Mobile Tech & Gadgets

A comprehensive interactive map to explore all the blood circuses of the Empire

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If you are one of those (non-generic masculine) those who are fascinated by the Roman Empire, taking a little getaway to continue discovering ruins and fortifications probably seems like a good idea. Yes, there are classics within the state like Tarragona or Mérida, but if you fancy a more exotic and distant trip, Ephesus or Split are good candidates. The old continent is full of jewels (and even beyond, as long as Rome It covered three continents) Although “all roads lead you to Rome”, surely this Google Maps of the Roman Empire It would be useful for you to plan a route (and the Romans of the time, I won’t even tell you about it) and even better, this evolution. But let’s not fool ourselves, there are cities and cities and remains and remains. If you are going to prepare an excursion and your objective is visit a city of status within the Roman Empirethere is an unmistakable sign: the amphitheatres. Having an amphitheater was a luxury. May it remain in good condition today, even more Amphitheaters were a medal of prestige to a city. They did not build it just anywhere: those provincial capitals had it, such as the previously mentioned Tarraco and Emerita Augusta, as well as those cities founded for the retirement of their veterans (this is the case of Itálica). However, there were also cities that decided to build it as a thank you to the emperor or for the local elites to show off. And pragmatically, to carry out the maxim of “bread and circuses”. The amphitheaters of the Roman Empire. Via:Tataryn. Wikimedia It is estimated that in the Roman Empire there were about 230 amphitheatersof which only about 30 are moderately well preserved. The figure drops to 10 if they also maintain their full structural functionality, among them the Arenas of Nimes and Arles in France, the one in Verona, the one in Pula, The Djem in Tunisia and of course, Pompeii. The map above, courtesy of Wikipedia, is great to take a look at. but there is another interactive map of the Roman Amphitheaters much better. It uses the data of Sebastian Heath, PhD in Classical Art and Archeology from the University of Michigan, a key figure in the modern study of Roman amphitheaters, among other things for his approach to digitization through open data. Thus, it has its Roman Amphitheater dataset which serves as a base, combined in turn with the map of the Roman Empire from the Gothenburg Digital Humanities area. The result is a three in one map published on RAMADDA’s wiki-based open source data and content platform: Interactive map of the Amphitheaters of the Roman Empire. Ramadda The first and largest allows you to view the terrain, roads and main cities of the Roman Empire as you move or play with the zoom. When you tap on a city, you can see details on all three maps. For example, when you click on Segóbriga in Cuenca, information appears such as its name in Latin, when it was built, the capacity, the region… and on the left, its integration into the roads and a satellite view. Given the number of municipalities and places with Amphitheater, it is convenient to use the filters that appear in the upper area. Thus, we can sift based on the region of the time, its capacity or even easier, what state it currently belongs to. When selecting Morocco, several cities appear and one of them marked in blue: “Lixus”, next to Larache. In Xataka | The death of one empire is the birth of another: the graph that reviews the history of civilizations from 4,000 years ago In Xataka | The Google Maps of the Roman Empire: the map that allows you to plan a route at that time

Today it is committed to self-sufficiency as a strategic pillar

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We are witnessing in real time how China is becoming an increasingly decisive player in a wide variety of sectors. Some of these changes are very visible from the outside, such as its leadership in the production of electric cars. Others, however, understand themselves better by looking inward. In a new video from Xataka’s YouTube channel We analyze one of those less obvious but strategically key turns: how the Asian giant has gone from being the largest importer of liquefied natural gas on the planet to commit decisively to self-sufficiency. The piece that we bring you today is added to other content that we publish regularly, such as our podcast ‘Science and Apart’, ‘Domotize or die trying’ or different videos focused on China. Among them, the one that addressed the transformation of the country into the first “electrostate” in history. On this occasion, it is Ana Boria who delves into the role of liquefied natural gas, with a detailed and well-contextualized approach that helps understand why this movement goes far beyond the energy level. From the world’s largest importer to the search for self-sufficiency It is no secret that energy is a critical issue in any country, but it takes on an especially sensitive dimension in Europe. Therefore, before getting into the matter, our colleague compares the situation of the Asian country with that of the Old Continent. “The European strategy is based on prevention“Not to produce more gas, but to accumulate supply and diversify suppliers to avoid cuts,” he explains, and from there he offers several keys to understand the profound differences between both models. In the Chinese case, remember that “relatively recently, the Chinese model involved importing LNG from many regions of the world: Australia, Qatar, the United States or Russia, and complementing it with gas via gas pipeline, especially from Central Asia and Siberia.” That approach began to change due to a combination of factors, including the implementation of the plan Made in China 2025made official in 2015 with the objective of turning the country into a global technological power and reducing strategic dependencies. For some time now, China has been seeking to leave behind its role as a major LNG importer to become a self-sufficient player, and the data points in that direction. “Between January and June 2025, China produced 130.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas, 5.8% more than in the same period of the previous year”says our colleague, a figure that illustrates the magnitude of the change that is taking place. Achieving self-sufficiency in a resource as critical as liquefied natural gas is not just an industrial issue. It is also a first-order strategic lever, with economic, geopolitical and energy security implications. “China has invested in new deep drilling techniquesin extraction methods for unconventional gas and in adapting existing technologies to its own geology, which is more complex than that of other large producers,” explains Ana. From there, she outlines the pillars that have allowed the country to advance towards this objective, the advantages it has and the challenges it still must overcome, always relying on figures and context. We invite you to see the full video on our YouTube channel and share your opinion both there and in this article. Images | Xataka In Xataka | China dominates the world of renewable energy, but it has an Achilles heel: it depends on the West more than it admits

The “sweet spot” of exercise according to science is 30 minutes

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For many years the goal of taking 10,000 steps per day has been the universal health mantrarepeating itself in medical consultations or being predefined in smart watches that monitor physical activity. But this mantra is evolving thanks to the latest evidence we know, since it is not just about how many steps you take, but how they occur. A sweet spot. For this science has identified the ideal when doing physical activity: 30 minutes of brisk walking (walk at a brisk pace) at a constant speed of 5 km/h. This habit is not only more efficient than taking random walks, but Delivers metabolic benefits previously only attributed to high-intensity gym workouts. An important threshold. The fact of having to exceed a speed of 5 km/h It is crucial when walking with the purpose of improving cardiovascular health. And for a walk to be considered “moderate intensity exercise”, it is not enough to move. Science in this case considers that there is a critical threshold that we must keep in mind when recommending doing the exercise: 100 steps per minute. That is what translates into this approximate speed of 5 km/h. And it is not something random, since it has been seen that at this speed there is a significant reduction in the glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) related to diabetes and systolic blood pressure (known as ‘high’). The secret is continuity. One of the most powerful findings from the studies It is precisely in the amount of time we invest in sport. And there is a big difference between continuous 30-minute sessions, in which we only walk, versus accumulated sessions, where we walk for five minutes and then stop continuing. In this case, the continuous 30-minute session is what has been found to be best for reducing insulin sensitivity, improving resistance, hip circumference, and also exercise adherence. And although it is good to move 5 minutes every hour to avoid a sedentary lifestyle, the reality is that it is best to dedicate only half an hour a day continuously. A shield against aging. For the middle-aged population, walking is literally life insurance. Different studies suggest that walking at 5 km/h for 30 minutes a day, for five days a week, helps reduce the risk of stroke (due to lowering blood pressure). But in addition to this, it also combats anxiety and stress, which is undoubtedly one of the big problems we have in today’s society with the stress hormone triggered and doing a lot of damage to our body. With all this, the increase in life expectancy is quite substantial compared to more sedentary people. Without forgetting strength exercises. Although walking is essential, we must not forget our muscles either. It is very important when you reach middle age do not neglect the development and maintenance of muscle, since there are many studies that suggest that it delays biological aging and even offers cognitive benefits such as protection against neurodegenerative diseases. In this way, in order to reach old age in optimal conditions, we must not forget to be mobile to reduce metabolic syndrome, but also to be attentive to our muscles. Images | Martin Dalsgaard In Xataka | The 11 best apps for exercising at home

We have been using ginger as medicine for 2,500 years. Science has just proven us right

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Before pharmacies occupied every corner, ginger already existed. What for more than two millennia was the best kept secret of Asian pharmacies, today is undergoing the most rigorous examination of the microscope. This underground stem—technically a rhizome, not a root—has gone from being a simple cookie seasoning to becoming a protagonist in clinical nutrition. As Dr. Joshua Forman, a gastroenterologist in Maryland, says, in an interview with Washington Postsometimes we become obsessed with expensive and complex drugs while ignoring what is in front of us. “It’s funny how the simplest things go unnoticed,” reflects the expert. From the herbalist to the laboratory. “Popular wisdom” is no longer alone, science has taken over with force. A massive review of 109 clinical trials published in Nutrients confirms that ginger is not a placebo; It works, especially when the digestive system rebels. But the findings go beyond simple stomach relief. In fact, a meta-analysis in Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine has brought to the table something unthinkable years ago: its ability to help regulate blood sugar and protect the heart in patients with type 2 diabetes. What does the scientific verdict say? If we look at the evidence, ginger works with almost surgical precision on three fronts. First, in pregnancy; Just 1.5 grams can change a woman’s day with morning sickness. Furthermore, a study in it Taiwanese Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology even compared its effectiveness against menstrual pain with that of ibuprofen, with astonishing results. However, the most fascinating thing happens at the cellular level. Recent research in JCI Insight They suggest that ginger could “stop” the hyperactivity of certain body defenses, something key for those who suffer from lupus. Even in the brain, the magazine Frontiers in Nutrition points to a shield effect that could delay the progression of diseases such as Alzheimer’s by reducing inflammation of neurons. The chemistry of the rhizome. The secret of ginger resides in its compounds bioactives: gingerols, shogaols and zingerones. These compounds act on nerve receptors (such as 5-HT3 and TRPV1) that regulate pain and nausea signals. Additionally, ginger is a real accelerator. In the teststhe stomachs of those who took it took only 12 minutes to empty, almost half that of the control group. Of course, a warning for sailors: it is a master at relieving nausea, but if vomiting has already started, its effect is much less. It is not a “magic” solution for everything. Despite its rise on social networks like TikTok under tags like #GutHealth, experts warn: Be careful with him Ginger Ale: Dr. Forman warns in the post That most commercial ginger sodas contain corn syrup and artificial flavorings, but almost no real ginger. The ideal is a homemade infusion (grating the root and boiling it for 10 minutes). It is not a miraculous “detox”: there is no conclusive evidence that ginger “shots” on an empty stomach detoxify the body or lose weight on their own without a balanced diet. Dangerous interactions: Because ginger inhibits platelet aggregation, it should not be combined with anticoagulants such as warfarin, as increases the risk of bleeding. Science and nature, hand in hand. Ginger has gone from being a simple home remedy to becoming an “evidence-based supportive complementary option.” While it should not replace medical treatment in severe cases, science confirms that this rhizome is one of the few “superfoods” that truly lives up to its name, offering a low-cost and highly effective solution to improve daily quality of life. Image | Unsplash Xataka | There are people taking a “shot” of apple cider vinegar in the morning. Science has an opinion on this

who puts the most data centers into orbit

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He map of world data centers It shows that there is no decentralized internet and that they are proliferating like mushrooms. In fact, planet Earth has fallen short and big tech companies already have their eyes set on the sky to plant a data center in space due to issues such as energy demand, environmental impact and, why not say it, to avoid regulation. The “panacea” of space. Faced with the threat of energy consumption similar to that of Japan in 2030according to data from the International Energy Agency or the brutal density of Data center Alley in Loudonin northern Virginia, with nearly 250 operational facilities, space envisions the possibilities of having satellites equipped with solar panels that capture energy directly from the sun, thermal dissipation in space and the absence of terrain limitations. There’s less left. For it to be viable, it takes at least a decade, as esteem University of Central Florida research professor and former NASA member Phil Metzger. However, it is one thing for the bills to work out economically and another for technologically having to wait so long. According to Josep Jornetprofessor of computer and electrical engineering at Northeastern University and satellite researcher, in just a couple of years we will begin to see evidence. And he is clear: space is the next frontier to conquer: “There was a gold rush in the West. Now there is a space race and everyone wants to place their technology in space.” Money galore. The Catalan scientist is clear that companies have incentives to move quickly and invest to get ahead to dominate the AI ​​race in general and space in particular: “Everyone wants to say they have the first platform to reach this milestone (…)So companies are spending money like there is no tomorrow.” However, Google, SpaceX and Blue Origin they are already working in developing technologies for this purpose and they are not the only ones: SpaceX. At the end of the year the Wall Street Journal uncovered Elon Musk’s company’s plan to realize data centers in space. Its CEO explained in a tweet how he would do it: “It will be enough to scale the Starlink V3 satellites, which have high-speed laser links.” More specifically, they are working on modifying and improving their rockets to make them capable of hosting computing loads for AI. Blue Origin. The American media also put on the table Jeff Bezos’ project, which at the time revealed at the Italian Tech Week that it’s a matter of time before we see “giant training clusters” of AI in orbit in the next 10 to 20 years. The company has a team dedicated to developing the technology required for centers in space. Google. Last November the Mountain View company speak of their experimental project Project Suncatcher: in 2027 and with the collaboration of Planet Labs they will launch two test satellites with their own AI processing chips. Others. There are other smaller corporations working in this area. The most notable is StarCloud, a startup backed by NVIDIA that a few weeks ago launched a satellite with an NVDIA H100. This GPU is used to run a version GemmaGoogle’s open language model. You need energy (and knowing how to use it). Although the foundations have already been laid, the road is not exactly downhill. Jornet details that one of the big obstacles will be having enough energy for these orbital data centers to function: “The Sun can be a great source of energy, but to properly harness it, orbiting data centers would need huge solar panels kilometers long or a constellation of smaller panels that could number in the tens of thousands.” Life in space is hard. There are more melons to open, such as how AI chips will withstand harmful space radiation, as well as heat dissipation and cooling. On Earth thousands of liters of water are used. In space there is no such option and although temperatures are low, there is no air to cool the chips naturally. The bill to the Earth. Even ignoring the environmental impact in space, it also leaves its mark on Earth. At least, in the short term: rocket launches not only consume fossil fuels, but also damage ecosystems and animals in the environment, as happens at Cape Canaveralwhich now hosts about 80 launches a year. In Xataka | The real reason why Musk, Bezos and Pichai want to build data centers in space: bypass regulation In Xataka | The problem with data centers is not that they are running out of water or energy: it is that they are running out of copper Cover | Pixabay

In 1976 Boston built its most amazing skyscraper. Until its windows became lethal guillotines

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The John Hancock Tower It was conceived in the late 1960s as the great coup of authority of modern Boston: a minimalist, elegant and almost “invisible” skyscraper, designed to reflect the sky with enormous panels of lightly tinted blue glass, with reduced mullions to a minimum and without elements that would break its purity, topped by a plant that visually sharpened the corners and a vertical slit that further stylized the mass. But there was a mistake fat. The modernist dream of a glass needle. The skyscraper was the type of building I wanted seem inevitableas if it had always been there, and at the same time had to demonstrate that “corporate architecture” could be a piece of urban art. In other words, a clear aesthetic ambition was sought, but it implied an enormous risk: betting everything on glass and geometric precision, where any failure ceases to be a defect and becomes a dangerous spectacle. The first shock of reality. From the beginning, the project lived under the spotlight because it in the Back Bay neighborhood and very close of Trinity Churcha historical milestone that already had a symbolic and emotional weight in the city, and that threatened to be dominated by the shadow and presence of the new colossus. Was protests and design adjustmentsbut the real conflict soon arrived below ground: the excavation and temporary retaining walls were deformed and gave way before the mud and clay fills characteristic of the area, damaging sidewalks, services and even nearby buildings. Trinity Church ended up claiming and won a million-dollar compensationand the skyscraper, before it even existed, was already seen as a work that was too ambitious for the terrain that supported it. The glass scandal. The episode that turned the tower into a black legend of architecture occurred when it was still unfinished: with the Boston winds, the panels began to crack and fall awayand the glass fragments began to fall to the street like some kind of lethal rain. The authorities even cordoned off areas and closed streets when the wind rose, and the image of the “brilliant” building was replaced by another. much more humiliating: windows covered with plywood sheetsa partially bandaged tower in the center, which earned nicknames like “Plywood Palace” and jokes like “the tallest wooden building in the world.” In a skyscraper that was intended to represent absolute control, the failure was not only technical: it was a reputational blow direct, one where the symbol of its modernity (glass) had become a meme and a threat… Why it failed. At first you knowsuspected the wind as the main actor, of the suction and channeling effect around the building, and tests were reviewed in wind tunnels with models of the environment, but the core of the problem was in the window itself. Apparently the system it was too rigid: the reflective layer and its connection to the metal frame did not allow bending, and in a structure subjected to vibrations, oscillations and continuous thermal cycles, this lack of “play” became the breaking mechanism. The stresses were transmitted to the glass instead of being absorbed, the cracks propagated, and the result was inevitable: enormous and very heavy panels, weighing hundreds of kilos, failing repeatedly until the unthinkable was assumed in a newborn corporate icon: it was necessary to replace them all. The tower at the time the windows that had fallen out were replaced with plywood The expensive remedy. The solution It was shocking.: remove and replace the entire glazing with a more robust, tempered and heat-treated glass, in an operation that cost several million and that prolonged the ordeal for years. The project, announced with grandeur and reasonable budgets, ended up becoming a spiral of delays: the inauguration was postponed, the numbers skyrocketed and the tower went from promise to public embarrassment. Even so, mass glass replacement was the only way outbecause it was not about fixing a few defective pieces, but about correcting a façade idea that had been born with a structural fragility incompatible with the climate and real loads of Boston. The building today The final twist. And when it seemed like the worst had already happened, came the most disturbing blow: Later calculations suggested that, under certain wind patterns, the building could have a stability problem more serious than assumed, with unforeseen twists and dangerous behavior on its narrower sides. The tower also moved enough to cause dizziness to occupants in tall plants. The city discovered that the beauty of minimalism had a physical price. The answer it was double: on the one hand, install a huge damping system with tuned masses, two gigantic weights mounted with springs and shock absorbers to oppose the swaying and “return” the building to its center. On the other hand, reinforce with tons of bracing steel diagonal. It was, in essence, reengineer an icon already built so that it would continue standing with the dignity that had been promised from the first render. The paradox: from shame to object of desire. The most fascinating thing is that, after such a disastrous start, the tower ended up establishing itself as an admired piece and recognized, until receiving prestigious awards and becoming an inseparable element of the Boston skyline. As they counted then architectural experts, it was the kind of redemption that only happens when a building survives to his own crisis: the public ends up remembering its silhouette and its reflection, not the panic of the closed streets or the wooden planks covering the absent glass. The Hancock went from being a historical lesson for modern architecture (a reminder that aesthetics does not negotiate with physics) to be, precisely because it has overcome this technical hell, a work with a certain aura of resistance, almost a monument to the obsession with fixing the irreparable. One more thing. Over time, the tower maintained its place as the tallest skyscraper of New England, but its story continued to move in the practical terrain of money, tenants and identity: … Read more

For the first time in history the possibility of a Mediterranean without wine is beginning to appear on the horizon

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The same week we found out that Nabimia is flooding Europe of grapes grown in the middle of the desert, a map goes viral that says that the continent’s wine-growing areas have been moving north for decades. What’s the point of all this? Is it even possible? Let’s see it. Let’s start with the map. In recent days, the map is by Sebastian Gräff for The European Correspondent and shows how, in Europe, the “wine-growing areas” have been shifting for 60 years due to the effect of climate change. Not only has it gone viral, it has also become very controversial. Just look at the map to see that historical areas full of vineyards (such as the Jerez countryside) do not appear on it. And it is not a specific failure: there are ‘gaps’ of this type in practically all of the countries that come out. And yet, this isn’t exactly a problem. How is that not a problem? Because what the map represents is the Huglin index: one of the many indices that tries to determine the areas with optimal conditions for growing vines. It is based on a viticultural principle: that each grape variety needs a certain amount of heat to be grown successfully. The Huglin index tries to make an estimate, but (due to the nature of meteorological data) it is not useful for concrete detail. The best-known example is the slopes: having one orientation or another can change the average daily temperature of the area by more than two degrees. It is rather a tool to classify areas, predict ripening and plan the cultivation of certain varieties. But a tool that only makes sense in its context. And the map is not its context. I mean, it’s not what it’s intended for, but that doesn’t mean it’s not interesting. At the end of the day, climate change is one of the most important “game changers” in the world of vines: we must not forget that, in 2024, the harvest took place earliest of the Marco de Jerez since there are records and experts fear that, if the trend continues like this, there will come a time when it will not be viable to grow grapes. In the same way, there are huge regions of the world that they are about to be able grow vines: UK wine production has doubled in a very short time and indeed the area planted with vines has increased 75% in the last five years. They are not yet large amounts, but the harvests are getting better and the sector is moving more and more money. And the expectation is that it will go further, of course. Bad omens. All this outlines something that researchers are beginning to take very seriously: the first time, in historical times, the Mediterranean run out of useful vines for wine production. In this sense, the Jumilla disaster of 2024 serves as a warning to navigators. Wine is entering unknown territory and we are going to bear the worst part. Image | Sebastian Graff In Xataka | The oldest wine in the world is “Andalusian” and has been resting for 2,000 years. If it’s good or not, no one wants to know.

We believed that the US was facing a major energy shortage problem for AI. The data says the opposite

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To win the AI ​​race you need several things, but two are very important. The first, have the best technology and the best chips. The second, having enough energy to power those chips. The US has the first, but everything pointed to it having a major energy bottleneck. That is no longer so clear. China has plenty of energy. The China’s strategic visionwhich once again has been investing in the energy field for decades, is bearing fruit and the country has considerable room for maneuver in terms of energy supply. That is a factor that seems to tip the balance in its favor: Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, already warned that China can win the AI ​​race. According to him, China has more flexible regulation and its companies have government subsidies for the energy their data centers need. But the US has another philosophy. A deep study from the startup Epoch AI—responsible for FrontierMath AI benchmark— serves as a counterpoint to these pessimistic theories. In recent months we have seen how the US seems to have a real problem with the energy needed for AI data centers. China has not stopped increasing its energy generation capacity, but the US has not for a simple reason: until now it did not need it. Source: Epoch AI. However, Epoch AI explains that it is not that the US is not capable of creating more energy capacity: it simply has not needed it until now. While China has prepared for the future—even if that future does not come—the US has maintained a more conservative attitude: as long as there was no demand, it would not make any move. The immediate question, of course, is whether you can move it now or is it too late? And no, it doesn’t seem like it is. Forecast of necessary energy capacity for data centers in the US until 2030 according to different scenarios. In the worst of all of them (pink color), almost 80 GW of capacity will be needed. Source: Epoch AI. The demand is going to be huge. There is a reality: those ambitious plans to create more and more data centers throughout the US —with Project Stargate at the forefront—will cause data centers in the country to need between 30 and 80 GW of energy capacity in 2030. For those responsible for the study, it is perfectly possible that the US “gets its act together” – pun intended – and manages to increase its energy capacity. As? Various options. The US has room for maneuver. In order to supply all that energy that all those data centers will theoretically need, there are several clear alternatives according to the Epoch AI study: Natural gas: is relatively cheap and plants can be built quickly. There are three large companies that can cover this demand: GE Verona, Mitsubishi Heavy and Siemens. The plans of all of them point to a production of more than 200 GW in 2030. Even if they are not met, this supply (without being totally dedicated to AI) would already be an important part of the solution. Solar energy: the other big part of the solution, especially because its costs have fallen drastically and because it is very, very scalable. We have already seen how the US has the capacity to install 1,200 GW solar for IA thanks to its deserts, but at the moment Big Tech does not dare to use them. Once again, estimates point to around 200 GW of installed capacity in 2030, but even if these expectations are not met, this infrastructure will also be a clear part of the solution. Energy flexibility. The report also talks about a dynamic supply philosophy. Most of the time the US power grid is oversized for one simple reason: It is built to be able to supply power at peak peaks—like when everyone turns on the air conditioning—but most of the time there is plenty of power even to give to large AI data centers. This future infrastructure must be created with that same idea: oversized, but flexible. And there are other alternatives. The country is turning to energy solutions that it thought were buried to power data centers. Among them are the fossil plants that were theoretically going to close but that are returning to operation due to the astonishing increase in demand. There is also talk of going to military solutions and even more unusual alternatives, such as energy under volcanoes. Not to mention, of course, the nuclear power plants and the small nuclear reactors (SMR) that are already being used by some of the Big Tech for your data centers. Be careful with your electricity bill. The reality is that in the North American country data centers are growing faster than electrical infrastructure, and these facilities They are draining the country’s electricity. The situation is even causing electricity grid operators to ask be able to shut down data centers in times of high demand. And then there’s the other big side effect: AI data centers they are skyrocketing the electricity bill. When starting up an AI data center, power costs a tenth of what chips cost. Source: Epoch AI. There doesn’t seem to be a problem. Even with all those obstacles, Epoch AI’s conclusion is clear: “we doubt these challenges are significant enough to impede the scaling of AI.” In fact, they remember that what is actually expensive are the chips, not the energy, which represents a tenth of the investment in chips. The report concludes that China having an advantage is not necessarily true, and that the hypothetical US energy bottleneck “is much weaker than many people have indicated.” Image | Andrey Metelev In Xataka | Artificial intelligence has already reached nuclear power plants. And it’s going to change them forever

Germany is experiencing a new “industrial miracle” that it already experienced 90 years ago: that of weapons

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Germany has been living a transformation silent but very deep. The country that saw the birth of the industrial miracle of the automobile is seeing something similar again, but from a perspective completely different: rearmament, which until recently was a political taboo and a social discomfort, has become a great industrial and labor accelerator. War as a driving force. The country, pushed by the russian invasion of Ukraine and the feeling that the American umbrella is already It’s not so automatic As before, it has been shifting its center of gravity towards defense with a mix of strategic urgency and productive ambition. And that mutation is measured in something very specific: employment, factories, supply chains and a demand that is no longer described as temporary, but as a new normal that promises to last for years, with orders that come in like a wave and companies that prepare to produce at scale, with war economy rhythms without the need to call it that. Mass hiring. German defense contractors have entered into a veritable hiring feverincreasing its workforce by nearly a third in just four years. The data provided by a representative group of large companies and start-ups shows a jump from around 63,000 workers in 2021 to almost 83,000 today Within its defense-focused divisions, a 30% growth which reflects the extent to which the industry is expanding at real speed. I remembered the financial times that, although these figures do not cover the entire sector and there are large companies that did not participate, the portrait is enough to understand the direction of the country: Germany not only buys more weapons, but is rearming its industrial muscle to manufacture, sustain and modernize them, with a labor market that is beginning to reorganize itself around this new priority. Rheinmetall Panther KF51 The budget turn. The great fuel for this expansion is public money converted into contracts. Since 2022, the German Ministry of Defense has signed arms deals worth of 207,000 million eurosand last year alone it concentrated 83,000 million, a figure that contrasts with the 23,000 million in 2021 and that summarizes the break with the previous stage. The most significant thing is that the trend does not aim to stop: Chancellor Merz, in office since May, has relaxed the strict debt rules to allow the level of spending needed in defense, a message that, beyond politics, works as an industrial signal: there will be stable demand, continuity and visibility, just what companies need to invest, expand capacity, hire and plan for the long term without fear that everything will freeze with the next electoral cycle. The real size of the sector. Even with this boom, the German defense industry remains a relatively modest player in terms of employment when compared to the country’s historical giant: the automobile. The Ministry of Economy itself cited around 105,000 jobs direct in defense in 2022, and although the figure will have risen since then, it remains far from the approximately 700,000 workers in the automotive sector, today hit by layoffscompetitive pressure and technological transition. This comparison is important because it cuts to the root a repeated idea: that rearmament can “replace” the car as a great work cushion. Defense can grow a lot, even draw on industry and attract talent, but due to volume it does not seem capable of absorbing the size in the short term. of the engine crisisat least not quickly or massively. Airbus and Reinmetall. Within the employment map, Airbus stands out as the largest employer, with around 38,000 people working in defense worldwide and just over half in Germany, manufacturing key pieces of European military architecture such as the Eurofighter Typhoon and the transport plane A400M. right behind Rheinmetall appearswhich has become the most visible symbol of the boom: the producer of tanks, artillery and ammunition has grown from about 15,400 employees in 2021 at 23,500 todaythe greatest absolute leap among the companies analyzed, and its CEO, Armin Papperger, has even projected a target of 70,000 employees in three years. In parallel, Rheinmetall has begun to experience something that in Germany is a cultural indicator: social attractiveness. He speaks of hundreds of thousands of applications in a single year, as if defense had stopped being a dark or secondary sector to suddenly become a bet for the future for engineers, technicians and industrial profiles. Military startups. The big relative surprise is in the new scene of military start-upsyoung companies focused on surveillance systems or weapons not always publicly detailed, that are raising hundreds of millions in financing and growing at a rate almost unthinkable a decade ago. The most striking case It’s Helsing.which makes armed drones and whose workforce has grown 18-fold in four years after evolving from an artificial intelligence software approach to hardware productiona leap that involves going from selling algorithms to build real objects with parts, assembly lines, logistics and maintenance. This movement is, in itself, a statement: European defense no longer wants to depend only on digital innovation, it wants to convert innovation in physical and deployable systemsand for that you need companies capable of manufacturing and scaling, not just programming. The State accelerates. From within the sector, the discourse is one of sustained takeoff. The BDSV employers’ association, in the voice of Hans Christoph Atzpodien, insists that growth will accelerate because Germany has streamlined processes purchase and has given more visibility on future demand, which allows capacity planning with less uncertainty. The phrase is almost industrially literal: now everything is placed so that large orders “arrive at the doors” of manufacturers. If you want and how do we countthe scenario describes a change of era: for years Europe talked about spending more on defense, but it did so with administrative slowness, political doubts and eternal programs; now the feeling is that the system is being reconfigured to buy and produce urgently, because the threat is perceived to be close and the margin for improvisation has been exhausted. The great temptation: “steal” the car. … Read more

AI has already destroyed the world of programmers as we knew it. Now it’s the turn of the translators

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On November 8, 1519, an extraordinary meeting took place: Hernán Cortés met with Emperor Moctezuma II. Of course, neither one nor the other understood anything of what their interlocutor was saying: Hernán Cortés spoke Spanish and Moctezuma spoke Nahuatl, but that problem was solved thanks to two chain translators: Malinche translated from Nahuatl to Mayan, and Jerónimo de Aguilar went from Mayan to Spanish, and vice versa. History is full of legendary translations like that one, and in all of them, human beings depended on human translators to understand the other party. That has been changing with various technologies, but the one that is really about to change everything is AI. With AI we have found (and translated) In fact, translation technology has run parallel to technological evolution itself. From the translation based on rules of the second half of the 20th century we moved in the 90s to the automatic statistical translations which, for example, ended up using Google Translate. These systems looked for the “most likely” translation, not the “most correct” one. These statistical models improved with the phrase-based translationbut The final leap was made by DeepLwhich appeared in 2017 to change everything with the use of neural networks and neural machine translation. Google had also started to adopt that system in 2016, and it was clear what the path was. With the arrival of generative AI we have found ourselves with another potential leap in this field. There are, however, differences: these systems are based on large language models (LLM) that are then trained and tuned specifically for translationwhich a priori gives them an advantage when it comes to achieving more natural and versatile translations. The application of AI models to the field of translation seems to be following in the footsteps of what we have seen with programming. Developers have embraced this revolution and many of us have realized it thanks to the vibe coding that it is possible to program without knowing how to program. The same clearly occurs with these systems that enable us to know how to speak languages ​​that we don’t actually know how to speak. Machines do it for us, and they do it better and more immediately. The real-time translation is very fashionable and both Google and Meta—which has been warning for a long time— they are integrating it into their current or future glasses augmented reality. Apple, which does not usually launch things that are not mature, has just integrated it on your AirPods. The user experience may not perfect at the momentbut it is clear that this type of function is going to become more and more common, a commodity technological more. The transition And this transition that wants to turn access to quality translations into something “trivial” has been made evident these days with the launch of two platforms. The first, the ChatGPT Translatorwhich is surprising not because it is an obvious and simple use case for AI, but because it is a logical indiscriminate copy of the services that already work, Google Translate and DeepL. Being able to do the same with AI shows that that problem seems solved. The translation of Gemma 3 27B was already good. TranslateGemma’s is even better, even with smaller models and challenging language pairs. And if it didn’t seem like it enough, Google has just presented its new generative AI models specifically aimed at translation. It is about TranslateGemmaa family with versions 4B, 12B and 27B (the latter, logically, the most capable) that allow these tasks to be carried out locally, privately and without connection to the cloud. They support 55 language pairs and of course they are prepared for the most popular ones (English, Spanish, Chinese, French, Hindi), but their creators already indicate that they are training them with 500 additional language pairs for the future. We are therefore facing a moment in which learning a language will probably end up becoming something more vocational or aspirational than something that we really need on a daily basis. Human translators, like human programmers, will still have valuebut once again what is clear is that AI is going to make this type of capability more accessible than ever. In Xataka | Some of the emails you read may not say exactly what was written. A forgotten Gmail setting is to blame

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