Mobile Tech & Gadgets

Warren Buffet and Michael Bloomberg have advice for giving Generation Z better jobs: prioritize “good vibes”

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Starting your professional career is not easy. Bringing it to fruition, even less so. The job market has changed drastically since Warren Buffet and Michael Bloomberg made their first steps (they are 95 and 83 years old), but of course their professional trajectories, decisions and holding the unofficial title of best investor in history It gives them enough authority to give advice. Because they also give them very good ones: Buffet has already spoken before about the importance of knowing how to say noas prioritize your professional goals either know how to focus. Well, Warren Buffet and Michael Bloomberg give a recommendation for Gen Z that is entering the labor market: pay attention to the environment. The beginnings of Bloomberg. As the tycoon said on the podcast In Good Company by Norges Bank Investment Management, after finishing university in the 60s, Michael Bloomberg barely earned $11,500 a year (not bad, considering the time and that today would be equivalent to $114,000). But Bloomberg, with a pretty good CV considering he had an MBA from Harvard under his belt, had the option of earning more. More money is not always better. Another company offered him $14,000, but he opted to stay at the Wall Street investment bank Salomon Brothers for the people. In fact, initially the bank had offered him $9,000 and a loan of $2,500, which he knew how to take advantage of by laying the foundations for his empire. He gave up that higher offer and it worked out fine. “Don’t feel sorry for me, but I will never forget that people make the mistake of going to work where they get paid the most,” he concluded in the aforementioned podcast. For Bloomberg, at the beginning of your career the essential thing is: “You have to gain experience, you have to build friendships, you have to try things and see what works and what doesn’t.” There are certain jobs you shouldn’t take. Warren Buffet also shared this same mentality of prioritizing people over pay. At its last shareholders meeting at Berkshire Hathaway was blunt: “Don’t worry too much about starting salaries and be very careful who you work with, because you will end up adopting the habits of the people around you” because “There are certain jobs you shouldn’t take.” And it’s not the first time he’s said it. In fact, more than 20 years ago at another shareholder meeting of the same company, a 14-year-old boy (who was already a shareholder) asked the question “What advice would you give to a young person like me to be successful?” His answer: surround yourself with people better than you. “Choose collaborators whose behavior is better than yours, and you will end up moving in that direction.” GenZ doesn’t have it easy. It must be recognized that the advice is good, but also that the youngest people face runaway inflation, an unstable and weak labor market threatened by AI and a pressing difficulty accessing housingso they need a good salary like never before. In any case, something has not changed from the generation of Buffet and Bloomberg to the genzetters: the fear of the unknown and uncertainty. In Xataka | “I never wanted to create a dynasty”: after announcing his retirement, Warren Buffet is clear about what to do with his immense inheritance In Xataka | Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have the same answer when someone asks them “the secret to success”: focus Cover | Bloomberg Philanthropies and Fortune Live Media (Flickr) USA International Trade Administration – YouTube

the greenhouse gas that warms the planet faster than CO₂

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In November 1776, while traveling on horseback between Italy and Switzerland, Carlo Giuseppe Campi saw bubbles in the marshes surrounding Lake Maggiore. He approached them and decided to investigate them. Almost by accident he discovered that they were flammable and He told it to his friend Alessandro Volta. Years later, Volta discovered that this gas was methane. Since then we have not stopped having problems with him. Colorless, odorless and highly flammable, methane (CH₄) It is a gas composed of one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms. It is the simplest hydrocarbon and, in fact, is the fundamental component of natural gas (and therefore a key fuel for boilers, power plants and part of industry). In addition to the energy context, methane also appears in biological and geological processes: it is a chemical compound that arises, naturally, in the processes of anaerobic decomposition of organic matter. That is, in wetlands, in landfills, in the digestive system of ruminants or in large bags under the ground. Otherwise, methane is used for many other things. Not in vain, it is a raw material for the chemical industry and is an essential part of the production of hydrogen, ammonia or methanol. But the global conversation is not has been talking about methane for decades for none of that. Because, curiously, the big problem with methane is that it is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. After all, from what we know, its molecules capture between about 82 times hotter than CO2 (taking a period of 20 years as a reference). If we broaden the focus and use the 100-year term, its global warming potential is 29.88 times greater than that of CO₂. The only good thing, so as not to paint a picture that is too gloomy or malicious, is that it has an atmospheric half-life (11.8 years on average) compared to a much longer average. This explains why, despite collecting much more heat than the other, the long-term impact of methane is not so great. So? Well, it is an “accelerator” of short-term warming and, in that sense, it is a first-order problem for us. Not only because we are not moving forward; but because if we manage to reduce it, it can provide relatively rapid climate benefits. The problem is that it is not an easy thing to solve. On a planetary scale, annual methane emissions are around hundreds of millions of tons and 40% of them are due to natural sources that we cannot directly control. The other 60% is due, generally speaking, to human sources. According to the Global Methane Budget, there are three main causes: agriculture and rice, fossil fuels and waste. Agrolivestock Monika Kubala For years, experts have discussed the impact of livestock farming (especially ruminants such as cows and sheep). The calculation, in any case, is complex: not only is it difficult to estimate methane production from enteric fermentation (due to digestion), but things as ‘simple’ as manure management suffered from an “information blackout” that makes them very difficult to evaluate. In addition to this (and it is important), you must add the rice. Every year they consume more than 500 million metric tons of rice. That’s a lot of rice (it’s the main source of calories for 3 billion people), but it’s also a lot of methane: because, favored by floods that leave wide plains without oxygen, our gas rises to the surface. Fossil fuels Methane leaking throughout the oil, gas and coal chain is also difficult to measure, but less so. After all, leaks in wells and equipment, ventsinefficient flaring, outdated compressors, plumbing or storage are money wasted. And if we know how to measure something, it is money. The International Energy Agency esteem that the production and use of fossil fuels generated about 120 million tons of methane emissions in 2023. Waste, landfills and wastewater This case is the simplest and the one that most clearly shows that the methane problem really does not matter much to us: landfills, wastewater and other types of waste accumulation areas are areas especially conducive to the generation of methane (due to pure anaerobic activity) and since we do not capture it, it is released into the atmosphere. Thus, the atmospheric concentration of methane remains high and increasing. To give an example, NOAA estimated which, between 2023 and 2024, went from 1915.73 ppb to 1921.79 ppb on average. And, as I say, it is a shame because methane is surely one of the fastest routes: according to UNEP/CCAC, a strong reduction in human emissions (up to 45% this decade, with available measures) “could avoid almost 0.3 ºC of warming by 2045.” Biomethane (also called “renewable natural gas“) is the term that we have coined to refer to a methane of biological origin that is obtained, above all, by improving biogas: the CO₂ and other contaminants in it are eliminated until a gas rich in CH₄ is ​​achieved and comparable, in almost all aspects, to natural gas. As a result of this process, a fuel is obtained that can be injected into the gas network. That is, it is an efficient way to take advantage of (and make the capture and processing economically interesting) a whole series of waste: from manure and sewage sludge to municipal waste or agro-industrial remains. Obviously, “green methane” does not automatically mean that it has “zero environmental impact.” Only that it has a biological origin and can be used like natural gas. For its environmental impact to be low, other things are required such as control of leaks, the origin of the waste or its impact on the network as a whole. Image | Katie Rodriguez In Xataka | The importance of the colors of hydrogen and what it means if it is green, brown, blue or turquoise

Saudi Arabia just opened a $1 billion theme park with a 4.2 km roller coaster and 160 m drop

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The Formula Rossa of the Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, has just been dethroned a few days ago. podium of the most spectacular roller coasters in the worldand with a drop of 127 meters and up to 240 kilometers/hour as top speed, these were shocking figures. But you don’t have to go far to find the new queen: it’s called Falcon’s Flight and it’s the jewel in the crown of the astronomical amusement park in Qiddiya City, in Saudi Arabia, which has just opened its doors. The first Six Flags outside North America. Six Flags Qiddiya City is a massive 320,000 square meter amusement park located on a mountainous desert cliff just outside Riyadh. It has 28 attractions, of which five break records as we will see. Likewise, it is the first of the franchise outside the United States, Canada and Mexico, but despite the distance from the parent company, it is a full-fledged Six Flags respect to brand standards. The person who has provided the more than one billion dollars necessary to pay for the project is the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the kingdom’s sovereign investment fund. Behind him, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, with a very specific goal: diversify the country’s economy, thus reducing the weight of oil. The park It is one of the five gigaprojects of Saudi Vision 2030its roadmap for diversification into emerging sectors such as tourism and entertainment. Falcon’s Flight shatters all records. The technical sheet of the Six Flags attractions in Riyadh leaves milestones such as the Sirocco Tower, the tallest free fall tower (145 meters); the Gyrospin, which by rising 53 meters has become the highest pendulum in the world or the Iron Rattler, the type roller coaster. tilt highest on the planet (63.4 meters), but if there is one that leaves your mouth open, it is Falcon’s Flight. We are facing the highest, fastest and longest roller coaster in the world. It is capable of reaching 250 km/h, rises up to 195 meters high and uses the edge of the Tuwaiq cliff to achieve a vertical drop of 158 meters. 4.2 kilometers long to trigger the adrenaline during the almost four minutes it lasts. This is the awesome Falcon’s Flight. Grantime, Wikimedia The impressive figures of Six Flags Qiddiya City. As Abdullah al-Dawood, CEO of Qiddiya Investment Company, explained, in a local programthey expect the project to generate 7,000 jobs and provide some $686 million to the kingdom’s GDP this year. According to its forecasts, these figures will increase to 85,000 employees and 11,733 million US dollars (at the exchange rate) and will attract 48 million visitors a year by 2030, as the project moves through phases. Much more than an amusement park. Literal. The Six Flags Qiddiya City opened on December 31, 2025 for the New Year, at which time it opened its doors to the general public who came and shelled out the $87 adult admission fee. Although the park is already open, from now until 2030 the project will expand to the environment by building transport infrastructure, the imminent Aquarabia water park, large-scale sports facilities such as a Formula 1 circuit, a stadium for the World Cup, cultural areas such as a performing arts center and residential areas. The amusement park is just the tip of the iceberg. With the fall in oil prices in recent years, the Saudi authorities have had to recalibrate plans and review their budgetary priorities, with unavoidable events on the horizon such as the Expo 2030 or the 2034 FIFA World Cup. In addition, several gigaprojects such as the futuristic city of Neom have suffered delays and cost overruns. Qiddiya has also suffered delays, but with the Six Flags Qiddiya City as the first operational asset in the macrocity, those responsible they are optimistic in its objective of attracting tourists. In Xataka | Saudi Arabia wants to become a world tourism power. First you have to fix something: the alcohol In Xataka | Saudi Arabia’s impossible bridge to join Africa and Asia: a 32-kilometer megastructure over the Red Sea Cover | Quiddiya

we are creating a 250 million ton mountain of garbage

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The energy transition is happening at an unprecedented speed. According to the latest report from the IEA-PVPSIn 2024 alone, 601 GW of solar power was installed in the world, reaching a cumulative total of 2.2 TW. However, this success hides an environmental paradox. As researcher Rabia Charef warns At The Conversation, we are installing the future on a mountain of potential garbage that, by design, is an “industrial strength sandwich” almost impossible to separate. The “sandwich” design: a durability trap. For a panel to withstand hail, snow and wind for 30 years, it is built by stacking layers of glass, silicon and polymers sealed with adhesives so powerful that they become a single unit. As Charef explainsthis virtue is also its condemnation, since at the end of its useful life the separation of materials is so expensive that most end up in the landfill. It is not a minor problem. Already in 2016, IRENA reports They warned that by 2050 solar waste could total 250 million tons, which would represent 10% of all electronic waste on the planet. China and the “poison” of overproduction. The clock on this crisis has sped up due to geopolitics. China dominates 90% of global capacity of solar cells and in this desire to lead the sector, the Asian giant manufactured 588 GW last year, doubling global demand. This flood of cheap panels has sunk prices and caused million-dollar losses, but also has created a perverse incentive: It is so cheap to buy a new panel that repairing an old one does not seem profitable. Analyst Bo Zhengyuan explains that that “animal spirit” that made the Chinese industry triumph is now suffocating it, filling the world with equipment that will die in two decades without an exit plan. The laboratory of saturation. For its part, another problem that is committed is forgetting the fundamentals, as happens in Spain. The country broke records last summer by generating more than 10,500 GWh per month of sun and wind, but the system cannot hold up. Spain already waste 7% of its clean energy due to lack of networks and storage. “The mistake was not putting up panels, but forgetting about the networks,” quotes an executive in the Financial Times. This lack of investment has plunged the value of solar parks by 30% in just one year, forcing “liquidation sales” (fire sales). If the companies that run these plants go bankrupt or lose profitability, who will take care of the millions of panels when they stop working? The limit of current recycling: shredding is not recovering. Today, recycling is disappointing. As The Conversation denouncesmost plants simply shred the panels to recover low-value aluminum and glass. In the process, the true treasure is lost: high-purity silver, copper and silicon. Silver, although it only represents 0.14% of the weight of the panel, represents 40% of its material value. When crushed, this metal is pulverized and mixed with impurities, making it unrecoverable. According to sourceswe are throwing away an estimated economic value of $15 billion by 2050. Although there are sprouts of hope. Despite the panorama, technology is trying to catch up with the problem: Silver Recovery: Researchers from the University of Camerino (Italy) have developed a hydrometallurgy technique that recovers 99% of pure silver without using harsh chemicals. The milestone of the 100% recycled panel: The Chinese giant Trina Solar has achieved create the first fully recycled crystalline silicon panel. Although its efficiency (20.7%) is somewhat lower than that of a new one (25%), it demonstrates that circularity is possible and that the performance of recycled material is already fully competitive compared to current industry standards. Cutting-edge plants in Spain and the US: While in the United States the company SolarCycle seeks to recover 99% of photovoltaic materials; in Spain, the CERFO project in Teruel positions itself as a European pioneer in the recovery of silicon, a component historically difficult to recycle. Repair before recycling: “Revamping”. Before the panel reaches the recycling plant, there is a more sustainable option: the revamping. A study by the University of Castilla-La Mancha shows that renewing Specific components of a solar plant can maximize production and profitability without the need for total dismantling. In Japan, the startup Girasol Energy has achieved restore the oldest solar system in the country (from 1994), aiming for it to operate for 50 years by using Big Data to identify faults piece by piece without replacing the entire equipment. Digital passports and modular design. The definitive solution could come from regulation. The European Union will implement the Digital Product Passport (DPP) starting in 2027. As the EU source explainsthis document will allow you to know the origin, materials and disassembly instructions for each panel. This passport, along with the “digital twins” mentioned in The Conversationwill allow technicians to monitor performance in real time and know exactly how to separate the “sandwich” of materials without destroying them. Faced with the solar paradox. Solar energy is essential to stop global warming, but it cannot be “clean” if its end is dirty. The industry now faces its biggest test: redesigning the panels not only so that they catch the sun, but so that, when their last sunset comes, they don’t leave behind a legacy of glass and plastic that future generations cannot manage. Image | freepik Xataka | All the solar panel technologies that exist and which ones are most efficient, in a graph that goes from 1975 to today

We humans like beer. The big question is whether we like it enough to have invented agriculture

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The big question is not whether it was the chicken or the egg first, but rather what our ancestors began to make first: bread or beer? Does about 12,000 years We humans promote one of the most important chapters in our history in the Middle East, the Neolithic Revolution. From being nomads who lived by hunting and gathering, we became sedentary creatures who cultivated the fields. The change was so momentous that anthropologists have long wondered what caused it. It would be reasonable to think that the search for something as simple as bread, but there are those who believe that the answer is another: beer. What if the great catalyst that led us to plow and harvest the fields was not the search for bread but our ancestral hobby to raise your elbow? Cereals, what do I want you for? Scientists have spent the last few decades unraveling the mysteries from our most remote past, but there is one (fundamental) one that they have not yet agreed on: What the hell led humanity to change hunting and gathering for a sedentary life based on agriculture and livestock? What was the catalyst for the Neolithic Revolution, one of the most momentous periods of all time? Since since humans have been human, they need to eat, the answer seems simple: if those men and women settled to plant wheat and barley, it had to be to make bread, right? That is, they began to spend hours and hours tending their fields to obtain grain with which to nourish themselves. In the 50s however a question began to creep into the anthropological debate: What if what really interested them in grain was not bread or porridge but beer? But… And why is that? The debate is not new. It has been on the table for some time and is heated from time to time with new discoveries, such as the one announced in 2018 by a group of Stanford researchers who found “the oldest record of alcohol”, clues that tell us about the manufacture of beer ago 13,000 years. The last one to raise the discussion was Michael Marshall, a scientific journalist and columnist for New Scientist. In December he published a wide chronicle in which he reviews the latest findings on the subject and (most importantly) exposes how much it is costing anthropologists to reach a conclusion. The benefits of beer. To understand the discussion, we must first clarify a key point: neither the bread nor the beer of the Stone Age were like the bread and beer that we know today. The latter in fact has little or nothing to do with the refreshing amber liquid that they serve us in bars. It was more like a puree, a “sweet, slightly fermented porridge,” clarify Professor Jiajing Wang, from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. “They germinated the grains, cooked them and then used wild yeast.” The result was a nutritious, caloric, protein-rich concoction that could even be safer than drinking water from rivers and wells. After all, it was the result of fermentation. Added to that was its alcohol content, a “social lubricant” that we still use in the 21st century to relax and socialize. Archaeologist Brin Hayden highlights, for example, its use in events that helped structure communities. There is research which suggest that (at least some communities) used it in rituals and for veneration of the deceased. Much more than suspicions. If the debate has been on the table since the 1950s, it is basically because it has been nourished by archaeological findings. Researchers have found traces that tell us about beer brewing at least 5,000 years ago in southern egypt and northern china or how he does 10,000 years Shangshan culture They brewed rice beer. One of the most important revelations in recent years, however, was the one achieved in a cave in Israel in 2018 by a team led by Professor Li Liu, from Stanford University. There they found evidence of beer brewing before the first cereals cultivated in the Middle East. The finding is related to the Natufiansa town dedicated to gathering and hunting, although they also tended to stay for long periods in the same place. “The oldest”. After analyzing residues located in 13,000-year-old mortars located in a cave in Raqefet, a Natufian cemetery near Haifa, Liu and his colleagues discovered remains of beer. Quite a milestone, like she herself stands out: “It is the oldest record of alcohol made by man.” “This discovery indicates that alcohol production was not necessarily a result of agricultural surplus production, but was developed for ritual and spiritual purposes, at least to some extent, before agriculture.” Issue settled? At all. To understand the complexity of the subject, it helps to review the discovery announced in 2018. At least at that time, the oldest known remains of bread, extracted from a Natufian site located east of Jordan, had between 11,600 and 14,600 years old. The traces of beer discovered by Liu’s team move in a similar range: a priori, they could be dated between 11,700 and 13,700 years ago. One of the keys to the problem, explains Marshall in your articleis that basically the making of bread and beer leaves very similar traces, basically starch residues. “We still don’t have conclusive evidence to answer that question,” Liu recognizes on the question of whether we turned to beer or bread first. The reality is more complex: because we don’t know, we don’t even know if some of those foods were the great catalyst that led our ancestors to change their lifestyle. “I wouldn’t be surprised if both were the motivations.” At the end of the day, the ‘beer first, bread first’ debate does not seek definitive conclusions so much as vindicating the weight of both foods. Both beer and bread, bread and beer, played a decisive role in diets and rituals. Images | Gary Todd (Flickr), Enhin Akyurt (Unsplash) and Gerrie van der Walt (Unsplash) In Xataka | The Wari … Read more

seven essential pillars to beat the US

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That the power that dominates AI has many roles in dictating the rules of the game at a global level is an open secret. China knows this and has stepped on the accelerator by putting on the table an ambitious plan for 2027 that concerns absolutely all key sectors. Your goal? Being able to securely and reliably provide key AI technologies that are deeply and high-level integrated into a new era of industrialization. Towards the global forefront. The plan is called “Opinions on the implementation of the special action Artificial Intelligence + Manufacturing“, has 2027 as a deadline and a maximum aspiration: that both its artificial intelligence industry and its application at an industrial level are at the global forefront, promoting what they call “new quality productive forces.” To get an idea of ​​its relevance and transversality, it is signed by eight government departments, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Cyberspace Administration of China and the National Development and Reform Commission. The seven essential pillars. If there is something that stands out about the program, it is how concrete and detailed it is when it comes to materializing it. Thus, the seven key tasks are: laying the foundation through innovation, AI-driven improvements, product advancements, development of key actors, strengthening the ecosystem, ensuring security and international cooperation. Breaking down how, these are some of the measures to apply: Software and hardware innovation: coordinate the development of AI chips with the necessary software. Integration into production: Introduce AI models into core manufacturing processes, not just administrative tasks. Robotics and machinery: Accelerate the use of AI in industrial robots and machine tools. Open Ecosystem: Build a world-leading open source community. Security: develop technologies to protect algorithms and training data of industrial models. Some dizzying goals in less than two years. And if your measures are concrete, the objectives for the deep application of AI even more so: Large models: Deploy three to five general-purpose AI models for manufacturing, plus specific models for key industries. Data: Creation of 100 high-quality industrial data sets Real use cases: Promote 500 real case application scenarios in factories. Companies: promote two or three leading global companies in the AI ​​ecosystem, seeking strategic concentration of resources and leadership, along OpenAI or DeepSeek. Likewise, it wants to select a thousand model companies among specialized SMEs to support them. Sovereignty and leadership. In conclusion, what China has proposed is a comprehensive roadmap for the Asian giant not only to consume AI, but for its industrial sector to be the basis of technological development to ensure its technical independence in chips and algorithms before the end of the decade. In Xataka | China has an ambitious plan to surpass the West in technology. And it has already chosen its 18 companies to achieve it Cover | Composition with images of idnaklss and Iván Linares with Midjourney

This is the city that linked China with the Mediterranean that one day an earthquake hid from the world

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If there is a historical myth in archeology, it is finding the lost city of Atlantis. However, throughout history a few have been found: from that of Thonis-Heracleion in Egypt to the Greek of Pavlopetri passing through Port Royal in Jamaica. None are Atlantis (in fact, for numerous historians and scientists It’s more of a philosophical allegory of Plato than something real), but the last city that has just been found, far from typical places like the Atlantic, has quite a few similarities. Of course, it is in a lake in Kyrgyzstan. The lost city of Issyk-Kul. More specifically, it was in the northwestern waters of Lake Issyk-Kul that an international archaeological expedition organized by the Russian Geographical Society (RGS), the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) and the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic stumbled upon Toru-Aygyr, as reports the news of the SGR. For the investigation they used underwater drones and high-precision diving. The legends were true. Around the Issyk-Kul lake run several popular legends about its formation submerging a city that already existed, something that was historically reinforced by the local rumor that when the weather is good and the water is calm, remains of the city can be seen. Likewise, within the Catalan Atlas of the Mallorcan cartographer Cresques Abraham it is recorded on a map the existence of a monastery where were the remains of San Mateo. This lake has been one of the obsessions of the historian and archaeologist Vladimir Ploskikh, behind the aforementioned discovery. Satellite view from 1992. Wikimedia But what a lake. Issyk-Kul is a truly fascinating lake without having to resort to myths: its name in Russian and Kyrgyz is “hot lake” and it has merit being 1,609 meters high. The secret is How deep it is (average 270 meters, maximum 702 meters), it is slightly salty and subsoil geothermal activity. Is the second largest alpine lake in the worldonly surpassed by Titicaca and one of its peculiarities is its transparency: its visibility is such that it can be seen up to 20 meters deep in favorable conditions. The icing on the cake is that there is evidence that there the black plague began. Vilya Shoni,. Wikimedia A most advanced city. Finding a submerged city is not unusual, but among the peculiarities of Toru-Aygyr is that its ruins are in shallow waters and the good state of conservation of its constructions, with solid stone structures, clay bricks and even wooden beams. In addition, they reveal that it was an advanced infrastructure, with public buildings, brick homes and irrigation systems. More specifically, they identified remains from a medieval cemetery, large ceramic containers, pieces of a mill, an architectural element that points to the decoration of a building such as a mosque, a bath or a madrasa. After checking with archival materials, the team confirmed that they were looking at a city that handled silk, spices and metals in the transfer of these goods between China and the Mediterranean from the 2nd century BC to the mid-15th century. Stick with the final date, we’ll come back to it later. Elizaveta Romashkina. Russian Geographical Society. It is the missing link of the silk road. As concludes researcher at the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Kyrgyzstan and head of the Kyrgyz expedition, Valery Kolchenko: “The monument we are studying is a city or a large commercial agglomeration located on one of the key sections of the Silk Road.” During the investigation, they found a second site corresponding to a Muslim necropolis from the 13th–14th centuries that still preserves vestiges of traditional Islamic rituals, a third with remains of medieval ceramics, a large entire vessel (khum) and more burials. Finally, a fourth location located in the western part, of which remains of structures remain. The team’s idea is to return to continue analyzing everything, but for now the remains already say a lot about the relevance of the enclave, which Chinese historical sources record, such as explains the head of the expedition, Maksim Menshikov. Why did it sink? aka the Pompeii effect. The presence of large ceramic vessels and millstones in their original positions reveals that the city was abandoned abruptly, without subsequent looting. Kolchenko clears us of doubts: it was an earthquake. “At the beginning of the 15th century, as a result of a terrible earthquake, the city was submerged under the waters of the lake. According to our assessment, at the time of the disaster the inhabitants had already abandoned the settlement. The tragedy can be compared to the story of Pompeii, although it is much less known to the general public.” After the earthquake, he explains that the region’s population drastically changed how they lived, going from a prosperous medieval urban civilization to nomads. This large earthquake caused the lake’s water level to suddenly rise, swallowing the city. The water enveloped the city in mud and sand, protecting it from erosion and exposure to oxygen. It is not Atlantis nor does it need to be. It goes without saying that Toru-Aygyr is not the mythical Atlantis, but comparing it is inevitable due to the legends that surround it, the records that remain of its existence over the centuries in different civilizations and of course, the large amount of treasures found and its prosperity: there lived an advanced, rich and living city that disappeared one day under the waters. In Xataka | The Atlantic has a ‘Lost City’ with the key to life on other planets. Now it’s in danger In Xataka | Eastern Atlantis: this is the lost continent that united Greece and Anatolia 35 million years ago Cover | Mikhail Preobrazhenskiy and Elizaveta Romashkina from the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences

There is an acute shortage of housing supply in Spain. So the convents of Toledo have seen an opportunity

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Toledo has had an idea to reinforce the meager housing supply in its historic center. In the city there is the curious contradiction that there is demand for flats for rent while around 150 buildings of the monumental area (both public and private) remain closed and without tenants, so… Why not solve both problems at once? With that philosophy as a backdrop, two convents in Toledo are preparing to become landlords and allocate part of their buildings to rent. The historic center sees its housing offer expand (although still timidly) and in the process the religious orders obtain a new source of income. Quite a ‘win-win’. What has happened? That in Toledo they want to kill several birds with one stone. For some time now, its historic center has faced three challenges that, although at first glance they seem to have little to do with each other, are directly related. The first is the shortage of residential rentals. In Idealista, just over a few are announced right now. 50 apartments for lease and many of them do so as seasonal rentals. For long stays the offer is only 33. The second challenge is represented by abandoned buildings. Last year, the Consortium of the City of Toledo did the math and found that in that same area of ​​the Castilian-La Mancha capital, 150 buildings unused, some in ruins. The third challenge is not so much the city itself but the religious orders that live there: How to achieve income in the 21st century? Where to get money to pay bills or unforeseen events such as repairing the roof of the Discalced Carmelites convent, sunk during a DANA in 2023? Connecting the dots. The Toledo Consortium has come to the conclusion that these three challenges can be connected and has had an idea: to renovate wasted spaces in convents in the city to convert them into homes. And not just any type of housing. Their objective is to move them to the long-term rental market, the one that has the most difficulties in the historic center and more pressured It is seen through tourism. For that purpose, in November The organization gave the green light to the tender for the renovation of two properties: one located in the convent of the Discalced Carmelites and the other in the Immaculate Conception (Nasturtiums). Between them there will be four homes. “New opportunities”. The objective, explains the manager of the Consortium, Jesús Corroto, is to advance in the recovery of the disused heritage of the historic center and in the process generate “new residential opportunities”, especially for young people. The idea is to rehabilitate a building attached to the Discalced Carmelites convent with 131,000 euros to provide it with two new homes with a total constructed area of ​​130 m2. Investments will be made in the Capuchinas property. 130,000 euros to open two new residences in what was once the Priestly House, built at the end of the 16th century. In any case, the organization wants to go further and not stay in those four apartments. The SER chain indicates that it aspires to enable at least a dozen of housing and has already transferred more proposals to other convents. Whether they go ahead or not will basically depend on the budget and what the religious decide. After all, the buildings are private, non-segregable and considered BIC. The initiative would allow the creation between 20 and 30 housesto which other services can be added, such as parking. “Rental ethics”. In the case of the new homes set up in convents, a peculiar circumstance will occur: the Consortium is in charge of the works, but unlike what happens with other accommodation promoted by the Municipal Housing Company, its price will not be limited by a maximum limit. Since these are private properties, it is the religious who must decide what rents they charge to their future tenants, although Corroto already advances in The Country that a “rental ethic” will govern. What the organization he directs has done is put an inflexible condition on the friars and monks of Toledo: the new homes must be dedicated to residential rentals, not become tourist apartments, a business that has already attracted other religious of Spain who have seen the need to take advantage of their buildings. In Seville, for example, not long ago some cloistered nuns agreed to offer a part of their convent to tourists through Airbnb. The reason: selling candy is no longer enough to pay bills. Between 37 and 60 m2. In the case of Toledo, the objective is for the new homes to be available in about a year. To make it possible, the religious orders will assume part of the works and furniture. Once the project is completed, the city will have new apartments with a useful area of between 37 and 60 m2. The residences will have to comply with the regulations that govern the Historic Center of Toledo and will have between one and two rooms. Images | Suraya_M (Flickr) and Wikipedia (Antonio Velez) In Xataka | Toledo has had enough of the mass tourism that saturates the city center. His plan to change it: China

Quietly, Big Tech are ceasing to be exclusively technological companies to be something else: energy

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Big technology companies not only compete for AI engineers. Now they also do it by energy profiles. And it is no wonder, because without the electricity that powers mammoth data centers necessary for AI tools to remain operational, the AI ​​race slows down. A bottleneck. AI has become the strategic axis of Big Tech, but its biggest bottleneck is no longer the talent around its systems, but access to energy. Data centers training and running larger and larger models consume massive amounts of electricityand guaranteeing that supply has become a business priority. According to account According to CNBC, with data collected by Workforce.ai, the hiring of energy-related profiles grew by 34% year-on-year in 2024. Numbers. As the media reports, a similar jump also occurred last year, with a level of energy profile hiring 30% above that of 2022, just before the explosion of generative AI after the launch of ChatGPT. The main reason is structural, since data centers represented approximately 1.5% of global electricity consumption in 2024, after growing 12% in five years, according to data of the International Energy Agency. Everything indicates that this demand will continue to increase as new AI infrastructure is deployed. What profiles are you looking for?n the Big Tech. According to stands out the middle, Technology companies are looking for much more operational positions: experts in energy purchasing, electricity markets, grid connection and energy strategy. CNBC reports that these positions are directly linked to ensuring real supply, not only to improving the environmental image of companies. Furthermore, not everything is about guaranteeing supply at any cost, but also about ensuring that electricity can be obtained in the most efficient way possible. Who is winning the talent war. Amazon and Microsoft lead in volume of energy signings from 2022, according to point the middle. Amazon has more than 600 additions (including AWS), while Microsoft has more than 570. In the case of the latter, in 2024 signed Carolina Dybeck Happe, former chief financial officer of General Electric, as chief operating officer, a gesture that many interpret as a strategic commitment to integrate energy and management on a large scale. Google, for its part, has accelerated in recent months with more than 300 hires, incorporating profiles from both large energy companies and the academic world. Between the lines. The strategy is not limited to hiring people. Big tech is also buying other companies. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, agreed the acquisition of data center company Intersect for about 4.75 billion dollars. At the same time, they outsource key phases such as the construction of infrastructure, relying on temporary contracts to manage projects, land and works. The clash with the traditional energy sector. The medium too points outthrough data provided by specialized consulting firms, that more and more senior energy infrastructure professionals are considering making the leap into technology, attracted by higher salaries and projects linked to data centers. The problem is that the most in-demand profiles, such as energy strategy or grid connection, were already scarce in the traditional and renewable energy sector. This has led to a tighter and more competitive talent market. Not everything is direct absorption. Some analysts also see opportunities for electricity companies. Travis Miller, energy and utilities analyst at Morningstar, explains to CNBC that the magnitude of the demand makes it unfeasible for Big Tech to do everything on their own. In many cases, they will rely on traditional public service groups to develop infrastructure and operate networks, which can translate into new revenue and employment in the sector. And now what. The border between technology and energy is being diluted in a very interesting way. Meta, Amazon, Google or Microsoft already sign long-term power purchase agreements, even with nuclear projectsand some have requested permits to trade electricity and sell surpluses to the grid. “There are technology companies that are becoming energy companies,” account Daniel Smart, CEO of The Green Recruitment Company, in the middle. Of course, for now, only to feed its own AI. Cover image | Microsoft In Xataka | AI is creating a new paradigm of success: products that everyone uses but have to close due to lack of income

It is a paradise for digital nomads

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It is nothing new that Malaga city and Malaga province are magnificent places to spend your holidays, with towns such as Torremolinos, Fuengirola, Marbella, San Pedro de Alcántara, Benalmádena, Frigiliana, Nerja or Mijas as prominent tourist destinations of a lifetime. Now, Benarrabá probably does not appear in any ranking: it only has 452 inhabitants and has no coast, since it is in the heart of the Serranía de Ronda (another place worth visiting). Málaga city and Benarrabá are night and day. In the 21st century, the population statistics have the arrow pointing down. Currently, its population density is of 18.35 inhabitants per square kilometeralmost 100 times less than the 1516.69 inhabitants/km² of Malagathe provincial capital and an entire technological cluster within Spain: it is home to one of the leading AI companies within the EU (freepik), Total Virus and even Google has a center there. Between one municipality and another, 133 kilometers and approximately an hour and a half by car. To the nearest airports, (Gibraltar and Malaga), one hour and one hour and a half respectively. There is only one bus daily to larger municipalities such as Ronda or Algeciras. It is not that it is next to a big city (although the distances are relative) and it is well connected precisely. Obviously, there is also a huge difference in the price of housing. Due to its small size, Benarrabá makes it difficult to find rental data (there is none), but in terms of sales prices, it goes from 3,802 euros per square meter in the capital to €220/m² in the aforementioned town. according to Indomio data. Benarrabá is a coliving town. If we take a look at your economic statisticswe will see that sectors such as agriculture, transport, construction or hospitality appear, but no trace of tourism. However, in 2025 alone, this small municipality welcomed 52 digital nomads from more than 19 different countries, more than 10% of its census population. What does Benarrabá have to attract digital nomads?. An infrastructure that greatly simplifies the process of going to spend some time there knowing that you are going to find accommodation that is rented by the week (with prices ranging from 22 euros/day in a shared room and 35 euros/day for an individual), sociocultural activities and a hospitable neighborhood and spaces for teleworking with 1GB of symmetrical fiber, call rooms, good views and specialty coffee that can be accessed 24/7. What is Rooral?. In one word: Roorala coliving project that is defined as a rural activator and in which both the Benarrabá City Council and the local community participate. The idea is to partner to create a coliving and coworking experience in towns located in unpopulated areas to welcome those people who want to telework and integrate into the life of the municipality. According to La Opinión de Málagathe average stay of these teleworkers is 24 days. In that period of time, they revitalize the life of the municipality and revitalize the economy. Benarrabá is the first permanent base of the project and it is no coincidence. Juan Barbed, co-founder of Rooral, account how when his grandmother died and he had to return to town, he met numerous strangers who welcomed him with open arms. On the one hand, cities are full of stress and loneliness (not to mention sky-high prices), on the other, many towns in Spain are disappearing. He connected the dots to combat this imbalance: remote work. And it’s been three years now. Things to do in Benarrabá. Rooral You don’t have a town? Now yes. The co-founder explains for the Malaga environment that for those people accustomed to living in large cities, settling in Benarrabá is a surprising experience due to the closeness and human warmth: “An emotional bond is generated that is difficult to forget and the desire of many of them to return to Benarrabá in the future.” It marks some people so much that one of the artists who lived there has painted portraits of 45 neighbors, recorded a documentary and created a map of points of interest. In Xataka | Rural Spain does not give up: digital nomads, remote work and new business opportunities to repopulate towns In Xataka | Home and work in the town: Spain increasingly offers more aid for young people to access rural housing Cover | Albertoac1990 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0 and Annie Spratt

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