Mobile Tech & Gadgets

China prepares a 2nm AI chip to end NVIDIA’s dominance. Your problem is how you are going to manufacture it

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A new chip designer for artificial intelligence (IA) is preparing to take the field in China. And he intends to make a lot of noise. In fact, it is already doing so. It’s called Dishan Technology, and, according to SCMP, is already verifying the prototype of a 2nm AI GPU that uses a hybrid integration technology that combines FinFET and GAA transistors (Gate-All-Around). However, this is not the only thing that has emerged. According to Dishan Technology, this chip will be 40% more energy efficient than its predecessor and will be compatible with CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture), from NVIDIA. This latest technology brings together the compiler and development tools used by programmers to develop their software for NVIDIA GPUs, so if Dishan’s chip is really compatible it will be much easier to integrate it into facilities that already have GPUs from this American company. Although, as I mentioned above, Dishan already has a prototype of its chip, it will take another year or two to refine its technology enough to make large-scale manufacturing possible. Be that as it may, what has not been revealed is who is going to manufacture it. SMICthe largest Chinese semiconductor producer, can currently only manufacture 7nm chips using the multiple patterning. And TSMC, Intel and Samsung, which could produce it, will hardly do so in the current geopolitical context due to the demands of the US sanctions on China. We will see how Dishan Technology solves this challenge. China already has three “champions” in its AI chip ecosystem The country led by Xi Jinping you already have three alternatives very clear to NVIDIA. Although not as well-known as Huawei or Moore Threads, Cambricon Technologies is one of the companies specialized in designing GPUs for AI with the greatest growth potential. In fact, in August 2025 it received approval from the Shanghai Stock Exchange (China) to raise $560 million. He is allocating them to the design of four chips for training and inference of AI models, and also to the development of an alternative to CUDA. Moore Threads has developed several GPUs that rival advanced solutions from NVIDIA, AMD or Huawei On the other hand, Moore Threads has developed several GPUs for AI applications that, on paper, rival some of the advanced solutions that NVIDIA, AMD or Huawei have placed on the market. The cards MTT S4000 and MTT S3000 They are its most interesting proposals right now, although, curiously, the MTT S80 card also appears in its portfolio, a proposal for games and content creation that, according to Moore Threads itself, has a computing capacity of 14.4 TFLOPS in single-precision floating point operations. The other indispensable player in the Chinese AI chip industry is Huawei. His most ambitious proposal right now is the chip Ascend 950PRwhich aims to surpass the performance of the GPU NVIDIA H100. However, this Chinese company also launched its chips last year Ascend 910D and 920. This last solution is clearly intended to compete in the Chinese market with NVIDIA’s H20 GPU. Presumably at the end of 2026 it will launch its Ascend 950DT chip, and the Ascend 960 and 970 GPUs will arrive in 2027 and 2028 respectively. Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini More information | SCMP In Xataka | TSMC acknowledges that it has considered taking its factories out of Taiwan. It’s impossible for a good reason. In Xataka | The looming bottleneck in AI is neither RAM nor gas: it’s that TSMC’s N3 node is absolutely saturated

the rules of war are being redefined

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In 2007, at a military range in South Africa, an automatic anti-aircraft gun Oerlikon GDF-005 got out of control during an exercise and opened fire without human intervention, causing several victims before being arrested. That incident, investigated for years, is often remembered because left a lesson disturbing about what can happen when machines begin to act in combat environments. That scenario is already happening in Ukraine. The first position captured without humans. In the words of ukrainian president himself several hours ago, the war in the country has crossed an unprecedented border: for the first time in history, a Russian position was taken without the direct intervention of soldiersonly through aerial drones and ground robots. The operation, which ended with the surrender of Russian troops, left no casualties on the Ukrainian side and marked a milestone that until recently belonged more to science fiction than military reality. Here names appear like TerMIT, Ratel, Ardal, Lynx or Volya, “soldiers” who are no longer prototypes, but protagonists of a new way of fighting where machines execute complete missions. The event. The Zelensky’s statement has not been independently verified, but was accompanied by a promotional video in which he described that Ukrainian military robots had completed more than 22,000 missions in the last three months. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry also recently reported a three-fold increase in the Ukrainian military’s unmanned ground vehicle missions over the past five months, with more than 9,000 robotic missions carried out in March, according to Scripps News. The growing presence of ground robots represents a new trend in a war that has become synonymous with drones. An option. According to The IndependentZelenskyy’s statement could refer to an event that occurred last year in Kharkiv Oblast, northeastern Ukraine. That statement cited a statement from Ukraine’s 3rd Independent Assault Brigade detailing how the unit had used drones and kamikaze ground robots to attack Russian fortified positions on the front lines. The brigade’s statement also described Russian soldiers surrendering to one of the unit’s robots after abandoning damaged fortifications. In fact, it we get to count and there are several examples advances of Russian soldiers, individually or in small groups, surrendering to drones Ukrainians and even before a robotwhile they were recorded on video, so the idea that a group of Russian soldiers surrender to a robot is not far-fetched. Plus: the exploits of these robots on the battlefield also appeared in a recent video which described a similar, or possibly identical, incident involving the same brigade. From logistical support to assault force. Because what began as a limited use of robots for transportation or evacuation tasks has quickly evolved into an active role in combat. I counted a few weeks ago the Guardian that, in a matter of months, missions with unmanned ground vehicles have multiplied, going from thousands to tens of thousands, while drones dominate the battlefield and cause the majority of casualties. In this environment, robots have taken on roles increasingly aggressivefrom placing explosives to opening fire or acting as suicide units, integrating into coordinated operations that previously required infantry. Moving is almost impossible. It we have been counting. The rise of these systems responds to a brutal reality: the front has become a constant death zone dominated by drones, one where any human movement is detected and attacked within minutes. With areas of up to 20 kilometers under permanent surveillance, soldiers can barely move without exposing themselves to attack, which has forced them to completely rethink the way they operate. In that context, sending machines instead of people is not only a tactical advantage, but a necessity to survive. The scene that defines everything. During the last months we have related all kinds of episodes more typical of a fantastic novel. Possibly images of Russian soldiers surrendering to robots armed groups condense this paradigm shift. In some cases, fighters have emerged from destroyed positions to surrender to remotely controlled devices, aware that they were not facing a conventional enemy. For this reason, the operation that has culminated in the capture of a position without direct human intervention reflects the extent to which the war has entered a phase where the physical presence of the soldier is no longer essential to gain ground. Ecosystem in full acceleration. Behind these advances is a dynamic system in which engineers, manufacturers and combat units they work togethertesting and perfecting technologies in real time. In that sense, Ukraine has turned the need in innovationdeveloping fast and scalable solutions that compensate for its resource disadvantage compared to Russia. In fact, it is on its way to becoming one of the great powers weapons with drones and AI as standard bearers of this new war. Hence, furthermore, the model has aroused so much interest from other countries and military alliances, watching how the integration of drones and robots redefines tactics and preparation for future conflicts. A revolution beyond Ukraine. If you also want, beyond the immediate impact on the conflict, all these advances point to a deeper transformation of the art of modern war. Robots already represent an essential part of logistics and begin to replace infantry of the last century in key tasks, with the possibility of significantly reducing the number of soldiers needed at the front. In other words, what happened with that captured position without humans It is not an isolated episode, but rather the preview of a model in which machines will not only accompany the soldier, but, in certain situations, will wage war on their own, completely replacing them. Image | YouTube In Xataka | If you thought Hormuz was not enough, the war in Ukraine has opened another maritime front in Europe: the Gulf of Finland In Xataka | If fog was deadly in Ukraine’s winter, spring is offering Russia a key advantage: greenery

Your subscription now includes 99,999 Freepik credits to use its artificial intelligence

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Xataka Xtra keeps improving. If just a few days ago we announced an exclusive discount in the Samsung online store, today we are pleased to announce that, from now on, all members of the Xtra community can get 99,999 free credits to use Pikasothe suite of generative artificial intelligence tools from the Spanish company Freepik. In this way, anyone can generate a (good) handful of images, audio or videos using models such as Nano Banana 2, Kling 3.0, Seedance 2.0, ElevenLabs Music or Google Lyria, among others. This is an exclusive advantage for Xataka Xtra members. If you are not yet part of the community, You can subscribe from only two euros per month. Freepik credits galore for Xtra members From this very moment, all Xataka Xtra members will find in their member area a unique and exclusive code for each useras well as instructions to redeem it in your Freepik accounts. The code gives access to 99,999 Pikaso credits that will last until completely consumed or for three months from when the code is redeemed. If the code is not used, it will expire within one year. It should be noted that it is not necessary to be a Freepik subscriber, just create an account and redeem the code. Here you can find all video models, all image, all audio and all 3das well as the amount of credits consumed by each generation. For example, Nano Banano Pro 2 4K consumes 150 credits per image, so your code could generate 666 images. Seedance 2.0, for its part, consumes 5,500 credits for every 15 seconds of 720p video. That is, there is more than enough credits to try and experiment as much as you want. In addition to these models, Magnific, the AI ​​rescaler, is also available. Join Xataka Xtra and save The Xataka Xtra subscription includes this and many other exclusive benefits, from a Discord server for subscribers to a direct line with editors through El Consultorio, a monthly meeting with the house’s editors and, as is obvious, an ever-growing list of discounts and advantages on digital services. Can join Xataka Xtra from only two euros per month and take advantage not only of these Freepik credits, but of all those already available and those yet to come: Image | Xataka In Xataka | 48 hours at Upscale Conf: what happens to human creativity when thousands of human creatives fall in love with AI

the great waste management fraud

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In the early 1980s, some North American cities began to realize that the waste generated by plastic was enormous and uncontrollable. Technicians and activists began to talk about regulations and prohibitions, but the industry found another way to solve it: recycling. The standard. For 50 years, the petrochemical industry has promoted recycling as the ‘gold standard’ for solving plastic pollution. Today, We know that only 9% of all plastic produced historically has been recycled. It was not a miscalculationnor a display of naive optimism: it was a large-scale industrial fraud. A documented fraud. In 1973, ahead of the regulatory wave, the Society of the Plastics Industry commissioned a report to see what could be done with the plastic they made themselves. The study’s conclusions were devastating: not only did it recognize the inherent degradation of resins in each reprocessing cycle, but it made clear that (even in the best of cases) there was no market for the final product. And, of course, the industry didn’t care. A report from the Center for Climate Integrity and the summary of a macro-case by the California attorney general against ExxonMobil give us the keys to understand it. Because it’s not exactly a secret. An Exxon employee recognized in 1994 before the American Plastics Council that “the company was committed to recycling activities, but not to their results.” The founder of the Vinyl Institute (one of the sector’s lobbies) admitted in 1989 that recycling could not be continued indefinitely and that, of course, it did not solve the problem of solid waste. We have proof. What’s more, for decades, we have known that there are internal documents that show patterns of investments in recycling plants that were closed or abandoned once they had fulfilled their public relations function. The tests go on and on. However, no one paid much attention. The parallelism with climate denialism ands patent: the documentation is crystal clear. The industry knew recycling wouldn’t work, but spent millions and millions actively promoting it with the idea of ​​avoiding regulations. And why is it news now? Because there are doubts that this is over. Yes, the average citizen has internalized that separating waste and depositing it in the yellow container (or the equivalent system) is an effective environmental action. In fact, the better the citizen recycles, the more effective the industry’s alibi is to continue producing plastic without restrictions. Recycling actually displaces regulatory pressure. Because the data (and recycling rates whatever the approach) is not as good as we might think. And the problem is volume. Plastic production is going at such a speed that even by significantly improving recycling rates we would not be able to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in the environment. And what do we do? That’s the big question: what do we do. Our society has become so dependent on plastic that the most effective solutions are outside the realm of possibility. But if the situation continues like thisthey will stop being so sooner rather than later. Image | Nick Fewings In Xataka | We have known for years that our recycling system is broken. It seems that we are finally going to fix it

We have reached a point where artists have to explain that they have made their works without the help of AI and not the other way around.

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“I spent 40 hours making a digital painting and the first comment I get says: nice AI art.” He tells it a user on Redditbut it is not an isolated case. Not too long ago, we thought that the solution was tag all AI-made contentbut we quickly realized that It was a huge challenge.. Today, it is human artists who have to defend that their art is real. What is happening. More and more artists are accused of having used AI in their works, especially when they are works that tend more towards realism and have a high level of detail. Many artists choose share your entire work process on networks and some deliver the files in layers to their clients to cover their backs and so that there is no room for doubt. It is not something that happens only with plastic arts, they have also been accused video game developers and writers. If I don’t know if it’s AI, then everything is AI. AI imaging capabilities have reached a level where the eye is no longer able to distinguish a real image from a generated one. Our ability to capture and distinguish visual information is suffering a shock in real time and the natural response is distrust; Since we can no longer trust what our eyes see, we question it. Is something too well drawn? It must be AI. Is a text suspiciously well written? You sure have done it with ChatGPT. It is a defensive posture that also responds to the fact that, if you believe something false, you look like a loser, while if you question something real, you are simply a skeptic. Label the human. Labeling AI content sounded good, but it hasn’t worked. Much of the blame lies with the platforms for not having been tougher with their application. We have the case of Etsy, a platform that was the refuge of crafts and has ended up becoming a bazaar of slop AI that pretends to be real. In this context, the solution seems to be just the opposite: labeling what is made by humans, as a kind of quality seal. Adam Mosseri said itdirector of Instagram, a few months ago: Platforms like Instagram do a good job of identifying AI-generated content, but their effectiveness will decrease over time as AI improves. It will be more practical to identify real content than fake content. AI detectors are not reliable. It is a fact and we have seen it on several occasions: universities falsely accusing hundreds of students of using AI because a software (also AI, of course) told him so, AI detectors who believe ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ was made with a chatbot…The quality of content generated with AI is advancing so quickly that it is no longer impossible to distinguish it from the real thing, which is why the proposal for human content labels makes sense. Something like the ‘denomination of origin’ seal on food. There are several proposals. They count in Verge that there are quite a few proposals that want to praise human content, offered by different associations such as Not By AI, ProudlyHuman, Human Authored or Human Made. The problem is that many of these labels do not have a complex authentication process behind them, but are based on simple trust. For it to be a reliable label, it is necessary to verify the work process using sketches or diagrams, something that is much more laborious to achieve. In Xataka | Crocheting was a peaceful refuge from the stress and information overload of the internet. Until AI arrived

LaLiga’s massive IP blocks are making life impossible for users, companies and developers. So you can claim

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LittleCranky67, which is the alias of our protagonist, didn’t know what was happening with his computer this weekend. This developer was doing something that never gave him any trouble: working with the GitLab platform to download a Docker software package. That process kept giving him strange errors, and LittleCranky67 ended up realizing what had caused it all: LaLiga’s indiscriminate IP blocking. After share your frustration on HackerNewshundreds of comments confirmed other similar cases, and in them we also discovered something interesting: how to officially claim LaLiga. Or at least, how to try. A sad old story. LaLiga he shields himself in the Judgment of December 18, 2024 issued by the Commercial Court No. 6 of Barcelona. This allows you to demand from operators such as Movistar, Vodafone, Orange or Digi to block at the IP level any address that is identified as a source of illegal IPTV broadcasts during LaLiga football matches. Many of those IPs are Cloudflare shared IPs, so when the IPTV service IP is blocked, all domains associated with that shared IP are blocked, which can be hundreds or even thousands. And in those domains there are web pages of private usersfrom companies that they stop being able to sell and also critical services for developers such as Docker, GitHub or GitLab. The irony is that lockdowns don’t work. While many users complain about these blocks and how are affecting websites and services that usemany others continue to remember on social networks that in reality the blocks to view these IPTV broadcasts can be easily circumvented in many ways. The most popular, use VPN services. In LaLiga they know that this method is widely used, so for months They are also working on blocking those services. It doesn’t seem to be serving a lotand whoever really wants to watch the football game without paying has many relatively simple ways to achieve it. If you are affected, you can claim. In that thread, several users remember that one way to try to change things is for users to protest, complain and complain en masse. There are several ways to do it: Telecommunications User Service Office. It is the official body in Spain for these cases. A formal claim can be filed for arbitrary loss of service or censorship, and even claim financial losses if the blockade prevents you from working. Those who have a digital certificate or Cl@ve can do so directly online. Complain to your internet provider. It is also important to open a support ticket with your operator. It is true that they are obliged to follow court orders, but they must know that the blockade is causing collateral damage to services that have nothing to do with football. Common Electronic Registry (SARA network). This portal It also allows you to send formal complaints to management if other methods fail. Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD). Those responsible for RootedCON have been fighting this situation for some time, and offer another recommendation: report LaLiga to the AEPD. This template allows you to complete that complaint in a simple way Demagive to Telecommunications Operators. At RootedCON they also suggest filing a complaint against ISPs, and explain the process in a small thread on Twitter. Again, just download a request and file it individually. Complaint to the European Commission. It is also possible to enter the European Commission complaints website to send a claim to the entity. We explained it in Xataka and the process is another way of trying to stop this situation with the help of European bodies. The BOE serves as a defensive argument. In these complaints it is advisable to cite the BOE-A-2022-10757 as a legal reference. It corresponds to Law 11/2022, of June 28, General Telecommunications (LGTel) and is the fundamental rule that regulates your rights as an internet user in Spain. The message that we can write is the following: “Under the protection of Law 11/2022, of June 28, General Telecommunications (BOE-A-2022-10757), specifically regarding the rights of end users (Chapter IV) and the principles of continuity and quality of service, I present this claim for the blocking of access to legitimate IP addresses (specify which ones, e.g. Cloudflare/Docker) unrelated to any illicit activity. This blockade constitutes a violation of my right to communication and the contracted service, causing harm (professional/personal) by preventing the operation of work/security tools. “I request the immediate cessation of said technical restriction in compliance with the provisions of the aforementioned Law.” The nightmare continues. The debate in HackerNews is nothing more than confirmation of what internet users in Spain have been suffering for more than a year. A private organization has the power to order ISPs in a country to indiscriminately block IPs without judicial review in real time, during regular hours, causing documented harm to third parties that have nothing to do with the original violation. In that thread some users compare the situation with that of the Great Firewall of Chinanot so much in intensity as in its logic. We are faced with an infrastructure of selective censorship that seems to be able to be applied to any content that an actor with sufficient judicial power wants to block. From football to tennis or golf. In fact, things could go further, because what began as an attack against illegal broadcasts of football matches could now be seen in other sports such as tennis or golf. Telefónica —which follows in the footsteps of LaLiga— wants to extend indiscriminate blockades to the Champions League, tennis or golf. This threatens to suffer these side effects for many more days and for many more hours, and can mean that for a good part of the week, users like LittleCranky67 find themselves unable to download Docker packages or access thousands of legitimate websites that end up being knocked down by these blocks. Images | Wirestock | LaLiga In Xataka | LaLiga has been at war with Cloudflare for years over piracy. It has just joined forces with its main competitor

What is the minimum age this year and how to know when you can retire

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Let’s tell you what it is the new retirement age in 2026since the minimum age has once again increased by 2 months compared to last year. Thus, if you are already close in age and want to know exactly from what years and months you can retire, you will have this information. We are also going to tell you how to know when you can retireusing a tool that will take into account your work history to calculate it for you. So, if you are going to apply for retirementyou will be able to know when you can retire and how much you will earn with this contributory pension. Minimum retirement age in 2026 The minimum retirement age in 2026 becomes 66 years and ten months. This represents an increase of two months compared to the retirement age we had in 2025, which in turn was 2 months higher than the previous year. This new change has begun to be applied starting January 1. And as for the change itself, this is because the retirement age is going to increase little by little over the next few years. You can review this update and how it will continue to change in our article with the retirement table. How to know when it’s time to retire To find out when it is your turn to retire, you can use the new web retirement simulator of Social Security, whose address is benefits.seg-social.es. Once you enter the website, Click on the section Retirement You will see where they ask what they can help you with. You will go to a page with all the procedures related to retirement. here, now press the button Access of the Retirement simulatorwhich will see you in a different colored window. This will take you to the retirement pension simulator page, where you will find several options. In it, simply press the button Simulate which will appear in blue. This will take you to the page where you will have to identify with some of the alternatives that the system offers you. You will be able to use the Cl@ve Permanent or Cl@ve Pinan SMS or via DNIe either digital certificate. Click on the option you want and complete the identification steps. Finally you will enter the simulator, where you will be able to edit and confirm your personal situations. When you do, you will be able to see your retirement pension simulation, where The exact date on which you can retire will be indicatedand the amounts you will receive when you finally do it. In Xataka Basics | Request a card for Social Security retirees and take advantage of discounts

from the anti-aging miracle with scientific backing to the dangerous world of injectable ‘looksmaxxing’

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We live in a time where people do not stop complement your nutrition with magnesium, collagenvitamins and more. But in recent months you have surely come across the famous ‘peptides’, a compound that has gained quite a bit of momentum in the world of cosmetics under the trend called looksmaxxing and also in bodybuilding. But… Do they have any scientific endorsement? What are peptides? In biological terms, peptides are short chains of amino acids that act as the building blocks of proteins, such as collagen, elastin and keratin. They are naturally in our body from the protein that we administer in our diet, and that the body uses as bricks to build the elements of the skin, muscle, immune system and many more functions. But this is something that has happened from natural biology to the field of cosmetics and nutricosmeticssince it has been seen that when these peptides are applied to the skin, they act as “messengers” that trick the body into believing that it has lost collagen, stimulating its production. In this way an anti-wrinkle effect is promised. What does science say? Unlike many “miracle supplements” that flood the internet, topical and oral peptides do have robust scientific backing, although, as always, keep in mind that you should not expect an amazing miracle when applying them. Among one of the most representative studies we have that of the Spanish Society of Aesthetic Medicine (SEME) which analyzed the effect of biomimetic peptides in patients between 40 and 70 years old. Here it was seen that, after four sessions, the biopsies confirmed real changes in the skin as there was a greater proliferation of collagen and elastin. There is more. Clinical trials with active ingredients such as Matrixyl in 93 people showed also a noticeable reduction in fine lines after 12 weeks of use, and also collagen peptide supplements such as Peptan have been shown in clinical trials to be able to reduce wrinkles around the eyes by 13% and pores by 57%. The dark side. When this becomes an obsession, that is when the problems begin, and again social networks have been a trigger. Here TikTok or Instagram has caused a trend known as looksmaxxing to break out., which in Spanish could be translated as ‘maximize appearance’. And it is nothing more than a subculture, predominant in younger men, who wants to optimize their physical attractiveness to the maximum. While the softmaxxing includes gym routines, haircuts and intense skincare, the most extreme aspect has popularized the use of injectable peptides. Suddenly, it’s not uncommon to see videos of content creators showing off refrigerators full of vials that promise ultra-luminous skin, instant muscle recovery, extreme fat loss, or hyper-defined jawlines. And it is a danger. The big problem with these injectables is that they are often not regulated, and people resort to the Internet to buy them thanks to the legal loopholes created by products under investigation or not suitable for human consumption. Here different organizations have launched alerts warning that using products that have not been authorized by the responsible agencies can cause serious risks such as infections, abscesses or even tissue necrosis. A gym shortcut. Beyond wanting to maximize beauty and reduce the number of wrinkles, in the world of bodybuilding, peptides have burst onto the scene, presenting themselves as a modern alternative to classic steroids. In this way, it is not uncommon to hear about BPC-157, TB-500 or CJC-1295, which are peptides that promise great aesthetic results. His promises. BPC-157 or TB-500 have been dubbed ‘healing peptides’ due to the great fame they have gained by promising regeneration of tendons, ligaments or muscle tears in record time. Another popular group are secretogogues such as CJC-1295 They stimulate the pituitary gland to produce growth hormone ‘naturally’, which enhances muscle growth and fat burning much more quickly than by directly injecting the hormone. Your problems. The problem in the field of bodybuilding is the same as in the aesthetic field, but multiplying the doses. Here science points out that although it is true that the BPC-157 can ‘heal’ tissues, at the moment it has not been approved by the EMA or the FDA for this use because there are a lack of studies to support its safety and the recommended dosage. Furthermore, playing with hormonal levels does not come for free, and without going any further, enhancing the release of growth hormone to have more muscle increases IGF-1 levels. And this in the long term can cause insulin resistance and, therefore, open the door to type 2 diabetes in several years. That is why the recommendation is always to avoid their consumption without medical supervision and logically if they have not been approved by the agencies responsible for drug control. Images | Norbert Buduczki In Xataka | Magnesium, creatine, collagen: we are taking supplements above what science believes is useful

The world became obsessed with pistachios because of Dubai chocolate. Now the war has turned it into a trap

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The last few years have been anything but quiet for the pistachio industry. First ‘Dubai chocolate’ fever Its demand skyrocketed, straining supply chains and skyrocketing prices. Now the Iran conflict has struck a blow to its market, causing an earthquake whose consequences are still difficult to predict. For now there are already analysts warning that the fruit is beginning to be priced at highs that have not been seen for almost a decade. The big question is… And now what? What has happened? That the pistachio market is showing signs that it does not remain immune to the Middle East conflict, something that is otherwise expected if we take into account that Iran is one of the large world producers of this dried fruit. The alarm signal was raised by Bloomberg, which on Monday warned that the conflict is already affecting the price of pistachios in the markets. Their analysis is based on measurements from Expana Markets, a British firm specialized in the agri-food sector, which assures that in March the pound of pistachios reached $4.57the highest value since May 2018. Is it important? Yes. The pistachio market is very broad, it moves billions and it is supplied from more suppliers than Iran, so Expana’s data should be taken as a clue. Even so, they are interesting for their context. The pistachio had already experienced a price increase in recent years, driven by its popularization in the the drinks and food in general and especially for the enormous success of Dubai chocolate, a sweet made with cocoa and pistachios. After TikTok was filled with viral videos about its tablets, the price of grain skyrocketed: Bloomberg estimates that between the end of 2023 and 2025, Expana’s reference value for the US rose 30%. Are there more indicators? Yes. In Spain we have the platform data Pistachio Prowhich shows the increase in prices that the different varieties of grain have experienced in recent years in the Lonja de Albacete. A few months ago, in fact, the website informed that the price of Kerman-type grain had reached a “historical record” in both conventional and organic grains. Globally, a year ago Financial Times I already warned that Dubai chocolate was straining global pistachio supplies, driving up prices. Does the war in Iran have that much influence now? Yes. And for several reasons. The main one is that Iran does not occupy just any place on the world pistachio map. Although his weight is nowhere near what it was a few decades ago, when he hoarded good part of global production, the Islamic Republic continues to be the second largest breadwinner on the planet, only behind the United States. USDA estimates in fact indicated that during the 2025/2026 season its production would be around 200,000 metric tons, 18% of world production. They are 80,000 tons more than the third country by volume, Türkiye, and 160,000 tons more than the contribution of the entire EU. Some analysts it’s been several weeks warning that Iranian crops may be affected by the impact of the war on energy and water supplies for irrigation, in addition to problems with infrastructure. This is without, of course, taking into account the blow that the conflict has dealt to maritime traffic and the entire logistics chain. Some voices even have slipped in which the Iranian pistachio industry has been directly punished by the bombings. Are there more factors? The answer is once again affirmative. The war has tightened the rope, but the reality is that the pistachio trade was not going through its best moment in Iran. The industry has not been immune to the sanctions and geopolitical tensions that preceded the attack launched by the US and Israel on February 28. Neither, remember Bloombergto the repression with which Tehran responded to the protests internal. Even the harvest would have been lower than expected. All these factors also impact the supply of the fruit. “Pistachios are undoubtedly sensitive to disruptions in the Middle East, given the region’s role as a producer, transit hub and destination,” warns Nick Moss of Expana Markets. Tehran is also a key supplier of pistachio to the gigantic Indian market, which has now seen its supply chains affected, like other nations. “The war has led shipping companies to cancel all new reservations from March 2 for shipments destined for the Middle East,” duck Gyana Ranjan Das, from Grown Point. Does it only affect Iran? At all. If the war in Ukraine in 2022 and that in Iran now demonstrated anything, it is that the effect of bombs and drones is still felt in the countries where the battles are fought, but the disruptions they generate extend to markets and economies around the world. Iranian farmers are not the only ones affected by the conflict. The Strait of Hormuz is key to global shipping oil and ureaso its blockage directly affects the supply (and therefore the costs) of two essential inputs for farmers: fuel and fertilizer. Although there are those who believe that US producers will be the big beneficiaries, in recent weeks media such as Associated Press (AP) or Los Angeles Times They have interviewed California farmers who acknowledge that they have also been harmed by the conflict. one of them assured have merchandise worth five million dollars blocked on ships, fruits that under normal conditions would have already arrived in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. An expectant market. Surely that is the adjective that best defines the current state of the world pistachio market. Expectant. And not only because the second largest producer on the planet is at the center of a conflict that is currently hanging on a very delicate truce. After years marked by increased demand, the sector faces a potential increase in costs, a rise in prices, a decrease in supply and a strangulation of trade. “Even for buyers who do not normally source directly or indirectly from Iran, these supply restrictions could lead to increased competition for stock available elsewhere,” … Read more

What is N8N, what workflows can you do by connecting applications with this platform and what is its price

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Let’s tell you what is N8Na platform to configure workflows or workflows and create automation. It is an alternative to services like Make.com either Zapierwith the particularity of being open source and being able to be installed on your own server completely free of charge. We are going to start by explaining to you what exactly this platform is, and then we will try to tell you in a summarized way what you will be able to do with it. And we will end by talking about its prices and its free use options, so that you can know what it will cost to use it depending on what you want to do with it. What is N8N N8N is a workflow automation platform for open source. With it, you will be able to connect applications and services together by creating chains of actions so that they work automatically without you having to do anything. The big difference between N8N and other similar tools is that you can install it on your own server. It has a free version that you can upload to your server, giving you all the control over your data and automations. This makes it especially attractive to privacy lovers, workflow specialists or companies that do not want to pay monthly fees for this type of service. But if you don’t have a server, N8N also has a cloud version that you will use directly from the service’s website. In this case, as in the rest of the alternatives, The data will be hosted on the company’s servers. Additionally, the prices for this service can be a little expensive, and it does not have a free version like the competition. The free version is only for use on your own server. This platform works creating a chain of nodeswhich is what N8N calls each of the steps with which it forms its workflows. On each node you can link a different application and/or perform an action with the data that comes from the previous step. You can also create branches so that, depending on the result of the previous node, the sequence continues along one path or another. Another interesting feature of N8N is that allows you to use JavaScript code directly within nodes. This means that you can customize any of the steps much more, being much more flexible than other competing alternatives. This means that your learning curve may be a little longer, especially to take advantage of this additional power. However, you can also use it visually and without codejust like the rest of the platforms. Thus, users without experience or without code knowledge will also be able to use it without too many complications. What you can do with N8N The possibilities of what you can do with N8N are enormous. You can automate repetitive tasks like copy or sync data between platformscreate tasks automatically in project managers, or synchronize databases between different services. You can also manage emails and forms by automatically saving their data, sending automated responses or filtering content according to conditions. You can do simple or complex automations, and also you can link several artificial intelligence models after obtaining its API to create more complex automations. The power to link systems artificial intelligence It will also allow you to create AI agents who can be asked to do more complex and advanced tasks, although being able to monitor everything. N8N also allows you to automatically post to social networks, send notifications to messaging apps like Telegram or Slack when something happens in another app, save email attachments to the cloud, create calendar events, or generate periodic reports. Something that sets N8N apart from its competitors is the way he counts his executions. I mean that the entire execution of a workflow counts as a single execution, no matter how many steps it has. This means that you can take advantage of it much more than other competing services when your automations have grown in complexity. N8N integrates with more than 1,500 applications native. They are not as many as the more than 3,000 from Make or the more than 8,000 from Zapier, but they are enough for most cases. Furthermore, being able to use HTTP and JavaScript requests you will be able to connect it in practice with almost any service for which you have the API, whether or not it has official integration. And if you don’t know where to start, you also have an extensive template library with 9,000+ workflows preconfigured. In this library you can find ready-made workflows ordered by use case or by the applications they contain. How much does N8N cost? If you want to use N8N in the cloud, you’re going to have to pay. You do not have any free version available or with a price lower than 10 euros per month. These are the subscriptions available and the characteristics of each one. Starter Subscription: It costs 24 euros per month and offers you 2,500 workflow executions. Includes 1 shared project, 4 concurrent executions, unlimited users, 50 credits to use the AI ​​that helps you create workflows, and forum support. Its price is reduced by 17% less if you pay annually. Pro Subscription: It costs 50 euros per month and offers you 10,000 workflow executions, although you can configure more executions in exchange for paying more. Includes 3 shared projects, 20 concurrent executions, insights, 150 credits to use the AI ​​that helps you create workflows, administration roles, workflow history, execution search, and global variables. Its price is reduced by 17% less if you pay annually. Business Subscription: It is for companies. It costs 800 euros per month and offers you 40,000 workflow executions, although you can configure more executions in exchange for paying more. Includes 6 shared projects, SSO, SAML and LDAP, 20 concurrent executions, 30 days of insights, and other enterprise-specific uses. Of course, you will only be able to host it on your servers. Enterprise Subscription: You can … Read more

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