the United Kingdom and the Association for Sustainability and Democracy (ALDA) of Iceland, as a result of those negotiations, 86% of Icelanders already work under some form of reduced hours. “This shows that the public sector is prepared to be a pioneer in reducing the working week, and other governments can learn from this lesson,” said Will Stronge, research director at Autonomy Institute. Years of implementation are beginning to bear fruit. Monitoring of test data in Iceland has continued to see the long-term effects on the impact of the reduction in working hours both among employees and on the country’s economy. ALDA and the Autonomy Institutejust published a study in which it analyzes the impact after four years of reduced working hours available to the majority of its population. Between 2020 and 2022, for example, 51% of its workforce already had access to reduced working hours, including a four-day work week or a five-day work week with shorter days. In parallel, the study revealed that Iceland’s economy was growing faster than that of most of its European neighbors. According to the report World Economic Outlook April 2024 prepared by the International Monetary Fund, Iceland’s economy recorded growth of 5.2% for 2024 and 4.9% for 2025. Greater well-being for employment. The International Monetary Fund report points to the strength of employment in Iceland as one of the keys to its economic growth. According to the ALDA study By 2024, 78% of Icelandic workers are satisfied with their current job. 62% of those who have adopted reduced working hours claim to feel more satisfied with their working hours, while 97% have stated that shorter working hours have made their balance between work and family easier. Impact on the Icelandic economy. The authors of the study point out that Iceland had always worked more hours than its surrounding countries, obtaining lower productivity. However, they highlight that, after the change in working hours, the productivity in Iceland has increased 1.5% annually on average over the last five years. “This is a possible break with the past, when productivity was lower in Iceland than in neighboring countries.” The data provided by the study reflect a behavior very similar to that recorded in the test of the Valencia four-day week: Having more free time encourages the local economy and recreational activities. The study estimates the improvement in the internal economy at 10% after implementing reduced working hours. The key is not the reduction of working hours. The conclusions of the study reflect an idea that was also put on the table in the conclusions of the test of the four-day work week in Germany: “A probable cause of this change (in productivity) is the optimization of work and the reorganization of work shifts as strategies aimed at reducing effective work hours,” the study notes. This clarification reveals that the key to the successive successes in terms of productivity of the tests of the four-day work week would not be a consequence of the reduction of the working day itself, but of the prior optimization process that is carried out in these experiments. Happy future. Iceland’s experience is especially positive for generation Z, definitely the labor cohort that most enthusiastically embraces hybrid or reduced work formats. As we have seen in other countries, Sean Norway or Germany, and as various studies point outGeneration Z has a strong preference for the four-day week. Both socio-labor trends and cultural priorities point in that direction. And the case of Iceland is important because it underlines that the economy is not suffering. In Xataka | Germany is considering the most ambitious labor reform: it wants to eliminate the limit on eight-hour days a day Image | Einar H. Reynis

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