Mobile Tech & Gadgets

Washing chicken “to clean it” sounds hygienic. Science says it’s a bad idea (and very dangerous)

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“Chicken should never be washed.” This time, it was Higinio Gómez (one of the most renowned gourmet polleros in Spain) who reopened the debate in an interview in El País. But the issue is recurrent and inexplicably generates very opposing positions: from those convinced that washing chicken is a way to “remove germs or dirt” to those who, rightly, say that it is a terrible idea. But, as Gómez himself would say in his establishment, ‘let’s go in parts’. What’s wrong with the chicken? Let’s start with the most basic: nothing happens to the chicken. The risk linked to ‘washing chicken’ has nothing to do with the chicken itself. It has to do with cross contamination: the bacteria from raw chicken (which would be eliminated during preparation) transfer to the hands, sink, countertops, and various utensils. Often, in fact, when washing chicken we end up putting those bacteria in foods that are ready to eat. The EFSA estimated in billions of euros annually the impact of pollution Campylobacter (a bug especially linked to chicken). Sometimes it’s because you cook it wrong, yes; but often it is due to handling raw food without any type of rigor. What the evidence says. In a now classic observational study by the North American USDA, was discovered that, in fact, what I just explained was what really happened: among those who washed the chicken, 60% contaminated the sink and up to 26% ended up transferring bacteria to the salad. And, in fact, we already have experimental studies that explain the mechanism: beyond the obvious, “washing generates droplets capable of transferring bacteria and increasing environmental pollution” And why do people insist on washing it? That’s a good question with numerous answers: from the cultural and historical heritage (after all, when the chicken was slaughtered at home, washing did make more sense) to a lack of sense of control that ends up turning against us. Let’s be practical: How to avoid cross contamination when cooking chicken? Separate raw chicken from other foods: It is a good idea to keep the chicken raw separated from other foods. This is always true, but especially with all those that are consumed raw (such as fruits and vegetables). Use different utensils: We have talked about it with the cutting boardsbut it is especially effective advice with knives and other utensils. In fact, the recommendation is that, if we do not have several sets of utensils, wash them carefully between uses with hot water and soap. Wash hands and surfaces thoroughly: After handling raw chicken, you should not only wash your hands with soap and hot water for at least 20 seconds; Instead, we should disinfect all surfaces with which it has been in contact. Image | Christian Guillen / Imani In Xataka | Washing raw chicken increases risk of foodborne infection

“Being a gossip” is enough reason for dismissal for the director of a bank branch

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They say that curiosity killed the cat, and if that curiosity belongs to the director of a CaixaBank office, it is most likely that her position is in danger. As an example of this, the person in charge of an office of that entity in a small town in Gerona who was fired for “gossiping” about the bank details of people in her town. The courts called it fraud and breach of trust. The case reached the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia, which confirmed that the disciplinary dismissal It was completely justified. Curiosity killed the cat. As detailed in the sentence issued By the Catalan Superior Court of Justice, in November 2023, CaixaBank detected anomalous accesses to its customer database. The director of the Les Preses (Gerona) office had been accessing clients’ banking information without apparent justification. An internal audit revealed the magnitude of the problem: between November 3, 2022 and December 11, 2023, management had made inquiries about 170 different clients on 210 different days. The most serious thing was the pattern since of those 170 clients consulted, 84 were family members or people in their close circle, and 121 lived in the same town where the director lived. The searches were done mainly by first and last name, something very unusual in banking operations normal in which the user’s ID is used to avoid confusion between users with identical first and last names. The explanations that did not convince anyone. When the audit investigated the accesses, the director tried to justify herself. First he said it was common to review customer accounts at other offices to confirm that cash transfers between users had been completed correctly. He then stated that some customers had asked him for help because they had had access problems from the application of the mobile. But as more information became known, those excuses began to lose foundation. The bank confirmed before the court that the majority of those 170 clients had connected through the mobile application on the same day that the director consulted their accounts, which showed that they did not need its intervention. Without arguments, all he was left with was the truth: she was a gossip. Finally, the worker admitted that she had consulted this data because of “xafardería”, a Catalan term that means simple curiosity or gossip. She acknowledged that she had not done so at the clients’ request nor was she looking for specific information, but rather motivated by curiosity to know the payments and financial movements of her family, friends and neighbors. He also assured that I had not shared that information with nobody. However, this confession was not enough to save him from the consequences: immediate disciplinary dismissal. There was abuse of trust and the TSJC confirmed it. CaixaBank did not hesitate to act when the conclusions of the internal investigation were known. On January 31, 2024, he was notified of his disciplinary dismissal on the grounds that his actions constituted a “very serious breach of contractual good faith, fraud and abuse of trust”, in accordance with the provisions of article 54.2.d) of the Workers’ Statute and article 76.4 of the current Collective Agreement for savings banks and financial entities. The Social Court number 1 of Figueras supported this decision on July 26, 2024. The worker tried to appeal to the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia, but the court rejected all her arguments. The court concluded that “there is no justification” for these consultations and that the conduct “contradicted the code of ethics and the confidentiality regulations that must govern a business as sensitive as banking.” The sentence left no room for doubt, declaring the dismissal proper and definitive. A lesson in trust and responsibility. As and how they stand out in the specialized environment Economist & Juristthis case leaves important lessons about how access to sensitive information in a financial institution is a privilege that carries responsibility. The director had received training on data protection and the code of ethics, so she was fully aware of the rules she was breaking. His position in the office gave him access to private data of hundreds of people, and used that access to sensitive information to satisfy simple curiosity. Due to the recurrence of the consultations, the courts understood that this was not an isolated case, but rather a deliberate pattern of conduct that violated the trust placed in it by the entity and its clients. In Xataka | The EU has once again taken a look at the Spanish labor market and has once again reminded Spain of something: firing is too cheap Image | Unsplash (Rodrigo Rodrigues)

Sydney Sweeney inaugurates the post-woke era of Hollywood

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Nobody would bet on an erotic thriller starring a maid in 2025, but ‘The Housemaid’ has shown that Hollywood can still surprise when it recovers genres that seemed buried. The film directed by Paul Feig has raised more than 137 million dollars against a modest budget of 35 million, becoming the unexpected success of Christmas. And that success says a lot about the political moment that Hollywood is going through. Immediate success. The success was so overwhelming that Lionsgate confirmed a sequel just 17 days after its releasesomething unheard of in today’s industry. The fascinating thing is that ‘The Maid’ does not invent anything: it unapologetically recovers the recipe of the nineties erotic thriller with its triangle of sex, money and deadly secrets. As Some critics have pointed out the film “proves that dead Hollywood genres still have life” if executed with conviction. For Sydney Sweeney, this triumph is especially significant after the failures of ‘Christy’ and ‘Eden’, which They threatened to derail his career just when he seemed to begin to establish himself as a star. Anatomy of an extinct genus. The erotic thriller was born as a mass phenomenon in 1987, when ‘Fatal Attraction’, with Glenn Close and Michael Douglas, raised more than 320 million dollars and spent eight weeks at number one at the box office. Five years later, ‘Basic Instinct’ raised the stakes with Sharon Stone and again Michael Douglas throwing us some of the most high-voltaic scenes ever seen on screen. It raised 353 million. He secret of the formula It was a mix of noir classic and explicit sex, with luxury mansions, a reformulation of the trope of femme fatale and continuous plot twists. The death of the genre. The fever unleashed an avalanche of more than 700 movies direct to video between 1985 and 2005, while screenwriters like Joe Eszterhas (of ‘Basic Instinct’) became millionaires. At the end of the nineties, the genre collapsed due to market saturation and because The arrival of the Internet democratized access to pornographyeliminating the need to look for eroticism in cinema mainstream. Until now there has been no possibility of resurrection for the genre because the post-cultural cultural changes#MeToo They made the genre’s tropes (dangerous women punished for leading uncontrolled, unconventional and, above all, undomesticated) sexual lives problematic. The (boring) icing on the cake: Hollywood reoriented its films towards family franchises that could be sold in conservative markets like China. Perpetual recycling. The film industry works like a cemetery with revolving doors: genres never completely die, they just hibernate, waiting for their moment. Romantic comedies seemed extinct last decade, victims of Marvel, until Sydney Sweeney herself raised $220 million in 2023 with ‘Anyone But You’. We have seen it before countless times: ‘Django Unchained’ became the the highest grossing western in historyand from those muds these ‘Yellowstone’. The musicals returned with ‘La La Land’ in 2016, and there we have its successor ‘Wicked’ as one of the sensations of the moment. For its part, nostalgia for modest budget horror It has gone from fashion to phenomenon. The cycle of life. And the pattern repeats itself: a genre is born, reaches saturation, collapses due to excess and exhaustion of the formula, disappears for 15 or 25 years, and is resurrected when a new generation rediscovers it without the negative stigma of saturation. The key is about creating hybrids that incorporate contemporary sensibilities into classic DNA, and streaming has accelerated this process, as platforms like Netflix allow experimentation outside the traditional systemwith less financial risk, since it can refer to niches that traditional studies ignore. The post-woke moment. December 2024 marked a turning point when two major publications (The New York Times and The Telegraph) simultaneously declared that Hollywood had entered a “post-woke era.” The NYT article was especially blunt in dismissing the last decade of diverse stories, celebrating that “we no longer have to pretend to like something just because it has the right politics.” The 2025 box office data confirms the diagnosis: the productions that have triumphed at the box office (‘Lilo & Stitch‘, ‘Zootopia 2’, ‘A Minecraft movie‘, ‘Avatar 3‘) are absolutely harmless in that sense. ‘The Assistant’ is a twist that goes even further in this trend. The film recovers archetypes that the era of political correctness had left behind: femme fatale seductive without feminist justification, explicit sexuality without any type of pedagogy, class conflict dressed in the garb of a thriller without a message. There are no characters written to capture demographics, just a dirty story (with no minority representation) about money, power and betrayal. Sweeney’s presence, raised a few months ago as anti-woke icon It’s not exactly coincidental. The lesson of the market. ‘The Housemaid’ confirms that what is old is new again when the public is hungry for something that the industry no longer offers. The female audience (which represents more than 55% of viewers of the film) has shown that there is a demand for sophisticated adult content that is not superheroes or family animation. While ‘Avatar 3’ and ‘Zootopia 2’ dominated with budgets in the hundreds of millions, ‘The Housemaid’ billed 133 million occupying a space without competition. The question that remains is whether we are facing a structural change or simply another passing cycle. Sydney Sweeney accumulates now three consecutive years with at least one commercial success per year (‘Anyone but you’, ‘Immaculata’, ‘The maid’), which suggests that he has found a formula. If ‘The Housemaid’s Secret’, the sequel, generates a viable franchise, it will have managed to revive a dead genre. Hollywood Cemetery, after all, has always been more of a warehouse than a definitive grave. In Xataka | We Spaniards have stopped watching TV, going to the cinema and reading books: the only thing that interests us is going to concerts

They investigate whether it is a case of “Singapore washing”

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One day before the end of 2025, Meta announced the purchase of Manusthe Singapore-based artificial intelligence startup, for $2.5 billion. With this acquisition, Meta wants to strengthen its position in agentic AI, that is if the agreement comes to fruition. The Chinese authorities have something to say. What is happening. They count in South China Morning Post that the Chinese Ministry of Commerce is going to launch an investigation into the Manus purchase. Although the startup is registered in Singapore, the company developed its products in China, giving Beijing a legal basis to investigate whether moving personnel and technology to Singapore required an export license under Chinese law. Why is it important. The purchase of Manus can be taken as an example for other Chinese startups to follow: develop their product with Chinese talent taking advantage of the more favorable conditions, move the headquarters to Singapore and jump to the West, avoiding Chinese supervision. From China, this is perceived as a drain on talent and technology, as well as an uncomfortable fact: that the United States is a more attractive destination for AI companies. What can happen. At the moment the investigation has only been announced and it is possible that it will remain just that, but if Beijing concludes that Manus needed an export license, it is possible that they will influence the transaction. According to Financial Timesin an extreme case they could even force the parties to abandon the agreement. It doesn’t seem like it will go that far since, from China, Manus is not seen as a critical technology. Neither Meta nor Manus have commented anything on the matter. Manus. The company gained notoriety in March 2025 when it launched its AI agent. At that time the company operated in Beijing and Wuhan, but In July he moved to Singaporelaying off some of the Chinese staff. Their product is an AI agent capable of building web pages, developing apps and carrying out complex tasks, but does not have its own language modelbut works based on Claude and Qwen. Singapore ‘washing’. Manus is not the only company that has played the Singapore card to attract customers from abroad. It is a common practice known as “Singapore washing”although the most normal thing is not to move the entire company, but rather to open a second headquarters. It is a way to avoid possible sanctions and restrictions derived from the deterioration of relations between China and the US, ensuring access to financing and global markets. Image | Manus / Mariia Shalabaieva in Unsplash In Xataka | Some researchers created a company where all employees were AI agents. They didn’t even do a quarter of the work.

After invading the development of video games, AI enters an untouchable area with a Sony patent: the player himself

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Sony has registered a patent that proposes a future where video games can complete themselves. The document, presented in September 2024 and released this weekdescribes a system of “artificial intelligence ghosts” capable of actively intervening in PlayStation games. These virtual agents would go beyond traditional guides: they would not only show how to overcome obstacles, but they could directly take control and solve entire levels while the player watches. How it works. The patent details an assistance system with several levels of intervention. For example, “Guide Mode” would allow the ghost to show the solution to a specific problem, such as solving a puzzle or executing a precise sequence of commands, but it would have to be completed by the player. “Complete Mode”, on the other hand, would hand over total control to the artificial agent, which would overcome the obstacle autonomously. More modes. The registration document describes four modes Selectable additional features: Story Mode, Combat Mode, Exploration Mode and Full Game Mode, suggesting specialization in certain tasks, depending on the type of challenge presented to the player. The system would function as a layer superimposed on the user’s character, visible on the screen as a visual reference. In some cases, this digital ghost could even hold conversations with the player’s avatar to offer contextualized instructions. What does it feed on? The technology would be fueled by recordings of previous games, including content shared on YouTube and social networks. The original patent document justifies the need to access these videos by stating that “players can research the game or search for previous gameplay on Internet sites, but that process is time-consuming.” Help systems. Player aids have come a long way. In the ’90s, players who got stuck called support lines (Nintendo’s being especially popular) or consulted guides in magazines, full of maps and secrets. The web democratized access through databases such as GameFAQs and, later, through audiovisual content on YouTube that allowed step-by-step solutions to be seen. In fact, Playstation 5 already incorporates Game Helpa system that displays clips of other users overcoming specific sections of the game. Its application, however, leaves something to be desired. Microsoft, of course, is betting on Copilot in the form of a conversational assistant that answers questions about the game. The proposal for artificial ghosts goes one step further, going from pre-recorded content to direct intervention in the game. AI in industry. The artificial intelligence integration video game development is accelerating. In 2024Unity revealed that 62% of studios that were using its tools implemented AI in some phase of production, highlighting animation as the main application. A survey from the Game Developers Conference of the same year indicates that approximately a third of professionals in the sector were already using these technologies. Data from the Tokyo Games Show raised the figure to more than half of Japanese companies. The automation of gameplay It’s not new either. Kotaku mentions in its article successful titles such as ‘Vampire Survivors’, with semi-automatic mechanics; ‘Megabonk’, nominated for the Game Awards for its automated design; or, in general, all idle subgenrewhich has such popular examples as ‘Ball X Pit’. The debate. This technology poses a dilemma: on the one hand, it would allow more players to enjoy complex content and prevent abandonment due to frustration. It would be integrated into the accessibility options (difficulty settings, control remapping, color blind modes), without forcing anyone to use it. On the other hand… do we run the risk of losing the “challenge” of games by delegating our participation to AI agents? What’s the point of playing then? And of course, it raises multiple questions in multiplayer environments, where there will be a temptation to take credit for victories achieved by the ghost. In Xataka | The new “test” to discover whether or not an AI model is truly intelligent: play Pokémon

Two scientists tried to publish a paper on why we get belly button lint. And that’s where his problems began

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In 2005, writer Mark Leyner and doctor Billy Goldberg published ‘Why do men have nipples?‘, a hilarious popular science book in which they answered very crazy questions: from the reason why hair comes out of our ears to the physiological reasons why asparagus perfumes our pee. However, they were not able to answer a key question: where did the fluff of the navel? Four years later, Georg Steinhauser wanted share your answer with the world. According to him, navel lint was mainly related to abdominal hair. According to him, the hair collected the fibers from the clothing and directed them to the navel. He did experiments for three years removing breasts to see the differences! But no one wanted to publish it. Nobody? No! A magazine populated by irreducible mad scientists still resists, as always, the most basic control practices of contemporary scientific publication. Welcome to the world of ‘Medical Hypothesis‘. Against the “gentrification” of science In recent years, “evidence-based” things They have enjoyed unprecedented fame. From politics to medicine, thousands of professionals have turned to science in search of solutions to respond to the problems of an increasingly complex society. However, all that glittered was not gold: again and again We have once again reflected on one of the blind spots of the approachthat science is, by nature, conservative. Not in a political sense, but in an epistemological sense. That is, we know better what we have; but when what we have doesn’t work, it’s a problem. A problem because, without resources to investigate new optionsare forced to implement interventions that do not work, leaving many professionals with their hands tied. For good reasons, yes. But with his hands tied. It is not strange, of course, that there are people who want more diversity. This is the case of ‘Medical Hypotheses‘, the most WTF science magazine of the last 40 years. ‘Medical Hypotheses’ was founded by the physiologist David Horrobin who directed it until his death in 2003. Horrobin, who was already himself a controversial figure (the British Medical Journal defined as one of the greatest “snake oil salesmen of his time”), made a magazine in his image and likeness. Fun, refreshing and dangerous In theory, the idea was to build a respectable forum to debate unconventional ideas unconstrained by current scientific publishing standards as a way to boost the diversity threatened by academic monoculture. ‘Medical hypotheses’ wanted to be a place to bring intuitions, extravagant ideas and crazy theories. In a world like the scientific one full of certainties and phrases in the present indicative, Horrobin’s magazine was all the y-sis and conditionals. That makes it a profound magazine. fun and refreshingbut it also does a bomb box. You can also read a study that relates heels with schizophrenia that one about the similarities between people with Down syndrome and Asians. These days, without going any further, a study is circulating in tabloids around the world about If we can abandon ourselves so much that we end up dying due to pure psychology. For years, the world was a party in ‘Medical Hypotheses’. In the first issues, pioneers from some of the most developing fields of the time wrote. But its main asset is also its main problem. It is a magazine that requires a very skilled editor to be able to navigate controversial terrain without publishing malicious and even dangerous work. The end of the party When Horrobin died in 2003, he was replaced by Bruce G. Charlton. Horrobin had written down that he was the only person he truly trusted to continue his work. At the end of 2009, an article in which he stated that “there was no evidence that HIV caused AIDS” was published in the magazine. The party was over. The paper had been rejected in all research area publications until it ended up in ‘Medical Hypotheses’. He scandal It was capital and Elsevier, owner and publisher of the magazine, fired Charlton a few months later. Furthermore, in an attempt to contain the damage, Elsevier introduced a review system halfway between the original system and the peer review of traditional publications. That clearly went against the magazine’s reason for being and Hundreds of researchers protested against the decision. ‘Medical Hypotheses’ is, in some ways, a symbol of the risky, indomitable and (often) reckless science that we still need, but it no longer plays a central role in public debate. Today, the preprints (and the repositories that store these open drafts — with arXiv.org at the head) fulfill that function. A function that, despite making our lives difficult, is best never missed. In Xataka | This frog is so photogenic that it is now on the verge of extinction In Xataka | Spain turns in the opposite direction to the rest of Europe. It is part of a geological plan: close the Mediterranean Image | Pexels

lend money to those who buy them

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The European automobile sector is experiencing its worst crisis in decades as a result of a perfect storm: This alignment has led the six main European manufacturers to project a drop in sales by 2025. But there is a parallel business that is growing: banking. Why is it important. Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes have turned their financial divisions into the engine that is making their profits grow. It is no longer just about selling cars, but about financing their purchase. From there its benefits come to an increasing extent. The figures. As detailed The Economist Based on the financial results of different manufacturers, at Volkswagen financial services have contributed 3,096 million euros of Ebitda in the first nine months of 2024. It is 44% of the total, more than the sale of vehicles to passengers and companies combined. A business that grows 7.9% while the rest contracts. BMW places its financial division at 20% of the total business, with 38,562 million euros invoiced. In the third quarter that weight grew to 29.7%. Mercedes reaches 13.4% of its income through this means. Renault 12.5%, with a growth of 19.8% in the last quarter according to the analysis of results collected by the financial media. Between the lines. Automobile companies have built banks within their structures. The logic is simple: deposits provide cheaper financing than issuing debt in the markets. They offer loans, leasing and vehicle subscriptions with margins that the traditional business no longer provides. Yes, but. This model brings systemic risks. During the 2008 crisis, GMAC (the financial division of General Motors) collapsed due to its exposure to mortgages subprime and needed a bailout of $17.2 billion. Mixing banking and sales multiplies the risk when a recession hits. Furthermore, this is not an exclusively Spanish or European phenomenon. How to collect Washington Postthe US FDIC has received applications from GM, Stellantis and Ford to create industrial banks. Trump promised to relax business restrictions, and approving them would set a precedent for technology companies like Apple, Google or Amazon, which have been rumored to make similar moves for decades. The paradox. Automobile companies are mutating towards a model where the car is the pretext and credit is the business. They sell cars to be able to lend money and thus reverse the logic of an industry that defined the 20th century. The question is whether this shift is going to save them or whether it will end up exposing them to a new financial crisis. In Xataka | The car market in Spain in 2025 confirms the trend: the three winners while electrification gains weight Featured image | Lenny Kuhne

These are not simple collector’s figurines. They are impressive robots worth more than 1,600 euros, and I have tried them

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I’m going to tell you an anecdote. A few weeks ago I received a press release in the mail, one of the hundreds and hundreds that come in a day. This note said something like Robosen arriving in Spain with the Soundwave G1, and of course, my geeky mind clicked. Soundwave is the right hand of Megatron, the bad guy from ‘Transformer’, and I thought “well, another company that makes collector’s figurines.” The thing is that I went to their website and I went completely crazy. I was hoping to find a figure like some I have from ‘One Piece’ and company, but no. What I saw were some animatronics of more than 1,600 euros that take away the hiccups. Not just because of the level of detail, but because of how they move, talk and interact. Then I looked at the spec sheet, saw what they have inside, and thought “why not?” Spoiler: it is not just a figure | Image: Xataka So I wrote to Robosen to ask for the Soundwave, try it and tell Xataka how it is. Hopes? Zero. Not because of them, but because I understand that sending a 1,600 euro robot by courier in the middle of Christmas is something you want, which is something you want, you don’t want it. Well, not one, not two. But three. Robosen gave me not only Soundwave, but Megatron and a limited edition Buzz Lightyear. Like a little child, I spent Christmas trying them and teaching them to every living being that entered the house. Because yes, they are one of those products that you don’t have the opportunity to try every day and that are capable of making you say “wow!”. I’ll tell you how it is. There are figures and FIGURES The Buzz Box is a resounding yes | Image: Xataka The animatronics come packaged with exquisite taste. A product of this type and price must convey premium aroma right out of the box and Robosen has certainly nailed it. Special mention deserves the Buzz Lightyear box, which is the same as the original ‘Toy Story’ box. What I want to get at is that everything comes very well packaged, with its rigid foam and closures to prevent falls during transport. No complaints. “I am Megatron, leader of the Decepticons!” Megatron | Image: Xataka I think the easiest thing is to show the robots one by one, so let’s start with the most impressive one: Megatron. This beast, whose price amounts to 1,612.33 euros At the time I write these lines, he was the one that convinced me to order the robots and try them out. It is inspired, like Soundwave, by the design of 80s cartoons and the attention to detail is spectacular. Megatron in his tank form | Image: Xataka Image | Xataka Image | Xataka Megatron, as every Transformer fan will know, takes the form of a tank, and here it could not be any less. The animatronic features 112 LED lights with red and purple accents, wheels inspired by real tanks, and a shiny metallic finish. That’s on the outside, but Inside it has 118 microchips and 36 high-precision servomotors that make it not only move, because it moves, but also transform. I think a video does it more justice than photos. In both tank mode and robot mode we can interact with the device, either by voice or through the mobile application. These are the only three “buts” that I can say not only to Megatron, but to all the others I have tried: Voice commands only work in English and are predefined. If you don’t know English or your pronunciation is average, it is quite likely that the robots will not understand the command. The application is unique for each robot. It is not like the Xiaomi app, to which you can connect all the company’s devices, but Megatron has its app, Buzz Lightyear has his, etc. You cannot navigate the app if you do not have the robot connected. Image | Xataka For the rest, and removing that, the interaction with the robot is great. You can move it, talk to it to make it say phrases, start little theaters like the one you can see below these lines and, if someone is encouraged and has the patience and, above all, the art that I don’t have for it, program actions to share them with the rest of the world. I had to lower him to the floor because he moves a lot during the scene and the platform reaches as far as it goes. The robot’s movement is extremely precise. The engines make some noise, but nothing out of the ordinary. The voice is heard loud and clear and, when the movement is fast, the effect is very, very successful. By the way, programming can be done either on a PC, or by putting the robot in a position and recording the posture in the app. That’s easy to do. Image | Xataka Natural movement, that is, walking forward or backward, is brutal. Slow, but very, very precise and stable. The first time you move it it seems like real magic. That a robot this size remains this stable while standing and moving is impressive. In tank mode, movement is much more fluid. Those nostalgic for ‘Transformers’ will surely like to know that the phrases have not been generated with AI, but have been recorded by original voice actor, Frank Welkerwho also voiced Soundwave. There are more than 270 original voice lines and you can generally interact with the robot with more than 50 voice commands. Megatron | Image: Xataka Something that has me completely fascinated is that the robot feels alive. If you leave it on stand-by you will see it “breathe” and make small gestures and movements to give a more realistic impression. This is regardless of whether it is in tank mode or robot mode, and yes, in case you were wondering, yes, … Read more

While France freezes, Greece is at 27ºC in the middle of January

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While Spain was preparing to live the coldest Twelfth Night in 40 years and Western Europe collapsed in the face of a cold and snow stormthere are parts of Europe and the Mediterranean basin that They are practically in summer. And no, it is not a figure of speech: during last nightthere were people on the Greek island of Crete sleeping with air conditioning. What has happened? “35 degrees in Algeria, 20 in Russia, tropical nights in Greece, records throughout the central and eastern Mediterranean from Algeria to Turkey (with the only exception of Italy)”, said M. Herrerameteorologist specialized in extreme events. But what is striking is not the description, what is striking is what it means. Because the map that heads this article is not one of absolute temperatures, but of anomalies. And that can obviously distort the matter a bit. However, the absolutes (with data from the Greek National Observatory in Athens in hand) are amazing: we are talking about 27.5 degrees last night in Falasarma and 25.3 in Neapolis. At night. That is, we are talking about temperatures similar to those of August. Or worse because, indeed, we are in January (as the rest of Europe is suffering) The warmest night in Europe while part of the continent remains isolated under snow? It seems so. And not only because of the specific data (it is possible that the record for the warmest night in Greece will not be surpassed: Falasarna suffered one night at 28.3 in 2021), but because but because the heat is as widespread as snow in the West. We have seen night temperatures of 16 °C in Sevastopol (Crimea) and 13 in Tuapse (Russia). Furthermore, if everything continues as expected, there will be nights at 20°C in the Russian Caucasus and above 25°C in Turkmenistan and the Caspian coast. A real madness that, If Herrera is rightwill go down in the climatic annals of the continent. The image of a Europe divided in two is tremendous. But the question is why. And the answer is simple: an extremely wavy ‘jet stream’. We already know that the jet ripples, but rarely can you see an ‘S’ of this size. While in the west the atmospheric circulation introduces arctic air; In the east, a gigantic ridge favors south-southwest winds. The wavy structure of the jet is pumping polar air into France and Saharan air into Greece. Then local effects exaggerate the anomaly. In Spain, for example, thermal inversions place us at -14 degrees, while in Crete the subsidence causes extremely hot and dry air. Image | Tropical TidBits In Xataka | Neither another Filomena nor a miscalculation: the “apocalypse” of snow and cold that awaited us for Reyes is going to be much less so

he left everything agreed after the Second World War

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Of all the possibilities that are being heard about “the Greenland thing”one, possibly the most plausible, is getting lost in the conversations. No money, no political pressure, not even the “military option”. If the United States wants something in the Arctic, it only has to turn to an old and little-known Cold War pact. There is no need to buy what you control. The Donald Trump’s obsession “buying” or even “taking” Greenland is actually based on a false premise, because for more than seven decades the United States has already had a freedom of military action extraordinary without the need for formal sovereignty, something that turns his recent threats more into a political gesture than a real strategic necessity, despite the fact that he justifies them in terms of national security and the presence of Chinese and Russian actors in the Arctic. The 1951 agreement. The core of this situation is in the defense agreement signed in 1951 between the United States and Denmark, which gives Washington the right to build, operate and maintain military bases throughout Greenland, deploy personnel and control air and maritime operations, a scope so wide that Danish experts recognize that, in practicethe United States can get almost anything it wants simply by asking for it, without resorting to annexations or impossible purchases. From WW2 to the Cold War. The origin of the agreement dates back to Nazi occupation of Denmark during World War II, when fear that Germany would use Greenland as a platform to America led to a defensive pact which allowed the United States to expel the Germans and build more than a dozen bases on the island. That presence that remained during the cold war through radars and early warning systems and which today focuses on strategic Pittufik Space Basekey to tracking missiles over the North Pole. Headquarters of the Schalburg Corps, a unit of the Danish SS, after 1943. The building occupied was the lodge of the Danish Order of Freemasons located on Blegdamsvej, Copenhagen. Why buying is impossible. Beyond the military, the idea of ​​buying Greenland collides with a clear political and legal reality: Denmark cannot sell it and the Greenlanders themselves, who today have the right to decide their future through referendumthey overwhelmingly reject any US takeovera position reaffirmed by his prime minister and backed by polls showing massive opposition to a Washington takeover. The 2004 amendment. The defense agreement was updated in 2004 to explicitly recognize Greenland as an equal part of the Kingdom of Denmark and force the United States to consult on any significant changes to its military operations, a requirement that, according to Danish analystsworks more as a diplomatic courtesy than as a real brake, since if Washington wanted to expand its presence it could do so immediately without violating the existing framework. Trump, Venezuela and escalation. The recent American coup in Venezuela and the capture of Nicolás Maduro seem to have emboldened Trump and his entourage, who talk about Greenland as if it were an inevitable lootprovoking an angry reaction in Copenhagen and Nuuk, where it is warned that any attempt at occupation rempire the international orderwhile European leaders remember that the legal framework already gives the United States everything it needs without resorting to threats. It’s all about minerals and the Arctic. It we counted yesterday. Beyond military geopolitics, Greenland attracts for its enormous reserves of critical minerals and, very importantly, for your key position in an increasingly navigable Arctic, although even here experts agree that the United States does not need to control the territory to access those resources. The reason is simple: Greenlanders are open to doing business with anyone… as long as their sovereignty and right to decide are respected. Image | Defense Visual Information Distribution Service In Xataka | The gold of the 21st century is not in Venezuela: China and Russia know it and that is why the US wants Greenland no matter what In Xataka | If the question is “what is the next country on the US list” the answer has been on the table for months

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