Mobile Tech & Gadgets

In 1997 Blockbuster decided that DVD would never replace VHS. With that decision he began to dig his grave

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In 1997, Warner Bros. proposed blockbuster an exclusivity agreement to rent DVDs. The deal replicated the model that was already practiced with the VHS format, which gave 60% of income to the video store chain. Blockbuster declined because they were confident that magnetic tape would maintain its dominance for years. Warner responded by drastically cutting the wholesale prices of its records and Walmart was quick to take advantage of the opening: In less than a decade, it overtook Blockbuster as Hollywood’s biggest moneymaker. The DVD arrives. In 1997, this format arrived promising better imaging, more durability, and interactive features (we were so young). But it had a giant before it: in 1988, after defeating Sony’s Betamax format, VHS already controlled 95% of the home video market. And a decade later, in 1997, it was an empire: VHS rentals generated $10 billion annually for movie studios, with Blockbuster pocketing about half of that revenue. VHS had reasons not to be afraid: DVD players were very expensive, between $300 and $500, and VHS devices were very accessible. And they were not wrong: DVD sales would not surpass those of VHS until 2003, six years after its commercial release. Warner’s proposal. Warren Lieberfarb, head of Warner Bros.’s home video division and one of the key figures in the development of the DVD format proposed to Blockbuster a deal that replicated the VHS model: exclusive rights to rent the company’s new DVD releases before they hit stores for sale to the public. Warner would receive 40% of the rental income from those records. John Antioco, CEO of Blockbuster, had just arrived at the company after passing through Taco Bell, and his decision could be key to the company’s future. The rejection. Blockbuster decided to reject the proposal because it believed that VHS would maintain its dominance for years. As we said above, a not unreasonable assumption. Furthermore, creating an inventory of DVD movies was an unnecessary expense under the profitable and peaceful reign of VHS. Some later format releases, before the advent of DVD, possibly made Blockbuster think it had done well: JVC’s D-VHS digital tape, which allowed high-definition recording, was a flop. But Blockbuster didn’t have two things: Hollywood support for DVD and the inevitable drop in player prices. The answer. Warner Bros. responded with a strategy that would transform home cinema: it drastically reduced wholesale prices for its DVDs, in order to compete directly with the rental industry. This allowed businesses to sell records at prices that made purchasing more attractive than renting. The North American giant Walmart detected the opportunity very quickly and began to sell DVDs below the cost price, and in this way, for example, they sold their discs for 15 or 20 dollars when renting a VHS cost between 3 and 5 dollars per day. The power of Walmart. Walmart’s network of stores had power in distribution, covering the entire country, that Blockbuster could not match. In addition, it had privileged deals with suppliers and, in general, a fund and resources that allowed it to absorb the losses from the DVDs. In this way, Walmart replaced Blockbuster as the studios’ main source of income in less than a decade. This led to redefining the balance of power in the industry: the most valuable distribution channel was no longer the video store, but became large commercial stores, where consumers no longer only bought movies. Blockbuster, free fall. As is well known, It was not Blockbuster’s last catastrophic decision: in 2000, when Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph, co-founders of Netflix, approached John Antioco about selling their DVD-by-mail rental service for 50 million dollarsthe executive declined the offer. A decade later Blockbuster declared bankruptcy in 2010 while Netflix reached a valuation of billions. They are not the last. The case has parallels with recent technological transitions where dominant companies have underestimated the speed of the public’s adoption of new formats: the physical media industry believed that Blu-ray would maintain its relevance against streaming. And it is also easy to draw lines that link current technology companies with the adoption of AI: who will be the next giant to fall? Header | Stu pendousmat In Xataka | VCR Virus: the anti-copy system of the VHS era that looked like something out of a B horror movie

China is building submarines faster than anyone else. And that’s a problem for the United States.

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In a tense geopolitical moment on a global scale with several open fronts such as Greenland, whose melting ice is allowing us to see nuclear submarinesChina just achieved a historic milestone: it is manufacturing nuclear submarines faster than any other country in the world, according to a report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. This is a complete surprise to the United States, the power that until now held this title, and threatens the advantage that Washington has maintained for decades. Brief notes on nuclear submarines. Without wanting to delve into their characteristics, it is worth distinguishing what types there are: He SSBN is a nuclear-powered submarine designed to launch ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads (some with intercontinental range). They are strategic second response platforms, practically undetectable and guarantee that if someone attacks first, they will receive a response. The SSN/SSGN are nuclear attack submarines (the second, guided missiles), true maritime control weapons: they can attack land or sea targets, block routes and operate for months without resupply. Context. American hegemony underwater lasts for decades, but Beijing has on its roadmap modernize its military capabilities by 2035: it already has the largest surface fleet in the world in the words of the Pentagon and now he has turned on the turbo to reach the last bastion of the United States: the depths. The data. China has surpassed the United States in the pace of launching nuclear-powered submarines (SSN/SSBN). Thus, between 2021 and 2025, the Asian giant launched 10 units compared to Washington’s seven, according to has discovered the IISS through satellite analysis of the Bohai shipyard in Huludao (northern China), as the epicenter of the industrial leap. In a decade, China has gone from being far behind to leading the race: Why is it important. This shift in underwater hegemony has three implications, one of which points directly to the US: Nuclear deterrence. The new submarines Type 094 and future Type 096 They expand China’s nuclear response capacity in the face of possible nuclear attacks. A preemptive attack is strategically unfeasible. Maritime control of commercial routes. SSGNs with high-speed missile systems add a layer of threat to foreign combat groups in the Indo-Pacific, complicating access for the US and its allies to potentially conflictive areas, such as the South China Sea or Taiwan. At a time when The United States is betting on boarding As a sign of maritime control, China has in this fleet a safeguard for its commercial routes. The United States cannot cope with that pace. John Phelan, US Secretary of the Navy, recognized in Congress that “All of our programs are a disaster, honestly. Our best-performing program is six months behind schedule and 57% over budget.” Phelan mentions the erosion of this industry, which according to the Government Accountability Office Today it faces problems such as aging infrastructure and a shortage of qualified labor. The surprise figures. The IISS Military Balance 2025 leaves other interesting figures to better diagnose the reality of both powers in nuclear submarines: Launch rate from 2021 to 2025: seven from the US to 10 from China. The difference in tonnage is notable: while those from China weigh 79,000 tons, those from the US are 55,500. Active nuclear fleet: The United States wins by a landslide, with 65 units compared to China’s 12 units (plus another 46 conventional ones). Quantity vs quality. We have already seen in the previous point that the United States continues to gain in numbers (still) and it is not the only reason for optimism for the country led by Trump. CNN echoes the IISS report where he explains that “Chinese designs are almost certainly behind American and European submarines in terms of quality.” Among other qualities, in noise: Chinese submarines are noisier, which makes them more vulnerable, they explain. But as a captain warns Retired US Navy Half USNI Officer, Biggest Fleets Win. In Xataka | In the midst of rearmament, Spain has just surprised Europe: 5,000 million for 34 warships and four submarines In Xataka | The new fear of Western fleets is not nuclear. They are conventional submarines armed with surprise and a flag: China Cover | CSR Report RL33153 China Naval Modernization: Implications for US Navy Capabilities—Background and Issues for Congress by Ronald O’Rourke dated February 28, 2014 – United States Naval Institute News Blog, Public Domain

Europe has thought of throwing three robots into a volcanic lava tube and now colonizing the moon or Mars is closer

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While the mission Artemis II Its objective is for human beings to return to the moon after more than half a century later, space agencies continue to investigate how to reach other planets and there space robotics is essential because well: space in general and places like Mars are the most inhospitable for life. So a European research group in which, among other entities, the European Space Agency participates, has introduced an autonomous robotic system inside a volcanic lava tube in Lanzarote, like collects this paper published in Science Robotics. Their conclusions bring us closer to a future colonization of the Moon or Mars. The context. Neither Mars nor the Moon have a flat desert surface, but rather they constitute volcanic worlds where there are underground cavities formed millions of years ago by liquid lava. We are not talking about small cavities precisely: there is space for a city to fit in as long as low gravity allows sizes of kilometers, how this study explains. Lava tubes are present on the Moon, on Mars and also on Earth, without going any further we can find some in Hawaii or the Canary Islands, precisely where the research was carried out: The lava tube of La Corona de Lanzarote has sections that reach 30 meters wide and high, come on, that It’s a cave like a cathedral. Why is it important. Because the space environment is harsh: there are extreme temperatures, radiation and meteor showers, a crude combination that makes it difficult for life to exist or simply to establish an eventual foundation for human civilization. On the other hand, if there is any remains of life or frozen water left, these caves are the ideal place to look for it. These structures are strategic because they function as natural shielding against ionizing radiation, extreme thermal flows and meteorites. So the next generation of robots will have the mission of exploring those underground lava tubes on Mars and the Moon to see what their conditions are like. The Lanzarote experiment. Anyone who has been to Lanzarote will know that it has places that seem taken from outer space. That is where the La Corona lava tube is where three different robots with different roles began their characterization mission without GPS or sunlight: The lookout stays outside mapping the entrance. The Explorer: It is essentially a cube full of cameras that you drop into the hole to look before anyone else. The speleologist, who rappels down to enter the darkness at a depth of 235 meters. The discovery. That they did 3D mapping as they progressed was just one of the objectives of this mission, led in the technical section by the German Center for Artificial Intelligence. But what is as important as how: the robots were not controlled with a remote control, but rather functioned autonomously, making their own decisions on the fly. Their performance in collaborative tasks is essential since in space the radio signal takes minutes to arrive from Earth. First Lanzarote, then Mars. The test carried out on heterogeneous and cooperative space robotics was a success, although there is still room for improvement regarding navigation without light and how the sensors respond to interference from the environment. In Xataka | Mars has just entered the exclusive club of planets with rays. This is discouraging news for NASA. In Xataka | We knew that Mars has gravity. Now we have just discovered the unexpected effect it has on the Earth’s climate Cover | dfki

They have found a way even though it is prohibited

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Elizabeth Holmes answer in Xfrom prison, to the questions of his followers. Harvey Weinstein give interviews to a podcast without leaving the cell. A prey launches an AI-generated clone of you on his Instagram profile. These are not isolated cases at all: technology is redefining what it means to be “incommunicado” when you serve a sentence. Cell phones in prison. Wait a minute: how come influencers in prison? Isn’t the use of cell phones prohibited in prison? Yes and no, at least in the United States: the Federal Bureau of Prisons has maintained a system called TRULINCS (Trust Fund Limited Inmate Computer System) since 2009, designed to provide prisoners with limited access to electronic messaging without an internet connection. To be more specific, the system does not allow inmates to access the web, all incoming and outgoing messages are monitored and emails are limited to 13,000 characters with no attachments. Social networks are also completely out of authorization. Who pays it? The inmate himself: the operation is so restrictive that inmates can only write to a maximum of 30 previously approved external contacts, and the service costs $0.05 per minute, paid directly from the inmate’s own funds. This money comes from the inmate’s work in prison, but no one gets rich there: an inmate receives an income of barely 15 dollars a month working inside the center, so use the mail server It can become a luxury. Influencers by proximity. How then do figures like the aforementioned Holmes (convicted of fraud and founder of Theranos, a Silicon Valley company that promised to revolutionize blood tests with a single drop, eventually being valued at $10 billion) or Sam Bankman-Fried (former CEO of FTX, one of the largest cryptocurrency platforms, guilty of one of the largest financial frauds in US history)? They transfer the management of their accounts to trusted people outside the premises. George Santos (former Republican congressman convicted of wire fraud, donor identity theft and embezzlement of campaign funds for personal use and whose sentence was commuted by Trump) acknowledged that nine people managed his profiles while he was inside. The system explicitly prohibits inmates from operating or maintaining social media accounts, and there is an intention to toughen sanctions limiting the ability of third parties to post content on behalf of the prisoner. It is a legal and ethical gray area. And in Spain? Before we continue, let’s be clear about the differences: we do not have any unified electronic messaging infrastructure comparable to TRULINCS. In Spain, the technology available to prisoners is, in most cases, analog: radio, television, and computers without an internet connection for those who study with the UNED or participate in workshops. From 2022, yes, there are a reform of Royal Decree 268/2022 that modified the Penitentiary Regulations to open the door to teleworking, videoconferences with family members, the presentation of complaints online and internet access in the centers’ libraries. Everything depending, obviously, on the infrastructure of each prison. Prisoners who speak. The figure of the inmate who tries to speak to the world from his cell is not new. For decades, television was the only channel, and personalities like American journalist Barbara Walters They made it a common format, with long conversations with criminals from prison, such as the Menéndez brothers, the scammer Bernie Madoff or the actor Robert Blake while he was awaiting trial for the murder of his wife. The next step has been podcasts: famous journalists (significantly, always conservative) like Tucker Carlson or Candace Owens have used the format for interviewing people as prominent as Harvey Weinstein. This appeared on Owens’ podcast in his first interview in almost ten years since Rikers Island. Prisoners by AI. The most extreme case of this kind of virtual exit from prison walls is in the case of Nicole Daedone. She was convicted in 2025 for conspiracy to commit forced labor within the framework of the OneTaste company. Her team published a video on Instagram in which an AI-generated clone read a message to her followers: a synthetic replica of Daedone herself thus communicated with her audience while she was physically detained. A curious step forward that faces a new legal loophole, since there is no rule that prohibits an external team from publishing AI-generated content on behalf of an inmate, as long as that content was not produced within the prison. The future. In this way, a multitude of opinions and positions come together. There are lawyers who, significantly and as The Hollywood Reporter specifies, believe that presence on social networks can distort the image of the accused and, ultimately, their public image, and end up harming them. But how it has been saidMartin Luther King wrote his ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ on papers that his lawyers distributed. Today, his wife Coretta would have published it on Twitter. In Xataka | The incredible story of the men who escaped from Alcatraz prison with spoons, fake hair and a homemade boat

How to create an excel with artificial intelligence where you can add the expenses of your digital purchase receipts

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Let’s explain to you how to create a spreadsheet with your expenses using artificial intelligence. Specifically, what we are going to do is put all your purchase receipts in a folder, and have the AI ​​read them, extract the totals, write them down in the spreadsheet and then add the total. It seems complex, but it is easier than it seems. For our example we are going to use the PDF tickets that are sent to you by email when you configure the Mercadona digital ticketalthough you can also use photographs of tickets. For the spreadsheet we are going to use LibreOffice, as it is a free and open source alternative to Office. To carry out the actions we will use Claude Coworkthe AI ​​assistant of Claude that can do actions on your computer. The negative part is that To use this tool you must have a paid account in this artificial intelligence chat, but the positive part is how much you can later do with it. There are workflow tools that allow you to automate this and do it online, but we are going to start by explaining this simpler method because it is all local, within your computer, and sharing less data with third parties. Make preparations first It is important to be organized when carrying out this task. Therefore, what we are going to do is go to the file explorer on our computer and create a folder. In my case I have called it Tickets. Inside, we will create a subfolder where you can put the digital tickets which we will call “Ticket PDFs”, and then the spreadsheet file which we will call “Total Purchases”. We will also create the basic structure of the spreadsheetso that it will then be easier for us to describe to the AI ​​what we want. On this sheet I have included the date, the total of the ticket, and then a column to add the link to the PDF file for each one. Here, you will be able to customize this as you need. Now simply Put the tickets in PDF inside the folder that we have created to store the tickets. You can do this by hand with the ones you have, and then update it with the ones that arrive later, because we will also tell you how to ask the AI ​​to update everything. This technique has many variants. For example, adding a specific column in the spreadsheet you can also add the name of the supermarket in order to manage the expenses of several of them, or make a different sheet for each one within the same file. You can make things as complex as you want. Now ask AI to do the work for you Now it’s time to get to work. Let’s open the Claude application on the computer and choose the option cowork. Here, the first thing will be click on the option Work in a folder. When you do this, you will have to choose the folder where you have included the subfolder with the PDFs and where you have created the spreadsheet file. This way the AI ​​will work only within this space without touching the rest of the files on the computer. Once you have done this, tap write a prompt asking it what you want it to dowhich in this case is asking it to read the PDFs with the tickets, extract the information and put it in the place you want within your spreadsheet. I have used this prompt, where I also specify the columns where each content goes: I want you to analyze the content of all the PDFs in the “Ticket PDFs” folder. These are purchase tickets. In all of them, I want you to extract both the date of the ticket and the total you have spent and put them in the “Date” and “Total (€)” columns of the “Total purchases.ods” file. Within this file, I also want you to create a link in the PDF Link column that, when clicked, opens the PDF file it belongs to. This prompt You can modify it depending on what your spreadsheet is like.but always specifying in which column each item goes, or on which page of the spreadsheet if you have created one for each supermarket. You can even make a sheet for the totals, and ultimately ask them to use any of Excel functions or the program you are going to use. Now, you have to wait a few minutes for Claude to process your request and complete the task. When you do, you will be able to enter the file you created before, and you will see that it has updated it. You can make changes to the file for font size or whatever you want, and Claude will then take that into account. You can also tell the AI ​​if it has done something wrong, such as not including links, so it can correct and add it. Now, you can ask him to do extra work like adding a column below with the total. And then, When you add more files you can ask it to update the file reviewing the new PDFs that you have added and adding the missing ones to the list. And that’s it. With all this you will have a spreadsheet that you can update every time you add more tickets. You can also ask him to do it by reading the content of photos, and other tickets that you also have in PDF. In Xataka Basics | Claude: 23 functions and some tricks to get the most out of this artificial intelligence

A municipality in Cáceres has waited more than 30 years for its bridge with Portugal. After moving wind and tide, it is already on its way

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Cedillo, the westernmost town in Extremadura, has been separated from its Portuguese neighbors for more than thirty years by a river that, paradoxically, has always united them. The solution is easy: build a bridge. The issue is that its approval and construction has been in the works for years. Now it seems that things are finally moving forward. The problem. Cedillo (Cáceres) and Montalvão-Nisa (Portugal) are separated by just 13 kilometers in a straight line. But by car, any trip between both towns requires a detour of between 100 and 120 kilometers. The reason: the dam that Iberdrola manages at the confluence of the Tagus and Sever rivers. Until 1995, residents on both sides could cross it freely. That year, with the entry into force of Schengen AgreementIberdrola closed access citing security reasons. Since then, it has only opened on weekends, with a security guard and at controlled hours. “We are brother peoples absurdly separated,” counted in 2021 to El País the mayor of Cedillo, Antonio González Riscado, who has been in office since 1987. How did it get here? The bridge project has been circulating through offices and negotiation tables for decades without finally coming to fruition. In 2011, the Provincial Council of Cáceres, then in the hands of the PP, renounced some European funds destined for the work, according to account The Country. When the PSOE recovered the institution in 2015 and requested them again, Europe had already denied them. The project became a political bargaining chip for years. The turning point came in March 2023, when the Ministries of Transport of Spain and of Territorial Cohesion of Portugal signed a joint declaration committing to promote the initiative. Just over a year later, in October 2024, both governments signed in Faro an international agreement which established the definitive legal framework to build the bridge. According to this agreement, Portugal assumes the design, construction and financing of the main structure, while Spain facilitates the permits and procedures in its territory. The works have already started. In October last year, the machines began to move on the Portuguese side with the first land preparation work. The award went to the company Alexandre Barbosa, according to counted The Extremadura Newspaper. The bridge will be about 160 meters long and 11.5 meters wide, with two twin concrete arches that avoid placing pillars in the riverbed. In fact, as the media reports, this last technical solution was key for the bridge to obtain the favorable Environmental Impact Declaration. The total cost exceeds 19 million euros. Spain does its part. In November of last year, the Ministry of Transport and the Government of Extremadura they signed an agreement to coordinate the work on the Spanish side. The Board assumes the bidding, construction and financing of the accesses to the bridge in Extremadura territory, with an estimated budget of just over 5.1 million euros distributed between 2025 and 2028. Once the work is completed, the infrastructure will become the property of the Board of Extremadura, which will also be responsible for its maintenance. What this means for the area. The bridge is going to solve a problem that has been on the lips of the surrounding towns for decades day after day. Just like counted El País, there are residents of Cedillo who have been hearing about the bridge all their lives and whose lives have been conditioned by that barrier. According to collect El Periódico, the bridge will also shorten the distance between Cáceres and Lisbon by about 70 kilometers and half an hour. “It is a bridge that we need no matter what,” the mayor of Cedillo told the media. What remains pending. On the Spanish side, the access to the bridge was still pending bidding when Portugal already had the machines running. Both countries will coordinate the work through a Joint Technical Commission. The agreement between the Ministry and the Board has a maximum validity of four years, extendable. If the deadlines are met, Cedillo could have his bridge before the end of the decade. Cover image | The Extremadura Newspaper and Google Maps In Xataka | Spain built its roads thinking about extreme heat: the rains are showing how vulnerable they are

The emptied Spain seemed condemned to depopulation. Until a town in Palencia found a way to avoid it

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until recently Nava walls (Palencia) was a remote town known above all for its heritage and being the birthplace of the poet Jorge Manrique and the painters Peter and Alonso Berruguete. That was until not long ago, we say. In recent days the name of this town in Tierra de Campos has grabbed headlines throughout the country for another reason: against all odds, it has become proof that the ‘Spain emptied’ and the rural peninsula do not have to resign themselves to losing population. In Paredes they have certainly worked a miracle. The most curious thing is that he has done it with a recipe quite obvious. Looking at the INE. Although its tables are basically made up of figures, percentages and rates, from time to time the INE gives us the odd mystery. It happens in Paredes de Nava, Palencia. If we take a look at their census we observe a curious phenomenon: despite the fact that their region (Land of Fields) has spent the last decades losing density of population, in line with much of rural Spain, in recent years Paredes has gained neighbors. In 2023 they were registered in the town 1,985 peoplejust one year later there were 1,911 and in 2025 the observatory already counted 1,927. Is it that curious? Yes. It may not be spectacular growth, but it is striking if two factors are taken into account. First, it breaks the negative trend that Paredes had experienced in recent times, accustomed to losing a few 25 residents every year. Second, the town had not moved in its current population data for quite some time. We have to go back to 2018 to find a better result and the town hopes to reach the psychological barrier of the 2,000 registereda figure that has not been used since 2013. And how is it possible? If the case of Paredes has attracted attention beyond Palencia or Castilla y León, it is because this increase in population is neither coincidental nor the result of chance. On the contrary. Responds to a strategy that already has sparked interest from other towns and relies on two legs: immigration and affordable housing. To understand it, we have to go back to 2024, when the mayor of the town, Luis Calderón, contacted YourTechoa Spanish SOCIMI that seeks solutions to “homelessness and lack of housing.” The entity works in several fields at the same time, but in the rural Their bet basically consists of recovering empty houses to turn them into “accessible” homes for “vulnerable families.” Objective: home… and roots. In practice, this means that they acquire homes and then rent them to the City Council so that they end up being rented to new residents in an initiative with a marked social focus. On walls for example 75% of the beneficiaries are foreigners, especially Latinos. Since the idea is for newcomers to the town to take root, it is easier for them to take root. different shapes. As? Through contracts of leasing for those who need a vehicle or rentals with option to own. And the work? The councilor assures There are no shortage of vacancies in the province. In addition to the Renault factory, livestock and agriculture there are a project to open an olive oil refining factory. “There are plenty of jobs, there are more than 1,200 unfilled, that is without taking into account the social and health needs and those of Renault,” guarantees Calderón, who optimistically awaits the opening of the new oil refining factory: “We are going to need many more houses.” “The solution, in rural areas”. The demographic pulse of the town is not new. It started after the pandemic, when a special office focused on repopulation opened. Years ago he decided to welcome 200 Ukrainian mothers and their children, in 2024 he contacted TuTecho and today he boasts that the town has managed to attract 150 new inhabitants. Of them, a third (49) have arrived thanks to TuTecho, which has in turn acquired 11 homes in the Palencia municipality. Initially the company had acquired only four. “The solution to the country’s main problems, housing and immigration, is in rural areas,” he defended. a few days ago the councilor in statements collected by The Newspaper. The truth is that Paredes’ experience seems to have encouraged other people. Those responsible for TuTecho explain that they have already made the leap to a dozen towns, where they also collaborate with city councils to articulate a residential rental offer that makes possible what for a long time seemed like a pipe dream in emptied Spain: “Restock”. “A bridge between both”. The founder of Tutecho, Blanca Hernández, sums it up clearly: “Depopulation is a challenge, homelessness another. We realized that we can be a bridge between the two,” relates to The Confidential. “It’s about matching the profiles of inhabitants that the town needs with the families that meet those requirements and need a home.” In the case of Paredes, they have even managed to ensure that the school, which until not so long ago seemed on a tightrope, faces the future with some peace of mind. Not bad if you take into account that, as stated in a recent EY report, 48% of the territory Spanish does not reach the European density threshold (12.5 inhabitants per km2) and 80% of small rural municipalities are losing population. Images | Santiago López-Pastor (Flickr) and Wikipedia In Xataka | Empty Spain is now officially one of the quietest places on the planet. There is no risk that it will cease to be

The problem is that, until now, Korean brands ignored 90% of the planet

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A South Korean cosmetics brand was recently forced to apologize after promoting one of its blushes by describing the shade as the “adorable cheeks of a Mongolian baby.” Controversy broke out when content creator Khaliun reported on Instagramin a video that surpassed 270,000 views, that the brand was exploiting an outdated stereotype. Faced with global pressure, the company modified the text for “a beautiful deep mocha pink color that appears gently warmed by the sun.” This incident is not an isolated anecdote. It is the reflection of an industry that exports its products to the entire planet, but that has historically designed its cosmetics with a single demographic in mind, systematically excluding most of the world’s population. The Western fascination with Korean beauty began in the 2010s. This first wave of K-Beauty focused almost exclusively in skin careexporting concepts such as double cleansing or the coveted “glass skin”. As these were facial routines, inclusion was not an obvious challenge. In parallel, K-pop and K-dramas became the perfect vehicle for soft power. “The visibility of K-pop and K-dramas reinforces the perception of the effectiveness of K-beauty,” explains Professor Hye Jin Lee to cnn. The consequence was immediate: in 2024, South Korea surpassed France as the main exporter of cosmetics to the United States, with 1.7 billion dollars in shipments. The problem arose with the arrival of the second wavewhen the trend expanded into color cosmetics and hybrid makeup. Traditionally, Korean brands They launched their makeup bases in just three to five extremely pale shades, baptized with names such as “porcelain”, “ivory” or “sand”, designed for its domestic market. When making the international leap, darker-skinned consumers found themselves facing a wall: the most innovative industry of the moment, simply, I didn’t make products for them.. The standard that excludes without shouting The K-pop industry has been celebrated for challenging gender norms — male idols wearing makeup or traditionally feminine clothing — but it has not been as racially disruptive. The dominant standards They continue to emphasize light skin, a small V-shaped face, big eyes, and a slim body. A recent academic article, published by International Journal of Social Humanity & Management Research, defines these standards as a form of cultural racism: not an explicit discrimination, but a symbolic system that presents an aesthetic as natural and universal while excluding other corporalities. The mechanism does not need to proclaim “we don’t want dark skin.” It is enough to define beauty as something incompatible with them. In the Asian context, the preference for light skin has historical roots linked to social status and neo-Confucian traditions where whiteness symbolized respect for its principles. This is summed up in the Chinese term bai fu mei (white, rich, beautiful), which is still commonly used to describe a perfect woman. But when that standard becomes a global consumer product, the reading changes. The globalization of K-Beauty has caused cultural clashes evident. On YouTube, the video series “Black Girl Tries Korean Makeup” made the frustration visible of black creators in the face of the lack of dark tones and the omnipresence of whitening products, pointing out a bias of “anti-blackness”. In response, part of the Korean audience defended the brands by arguing that Korea is a monoethnic country and that its standards should not be judged by “the western prism”. another study by researcher Andrea Gómez shows how “Asian beauty” is associated in Latin America with youth, health and clear skin. The concept of whiteness is not just chromatic: it implies status, modernity and privilege. In their interviews, salespeople and makeup artists acknowledged that many clients requested shades lighter than their real skin. Not necessarily to look Korean, but to get closer to an ideal historically linked to social advancement imposed since colonial times. This is where K-beauty fits in as the perfect piece: it sells scientific innovation and, at the same time, reinforces an aspiration for clarity and neatness that was already established. As Vogue Business points outthe global beauty industry “thrives on insecurity and the allure of attainable ‘improvements’ that privilege white skin.” And in many cultures, light skin continues to function as symbolic capital. A deep or strategic inclusion? The real change came when diversity was shown to be enormously profitable. The most representative case is that of the brand THROW. When African-American YouTuber Miss Darcei tried her popular foundation in cushion On social networks, she showed that the initial offer of extremely pale tones left her out. The brand responded by creating new ringtones and sending them to him; In a matter of months they expanded their range to 40 colors. The result of listening to a diverse audience was an astonishing increase in 55.465% in brand sales in the United States. Since then, other brands they have reacted. Dear Dahlia expanded the shade range of its liquid blushes and foundations to reach deeper complexions. K-Brown was born in Seoul focused exclusively on the care of melanin-rich skin. Yepo Beauty launched foundations designed for darker tones under the tagline “inclusive K-beauty.” In addition, corporate discourse also changes. Global giants like Unilever and L’Oréal they have already announced the elimination of explicit references to “whitening” or lightening of the skin on its packaging in the face of international criticism. But not all adjustment is virtuous. When the Youthforia brand released a tone 600 Described by critics as a pure black with no undertones resembling human skin, the product caused a stir and was discontinued. A poorly executed inclusion can quickly become a caricature. The tyranny of beauty The racial and aesthetic debate intersects with another axis of oppression: the obsession with eternal youth. The global popularity of collagen—in powder, cream or capsule—reflects growing anxiety and pressure not to age. This is despite experts such as Dr Afshin Mosahebi questioning the scientific soundness of many of these ambitious anti-aging promises. This demand to stop time falls disproportionately on women. Psychology Today remember that the standards of whiteness and bodily perfection present in K-Culture They are not … Read more

AI has already bothered us to improve the PC. Now it is going to make it difficult for us to set up a NAS to create a homemade cloud

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It is the best time so that your PC does NOT break. Or the console. Wave Steam Deck. We have been talking for weeks about how the explosion of data centers for AI has made burst the consumer market of RAM. The SSDs were nextand it was logical to a certain extent because they share technology. What perhaps was not expected was that the new components to increase in price were conventional hard drives, HDDs. And in the midst of cloud fatigue, AI is going to claim a new victim: the NAS. Western Digital, the symptom. It was during the presentation of results for the second fiscal quarter of 2026 when Irving Tan, CEO of Western Digital, commented that the company had sold practically its entire catalog by 2026. We have already seen this with RAM memory, and it indicates that there are already confirmed orders for 2027 and 2028 (supporting the assertion of other authoritative voices in the industry that this crisis still has some time left). Components that do not exist for something that does not exist. The HDDs that WD is talking about are not those with 2, 6 or 8 TB for the consumer market, but rather those with 20 or 30 TB capacity. Onwards. For now, if you want another 4 TB to store games on your PC, you will have no problem finding a drive at an appropriate price/GB ratio. Now, when we talk about having “everything sold” it is not that there is not a single album left on the shelves, but that what they have not produced yet is already sold. This is something that is happening with other segments, such as with RAM itself (with hoarders) and with SSDs. To give a quick example: if Western Digital is capable of producing two million 30 TB HDDs per year and only the xAI data centers They buy two million 30 TB HDDs for a data center that they have not yet built, WD no longer has production capacity and the waits begin for the others. One of the bosses of SMICthe great Chinese foundry, dropped recently the issue that components that have not yet been produced are being sold to power data centers that have not been built to give life to a technology that no one knows exactly what it will be like in the future. Or if it’s even a bubble. The innards of an HDD. And that HDDs are running out is logical for two reasons. The first is because, just like the SSD and memory industry is dominated by three companies (Samsung, Micron and SK Hynix), HDDs are commanded by three others (Toshiba, Western Digital and Seagate). All three have begun a conversion to new technologies to create denser disks, which implies moving money from the “old” factories to the new processes. But it also means that if they have a certain production capacity, scaling up to create more isn’t as easy as clicking a button. Not so immediate either. The second reason is that there are HDDs that have a NAND drive inside as cache memory. That is to say: if there is a shortage of flash memory, there is a shortage for everything, and the companies that manufacture HDDs also experience the delays and price increases in the industry. Second youth. What is undeniable is that HDD manufacturers are doing well in this situation in terms of income. We told it a few months agowhen at the end of January it was already seen that the shares of Seagate and Western Digital were beginning to skyrocket by 148.38% and 156.09% respectively. The thing is that they have not stopped increasing since then because, although memory and SSDs are crucial in data centers, HDDs also have a lot to say. The price per GB makes the cost per capacity extremely attractive, and the AI ​​generates a lot of information that must be saved and for which a very high transfer speed is not needed. Also for the information you consume during training. That has to be stored somewhere, and HDDs are the best option. NAS. And you will tell me: and that doesn’t matter to me, as a user. And it’s a great question because yes: that 20 or 30 TB HDDs become more expensive may not matter to you if until now you thought of this component as the storage of a PC, but…and if you want to set up a NAS? A trend in recent months is to escape subscriptions. There are too many and increasingly expensive, and for everything, and a NAS is a great alternative. Basically, it is a PC with a huge storage capacity with which you can build a private cloud. Do your photos Google Photos? To the NAS. Your private Netflix digitizing your DVDs and Blu-Ray? To the NAS. ¿Your private Spotify ripping your CDs and vinyls? To the NAS. And all this accessible at any time, without paying subscriptions and without problems with data leaks. But of course, to have a private cloud it is necessary to have teras and teras of storage, and that is where those more “professional” hard drives can become impossible not only because of price, but because, at some point, they will no longer exist. Don’t let what we already have be broken. And the worst thing is that there is only one solution: go through the price hoop, unless you entrust yourself to what you believe in so that your PC, laptop or Steam Deck does not break (whichEU is also having supply problems due to the RAM memory crisis). As I said before, it is going great for companies because they are selling everything, but for users, although we assume a much smaller percentage of income, this situation has overwhelmed us like a freight train. If at least the train was loaded with RAM tablets and we could get some, it wouldn’t be bad. Images | Western Digital, Xataka In Xataka … Read more

they used feces as medicine

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The Roman Empire built an impressive sewage network and multiple public buildings for hygiene such as baths and latrines. However, we know that they lived in high fecal contamination conditions and that Rome, despite the efforts of the Romans, it didn’t smell good. Because well, it is one thing to have an advanced infrastructure and another to have bacteriological understanding. In fact, texts by classical authors such as the naturalist Pliny the Elder speak clearly about using excrement to cure diseases. However, there was no evidence that these fecal remedies were actually applied because ancient medicine was partly a hodgepodge of theoretical formulas that did not always reach the patient. Until now: a chemical analysis of a medicine bottle from Roman times published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports confirms it: the Romans thought that excrement was medicinal. A “perfume” bottle with remains. Archeology professor at the University of Cumhuriyet (Turkey) Cenker Atila was working in the warehouses of the Pergamon Museum when he noticed that several glass jars from the 2nd century AD still contained a crust of residue, so he set out to find out what was there. After selecting a candelabra-shaped one called an unguentarium normally intended for storing perfume or makeup, Atila and his research team carefully scraped the residue and passed it through a gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometrywhich is used to analyze and quantify traces of compounds within complex mixtures with a high degree of effectiveness. What the analysis discovered. The GC-MS results returned compounds such as coprostanol and 24-ethylcoprostanol, which are biomarkers produced solely and exclusively from human and animal digestion. This finding constitutes the first direct chemical evidence that the Romans used feces for therapeutic purposes. It must also be taken into account that the bottle comes from Bergama (the ancient Pergamon), the birthplace of Galenthe physician par excellence of the Roman Empire. The famous surgeon lived there between 129 and 216 AD. C., a period that fits with the dating of the bottle. And wouldn’t that ointment smell bad? The results also showed the presence of carvacrol, which is the characteristic aromatic compound of thyme. The research team proposes that Roman doctors mixed feces with herbs with an intense aroma, such as the aforementioned thyme or oregano, to mask the smell, something that makes the treatment more bearable. It’s not that strange. Beyond the joke of imagining someone spraying themselves with feces, the reality is that excrement is currently used for healing, (in a way) in the form of fecal microbiota transplants for serious intestinal infections such as Clostridioides difficile. In this, Roman doctors were ahead of their time. In Xataka | Rome defeated Hannibal and Viriatus, but its soldiers fell to something much more mundane: diarrhea In Xataka | Depositions, excrements and other garbage: a very brief fecal history of the challenges (social and health) that remain to be resolved Cover | Clayton Majona and Heinz Schneider

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