Mobile Tech & Gadgets

now it has to be “functional”, “conscious” and, of course, instagrammable

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Two years ago, social networks they were filled of giant glasses of water of all colors and flavoring powders. That effervescent fashion was called WaterTok: a digital community that transformed hydration into likes. Now, the phenomenon has returned with another name and a more sophisticated air: loaded water, or water loaded with ingredients that promise energy, balance and digestive health. The difference is not so much aesthetic as speech: less glitter, more “functionality.” The functional era of water? Between Generation Z and the wellness-loving public has arisen he loaded water, that unlike the WaterTokis presented as a “conscious” evolution. For many, it is a way to give up soda and drink more water: “It helps me consume much more water than I normally consume per day,” said a creator on TikTok. He loaded water reappears this year as a “functional” version: water to which electrolytes, fruits or prebiotics are added to improve the flavor and promote adherence to hydration. However, like the experts remember Water alone is still sufficient for most people, except in cases of prolonged exercise or exposure to extreme heat. So, this new trend would be an evolution of traditional infused water, with a discourse that mixes nutrition and wellness aesthetics. “If flavored water displaces sugary drinks, it is healthier,” summarizes dietitian Fiorella DiCarloalthough with an important nuance: “Dehydration can cause fatigue, slow down metabolism and increase sugar cravings, which can lead to weight gain.” From that logic, the loaded water It becomes a tool for those looking to hydrate better without adding sugar. Is it so hard to drink water? There is no viralization without an uncomfortable truth behind it: many people do not reach the daily hydration recommendations. According to Mayo Clinicrecommends 15.5 cups of liquids a day for men and 11.5 for women, remembering that not only water counts, but also fruits and other foods with high water content. Additionally, the Cleveland Clinic medical portal relates the lack of water with cravings for sweets, something that loaded water promises to combat by offering flavor without sugar. With or without flavor? It is not a fixed recipe, since it can include electrolytes, prebiotics, sparkling water, fruits, herbs or vitamins, depending on the needs or taste of each person. In short, as a Fitness portal explainsis a creative and functional way to hydrate, which allows you to customize the drink according to your goals: energy, digestion or simply flavor. Regular water is still enough for most people, except those who engage in intense physical activity or are exposed to extreme heat. The rest, recalls nutritionist Helen Tieuyou can get the same minerals through a balanced diet with fruits, vegetables, nuts and dairy. Healthy fashion or profitable business? The border between well-being and business is easily blurred. In a report for the New York Times documented as the #WaterTok phenomenon skyrocketed sales of syrups and flavoring mixes: brands like Jordan’s Skinny Mixes sold out and doubled their revenue. Many of the creators who popularized the movement included affiliate links to the products they used. Under the same prism, loaded water falls within the “liquid aesthetics of well-being”, where translucent, colorful and photogenic drinks triumph —like clear protein—. The visual is sold as synonymous with health, even though there are ultra-processed products behind it. And there lies the slightest difference with a more sober and “scientific” tone, but ultimately it responds to the same commercial logic: converting water into a product that can be labeled, promoted and sold. Back to the essentials. Not all experts join the wave of functional powders. Nutritionist Ángela Quintas defends the return to nature and shares simple recipes for waters flavored with cucumber, mint, lemon or red fruits. “Hydration is not just drinking water, it is taking care of your metabolism, your skin, your energy and your health from within,” remembers in statements to La Vanguardia. To avoid confusion, nutritionists match on some basic principles: prioritize fresh fruits, herbs or coconut water over industrial powders, limit sodium and artificial flavorings if consumed several times a day, and adjust hydration to individual needs. In situations of prolonged effort or extreme heat, electrolytes may make sense, but it is always advisable to consult a professional if there are kidney or cardiovascular problems. The water is no longer invisible. Under the guise of health, the loaded water It is also an example of how far wellness marketing can go. If in 2023 the WaterTok turned hydration into a spectacle, in 2025 the loaded water He has transformed it into a business. What started as a reminder to drink more water is today an industry of dyes, powders and promises. The trend passes, the thirst remains. Image | FreePik Xataka | You don’t sweat as much, but you drink like you’re running a marathon: the new obsession with electrolytes

The North Koreans are hungry, so they have started hunting tigers. It’s just the tip of the iceberg

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North Korea It is a unique country. so unique as airtight and, therefore, fascinating. Know What is an ordinary day in Pyongyang like?the capital, is tremendously complicated. On the one hand, we have the official speech of prosperity and normality. On the other hand, the stories from people who have been within its borders. But sometimes there are accidents and information is leaked, such as the systematic hunting of any animal that weighs more than 500 grams in order to survive another day. And the problem is so brutal that there are already those who point to a strong risk of “defaunation” of North Korea. In short. Joshua Elves-Powell is a researcher who, a few weeks ago, presented a study which analyzed North Korea’s wildlife trade. Obviously, obtaining first-hand information in the country seemed complicated, but Powell had an ace up his sleeve: the testimonies of 42 North Korean defectors. During 2021 and 2022, participants spoke in both South Korea and the United Kingdom and their testimony was devastating: North Korea has been hunting animals for decades to trade with them… and to eat them. In a serious study, these sources should have a first and last name, but due to the unique conditions of this studyit must be noted that the research was reviewed by the UCL Research Ethics Committee. The sample was large: all were over 18 years old and had left the country between 1950 and 2020. black market. Some context. In the 1990s, North Korea’s economy collapsed. In a period of famine, people do whatever it takes to survive, and the humanitarian crisis transformed the country’s relationship with its wildlife. According to testimonies, professional hunters, but also soldiers, black market regulars and wildlife consumers, set out to hunt animals like tigers and other species. The objective was not only to eat them (that too), but to sell them. One of the participants commented that he had been involved in the illegal trade of tiger bones from the Pyongyang Zoo in 2020 and had been able to obtain bones from professional hunters between 2014 and 2020. The hunted is not only sold on the local black market, but also in countries such as Chona or Russia. This clearly violates international conservation obligations and is supported by the seizure of products from time to time, such as the shipment of more than 100 bottles of tiger bone wine at the border between the two countries. Goals. What do they hunt? The research shows that virtually all native mammals weighing more than 500 grams are a viable target. Apart from Siberian tigers (of which part of their hunting is mentioned for food) and Amur leopards (food too), found in a tremendously sensitive moment Due to their scarcity, the prey are the following: Deer: for their meat and pieces such as antlers. Wild boars: for their meat. Asian black bears: get meat, bile, paws and skin. Asian badgers: to create medicinal oil. Porcupines: for their quills. Otters: for fur and trade. Red fox: skin. Gray wolf: fur. Raccoon: for its meat and for trafficking. Defaunation. This hunting is not usually done with firearms, but with an extensive network of traps that add a problem to the list: being an indiscriminate capture, non-target species fall, such as the Bengal cat (Prionailurus bengalensis). This massive hunt is causing what they have qualified as a “defaunation” process that implies that a scenario is occurring in North Korean forests in which there is no longer any fauna. It is something that affects both North Korea and the neighboring areas of China, Russia and South Korea. The Amur Lepartum And the State? in the garlicaccording to these informants. The problem is that we are talking about a market to, above all, create products focused on traditional medicine. For example, deer antlers are the essential ingredient for producing ointments with healing properties and Asian badger oil is used to treat skin conditions. In fact, there are hunters authorized by the State who must present pieces as a tribute and it is ensured that the country itself raises certain animals (such as bears for their bile) to obtain resources that are export to neighboring markets. They do so in facilities that operate under a façade of legality, but supposedly feeding the black market. Someone do something. Powell’s study presented the information and those defectors allowed us to know that side of North Korea. But of course, doing something is complex. Animal organizations consider that the country is a “black hole” for the recovery of fauna because there are no efforts to protect biodiversity. They denounce that it is a market that violates efforts to recover endangered species and, in addition, is a risk to public health. They call for international pressure, using these refugee testimonies as evidence, and specifically allude to China, asking to tighten monitoring of illegal imports. Finally, there is a call for North Korea to join the CITESthe treaty that regulates international trade in endangered species. And this, unfortunately, sounds quite complicated. Images | Uwe Brodrecht, Ltshears In Xataka | This rocket-shaped skyscraper is the “worst building in the world.” And it’s in North Korea, obviously.

The French Revolution proposed dividing the day into ten hours. It didn’t catch on, but an artist has created watches that respect that idea

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Apparently it is a normal clock: its division by hours, its two hands (yes, we already know that if you are from Generation Z it is very possible that you do not know how to read time in this device, but let’s start from the fact that it seems to all of us that this looks like a traditional watch)… However, as soon as you look closely you will see that there is an extraordinary difference: the dial is divided into ten spaces instead of the usual twelve. In the name of Lewis Carroll, what the hell is this. Ruth Evans, provoking. The clock is the work of artist Ruth Ewan and is part of a series of similar creations, called ‘We Could Have Been Anything That We Wanted To Be’, originally presented at Folkestone Artworks in 2011. It is a triennial of urban art works that, in its latest edition, includes 91 works by 52 artists. Ewan, a Scottish artist whose works always contain a social message, has retouched for the occasion some of the watches she created almost fifteen years ago for the contest. How they work. The strange arrangement of the numbers is not an aesthetic decision, but rather we are looking at clocks that divide each day into ten hours, each hour into one hundred minutes and each minute into one hundred seconds. Midnight takes place at ten and noon at five. Currently, you already know: a day has 24 hours, each of which has 60 minutes, each with 60 seconds. From there we also use decimals: a second has ten tenths of a second, one hundred hundredths or one thousand thousandths. But Ewan’s is an absolutely rational division of time that is not capricious: it has a historical basis. Making history. As we already said in its day, The ten-hour system was officially implemented in 1793 as part of the radical reforms spurred by the French Revolution. This decimal system was intended to simplify calculations and break with the past, aligning itself with other revolutionary aspects such as the republican calendar that divided the year into 12 identical months, of 30 days each and 10 days per week. The use of decimal time was mandatory from the end of 1793 until April 1795, when its use was suspended after only 500 days, due to great popular resistance and the difficulty of adapting daily life and existing clocks to this new system. Some watchmakers attempted to create watches with dual numbering (decimal and traditional) to help the transition, but the change clashed with customs and business needs that depended on the traditional system. What does it mean? Ewan’s intention with this watch is to show how changes in the organization of time can also symbolize profound social transformations, and proposes a new way of perceiving the world and questioning current systems. Let us remember that revolutionary France sought to introduce reason, equality and efficiency in all aspects of social life, including the measurement of time. With something as simple as reminding us that time can be perceived very differently with a simple change in the artifacts with which we measure it, Ewan proposes a possible new social order, and an invitation to imagine alternative futures. The work questions the rigidity of capitalist chronological time, and that is why Ewan prepared and distributed some pamphlets that spoke of the utopian concept of time in the Revolution. In Xataka | Physicists do not know precisely what time is. Still, they suspect it’s just an illusion.

We are becoming the Japan of the 21st century

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Let’s start with the facts: Europe ages faster than any other developed regionespecially in the south. middle age is over 44 years oldand going up. The big technology companies that define our era are American or Chinese, with permission for South Korean or Taiwanese exceptions. Our industrial glories (Nokia, Siemens, Ericsson, Alcatel…) are today B2B suppliers or corporate zombies, invisible to the consumers who once loved them. We host two of the most important technology events in the world (MWC and IFA) but we are spectators of a spectacle that others dominate. And in the meantime, we regulate: GDPR, AI ActDMA, DSA. We legislate about innovations we don’t lead and impose rules on games we don’t play. There is an uncomfortable but quite precise parallel: post-bubble Japan. In the 1980s, Japan seemed destined to dominate the 21st century. Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, Nintendo… Japan defined some of the technologies that dominated the world at the end of the 20th century: The game boy and the desktop Nintendo. The walkman and the discman. The Trinitron teles. The VHS that won the format war. The Canons and Nikons that captured our memories. The iconic Casio watches. The Toyotas and Hondas that redefined the word “reliability.” Even the word kaizen (continuous improvement) became a mantra for companies around the world. Japan, in addition to manufacturing great products, exported methodologieswork philosophies and visions of the technological future. Then came the bust, the stagnation, the deflation. And the worst: institutional nostalgia. Japan did not collapse, but began to stop creating the future. And it became a museum of how things were done, of when we were relevant. Europe is taking that same path, but faster. What is worrying is not so much the absence of large European technology companies with honorable exceptions, is the response to that absence: instead of creating conditions for them to emerge, we focus on aggressively regulating those that exist.. We act as if power resides in controlling other people’s platforms, not in building our own. It’s the mentality of someone who no longer plays: if I can’t win, at least I set the rules. But setting rules without the ability to enforce them is simply irrelevance disguised as principles. Japan took solace in its culture, its refined aesthetics, its exceptionalism. In Europe we console ourselves with our “values”. Data protection, sustainability, digital rights. Everything correct, everything noble. But insufficient. Because in the meantime, the technological architecture of the 21st century—the one that defines what is possible to do, think, create—is being built in California and Shenzhen. We set limits on systems that others design. The underlying problem is that Europe has internalized a narrative of managed decline. We no longer aspire to lead, but to “preserve our model.” Translation: manage decay with dignity. It took decades for Japan to accept its new role. Europe seems to have accepted it on the fast track. In Xataka | I increasingly like technology that doesn’t want anything from me: the one that has a purpose and leaves you alone Featured image | Tianshu Liu, Il Vagabiondo

So you can get Movistar Plus+ from 3.25 euros per month to watch series, movies and even football

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Given so much increase in the price of subscriptions to streaming platforms, it is appreciated that from time to time some of them launch promotions that we can take advantage of to pay less monthly or annually. Movistar Plus+ It is one of the platforms that usually has the most offers and now, with the Young Cultural Bonusthe service can be accessed for an entire year for 39 euros (which would be 3.25 euros per month). Of course, there is also another offer for those who do not have the Young Cultural Bonus. Movistar Plus+, annual subscription The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Series, movies and sports with good promotion As can be read in the Movistar Plus+ pagethe streaming platform right now has a promotion for those people who have the Young Cultural Bonus. By 39 euros (3.25 euros per month) the service can be accessed for a whole year and includes a good variety of movies, series and football. Among what we can find on the platform, we have a movie premiere every daythe original Movistar Plus+ series and also other international series — there is a lot of content on the platform, whether it is premiere content or not. In addition, every day the Movistar Plus+ match is broadcast LaLiga EA Sportsthe best in the Champions League and the Premier League and the entire LaLiga HyperMotion. You can also access the best match of each day of the US Open and Winbledonthe 12 Masters 1,000 tournaments and the most important matches at Roland Garros. In addition, it also includes the two best matches per day of the Euroleague and the best matches and moments of ruby, golf and padel. Not everyone has access to the Young Cultural Bonus, but that does not mean that we cannot access an offer from the streaming platform. If we subscribe month by month, the price is 9.99 euros, but if we do it monthly we pay 99.90 eurosor what is the same Approximately 8.32 euros or two months free. It is a good way to access all its content at a discount, something that not all platforms offer. In addition, it is worth mentioning that beyond the content that we can access with the subscription (through the Young Cultural Bonus, the annual or month-by-month offer), The service can be contracted regardless of whether we are the operator or not and without permanence. Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Movistar Plus+ In Xataka | Movistar Plus+ for non-Movistar customers: what it is, how much it costs, channels, additional services and how to contract it In Xataka | Best televisions in quality price: which one to buy and seven recommended 4K smart TVs

Einstein’s first violin had passed unnoticed. Until an auction house put it up for sale.

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Albert Einstein is one of the most outstanding figures of the 20th century, and that means that is surrounded by myths. He “everything is relative”, I wasn’t good at math or in studies in general are some of the most widespread, but if you have ever read that he was passionate about the violin, I have to tell you that that is true. And one of them is so special that just reached a million euros at auction. The interesting thing? What was a fluke?. Einstein started playing the violin from a very young age. His mother was the one who gave him the germ of love for music and that instrument, but although at first he was not enthusiastic about it, when he discovered Mozart… things changed. It makes sense if we think about the mathematical logic after the Amadeus sonatas, and the Austrian composer became a figure of admiration for Einstein. The German physicist continued to play, sometimes in chamber groups with renowned musicians, and stated that music was a source of inspiration and even comfort when he had to solve complex problems. There are conflicting opinions about his skill with the instrument, but the violin was for Einstein a means of escape and relaxation. The violin of relativity Throughout his life, it is believed that he owned a dozen violins and all of them were called “Lina”. It was something that was recorded somewhere on the back of the instrument and it was short for “violin.” And, logically, items like this usually end up in the hands of collectors or enthusiasts, who acquire them through auctions. For example, in 2018, one of his violins ended up selling for $516,500. Aside from belonging to the physicist, it was the violin that was made specifically for him when he arrived in the United States in 1933. The protagonist of this story, however, has ended up reaching the figure of 860,000 poundswhich amounts to one million euros. It is a new record because it is the most expensive violin ever auctioned for someone who was not a professional concert pianist. The bidding started at 150,000 pounds and the estimate She was extremely modest. the house Dominic Winter Auctioneers thought it would end up between £200,000 and £300,000, but it seems that buyers ended up valuing something important: it is believed that This violin was the first that Einstein bought when I feared 15 years. It was made in 1894 by the German luthier Anton Zunterer, something that can be read on the label on the back of the instrument, and was key during the authentication process. Composer Paul Wingfield, who has spent an entire career researching, among other things, Einstein’s musical life, spent six months meticulously researching correspondence, contemporary documents, testimonies and customs regulations until say that he was “as sure as anyone could be that this violin belonged to Einstein.” The curious thing? Which was the instrument that, it seems, accompanied the scientist during the most prolific years of his careerincluding the period in which he developed the famous theory of relativity. In 1932, Einstein was preparing to flee Germany due to the rise of nazism and the growth of anti-Semitism. He decided to give his violin to friend and physicist Max von Laue, who later, in 1952, gave it to Margarete Hommrich, an admirer of Einstein. The violin remained in Hommrich’s family for 70 years, until Margarete’s great-great-granddaughter decided to put it up for auction, reaching this impressive figure. Apart from being the first one he bought and the one who accompanied him during the formulation of the theory of relativity, what is really impressive, and what puts that million euros in context, is what we mentioned about it being the most expensive violin auctioned that has not been owned by a famous concert artist (that honor goes to the violin that was played during the sinking of the titanicthat reached 900,000 pounds) or one made by Stradivarius. These are unattainable, as reflected by the almost 16 million dollars of the ‘Lady Blunt’ of 1721 sold in 2011. Images | Dominic Winter Einstein playing the violin In Xataka | 100 years later, Einstein’s relativity will undergo its most demanding test: two atomic clocks in space

His children and grandchildren turned his inheritance into a nightmare

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Although Disney is today a gigantic company whose ramifications touch all or almost all areas of popular culture, its origins were darker. Both because of its tinyness and because of some of the stories that populate it. The company was founded by brothers Walt and Roy Disney in 1923 and has since been responsible for some of the most iconic and beloved films of all time. However, the history of his Disney heirs It has little of a fairy tale, and a lot of Tarantino film: drugs, betrayals and trusts. The Burbank magician died on December 15, 1966, leaving two daughters and ten grandchildren who would share an enormous legacy of one of the most influential people in the entertainment industry. Less known is the figure of his brother Roy Oliver Disney, co-founder of the company, who also left descendants when he died five years later. Although the descendants were not many, in the history of their legacy one can find touches of Cinderella with her stepsisters, fighting princesses like Pocahontas and some ugly duckling that in the end gave a lot to talk about. Nowadays it is difficult to know precisely the percentage of the company that each heir owns of the company or How much is the fortune of each family member?. The last estimate was made by one of Walt Disney’s grandsons, who calculated that the heirs barely kept 3% of the company’s shares compared to the 20% that his father controlled. To put it a little in context, Steve Jobs left a legacy when he died of 7.54% of Disney shares to his widow. However, although it may seem that 3% of the company is not much, given the size that the company has adopted In recent years, that percentage would imply that Disney’s direct heirs would share a pie of 4.65 billion dollars. Grandpa Walt’s inheritance Walt Disney’s share passed to his two daughters: Diane Marie Disney and Sharon Mae Disney. The first had no less than seven children and lived a quiet life surrounded by vineyards, writing screenplays and honoring his father’s work with philanthropy under the Disney name. Sharon was adopted and was not as restrained with her father’s fortune as her sister. He was married twice. In his first marriage he adopted his daughter Victoria Diane Brownand in her second marriage to Bill Lund she had twins: brad and Michelle Lund Disney. Things in life (and business), Bill Lund was the promoter of the land where it currently stands Disney World in Orlando. Walt Disney’s youngest daughter, Sharon, died in 1993 of breast cancer at the age of 56, leaving her three children a fortune of $400 million as a result of Grandpa Walt’s legacy. The most conflictive since she was a child was Victoria Diane, with a reputation for being manipulative and destructive who, according to publish Hollywood Reporterwas capable of spending $5,000 on a night of debauchery and heroin in Las Vegas in the 1980s. Victoria died in September 2002 at the age of 36. The twins brad and Michelle They were born with some learning problems, so their mother arranged for the deposit of their millionaire inheritance under the supervision of three trustees. These three managers would be in charge of giving them 20 million dollars every five years from the age of 35 until the 400 million that corresponded to them as inheritance were exhausted. If you only knew, Walt. (Commons) In addition, his mother had established a clause ensuring that her children made reasonable use of the money they received. It specified that they would only receive the money if they demonstrated “maturity and financial ability to manage and use the money in a prudent and responsible manner.” As if it were the very story of Cinderella, the managers of the fortune convinced Michelle to declared his twin brother incapable of managing his finances before turning 35, claiming that he suffered from Down Syndrome. That way, he would not receive payment from his mother’s trust fund. Unfortunately for Michelle, luck turned its back on her. She suffered a brain aneurysm and almost died before turning 40. Seriously ill, her father’s second wife offered to take her into her home with the intention of taking control of the succulent inheritance, and they tried to incapacitate her and put Michelle under his guardianship. However, the wealthy heiress recovered from the aneurysm and had to take her stepmother to court to regain control of her finances. Brad, who remained with his father, He didn’t have it easy at all to maintain Grandpa Walt’s legacy. First he got into fights with his sister Michelle and his aunt, who wanted to get their piece of the pie. Ultimately, Brad lost the legal battle and his percentage of the inheritance. The lineage of Roy Oliver Disney The other half of the Disneys are not exempt from controversy either. The line of heirs got off to a good start with the help of his son Roy Edward Disney. The young heir He became involved in the management of Disney until his death in 2009, leaving a legacy of $1.6 billion, approximately 1% of Disney shares. Walt Disney’s nephew left four heirs: Abigail, Tim, Roy Patrick and Susan Disney. Roy Edward Disney’s respectful and continuous nature with the company that his father and uncle Walt had founded was counteracted by the dissident and activist character of his daughter Abigail Disney. Roy Oliver Disney’s granddaughter dedicated a good part of her life to attacking the policies of the company founded by his grandfatheraccusing them of being capitalist exploiters. He even produced a documentary called The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales in which he denounces the labor exploitation situation suffered by some company employees. Abigail Disney was one of the millionaires who signed what was known as manifesto of the Davos millionairesin which a group of 200 millionaires from around the world asked the leaders of the world’s main economies tax large fortunes with higher … Read more

In the midst of the cocaine furor, in 1990 they thought that the message should be clearer. So they called the Ninja Turtles

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Who better than a large group of television animation stars to warn the creatures addicted to the cathode tube of the dangers of drugs (those not related to the cathode tube). This happened in 1990, in a clash of animated titans that had international reach: here we saw it on Antena 3 and presented by the famous Reina Sofía. How and why was this firefighter idea born? Be good. There was something that the cartoons of the eighties were very good at, and that was preaching. We all remember the taglines that Mattel added to the ‘He-Man and the Masters of the Universe‘ to cushion accusations of excessive violence and in which the heroes reminded the kids to brush their teeth and listen to their elders, unless that elder was a stranger who told them to get in his car. And while here a generation was duly seasoned by the messages of disturbing anti-capitalist terrorism of the Electroduendes, in the United States they brought together successful cartoon characters of the time so that the kids could say no to drugs. To the rescue. ‘Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue’ is a 1990 half-hour animated special focused on drug prevention, which brought together popular characters from several animated series (ten in total: the Smurfs, ALF, Garfield, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Winnie from Pooh, the Little Ones, Slimer from ‘The Real Ghostbusters’, some Looney Tunes, a Turtle Ninja and Donald’s nephews from ‘DuckTales’). The plot revolves around a teenager who uses marijuana and puts his younger sister at risk due to his addiction. Cartoon characters come to life for emergency intervention. Important financing. The production was financed by McDonald’s and its children’s charity Ronald McDonald Foundation. The White House supported the invention with an introduction by President George HW Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush, something that would be repeated in different countries with different presenters. The four major American television networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) collaborated to broadcast it and the franchise owners gave up the rights for a good cause. It was produced by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and animated in Taiwan (because shit is shit) by the very prolific Wang Film Productions. To end the avalanche of stars, Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, at the time on the crest of the wave thanks to their soundtrack for ‘The Little Mermaid’ just a year earlier, composed an original song, ‘Wonderful Ways to Say No‘. In Spain, the queen. The version broadcast in Spanish-speaking countries was called ‘Cartoon stars to the rescue.’ In Spain It was broadcast by all television networks, but at different times: La Primera, the international channel, Antena 3, regional channels with programming in Spanish (Canal Sur, Telemadrid, TVG, ETB-2 and Canal Nou), Tele 5 and Canal+. There were also various presenters: in Mexico, President Carlos Salinas; in Chile, the first lady Marta Larraechea; and in Spain, Queen Sofía, at that time very involved in drug prevention campaigns and protection of the rights of minors. Avoid drugs. Since Nixon got muddied in the early seventies in a interested war on drugsthere have been relentless educational campaigns aimed at removing glamor and providing tools so that the youngest people do not fall into addictions. Often sinning naivety and Manichaeism (and this cartoon special has plenty of both), many of its slogans have remained embedded in pop culture: ‘Just say no‘, ‘This is your brain in drugs‘… and in Spain the legendary “Avoid drugs” (which at the very least generated a great song by Esteban Light) and “Say no to drugs“, with cocaine ray worm spot included. In Xataka | Amphetamine consumption in Spain is concentrated in one autonomous community. And we know it with a “simple” trick

A study has just correlated them with a higher risk of cancer

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When we plan to lose weight, one of the first things we do is declare war on carbohydrates in the diet, reducing them as much as possible. All of this is conditioned on many occasions by the ‘advice’ that is seen on social networks in blogs, and which may have severe conditions as it was collected. in a published article in Nature Microbiology which suggests that this type of diet may end up increasing the risk of suffering from colorectal cancer. The study. Researchers conditioned by the increase in the number of people who decide to give up carbohydrates Because they relate it to weight gain, he wanted to test what was happening in a series of mice. In this way, an investigation was created with three different diets: a normal diet, one low in carbohydrates and another Western-style diet with a large amount of fat and carbohydrates. The result. After exposing the mice to these conditions, they analyzed their microbiota discovering a particular strain of E. coli bacteria, which was producing a toxin that damaged DNA called colibactin. A toxin that, in combination with a diet low in carbohydrates and soluble fiber, promotes the growth of polyps in the colon, which may be the first step to cancer. As recognized by the researcher himself, Alberto Martín, professor of immunology at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine of the University of Toronto, at first it was thought that colorectal cancer was caused by a combination of different factors like diet or genetics. But now a door is opening that means that a specific diet can lead to our bacteria enhancing the appearance of cancer. Because. Researchers found that a diet deficient in fiber increases inflammation of the intestine and alters the microbial community that reside here, that offer us many benefits and about which we are beginning to know more and more. Specifically, they focused on E. Coli that produces colibactin as we have discussed before, but what is really important here is that the mice fed a low-carbohydrate diet had a thinner layer of mucus that separates the intestinal microbes from the epithelial cells of the colon. A priori, this mucus barrier that we have in the digestive system acts as a layer of protection that allows bacteria not to come into direct contact with epithelial cells. But if this shield is thinner due to this poor diet, more colibactin can reach the colon cells directly and act as an epigenetic mechanism that alters their structure and drives the deregulation of the factors that control their cell cycle. But the researchers wanted to go a little further, by analyzing the effects on mice that had genetic mutations in their cells in the pathway responsible for repair damage that occurs in DNA. In this case the effect was very clear: the repair of these damages was not favored. This means that all the failures that are generated daily in our cells are not repaired or that the cell simply cannot enter apoptosis (programmed cell death) through these pathways. Something that adds ‘papers’ to have a cancer cell that gets out of control. Lynch syndrome. A genetic health problem which makes the patient have a greater chance of suffering from certain types of cancer, including colorectal cancer. All this due to mutations in genes that repair DNA, such as MLH1 and MSH2, among others. In this way, if a carbohydrate-deficient diet is added to these people who already have a higher probability of suffering from colon cancer, the effect of colibactin will increase these probabilities. That is why the findings made by researchers suggest that people with Lynch syndrome who harbor these colibactin-producing bacteria should avoid stopping carbohydrates so as not to increase the risk. They even suggest that they can take specific antibiotics for these colibactin-producing bacteria to further reduce the risk. Probiotics. With taking antibiotics, I’m sure that on more than one occasion you have been recommended to take probiotics in order to maintain the intestinal microbiota before the treatment. In this case, research suggests that a strain of E. coli called Nissle that produces colibactin is found in these probiotics, which makes us ask many questions about its effect on cancer. In this way, his laboratory is investigating whether long-term use of this probiotic is safe for people with Lynch syndrome or for those who follow a low-carbohydrate diet. The antidote. Given all this, the question is obligatory: how can I avoid this if I have to consume few carbohydrates? To this end, the study has been able to see a correlation between the increase in soluble fiber in the diet with a decrease in the levels of colibactin-producing E. Coli. This is something that translates into less interaction with DNA repair mechanisms and therefore a lower probability of suffering from cancer. “We supplemented fiber and saw that it reduced the effects of the low-carbohydrate diet (…) Now we are trying to find out which sources of fiber are most beneficial,” says Bhupesh Thakur, postdoctoral fellow and lead author of the study. A treatment. The goal right now is to try to counteract the increased risk of cancer due to this bacterial toxin. To this end, the use of inulin is being investigated, which has been seen to reduce the amount of E. coli, which produces colibactin, and improves intestinal health in high-risk people. A treatment that, as it could not be otherwise, is focused on the fiber itself, which will become the best ally in these situations. Images | engin akyurt National Cancer Institute In Xataka | Intermittent fasting is the fad diet. At least among scientists who study its effects on the microbiome

Europe has been working for three years to isolate itself from Russian gas. Two countries have decided to build a direct gas pipeline to Russia

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The European energy map is changing at a speed that few would have imagined just three years ago. The old gas pipelines that linked Siberia to the industrial heart of the EU have been sidelined, while new routes and alliances reconfigure the power table around gas. The old continent proclaims its purpose of isolating Moscow, but in the center of the continent it is drawn an exception that alters the planned script and that may change the balance of forces in the coming winters. A map in transformation. Yes, the European gas map has changed radically in a few years, to the point that this winter of 2025 is the first in decades in which Russian gas ceases to be decisive throughout the European Union. After the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the energy crisis that broke out between 2021 and 2023, Brussels urged urgently diversification of supplies, relying on imports liquefied natural gas (LNG), especially from the United States and Qatar, and in the fortress of norway as a stable partner. The great gas pipelines that for half a century linked the Siberian fields with the European industrial heart have been underutilizeddamaged or reduced to a secondary role, as energy security moves towards the global balance of the LNG market and towards the vulnerability of infrastructures increasingly exposed to cyber attacks and hybrid incidents. On this new board, each molecule counts, but not all of them weigh the same: there are some that define true European autonomy more than others. The two exceptions. Despite the EU’s declared desire to eliminate purchases from Moscow, two countries have kept the valve open: Hungary and Slovakia. In August 2025, according to the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, both added imports of Russian crude oil and gas by more than 690 million of euros, that is, the majority of the European total. In fact, they continue to receive oil through the gigantic Druzhba pipeline, which crosses Ukraine and Belarus from Russian fields to Central Europe, and have used temporary exception granted by Brussels to landlocked countries to justify their dependence. The contrast is evident: while countries like France, the Netherlands and Belgium have limited themselves to importing residual Russian LNG, Budapest and Bratislava continue buying crude oil and gas straight from Moscow, keeping alive the energy artery that the rest of Europe has tried to close. Hungary and Slovakia are investing in gas infrastructure and creating a gas block in the heart of Europe aimed at protecting against any risks USA, Brussels and pressure. The intransigence of Viktor Orbán and Robert Fico has not gone unnoticed. At the UN, Trump accused Europe of “financing the war against itself” and pointed out with their own name to the Central European partners that do business with the Kremlin. Brussels, for its part, debate sanctions growing: the nineteenth package included a ban on Russian LNG starting in 2026 and restrictions on giants such as Rosneft or Gazprom Neft, although it avoided imposing immediate vetoes on crude oil and gas by gas pipeline, fearing a head-on crash with Budapest and Bratislava. However, the Commission is already preparing specific tariffs against imports that are still They arrive through Druzhbaand requires all Member States to submit disconnection plans before 2027the year in which the final cut is expected. The discourse of dependency. Hungary insists that its economy would fall 4% immediately if they were closed russian flowsand both Orbán and Fico speak of “economic suicide” and “ideological impositions” from Brussels. However, experts and analysts dismantle many of these arguments: geography is no excuse in an integrated European market where other equally landlocked countries, such as Austria or the Czech Republic, have reduced drastically reduce its Russian imports. Alternative infrastructures there are. The Adria pipeline, which connects to the Adriatic in Croatia, could supply enough crude oil to Hungary and Slovakia, although the reliability of its capacity tests is disputed. The Croatian oil company JANAF itself assures which can supply both refineries (Százhalombatta in Hungary and Slovnaft in Bratislava) with up to 12.9 million tons per year. In gas, the interconnections with neighboring countries and the expected abundance of LNG after 2026 suggest that the cutoff of Russian flows would be more political than technical. Politics, benefits and a shadow. Budapest’s stubbornness also has an internal political and economic dimension. The MOL company, close to the Orbán Government and owner of the Slovak refinery, has reaped huge benefits thanks to the price difference between Russian Urals crude oil and Brent, which has allowed extraordinary income for both the company and the state budget itself through taxes. In parallel, the speech of the Hungarian Executive associates the continuity of supply russian with stability of its star program of subsidies on household energy bills, despite the fact that the prices that Budapest pays for Russian gas follow the same international references as for the rest of Europe. In Slovakia, Fico also protects contracts with Gazprom valid until 2034, although the national company SPP itself has flexible agreements with large Western companies that would allow demand to be met without Moscow. The new axis of the Black Sea. Be that as it may, the most revealing element of the new energy map is that Hungary and Slovakia not only resist cutting the Russian gas pipelines inherited from the Cold War, but are betting on new connections. The route that arrives through the TurkStream and enters from Türkiye towards central Europe through the Black Sea consolidates a direct link with Moscow at the same time that Brussels seeks to isolate it. Paradoxically, the two Central European countries are becoming the main russian corridor towards the heart of the EU, a role that openly contradicts the energy autonomy strategy and reinforces the structural dependence on a partner considered hostile. Europe contradicts itself. The dilemma is obvious. The European Union proclaims its purpose to end with Russian imports in just two years, but at the same time tolerates exceptions that feed … Read more

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