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The V60 has been an icon of specialty coffee for 20 years. Its first big update is coffee for coffee lovers

May 17, 2026 by usatoday24

When you enter a specialty cafe and they have ‘V60’ on the menu, you automatically know that things have to be very bad for them to not make good coffee. The V60 is to filter coffee what the Bialetti is to italian coffee maker: a symbol, a declaration of intentions and a ‘gadget’ with a design so perfect that it has not had to be modified in its 20 years of life. Until now. Hario launched the original V60 around 2004 in a show of how a simple and functional design could be perfect for any level. Simply put, it is a cone with a 60 degree inclination (hence the name) that can be placed on top of your jug, any jug or even a cup. In that cone we place a paper filter, add the coffee, hot water and the coffee solution flows to the container. It is simple and came to solve the problem that Hario had detected in the percolation coffee makers that dominated in the 80s: those typical ones that many of our grandmothers have at home and that are the ones that appear in any American series in which the coffee remained there passively soaking until it came out under its own gravity and the jet black liquid was deposited in the jug. The classic V60 It was not what best extracted all the nuances of the coffee and Hario implemented three design ideas: The cone at 60 degrees so that the water tends to the center, lengthening the contact time without the need to create a long-lasting ‘pond’. A single exit hole which made it easy to make coffee for non-expert users, but also gave a lot of control possibilities to the expert user. By restricting the water channel, pouring speed, exposure time or grinding, different “recipes” can be created. Spiral striations on the cone. These “ribs” have a lot of technology behind them because they serve to release air between the filter and the wall, avoiding the suction effect of the paper and causing the filter to expand as the coffee releases the product. The translation is that Hario designed a coffee maker that combined simplicity, complication capacity for experts and that rib design that was very well thought out to facilitate a relatively quick extraction while being able to extract all the nuances of the coffee. It was so perfect that, over these 20 years, it really hasn’t changed beyond different sizes for the cone or the plastics and glass that came after the original Japanese porcelain version. There were some little problems and limitations and they released an accessory, the Hario Switch, but the most important thing of all is that the V60 was a good, versatile and very, very economical coffee maker that, as we say, there was no need to touch. And, then, Hario… touched her. The V60 Neo In what seems like a clear “find the differences” exercise, Hario presented the Hario V60 Neo. If you are not very involved in the coffee world and the new one seems the same as the old one, I have to tell you that the Neo was a tsunami that stirred up coffee content creators. It was the first time that Hario redesigned the conethe core of the V60, and has done so in two ways: design and material. The new V60 The material issue is the easiest to explain. The Neo is manufactured in a resin called ‘tritan’a plastic that retains great transparency, is resistant to both heat and impacts and has properties that make it very good in an essential issue for the most enthusiasts: very good thermal retention. This allows the temperature to remain stable during extraction so that the processes are more constant and it is easier to replicate a good coffee. The second change is the one that has drawn the most attention is a new geometry. From the larger “ribs,” Hario transitions to 72 microribs at the top that converge into nine channels at the base. The explanation is that these grooves will now guide the water much more uniformly, while the nine exit grooves ensure a clearer path towards the hole, minimizing the dreaded channeling. This channeling thing is interesting. because in any coffee maker, the water passes through the coffee and what it looks for is the least resistance in its path. If it encounters little resistance in one point, it will go that way, failing to go through other areas and, therefore, not extracting the solution that it could extract from the entire coffee. With the new design, what Hario suggests is that these channels will be minimized while we will be able to achieve a more uniform extraction. It seems like a lie, but there is a lot of technique in a cone that looks the same as the one from 20 years ago, but that makes sense if we look at the narrative of a brand that, it claims, has been working on prototypes and playing with fluid dynamics for two years. Is she a motorcycle dealer? Well… I don’t know. I have the original V60 and I am clear that my skills do not reach the point of thinking that those microribs are what I was missing to finish making the perfect coffee at home. I have not the slightest interest in this V60 Neo and, although it makes sense from the point of view of the very specific needs of a tiny niche of baristas, At home I don’t think it’s something different.. In fact, what interests me most about the new V60 is that they have kept the price very similar, so it remains one of the most affordable coffee makers with which to prepare a very good specialty coffee at home and, above all, it shows that a simple design, even if it can be intricate with micro-rib technology, triumphs if from the first moment it is a product that makes sense and that is … Read more

China has been using trams without rails or catenary for years. The problem is that they are not as revolutionary as they seem.

May 17, 2026 by usatoday24

Imagine a tram that runs on the asphalt like a bus, without needing rails, without overhead cables to feed on and without a driver. That is exactly ARTor Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit, a technology that China has been developing for more than a decade and that already operates in several cities in the country. An idea that comes from afar, although it may not seem like it. Chinese manufacturer CRRC, the world’s largest producer of railway equipment, presented the first prototype in Zhuzhou, China, in June 2017. The first commercial line It started in that same city in May 2018, with a route of just 3.2 kilometers. Since then, the system has nine operating lines in five Chinese cities. Yibin (Sichuan) was the second to joinin 2019, with a 17.7 kilometer line. Later came Xi’an, Yancheng and Yongxiu, where ART circulates both on a demonstration and commercial basis. Click on the image to play the video How it works. The ART It is, in essence, an articulated bus large that imitates the shape and capacity of a tram, but without requiring the infrastructure that makes trams expensive. The vehicle does not follow physical rails, but rather what CRRC calls a “virtual rail”: a set of marks painted on the asphalt (white dashed lines) that the guidance system reads in real time using optical cameras and LIDAR sensors. A GPS system complements the navigation. With three carriages, it measures about 30 meters and can transport up to 300 passengers; With five cars, it reaches 500. Its maximum speed is 70 km/h. The propulsion is 100% electric. Initial versions used supercapacitors (which charge very quickly at stops, but store little energy) and batteries. At InnoTrans 2024, one of the largest public transport fairs in Berlin, CRRC presented an evolved version that incorporates hydrogen propulsiondesigned especially for markets like Malaysia. The “autonomous” thing is nuanced. Here in this case marketing can be misleading. Although the acronym ART includes the word autonomous, all ART vehicles in operation still operate with a driver, using optical guidance for assistance. They are not autonomous driving vehicles in the strict sense of the word. The driver supervises the journey and takes control in the event of any incident. Why is it cheaper? The great promise of ART is the cost. According to CRRC data shared According to The Conversation, deploying a kilometer of this technology costs between 7 and 15 million dollars, compared to 20-30 million per kilometer for a conventional tram or 70-150 million for the subway. There is no digging, no catenary to lay, no rails to install. In principle, it is enough to paint markings on the asphalt and segregate a lane. However, according to they count researchers from the University of Sydney in the middle, that advantage has fine print. As the vehicle travels exactly the same route over and over again, with the wheels always stepping on the same points of the asphalt, the surface ends up deteriorating more quickly than on a conventional road. A study published in 2021 by transportation researchers James Raynolds, David Pham and Graham Currie found evidence of significant pavement wear, which may require structural reinforcement of the roadway. A process that, in some estimates, ends up being as expensive as installing rails directly. Where can you see it today? ARTs continue to be vehicles with the greatest presence in China. Outside this country, progress is modest, and its record is not devoid of failures. Indonesia, for example, purchased a vehicle which was returned to China after tests in Nusantara (the new capital under construction) when it was found that the autonomous control system was not working optimally and required constant manual intervention. In Abu Dhabi two units were tested under the TXAI brand, with a view to connecting the main tourist attractions of Yas Island. In Malaysia, Putrajaya launched a pilot project in February 2024. In Auckland, New Zealand, negotiations with CRRC broke down after the manufacturer demanded that the city purchase the vehicle at the end of the demonstration, something that Auckland Transport did not end up liking. Japan, for its part, study a similar concept (with hydrogen propulsion) to connect the Mount Fuji area with the tourist centers of Yamanashi. Although the regional governor preferred that the project be entrusted to Japanese companies, and not to CRRC. Cover image | Wikipedia In Xataka | China created the C919 to stand up to Airbus and Boeing. And we already have data to know if it is being successful

The generation that paid not to see ads has changed its mind. And Netflix has been the main beneficiary

May 17, 2026 by usatoday24

Netflix’s ad-supported plan It already reaches 250 million people a monthtwice as much as a year ago. What started as a defensive bet to retain subscribers who were unsubscribing has become the model that defines where the market is going. streaming. Why is it important. The psychological barrier against advertisements has not been broken by any image campaign or by any rebranding. He has broken it the price. The plan with advertising costs 8.99 euros per month. The standard without ads, 14.99. This difference of six euros per month, or its equivalent in different regions, is what has convinced 250 million people to accept advertising interruptions in the service for which they previously paid precisely to not have them. Netflix has not changed its users’ attitude toward ads. He just put a number in front of it. The context. Netflix launched this plan in November 2022 as a kind of concession. The company had lost subscribers that year for the first time in a decade and needed a cheaper option for users who were threatening to leave. The hypothesis was to retain customers on the margin. Three years later, that second-tier plan has become the company’s growth engine. Between the lines. The real movement is not the 250 million users. They are the ads that those users are going to see. Netflix has announced that it is testing a personalization tool that adjusts ads based on each account’s viewing habits. Anyone who watches a lot of crime series will see different ads than someone who binge-watches romantic comedies. When that system matures, Netflix will not sell generic advertising space but rather qualified attention to segmented audiences with a level of precision that classic TV cannot offer. Advertisers are much more interested in reaching a million people who are likely to buy their product than ten million who don’t care. New phase. Netflix plans to extend the ads to his feed vertical video for mobilethe one that has just been released, and also to the podcasts that it added to the platform last year. The company is also expanding the advertising plan to 15 new countries, including the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and Indonesia. Netflix’s advertising business is no longer an experiment but a line of income with its own ambition. Yes, but. A few days ago, a US prosecutor presented a lawsuit against Netflix alleging that it has misled subscribers about what data it collects to serve advertising. If it prospers, or if other states follow the same path, Netflix could suffer restrictions that directly affect the tool that allows it to sell that personalized advertising. The new Netflix’s most valuable asset is the behavioral data of 250 million viewers. And that asset now has a lawsuit over it. In Xataka | The death of television as a center of attention: Netflix writes its scripts thinking about the “second screen” Featured image | Xataka

We knew that Russians like to travel to the islands, but not so much

May 17, 2026 by usatoday24

From the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline In 2022, underwater infrastructure has become an absolute priority for NATO security. that episode made evident both their vulnerability and the lack of legal tools to protect them. Now the Government of Spain has just published the Annual National Security Report 2025 where it makes it clear that submarine telecommunications cables are already one of the main strategic concerns. And the reason is specific: during 2025, the presence of Russian ships near the Canary Islands coasts increased five-fold. The discovery. Without a doubt, what draws the most attention report the thing is In 2025, the presence of Russian ships near the Canary Islands coasts has increased fivefold. The Navy, through its Maritime Action Operations and Surveillance Center (COVAM), detects around 50 vessels of this type in state waters every week, mainly in the Canary Islands, the Alboran Sea and the Strait of Gibraltar. It is what we know as the Russian “ghost fleet”: they do not sail under the Russian flag, but under flags of convenience with opaque insurance. AND Its official mission is to transport oil of Russian, Venezuelan and Iranian origin destined for Asia, thus avoiding international sanctions. The European Maritime Safety Agency has been tracking for years this phenomenon in their surveillance reports. Why is it important. submarine cables move approximately 99% of internet traffic, which includes sensitive data, financial and military systems and Spain is a key node on the routes that connect Europe with America and Africa, as can be seen on Google Maps of submarine cables. In short, any damage to these infrastructures would have direct and immediate consequences. The European Commission already contemplates this in its recent Plan of actionwhere it mentions everything from physical sabotage to cyberattacks and hybrid threats. The Baltic countries They have already alerted NATO of this type of fleet to cause GPS interference and damage cables and energy infrastructure. And that’s without talking about the environmental risk: the poor condition of many of these vessels makes an accidental spill likely in areas as sensitive as the Canary Islands. Context. This intense activity is part of the Russian hybrid war strategy in Europe, hostile actions within the gray zone, a kind of stones in the shoe that remain below the threshold of the casus belli. Underwater infrastructures, due to their inherent vulnerability, are the perfect target. The DSN report recognizes that Spain is not Russia’s main objective, but that the growing presence of this fleet in the western Mediterranean adds risks that cannot be ignored. In fact, there are already precedents such as cutting cables in the Baltic which show that the threat is real and not something theoretical. Spain’s response. The Spanish state has reinforced surveillance through various systems. The most visible is the Integrated External Surveillance System (SIVE) of the Civil Guard, designed to detect and follow suspicious vessels in real time. Added to this are ocean patrols by the Navy and active coordination with the European Maritime Safety Agency. The Department of Homeland Security insists that Spain must maintain technological resilience and permanent vigilance to prevent an incident, accidental or provoked, from leading to a major crisis. Yes, but. However, the report itself warns that current detection means are not accompanied by an equivalent response capacity. That is to say, there are not sufficient defense mechanisms, so the vulnerability continues to exist. One of the reasons is in the legal framework: the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea limits greatly increases the ability of States to intercept or inspect foreign vessels in international waters without a specific legal reason. In short: Spain can monitor, but not act preventively. The EU Action Plan tries to close this gap, but for the moment the state lacks legal instruments against a threat that moves in that gray area between legality and sabotage. In Xataka | A ghost fleet has mapped the entire underwater structure of the EU. The question is what Moscow is going to do with that information. In Xataka | 99% of the internet travels through submarine cables. Now there is a much more ambitious plan underway: linking the electrical grid Cover | Photo of Thomas Dorgler in Unsplash

You have one of the most important matches this weekend on Movistar Plus

May 17, 2026 by usatoday24

Most seasons (if not all) end with four or five teams fighting to avoid relegation in LaLiga. This year that constant has been broken, since There is only 6 points of difference between the eighth and the nineteenth classified. If you want to see how everything ends, you have one of the most outstanding matches of the penultimate day on Movistar Plus: a platform to which you can subscribe by 9.99 euros. And without permanence, of course. Monthly subscription to Movistar Plus The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A platform that you can share with a friend or family member As we usually tell you, Movistar Plus is a platform that we can contract regardless of the operator we are. It has no permanence and, in addition, you can share your subscription with a friend or family member without problems because it allows two simultaneous reproductions even if they are not at the same address. You can take advantage of a month to see how LaLiga finishes and discover gems from its catalog and, if it doesn’t convince you, unsubscribe whenever you want. Today, Sunday, May 17, we will be able to watch the match between Real Sociedad (current champion of the Copa del Rey) against Valencia, two teams that are fighting to finish the season in the best possible way. In addition, we will also be able to watch a match from the next LaLiga matchday, as well as the final of the Conference League with Rayo Vallecano. Of course, football and sports are not the only things we can see on Movistar Plus. ‘Peregrina’, Carles Porta’s latest documentary, was just released a few days ago. In addition, we must also keep very promising series on our radar such as ‘Many people have to die’, which will premiere on May 21. And that’s without counting all the cinema that there is with a lot of films that accumulate several awardsas ‘Sundays‘ either ‘Sentimental Value‘. ⚡ IN SUMMARY: movistar plus ✅ THE BEST You can share it with a friend or family member: Movistar Plus supports two simultaneous plays, so you can share your account without any problem. Your catalog of movies, series and documentaries: To football and other sports we must add a fairly extensive catalog of quality content, many of them exclusive to the platform. ❌ THE WORST QLose value if you don’t like the sport: It is true that if you don’t like football or sports in general, it may be a little less worth it. 💡 SUBSCRIBE IF… You want to see how relegation from LaLiga is decided and you also want to take a look at the platform’s catalogue. ⛔ DO NOT SUBSCRIBE IF… You don’t want another streaming platform or you’re simply not interested in sports. In that case, you have the Movistar Plus Free Plan which includes all its series, movies and documentaries for 4.99 euros per month. You may also be interested XIAOMI TV F Pro 43, 43 Inch (101 cm), 4K UHD QLED, Smart TV, Fire OS8, Alexa Voice Control, HDR10+, MEMC, 2GB+32GB, Compatible with Apple AirPlay The price could vary. We earn commission from these links TCL 65Q6C Television 65 Inch QD-Mini LED 4K Smart TV, 1000 nits, 144Hz Motion Clarity Pro, Onkyo 2.1, Game Master, FreeSync, Google TV, Dolby Vision IQ and Atmos The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Movistar Plus 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 In Xataka | Movistar Plus activates its Free Plan with complete programs and a lot of content, regardless of which operator you are

The problem of depopulation and the incredible demographic polarization of Europe, on a bleak map

May 17, 2026 by usatoday24

Europe is experiencing a silent paradox: its total population is growing in recent decades and yet, half of its towns and cities today have fewer inhabitants than in the 1960s. Special mention deserves cities like Madrid, Athens or Lisbon, truly out of control in front of the wastelands that are right next door. It is the consequence of decades of rural exodus, falling birth rates and migratory flows. Beyond colors and figures, this has a direct consequence in those municipalities that are dying: schools that close, doctors without substitutes and trains that no longer stop at stations. The map shows the population change municipality to municipality in Europe between 1961 and 2024. Green indicates growth and red indicates loss of inhabitants. Be careful because there are places where the growth is 500% and others where the drop reaches 80%. It covers around 100,000 municipalities in 32 countries: all EU states plus the United Kingdom, Norway, Switzerland and Iceland. This magnificent map is the work of Correctiv with data from the Eurostat Joint Research Center (JRC) based on a 63-year municipal historical series with homogeneous borders. How has he achieved it? The JRC has used satellite images of residential building volume as an indicator of where people lived in each era, and cross-referenced that information with harmonized Eurostat censuses. We recommend visiting the website of Correctiv for an in-depth view of its infographic with animations, where it also allows you to filter by two periods: from 61 to 91 and from 91 to 2024 and more or less around that time there is a historical milestone that marks the future of the East: the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the 32 countries analyzed, one in five rural municipalities has lost more than half of its population in these 60 years. Is the consequence of the urbanization of the 20th century: industry concentrated employment in the cities and the service economies that came later gave the finishing touch. Rural areas, on the other hand, live in a vicious circle: the more services are closed, the more depopulation, and so on. We are talking about bank branches, bakeries, consultations… The demographer Claudia Neu warns that the aging of European societies is the greatest challenge and that health and care costs will fall on this young generation, let us remember is increasingly scarce. The Europe of Schrödinger: grows and empties at the same time Population change in Europe: 1961 – 2024. Correctiv Europe is the oldest continent on the planet: has a birth rate average below 1.5 children per woman, looking from afar at that 2.1 that stipulates the replacement level. In Italy and Spain it is 1.3. The budding demographic pyramid in a system designed to function under constant growth, that is, the pressure of health, care and pensions falls on a base that narrows each year. In fact, the Center for European Reform He already says it loud and clear: only immigration can save us. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the opening of European borders triggered a large migratory flow from the former Soviet bloc to the west. 88% of municipalities in eastern Germany have lost population since 1991, compared to only 26% in the west. Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania and Latvia lead a unique decline in European history without wars involved. In fact, Bulgaria takes the cake: the Vidin region has lost 61% of its population. In Lithuania there is a contradiction: while 73% of its municipalities have shrunk, the capital has tripled. But what am I going to tell you if you live in Spain. Spain is the maximum expression of this trend. Correctiv Because Spain embodies the paradox of the map like no one else: Eight of the ten fastest growing municipalities in all of Europe are municipalities on the outskirts of Madrid. Meanwhile, Villarroya in Rioja has lost 98% of its inhabitants since 1961. Spain emptied. Be careful, Spain is not emptied as a whole, but it is polarized: it grows on the coasts and the big cities and bleeds into the interior. The immediate future does not invite optimism: the INE projects that the Spanish state will always have more deaths than births during the next fifteen years and that the percentage of people over 65 years of age, which today is 20.4%, will exceed 30% by 2055. The only safety valve to sustain the numbers is immigration: net inflows are projected to be around 375,000 people per year until mid-century, that is, by 2050 4 out of every 10 residents of the Spanish state will be born outside In Xataka | There is a very simple reason why it has taken Spain so long to have fiber optics in rural areas: this map In Xataka | Empty Europe: this is how the population has moved from the countryside to the city in just ten years Cover | Correctiv

When King Charles III commissioned a map of South America and then banned it because it was too accurate

May 17, 2026 by usatoday24

TO Juan de la Cruz Cano y Olmedilla professional zeal played tricks on him. When in 1764 took charge of Charles III To create a map of South America, the good geographer put so much effort, so much into the project and so precise was it. the end result That upon seeing it the king was frightened. His map was a true cartographic gem, but it ended up condemned by the Bourbon. By express order of the count of Floridablanca The few copies of the map disappeared, as if they had never existed: the Government suspended the printing of the map and collected all the copies it could to keep them under lock and key. The reason: good work in bad times. The order of orders. At 30 years old, the cartographer and geographer Juan de la Cruz Cano received between 1764 and 1765 an assignment that would make any of his colleagues salivate with excitement. He Marquis of GrimaldiMinister of State, entrusted him with the ambitious task of drawing a large map of South America. The result had to be precise and capture the territories of the Spanish Crown, well positioned and in relation to the possessions controlled by Portugal. As if the mission were not challenging in itself, the minister was acting by order of the monarch Charles III himself. “Geographic map of South America” by Juan de la Cruz Cano. A long decade of work. The assignment was difficult and required Juan de la Cruz Cano to make a considerable investment of effort and time. More than ten years he dedicated to the mission, according to details the National Library of Spain (BNE), which assures that to shape the map the geographer carried out meticulous data collection work, consulted testimonies from explorers and colonizers, dedicated himself to verifying sources and of course made “a magnificent cartographic layout.” After many headaches and relying on the studies of Jorge Juan and Antonio de UlloaJuan finished the work in the 1770s. The map was first stamped at end of 75. “One of the most important”. He in quotes It is again from the BNE, which insists that Juan de la Cruz Cano’s map is one of the most important of South America that was printed in 18th century Europe and even served as the basis for many other plans that were published later. So accurate was it that its initial reception was good. And it is logical that this was the case: the map was made up of eight enormous plates, measuring 2.6 meters high by 1.85 m wide and presented a scale of 1:4,000,000. If you examined it carefully, you could also see annotations, abundant toponymy and a detailed representation of the hydrographic and road network, as well as drawings that completed it as artistic work: allegories of America and Europe, the symbol of the order of Charles III, shields and even the illustration of a column profusely decorated with the bust of Columbus. The older he incorporated calculations for the drawing of demarcation lines between the Portuguese and Spanish domains according to the Treaty of Tordesillas. Portrait of Charles III. Good, dangerously good. The initial satisfaction generated by the map soon turned into a very different and much less uplifting sensation: fear, worry. 1775 was not a good time to show a map of South America as exact as the one Juan de la Cruz had made. Spain was in full negotiations with Portugal to reach a new treaty on the delimitation of its possessions in America, an effort that would lead to the Treaty of San Ildefonso of 1777, and that map of South America did not exactly benefit the Spanish position. “The data on the map favored Portugal’s aspirations. For this reason, the Government ordered to suspend printing and collect the distributed copies,” reports the BNE in the file dedicated to the plan, known as Geographic map of South America. “Wrong limits”. The history of the map was short-lived. After three editions and given the discomfort that that fortunate map generated for the Crown, in 1789 the Count of Floridablanca ordered that all copies be made to disappear. The effort did not go badly. The Country precise that today only a handful of copies are preserved, distributed by the National Library, the Royal Academy of History and private and public collections. “151 maps and the copper plates were kept in the Royal Calcography, with the prohibition that no copy be sold because the limits between the Spanish and Portuguese domains were erroneous,” the Cerralbo Museum specifies. That was the official version, of course. The reality was quite different: the Government feared that the precision of the work would harm the position that Spain had defended before Lisbon after the first Treaty of San Ildefonso. “The map implied a recognition of Portugal’s territorial usurpations,” slide the museum. A bittersweet ending. That of Juan de la Cruz Cano’s map is a peculiar story. Its finish too and leaves a bittersweet taste. The enormous cartographic work that he developed over the years would end up receiving recognition inside and outside of Spain and today it is claimed as a historical gem and one of the maps most important that were printed in Europe in the 18th century, but all that praise was of little use to those who had dedicated themselves to the project, including Juan de la Cruz Cano himself, who died in 1790, a year after Floridablanca ordered any sample of the map to be swept away, as if it had never existed. Auctions. “The engraver, who had invested his entire fortune in this work, was compensated, but died bankrupt and discredited as a cartographer,” reminds the Ministry of Culture. However, not all the zeal of the Spanish Crown could prevent some copies of that work from ending up traveling through Europe and even reached Thomas Jeffersonfuture president of the United States and at that time American ambassador in Paris. Despite Floridablanca’s efforts to prevent it, … Read more

In 1985, on the verge of being defeated by Pepsi, Coca-Cola changed its ancestral formula. The result was a disaster

May 17, 2026 by usatoday24

Coca-Cola had been the reference soft drink around the world for decades, but in the early 80s a very tough competitor had emerged: pepsi. The firm had been gaining more and more followers with advertisements in which they participated Michael Jackson, Michael J Fox either Cindy Crawfordand its success did not stop growing thanks to a spectacular advertising campaign called “The Pepsi Challenge”. Those ads seemed to show that people preferred the taste of Pepsi, and Coca-Cola managers, scared by the threat of being forgotten, decided to change the formula and create the so-called “New Coke.” That was a disaster and Coca-Cola ended up returning to its original formula. The Pepsi challenge was as simple as it was effective. The people who participated did a “blind tasting”: there were two glasses with unidentified cola, one with Coca-Cola and the other with Pepsi. In appearance they seemed the same, and behind them were the bottles with which each glass had been filled (or hidden under some paper cylinders). The result according to the advertisements was always himself. The taste of Pepsi won time and time again. Coca-Cola executives, who saw how their market share was constantly declining, began a gigantic project: the creation of a “New Coca-Cola” (New Coke) that would see its recipe modified for the first time since the creation of this drink in 1886. What happened The modification of the recipe was evaluated with market studies that were promising: the new Coca-Cola, sweeter, beat both the old Coca-Cola (the original) and Pepsi. Everything seemed to show that Coca-Cola had its winning drink. That made the company announce “New Coke” with great fanfare on April 23, 1985. Initially the reception was good, but criticism soon began to arrive, which increased: a lot of people wanted the old Coca-Colaand surveys conducted shortly after the launch showed how only 13% of people preferred “New Coke.” Coca-Cola ended up producing the original recipe again, which it called “Coca-Cola Classic” just two months after that launch, and some time later it directly stopped manufacturing its “New Coca-Cola” to stay with the classic, which also lost that adjective. Everything remained as at the beginning, but with a spectacular marketing failure and development in which the firm had invested 100 million dollars. Still, Coca-Cola recovered after the disaster. That attempt to compete, although a failure, seemed to resonate deeply with consumers, especially when Coca-Cola recognized its mistake and offered the “old Coca-Cola” again. By the end of 1985, Coca-Cola Classic was outselling New Coke and Pepsi. What happened? One of the problems was pointed out by Malcolm Gladwell in his book ‘Intuitive Intelligence: Why do we know the truth in two seconds?’ (‘Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking’). In it he explained how the failure was in the nature of the blind tastings, based on “sips.” People, he explained, reacted positively to the sweeter taste of Pepsi when they only tried a sip, but that taste ended up being worse when you drank an entire can, and that is what according to Gladwell Coca-Cola failed to understand in its tests. The original Coca-Cola recipe proposed a much more appropriate balance for the capacity of the cans and bottles of this soft drink. At Coca-Cola they also tried to investigate what had happened, and the conclusion of those in charge was that they underestimated the public reaction of people who rejected the change. The response generated by that launch of the “New Coca-Cola” was astonishing, and signature collections and movements against the new recipe were organized that united many people in an unprecedented campaign. Of course: New Coke kept winning those blind tastings. It didn’t matter: the one that really won was Coca-Cola, whose current quota in the soft drink market is 44% in the United States, while Pepsi’s is 26%. In Xataka | Odyssey in the soft drink aisle: why drinking a Diet Coke in the middle of 2026 is an impossible mission In Xataka | The Coca-Cola recipe seemed untouchable. Until Europe first and Mexico later have decided to touch it Image | Unsplash

Anxious people get sick less because their brain detects risks before the rest

May 17, 2026 by usatoday24

There is a deeply rooted stereotype in our society: the anxious person, the one who worries about everything, the one who checks their symptoms on the internet at three in the morning, is condemned to live less. We tend to think that constant stress, that label of being the “pussy” or the “anxious” of the group, is a one-way ticket to physical and mental exhaustion. However, science has given a fascinating twist to this belief. What if living in a state of alert was not a factory defect, but a sophisticated survival mechanism? Psychology and medicine have begun to discover an extraordinary paradox: always being on alert has a hidden reward. Certain levels of anxiety and constant worry make people less sick from serious ailments, simply because their brain works as an anticipatory radar that detects risks long before the rest of us, allowing them to dodge bullets that the most “relaxed” do not even see coming. The dual nature of neuroticism For decades, the medical community has warned about the dangers of neuroticismdefining it as the general tendency of an individual to experience negative emotions such as worry, depression, irritability and emotional instability. Traditionally, it has been associated with a greater susceptibility to physical and mental disorders, a lower quality of life and, epidemiologically, with a higher risk of mortality. However, as explained in an article published in the scientific journal Science Bulletinwe were missing half the movie by ignoring the evolutionary perspective. From this point of view, having minimal reactions to threatening stimuli—that is, being an extremely relaxed person or with very low neuroticism—is generally not advantageous for survival. To mitigate risks and ensure survival, both animals and our human ancestors needed automatic responses to immediate and future threats. This biological need manifests itself through adaptive emotions such as fear and its anticipatory form: anxiety. The study even rescues an ancient Chinese proverb that perfectly summarizes this philosophy of survival: “Life springs from pain and calamity; death comes from ease and pleasure.” Thus, scientists propose that neuroticism is a paradox. It has evolved in different dimensions to adapt to ecological and cultural changes, influencing our lifestyle in very diverse ways. The claim of the worried We all know someone who is hypersensitive to environmental risks, or perhaps we ourselves suffer from that constant worry about health, the future or security. This new scientific approach offers gigantic emotional validation: that anxiety is not necessarily a weakness, but rather an ancient protective shield. Understanding this changes the rules of the game. It shows us that channeling this hypervigilance well translates into tangible benefits. That inner voice that forces you to go to the doctor when you notice a strange mole, the one that makes you put on your seat belt without thinking or the one that stops you from making a reckless decision, is the evolutionary legacy of your ancestors keeping you alive. But this is not just an abstract evolutionary theory; Clinical data are already demonstrating this. To understand how anxiety saves our lives, we have to look under the hood of personality. Recent large-scale research, such as the macro study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychologyhave shown after analyzing more than half a million people that our personality traits are a key driver that directly impacts our mortality risk. Going one step further to break down which parts of that personality protect us, an exhaustive meta-analysis published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research analyzed longitudinal data from six studies with 335,715 participants. Their conclusion was blunt: putting all anxiety and neuroticism in the same bag masks vital relationships between personality and health. Researchers found that neuroticism has different “facets,” and not all of them are bad. While traits such as pessimism or cynicism increase the risk of mortality, there are other dimensions that act as real life jackets. The survival mechanism has two aspects: The “Worried-Vulnerable” facet: Data revealed that people with high scores on this dimension have a reduced risk of dying from all causes, highlighting significant reductions in mortality from cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and respiratory diseases. As explained in the studyWorried people tend to be extremely vigilant about their health care. They become concerned at the slightest symptom and seek medical help much sooner, resulting in early diagnoses and life-saving treatments. The “Inadequacy” facet: Characterized by shyness and the feeling of incompetence in the face of adversity, surprisingly also reduces mortality. The key here is danger avoidance: these people are much more cautious and less likely to expose themselves to cumulative risks over time. On the contrary, the study confirm that the destructive facets are cynicism and pessimism, since these individuals tend to abandon themselves, smoke more and, above all, underuse health care services. The reward comes with age If youth and early adulthood are the battlefield where our “threat radar” (neuroticism) works overtime to keep us alive, old age is the time to reap the rewards. There is a false belief that older people become grumpy or rigid. However, the psychology has been demonstrating for decades that aging is, in reality, a process of psychological refinement. Based on the theory of the big five personality traits (Big Five), it has been observed that the passage of time sculpts us for the better. After the age of 60, an astonishing positive evolution occurs. Conscientiousness increases (we become more responsible and focused), kindness increases and, most importantly in this context, neuroticism drops dramatically. The emotional storms of youth and that constant hypervigilance that protected us from danger give way to profound emotional regulation and calm. The human brain appears to be programmed to prioritize stability and social cohesion as we age. Furthermore, current research shows a clear “advantage boomer“. Those born between 1946 and 1964 are aging better than their predecessors, maintaining high levels of extraversion, curiosity and personal agency. Reports like the Mental State of the World by Sapien Labs reflect a generation gap where those over 65 and 70 years old … Read more

China already mass-produces the strongest carbon fiber in the world. And that changes the rules in defense, aeronautics and energy

May 16, 2026 by usatoday24

For decades, access to the world’s highest-performance composite materials has been a privilege of a few countries. For high-performance carbon fiber, Japan and the United States have controlled that market with a combination of technological advantage and export frameworks explicitly designed to keep China out. Last March we saw that this balance had changed, as the Chinese state group CNBM (China National Building Material Group) presented in Paris the world’s first mass production of T1200 grade carbon fiberthe highest step on the tensile strength scale of this material. What is the T1200. As we explained a while ago, in the world of carbon fiber, the letter T followed by a number is a direct resistance classification. The higher the number, the more force the material can withstand before breaking. T1200 exceeds 8 gigapascals (GPa) of tensile strength, making it about ten times stronger than conventional steel, with a density that is just one quarter of that of steel and with a filament diameter less than one tenth of a human hair. According to counted CCTV, a cable just over two millimeters thick, made up of 120,000 of these filaments, is capable of towing a bus full of 54 passengers. More companies join this fiber. China showed its prowess at the JEC World in Paris, but the industries have already gotten up and running. At the end of April, PetroChina announced the inauguration of its first carbon fiber project high-performance in the city of Jilin, with an investment of approximately 1.3 billion yuan (about 180 million dollars). It is relevant because it is no longer just CNBM, as the state energy giant enters the sector taking advantage of its dominance in the supply chain. Zhongfu Shenying, a subsidiary of CNBM, for its part, has commissioned additional production a new 10,000 ton plant standard fiber metrics. China’s idea is to build an industrial ecosystem from the top down, including mastering high-performance carbon fiber production techniques. China had not been able to manufacture it for decades. High performance carbon fiber has been on dual technology lists for decades use of the Wassenaar Agreement, the multilateral export control regime created in 1996 with 42 member countries including Japan and the United States, but not China. According to the China Composites Industry Association, the Agreement restricts the export of carbon fiber of high modulus (from grade T800) to non-member countries. This means that accessing materials above that threshold required, in practice, manufacturing them at home or obtaining them through alternative means. China did not have its first T300 until 2008. From there to the T1200 it took less than twenty years. It has taken Japan 43 to travel that same path. How China has accelerated so much. The model that has been repeated many other times and in other sectors: state capital, research from universities and industrial capacity functioning as a coordinated ecosystem, with the same approach as China has been applied to semiconductorsbatteries or electric vehicles. In this case the protagonist is CNBM, which developed the fiber through Zhongfu Shenying Carbon Fiber. Zhou Yuxian, president of CNBM, counted in the presentation that the country has demonstrated “completely independent and controllable capabilities throughout the entire industrial chain”, from equipment to the transition from laboratory to mass production. Chen Qiufei, head of T1200 R&D at Zhongfu Shenying, added Furthermore, the new grade improves the resistance of the previous T1100 by more than 14% and allows the weight of the equipment to be reduced in the sectors where it is applied by more than 10%. Who led the market until now. Toray Industries, a Japanese company, dominates the global market with a production capacity of 29,100 tons per year. It also developed its own T1200 with 8 GPa strength, but so far has not announced a mass production line equivalent to that of CNBM. Mitsubishi Chemical, another Japanese giant, advertisement plans to double its high-performance capacity before 2027. The South Korean Hyosung Advanced Materials aims to reach 24,000 tons per year in 2028. On the other hand, on the American flank, Hexcel is defined as the main supplier of carbon fiber for aerospace and United States military programs. Where is it applied? High-performance carbon fiber has been used for decades in combat aircraft, missiles, satellites and military fuselages precisely because it combines extreme strength with extreme lightness. With the T1200, things go even further. According to counted Interesting Engineering, the material could redefine the limits of fifth and sixth generation military aircraft manufacturing. In the civil sphere, commercial aeronautics already consumes around 76% of global carbon fiber, and the T1200 would allow additional structural weight reductions on platforms such as the Boeing 787 or the Airbus A350. In energy, high-pressure hydrogen tanks use carbon fiber structures to withstand pressure with the lowest possible weight. China has also pointed out applications in humanoid robotics and in the so-called “low-altitude economy” (drones, air taxis and urban air mobility). The Chinese space company Welight Technology already operates a rocket whose structure is around 90% carbon fiber composites, which reduces weight by 25 to 30% compared to equivalent metal designs. Cover image | Zhongfu Shenying In Xataka | Brazil holds one of the largest reserves of rare earths in the world. And he doesn’t want to repeat the same mistake from centuries ago

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