Mobile Tech & Gadgets

Science and longevity experts are clear about what time you should wake up

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For years, the culture of effort and extreme productivity has sold us the “five o’clock club“like him Holy Grail of successtaking as examples to CEOs, influencers or personal development gurus who point out the need to wake up at five in the morning. However, science focused on aging has a very different message: waking up too early is not only not productive, but it can shave years off our life. The experts. Sebastian La Rosaa doctor specializing in longevity, already pointed out that the optimal time to wake up is in a very specific window: between 6:45 and 7:00 in the morning. And the reality is that the scientific literature supports its claims based on clinical experience quite well. Without going any further, an analysis that lasted for 20 years in large groups of people revealed that the lowest point of mortality risk is exactly around seven in the morning. From this point on, extremes (as often happens in biology) are quite expensive. The extremes. Get up constantly after 8 in the morning raises the risk of mortality from all causes by a staggering 39%. But being a night owl and waking up super early every day isn’t good for your health either. This is what they saw from the data extracted from the UK Biobankwith a sample of more than 433,000 people, showing that the evening chronotype (going to bed late and getting up late) has a 10% higher risk of mortality total compared to early risers, impacting more harshly on people over 63 years of age. More tests. On the other hand, a massive study from the University of Exeter found that people who wake up naturally between five and seven in the morning reduce their risk of premature mortality by between 20 and 25%. This fits perfectly with the recommendation to go to sleep between 10:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. to achieve 7 or 8 hours of restful sleep and protect, in the process, cardiovascular health. The golden rule. While 7:00 a.m. seems like the evolutionary magic hour, researchers at Harvard and other pioneering institutions have reached an even more important conclusion: consistency is the most important factor. In this way, having irregular sleep schedules, such as going to bed and getting up at very different times each day, increases the risk of mortality between 20 and 48%. In fact, the regularity of the sleep-wake cycle has been shown to be a stronger predictor of mortality than the total number of hours slept. This forces the scientific consensus to establish that sleeping between 6 and 8 hours is ideal, with exactly 7 hours being the figure linked to greater survival in large population cohorts. But if we choose to sleep less than seven hours or more than eight hours, the body can become unbalanced and increase the risk of death. Hacking the internal clock. Behind all these statistics there are pure cellular mechanics. In animal models, it has been proven that having “high amplitude” circadian rhythms, with very marked differences between daytime alertness and nighttime rest, directly correlates with greater longevity. When this biological clock is altered by living behind sunlight, we alter metabolic pathways critical for aging such as via mTOR, sirtuins or IGF-1. Exposing yourself to natural light as soon as you wake up around seven in the morning is the signal that the brain needs to set this complex hormonal mechanism in motion, mitigating oxidative damage and preventing cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Images | muntazar mansory In Xataka | If you fall asleep in less than five minutes, you don’t have a “superpower”: it’s a warning signal from your brain

Florida has an iguana problem and the coldest winter in years, so it has euthanized more than 5,000 frozen iguanas

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In the Iberian Peninsula we are having one of the winters with more rainfall in recent yearsbut in the United States they are not exactly having a mild winter either. New York has arrived register colder than in Antarctica and not even the state of the sun has been saved: Florida has broken a cold record of more than 100 years. Thus, Miami or West Palm Beach have fallen below 0°C, something that It hasn’t happened since 1909. This extreme cold literally freezes the iguanas. And that has made it very easy for the Florida authorities to “euthanasia” 5,195 specimens Florida has a serious problem with iguanas. As happens in Spain with the catfishes either in Italy with blue crabs (among other parts of the Mediterranean), the United States has invasive species like the Asian carp, which bothers it so much that They have come to electrify the riversor the iguana, which mainly affects southern Florida. In addition to biodiversity problems derived from introducing an outside species into an ecosystem, altering the trophic chain or that its feces are natural carriers of salmonellais that they constitute a real danger to infrastructure: they build burrows up to 24 meters deep, damaging sea walls (a 1.8 million dollar problem in West Palm Beach), building foundations and even blackouts. Not to mention the risk that an iguana falls from a tree to the head or the hood of your car. Friendly reminder that iguanas can come to measure two meters long and weigh more than 13 kg. It’s raining iguanas. Literally. You probably read the above with surprise because, well, from time to time a little bird falls, but a tremendous iguana is less common. The iguanas They arrived in Florida in the 1960s. and since then they have moved quietly through courtyards and canals. The Sunshine State has a subtropical climate and iguanas are cold-blooded reptiles, but for much of the year, they adapt. But winter comes, especially a winter as cold as this one, and the iguanas are stunned by the cold. They are ectothermic speciesthat is, their body temperature is strongly determined by the environment (they do not generate their heat, as mammals do), so they freeze. This cold stunning affects internal processes such as metabolism, breathing or heart rate. And this is what leads them to fall from trees because they are in standby and lose their grip. A chance to get rid of them. So the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has taken the opportunity to implement executive order 26-03which temporarily allows anyone to pick up one of those cold-stunned green iguanas without needing a permit to bring it to authorities. In the first two days of February, Residents brought 5,195 copies. Subsequently, they were sacrificed following American Veterinary Association guidelines (AMVA). Or from a technical point of view, they “euthanized” them. Animal welfare vs pest control. According to the FWCnon-native reptile species such as green iguanas or Burmese pythons are only protected by animal cruelty laws. The procedure is known as “euthanasia” insofar as the method of death must be irreversible, rapid and painless. Precisely at that moment in which they are lethargic is the moment considered the most humanitarian to act. In Xataka | The coypu, one of the 100 most harmful invasive species in the world, is at the doors of Barcelona In Xataka | The US has such a big problem with Asian carp in its rivers that it has decided something extreme: electrocute them Cover | Mason Jones

ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent are spending $647 million on AI. Or rather: in Christmas bribes by AI

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The big three Chinese tech companies have decided that the best way to get users for their AI chatbots is to literally pay them to use them. Between them, they are investing more than $2.9 billion in incentives during the Lunar New Year, the biggest Chinese holiday. It is a war with a single intention: to be the gateway for AI in the country. Subsidy war. The Chinese Lunar New Year has become another major battleground to win the AI ​​race. As they say from the LatePost newsletter (translated by Recode China AI), Alibaba leads with 3,000 million yuan (about 431 million dollars) that it will distribute to its users for its app qwenfollowed by Tencent with 1 billion yuan to yuanbaoand Baidu with 500 million. ByteDance, for its part, has secured the most expensive sponsorship of the Spring Festival Gala to promote Doubaoits chatbot that already has 100 million daily active users. In Xataka ByteDance is not satisfied with TikTok and has just started a new career: one that leads it to create its own AI chip User acquisition. Companies are using money in different ways but with the same objective: hooking users. Alibaba is subsidizing real purchases, from milk tea to hotel reservations, all through its Qwen assistant. According to Bloombergsome stores that offered milk tea have been overwhelmed by orders that had been placed through the chatbot. Tencent offers digital envelopes of up to 10,000 yuan (1,219 euros) directly in cash. On the other hand, ByteDance has taken advantage of its muscle in social networks to integrate Doubao throughout its network of applications. Between the lines. The most interesting part of all this is that it seems that none of these companies yet know how to monetize their AI tools, according to industry sources cited by LatePost. “Monetization models for Chinese AI companies remain murky, a challenge that is also reflected in the United States,” points out Shi Jialong, analyst at Nomura. They are buying users in the hopes of later figuring out how to convert them into revenue. {“videoId”:”x8jpy2b”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”What’s BEHIND AIs like CHATGPT, DALL-E or MIDJOURNEY? | ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE”, “tag”:”Webedia-prod”, “duration”:”1173″} Competence. The situation is radically different from that of a year ago. DeepSeek changed the rules of the game your R1 model last year, gaining 10 million active users in less than a month. And just as they mention in LatePost, that set off a chain reaction, causing Tencent to dive headlong into AI after years of caution, Alibaba to prioritize its Qwen app above everything (even its Quark browser), and ByteDance to accelerate its investment in talent and infrastructure. Yields. ByteDance reported net profits of about $40 billion in the first three quarters of the year, while Tencent reached $30 billion and Alibaba about $10 billion. according to LatePost. Despite having achieved lower profitability in its operations, Alibaba intends to increase its investment in AI infrastructure, specifically from 55 billion to 69 billion dollars in the next three years, as pointed out in the newsletter. ByteDance, for its part, was processing an average of 63 billion tokens daily with its AI models at the end of 2025, a growth of 200% in six months. In Xataka "The world is in danger": Anthropic’s security manager leaves the company to write poetry And now what. The subsidy war to be the gateway to China is not new. As well as remember In Bloomberg, in sectors such as shared transportation or food delivery, they have experienced this battle of companies throwing incentives at their users. And companies lose money massively until the market consolidates. The difference is that here users are not afraid to change AI models and quickly switch to the one that offers the best technical performance, as indicated the OpenRouter report. It will be interesting to see what the market share of the main AI models in China looks like when they stop flying the envelope. Cover image | Arthur Wang and Solen Feyissa In Xataka |Google is going to borrow money to pay back in 100 years. You have to believe that in 100 years Google will still be there (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent are spending $647 million on AI. Or rather: in Christmas bribes by AI was originally published in Xataka by Antonio Vallejo .

Months ago, Mallorca began fining drivers in its ZBE. Now he has a problem with German tourists

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Joachin Fischer is one of the many (many) German tourists who like to enjoy the landscapes, weather and coves of Mallorca. For decades he has been visiting the island at least twice a year. If his name has stood out among the thousands of compatriots who spend their summers in the Balearic Islands, it is because a few months ago posed in front of the cameras of the press showing a fine, a sanction of 200 euros sent by the Palma City Council for (and this is the key) having accessed the Low Emissions Zone (ZBE) from the city with your car. fischer claims who drives a Tesla suitable for driving on the BZE, but that is not the only feature of his vehicle. Another (crucial) is that it has a foreign registration, which partly explains the fine. Your case is important because is not the only one German tourist who claims to have suffered a similar sanction in Palma. What has happened? That the activation of the low emissions zone (ZBE) in Palma is having unexpected protagonists: German tourists. The Balearic capital launched zoning a little over a year ago and months later, in julybegan to apply sanctions to drivers who do not respect it. Until then, nothing out of this world. At the end of the day, Palma City Council has only adjusted to what the Climate Change Law for cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants. The surprise came after time, in Novemberwhen it was found that the measure was causing friction with tourists who arrive in Palma with their foreign-registered cars, even the zero-emission ones. Why’s that? The news gave it Mallorca Diary last fall: tourists who arrive in the city with their own vehicles risk fines if they enter the streets delimited in the ZBE. And this is basically because they do not have the option of registering their license plates to process the permit. Even in those cases where they drive models that meet the technical requirements. “They are not authorized to enter the ZBE, since the DGT system is not universalized throughout the EU and each country has its own classification method, so the level of emissions of cars with foreign registration cannot be automatically verified,” They explained in November from the municipal Mobility area of ​​Palma. “They may be exempt only if they register in the system and justify their residence, meeting the established requirements.” And what is the problem? That last nuance. In the website that Palma City Council dedicates to the ZBE includes a specific section on “vehicles with foreign registration plates” in which two points are especially highlighted. The first is that “vehicles registered outside of Spain are not classified according to the criteria of the environmental label of the General Directorate of Traffic.” The second, that drivers of vehicles with foreign registration interested in accessing the ZBE must process a “authorization”a permit designed primarily for residents and owners of properties, businesses or parking spaces. The question is… And the tourists? Many of the thousands of Germans who spend their summers in the Balearic Islands rent cars with Spanish license plates with a badge that allows them to circulate without problem through the Palma ZBE, but there are also cases like Fischer’swho prefers to disembark with his own vehicle. What’s wrong with them? In November Fischer counted to the Balearic press that he had received a fine of 200 euros from the City Council for driving his electric Tesla where he shouldn’t have been. “I only entered Jaume III for a moment to pick up my 14-year-old daughter after shopping in El Born,” he lamented the man, who assures that he prefers to use his private car and not a rental one because it “amuses him” and gives “greater flexibility” when planning his trips. “Not being able to register my car, I thought that my green ecological device and the electric car license plate would be enough to avoid the fine, as is the case in low-emission zones in German cities. But that was not the case.” Is he the only one affected? It doesn’t seem like it. On those same dates the newspaper Mallorca Zeitung assured that he was receiving “more and more messages” from readers with fines. The Mallorcan press has also echoed complaints from those affected who speak of “discrimination” against Europeans with foreign cars or point out how complicated it is to register a vehicle on the list of authorized license plates, especially for those who do not speak Mallorcan or Spanish. One of the arguments put forward by critics is a note posted on the DGT page which explains that, although Spain does not issue badges for foreign vehicles, that does not have to be a problem. “If your car has an environmental label in its country of origin (Germany, Austria, Denmark, France) it is considered to have the Spanish equivalent,” he clarifies. There is who also remembers that Palma is not the only city council (neither in Spain nor in Europe) that applies mobility restrictions in the center, and insists: the rules are the same for everyone and “ignorance does not exempt from guilt.” Images | Sergiy Galyonkin (Flickr) and Đorđe Pandurević (Unsplash) In Xataka | Houses are so expensive in the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands that they are expelling even Germans and British people from the market.

The fastest private plane in the world is now ready to fly, covering non-stop intercontinental routes and less jet lag

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Few aircraft projects raise as much expectation as that of the Bombardier Global 8000 because he who It will be the fastest civil aircraft in the world since the Concorde It has some characteristics that leave people open-mouthed and others, such as the promise of ending jet lag, that arouse some skepticism. And furthermore, it is rigorously complying with its roadmap to go from becoming an ambitious prototype in testing to being a certified commercial reality: a few days ago completed its international certification process and can now operate without restrictions in the European sky. He Bombardier Global 8000 breaks records. In its test flights, one of its aircraft reached a Mach speed of 0.941, even exceeding Mach 1.0 (Mach. 1.015) in a dive, making it the first aircraft within its commercial people transportation category to break the sound barrier in a controlled and sustainable manner. And also, in the fastest civil jet in active service. However, his certified maximum operating cruising speed is Mach 0.95, exceeding its own expectations and leaving behind others like the Gulfstream G700 or the Dassault Falcon 10X. This is possible thanks to its engines GE Passport and its aerodynamics. Its propulsion system is optimized for a high bypass ratio and thermal efficiency, enabling long flights. Its wings have a design Smooth Flĕx Wing critical: it is a variable profile structure that optimizes lift both when flying at low speed and at cruising speed. This minimizes resistance and improves stability against turbulence. With intercontinental capacity. Precisely its surname 8000 comes from its autonomy: it is capable of flying 8,000 nautical miles, about 15,000 kilometers. Again, its engines and design are largely to blame. If we take into account its range and speed, in practice it means that it is practically capable of linking two cities in the world without the need for stopovers. It is no longer that it can connect New York with Hong Kong, it is that compared to the traditional commercial flight it could save almost two hours. Goodbye to damn jet lag? As if flying from one end of the planet to another non-stop and in less time was not enough, the Bombardier Global 8000 promises minimize jet lag through pressurization and systems engineering. Go ahead something: the jet lag It’s not just lack of sleep and jet lag, it’s also an effect of air pressure. While a standard commercial airliner maintains cabin pressure equivalent to 6,000 – 8,000 feet, the Global 8000 maintains it at only 2,900 feet (about 880 meters) even when flying 41,000 feet. This means more oxygen in the blood of people traveling, so fatigue is reduced. Likewise, it integrates the Soleil System LED circadian lighting based on the dynamic position of the sun depending on the destination. A most exclusive aircraft. This aircraft does not skimp on details to optimize flight or comfort. Thus, it has a HEPA filtration system that renews the cabin air in less than 90 seconds, it has very comfortable a priori Bombardier patented Nuage seats with zero gravity position, four private suites with king-size beds and there is no shortage of shower on board. Beyond its innovations and luxuries, it has something essential from a practicality point of view: its design allows it to operate in small airports and even on wet and bad runways, so it can land or take off in up to 2,050 airports. According to Bombardier, this marks the difference with the competition. The interior of one of its exclusive suites ready to fly. As we mentioned in the intro, the Bombardier Global 8000 already has everything to fly. After the envelope validation phase which took place between 2021 and 2023 where the company verified that elements such as the wing and the stabilizers supported transonic shock waves without losing structural integrity, they moved on to the testing and certification phase. First Transport Canada, then the FAA American and a couple of weeks ago, the European, which opens the doors to accepting deliveries in the United States and Europe. However, the first customers of the launch have already begun to receive their units from 2025. By the way, those who own the previous model, the Global 7500, you can upgrade it to the new Global 8000. In Xataka | The largest plane in the world has just broken its record for flight hours: its real mission is even more ambitious In Xataka | The whale of the skies says goodbye: the Airbus Beluga ST retires after years transporting other aircraft parts Cover and images | Bombardier

SMIC is the Chinese TSMC and sums up all investment in AI

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The semiconductor industry has pressed the panic button. Unlike the chip crisis of 2020the new one has not been caused by a ‘perfect storm’ and has a first and last name: artificial intelligence. The push for this technology and the rampant construction of data centers has caused a stock out of all computer components. And if the world’s leading companies have been caught on the wrong foot, the Chinese ones are no exception. To the point that SMIC has confirmed the lean times. The Chinese industry has activated “crisis mode.” Crisis (don’t bother…). At this point, introductions are unnecessary. The RAM market is broken because the main players (Samsung, Micron and SK Hynix) have focused on creating memory for data centers. The reports point to an NVIDIA that would ‘pass’ on launching consumer GPUs this year because you need all possible wafers to create GPUs focused on AI. And after the SSD price risethe following can be the processors. A few days ago, a report from Reuters noted that Intel and AMD were beginning to notify Chinese customers to sit tight for new shipments of server CPUs. Because we always talk about NVIDIA as if it were the only one that creates components for data centers, but the chips Threadripper from AMD and Xeon from Intel are key parts of servers. According to Reuters sources, AMD has warned of an increase in delivery times from eight to ten weeks. And if we look at an Intel whose sales in China represent 20% of its general income, they point out that the price of the fourth and fifth generation Xeons are being rationed and, in addition, increasing the price by 10%. As with other components, they are not enough. From hope to victim. From Reuters they point out that AMD hopes that its relationship with TSMC will allow it to maintain the supply chain. The problem is that TSMC has to be working hard to supply all its customers. NVIDIA is putting pressureQualcomm also needs its premium range mobile processors this year and they are the ones that make Apple’s processors. SMIC -Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp- is the main Chinese semiconductor company. It is the one that in recent years has gained prominence defy US restrictions and provide high-performance chips to Huawei. It is also the great hope, together with Huawei itself, to develop a GPU that can cope with NVIDIA. Zhao Haijun is the co-CEO of SMIC and has come forward to be anything but reassuring. Double reservation. SMIC is winning more money thanks to demand, but production capacity is limited, to the point that he considers that the industry has entered “crisis mode.” “Customers are hesitant to place orders because no one knows how many memory chips will be available and, therefore, how many orders for phones, cars or other products they will be able to build,” stated to investors. In fact, analysis from Counterpoint reflect this crisis with a figure: 2.5%. This is what would have lowered the shipping forecast for Honor, OPPO and Vivo phones for the coming months. That leads manufacturers to book with multiple suppliers, something Zhao has compared with the “double booking” behavior that can be seen on an airline. “If one airline is fully booked, passengers will immediately book another, making total bookings appear inflated even though actual demand has not increased proportionately.” In essence, if the production capacity is limited, but the companies that need chips reserve several suppliers that draw from the same source, it seems that the demand is beastly, although, in reality, this is not so much the case. The result is the same: the system collapses. Car-free highways. The note of the double reservation is not the only pearl that Zhao has left. It is evident that, whether they can handle the demand or not, it is good for SMIC because Chinese companies eager for chips to develop their AI (of which They don’t stop releasing new models) are purchasing components for their data centersand the executive commented that “no one has really thought about what exactly those data centers will do, but companies would love to build the total capacity of the next 10 years in just one or two years.” “It’s like building train stations and high-speed highways even if there aren’t that many cars that need them yet” – Zhao Haijun Three billion dollars. But it’s about being there, having a place at the table where the conversation that, they hope, will shape the future is being defined. American Big Tech plans burn more than 650 billion dollars this 2026 alone, a brutal increase if we take into account that the investment was 400,000 million in 2025. But if we look at the global estimate, with Alibaba, Bytedance or Tencent in the equation, the estimate is three trillion dollars for the next five years. Crisistunity. In the face of crisis, opportunity. We have already commented that AMD, Intel or NVIDIA they are saturated. Also Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron on the memory boat, and in that scenario is where there are certain companies that can begin to carve out a space for themselves at an accelerated pace. SMIC is one of them, satisfying the demand of local customers, but memory manufacturers such as CXMT or YMTC that They had never painted anything in the conversationyou have a chance. We already know that PC manufacturers such as Asus, Dell or HP are considering buying CXMT memories and that Lenovo has already started to do so. And it is not only a window for Chinese companies: Intel has an adventure with the Japanese SoftBank to stand up to Samsung and its HBM4 memories. And even ByteDance would be working on your own AI chip. The problem is the same one we have been talking about for a long time: no matter how much they increase production and no matter how much new players appear, they are all playing in the same game, that of allocating most … Read more

turning the “sea of ​​death” into a carbon sink

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For decades, the Taklamakan desertin the Chinese region of Xinjiang, has had a nickname quite eloquent: “the sea of ​​death.” And it is no wonder, since it is the second largest mobile dune desert in the world and a place where, historically, whoever enters does not usually leave. But faced with this major problem with sand for the surrounding areas, China decided to find a solution. The solution. China since 1978 has been waging an ecological engineering war against sand with a very specific weapon: the Three North Shelter Belt Programbetter known as the Great Green Wall. A name that seems to come out of Game of Thrones, but its objective is to stop erosion and sandstorms. But a new massive study published in PNAS has just revealed an unexpected and monumental side effect: human intervention has turned the edges of one of the driest places on Earth into an active carbon sink. The data. The study has focused on 25 years of data obtained through field work and also with satellites. What the team has found on the margins of the Taklamakan is what they call a “cold spot” of carbon dioxide. This means that in reforested areas the concentration of CO₂ is between 1 and 2 parts per million smaller than in the surrounding environment. And although it may not seem like much, in climatology it is an outrage. The trend in this case is quite clear, since The vegetation cover is increasing every yearand there is also a tendency for soil and plants to be “eating” more carbon than they are emitting. How is it possible? The million-dollar question here is pretty clear: how do you keep 66 billion trees alive in a place where it barely rains? The answer lies in water management technology and species selection. In this case, the project does not focus on planting oaks or pines, but is based on Extremophilous species like him Tamarixhe Haloxylon and the Euphrates poplar, which are plants evolutionarily designed to survive on very little. But the technological key has been the use of drip risk with saline water. Origin of water. China discovered that under the Taklamakan there are immense aquifers, but they are too saline for traditional agriculture. However, these “halophytic” plants can tolerate it, so it seemed like it was done on purpose. That is why groundwater is used to irrigate the protective strips that exist, especially around the famous tarim desert highway. The result with this is that soil moisture drops drastically between waterings, but the plants survive. And, although the salinity of the superficial soil increases, studies indicate that it is manageable in the long term and does not salinize the deep layers. This has made it possible to complete in 2024 a “green belt” of 3,046 kilometers that encloses the desert, stabilizing dunes that previously moved meters each year. Its stability. Unlike the Great Green Wall attempts in the Sahara, which have suffered from political instability and a lack of continued funding, the Chinese project has maintained its course since 1978. This continuity has allowed a “40-year experiment” that is now bearing fruit with important conclusions. The Chinese authorities themselves cite that national forest coverage has gone from 10% in 1949 to 25% today, thanks in large part to this project. As a result, in places like Maigaiti in Xinjiang, sandstorm days have dropped from 150 a year to fewer than 50. It is not the panacea. The source article warns of the limitations of this project: photosynthesis and carbon sequestration are strongly correlated with seasonal precipitation. This means that at least 16 liters of rainfall per month is needed in high season to maximize its effect. But behind it is climate change that is drastically altering rainfall patterns in Central Asia, which could weaken the carbon sink. Although what is happening in Taklamakan is causing a paradigm shift, since now where we see reforestation of deserts, we also see a way to cool our planet by reducing the concentration of CO₂. Images | Wikipedia Jasmine Milton In Xataka | Someone has counted each and every tree in China. Because? Well because now it is possible

The canonical “living room furniture” in Spain in the 80s and 90s is dead. That says more about us than it seems.

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There is an object that disappeared from Spanish homes within a generation or two, without almost anyone noticing: the living room furniture. I’m not talking about a base for the TV but about that solid wood architecture that occupied an entire wall, with its display cases, shelves, drawers, space for the TV and, in the most ambitious models, even an integrated minibar, the only thing in my childhood home that seemed like a luxury to me. For decades that piece of furniture was the nerve center of the home. It housed books, television, mini chain (another vestige of another era), family memories and the boy’s judo medals. Today it is a relic that no one millennial buys and that Generation Z doesn’t even recognize. The obvious explanation is practical: televisions grew much faster than the space that these pieces of furniture reserved for them. It became impossible to fit a 42 or 55 inch screen where barely 21 could fit.. Apartments shrank while prices skyrocketed, and dedicating four square meters to a cherry monolith no longer made sense. Furthermore, moves have multiplied because job insecurity forces people to change cities more than in the past, and no one wants to carry a piece of furniture that requires a truck and three rocks. But That doesn’t explain why no one misses them.. What died with the living room furniture was something deeper: the idea that the home should display who we were. These displays were, in addition to functional display cases, a showcase: the good dishes that were only used at Christmas, the collection of porcelain figurines, the religious motifs if the family was a believer, the bound volumes of encyclopedias that no one read but that let visitors know that culture is valued in this house. The shelf with the VHS carefully arranged, the crystal glasses, the framed photos. It was all there to be seen by those who came to see us, to say, “This is our family, this is our status, this is what we value, this is who we are.” That today is, at best, a piece of melanin furniture with some funkos and the Switch. Image provided by an acquaintance. In this case, a 55″ TV covers more than what the furniture manufacturer had planned and there is no room for more. In this case, the tradition of furniture and tea sets coexist with the modernity of consoles, the yoga mat or souvenirs definitely different from those of yesteryear, such as the Japanese torii or the Mexican mask. Where was the ceramic with ‘Memory of Torrelavega’. Today we exhibit on Instagram, or in our profile photo and WhatsApp statuses, but not in the living room. Identity is no longer constructed through physical objects arranged in a display case, but through selected images on a screen. It is no longer necessary to demonstrate to visitors that you have good taste (visits, in fact, are increasingly rare) because your followers They have already seen it in the stories. The other thing is a matter of our parents and in-laws. The living room furniture was a gesture of permanence and stability: We bought one that we knew would last a lifetime, we even inherited it. Now we live in forced flexibility, in rental apartments with annual contracts, in Ikea as religion and in the imperative to travel light. It’s not just that it doesn’t fit. It is that its very logic (the solid, the definitive, the expository) belongs to a time that no longer exists. The space where the furniture used to be is now occupied by a giant television mounted on the wall, a minimalist shelf from Amazon or, directly, nothing. And that absence is not coincidental. It is the symptom of a culture that stopped believing in the idea of ​​the home as a personal museum. and he began to conceive it as a provisional set for a life that happens, above all, elsewhere. On the screens. In Xataka | The 17 photos that explain the 90s as if you had lived them Featured image | Xataka

Tesla’s enormous problem in Germany has an alarming figure and a clear person responsible: Elon Musk

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Three out of four potential buyers of an electric car reject the idea of ​​buying a Tesla. The study points to the German market, which is the first electric car market in Europe by sales volume, and explains an important part of Tesla’s failure in Europe during 2025. Three out of four. 75% of potential buyers of an electric car in Germany do not value the idea of ​​buying a Tesla car, according to a study by the German Institute of Economics in collaboration with the Technical University of Dresden. The figure, which in itself is bad, has even more meaning. And that 75% is made up of potential customers who believe it is unlikely to buy a Tesla (15%) and those who completely reject buying a vehicle from this brand (60%). The reason, as we could imagine, is not a question of competition or price. The disaster. Last year, 545,142 electric cars were sold in Germany. It was, by far, the strongest electric car market in Europe. The growth was 43.2% compared to 2024, the year in which just over 380,000 electric cars were sold. Its market share reached 19.1%, above the European average, according to ACEA. For Tesla, however, it was not a great year. In Europe, 150,504 electric vehicles from Elon Musk’s company were sold, 37.9% less than the previous year when 242,436 registrations were registered. The most problematic thing is that the company had achieved a market share of 2.3% (a good bite to eat on the electric car pie, which in 2024 was only 13.6% in the European Union. That is, almost two out of every 10 electric cars sold in Europe were from Tesla. The drop was even more pronounced in Germany. There, the drop was 48.4%, as recorded Reuters at the beginning of the year. And, with everything, It has not been its strongest percentage drop in European countries but the damage in volume is more than evident. The politics. The decision by which the Germans seem to completely reject Tesla is evident to the creators of the study: Elon Musk’s political positioning. According to the authors, political positioning influences the purchase of a car more than sociodemographic characteristics. They point out that young people, those with a higher level of education and those who live in urban areas are more inclined to purchase an electric car. In political terms, Green supporters are the most open to acquiring this technology and AfD (German far-right) voters are the least enthusiastic. On average, they say, the potential customer for an electric car has grown by over 40% and those who reject it outright have also fallen. But the problem for Tesla is that it is not attractive to either group. Among the Greens, only 10.8% value the purchase of a Tesla as their first option and the percentage grows among AfD followers to 15.2% but it must be taken into account that these voters are also less in favor of buying a car of this type. Just lose. The study concludes with a statement: Elon Musk has lost support for buying cars among progressive groups (those who buy the most electric cars or are willing to buy) and has not attracted enough conservative groups to alleviate this disadvantage. The result is a direct consequence of a year 2025 that began with Elon Musk doing a Nazi salute during Donald Trump’s takeover of the United States and which continued with a explicit support of the company’s head for AfD and other far-right parties in Europe. It must be taken into account that this type of political positioning in Germany is much more delicate than in other countries. In Germany the Nazi salute is a crime punished with a fine in minor cases but which can be grounds for imprisonment in more serious cases. Study on preferences when buying an electric car in Germany segmented by political parties. Source: German Institute of Economics The worst option almost always. The image above shows the predisposition of Germans to the type of electric car they want to buy, segmented by their origin and the political parties that these potential customers vote for. According to this data, Tesla is the last option in four of the six political parties studied, even behind Chinese cars as the first option. The latter always surpass him except among CDU and SPD voters (although in both cases a greater percentage considers it possible to buy a Chinese car over a Tesla if we add the second level of predisposition). Tesla reaps the worst results among the Greens and Linke (The Left) and the absolute rejection is greater among the supporters of the latter political party. Chinese cars are, in all cases, the second option chosen when considering those who are willing to buy an electric car and those who value it as a possible purchase. The Germans are the ones who obtain the most support and the first option in all cases, with the greatest support among Green voters and with the AfD as the party with the greatest reluctance to buy it. Photo | Elon Musk in X and German Institute of Economics In Xataka | Tesla is discovering in real time that the most difficult thing was not to build a car brand from scratch: it was to maintain it

five big tech deals ending today, February 15

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Taking into account that yesterday was Valentine’s Day, many stores have taken the opportunity to launch a wide range of offers, whether or not they focus on this special day. Today ends the MediaMarkt Valentine’s Day and the El Corte Inglés Limit Offersso we have reviewed both stores to comment on some of the best deals we can find. LG OLED55B56LA by 669.94 euros When registering in the store, a 55-inch OLED television with a very reasonable price. Xiaomi 15T Pro by 687.14 euros when registering in the store, an excellent mobile that comes with 512 GB of storage. Marshall Acton III by 169.15 eurosa Bluetooth speaker with an exquisite retro design. Google Pixel 10 Pro by 764.54 euros When registering in the store, a high-end mobile phone with an outstanding camera section. Samsung HW-S700D by 196.94 euros when registering in the store, a powerful sound bar that is compatible with Dolby Atmos. LG OLED55B56LA Having an OLED television does not have to cost a fortune, there are models that cost less than 1,000 euros. Right now, the LG OLED55B56LA is the best example, since when you register with MediaMarkt an additional discount is automatically applied that leaves you 669.94 euros. It not only stands out because it incorporates a 55-inch OLED panel, in this case, but also because it offers a 120Hz refresh ratebecause it is compatible with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos and because it also comes with some gaming-oriented technologies, such as Nvidia G-Sync. LG OLED55B56LA (OLED, 55 inches) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Xiaomi 15T Pro If you are looking for a good high-end mobile phone that also has a lot of storage, the Xiaomi 15T Pro has dropped to 687.14 euros (again when registering with MediaMarkt). This is an excellent model that comes with 512GB storageits screen is ideal for viewing multimedia content in good quality, its MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ processor is quite powerful and its cameras are signed by Leica, so they offer very good photographic results. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Marshall Acton III He Marshal Acton III It is a beautiful speaker. Perhaps the characteristic retro design is the first thing that catches the eye, but we cannot ignore that, for 169.15 euros At El Corte Inglés, we talk about a good model. It offers a good power of 30W at 2.0 channels, has Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity and incorporates a button panel on the top. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Google Pixel 10 Pro If the Xiaomi mobile does not convince you and you are looking for one of the best from Google, be careful with the MediaMarkt offer: by registering in the store you can buy the Google Pixel 10 Pro by 764.54 euros. And be careful, this is the version with 256GB storage. It comes with an excellent 6.3-inch screen, its operating system is a real delight, and its cameras are outstanding. Google Pixel 10 Pro (256GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Samsung HW-S700D Although El Corte Inglés has a good price (229 euros) on the sound bar Samsung HW-S700Dby registering with MediaMarkt you can buy for 196.94 euros. It is a 2024 model that includes its own wireless subwoofer, although the difference is that the bar is very thin. It incorporates seven 3.1 channel speakers, is compatible with Wireless Dolby Atmoshas Chromecast and has Bluetooth 5.2, WiFi and HDMI eARC connectivity. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | MediaMarkt, El Corte Inglés and Compradicción (header), LG, Xiaomi, Marshall, Google, Samsung In Xataka | The best mobile phones, we have tested them and here are their analyzes In Xataka | Best sound bars in quality price (2026). Which one to buy and seven recommended models from 99 euros

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