Mobile Tech & Gadgets

stuck on a dead end track

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In September, the future European fighter in which Spain participates began to disfigure publicly. Already in November, in a new twist of script, the European fighter began to point to something else. The latest? The Future Combat Air System project, FCAShas ceased to be solely an industrial and technological program to become an uncomfortable mirror of Europe’s ambition (and limitations). The plane is literally at a dead end. A symbol that wobbles. Those ambitions have was staged these days in the figure of Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz, and the Europe they aspire to. Both leaders have spent weeks redoubling a speech that insists on strategic autonomy, digital sovereignty and its own military capacity, a message that is amplified in a continent shaken by uncertainty about the American commitment and by the aggressiveness of a Kremlin that has returned conventional war to the heart of Europe. In this context, the FCAS had been conceived as the emblem of a continent capable of compete with the F-35 American, to secure replacements for the Rafale and Eurofighter that are beginning to approach their operational end, and to demonstrate that Europe can still lead technological revolutions in defense. Reality blow. But the rindustrial and political reality surrounding the program contradicts official rhetoric. Eight years after its presentation, FCAS is accumulating delays, internal disputes and an atmosphere of mistrust that turns each negotiation into a slow erosion of expectations, forcing us to wonder if this plane of 100,000 million of euros has not become a failed test before even taking off. The blockages that show the seams. Behind the common façade, France and Germany carry structural rivalries that become especially visible when they must cooperate in a field as sensitive as combat aviation. Dassault and Airbus, the giants called to work side by side, have been exchanging reproaches. Eric Trappier, head of Dassault, has never hidden his refusal to give up leadership in design, nor has he hidden his disdain for German technical capacity in areas considered critical. From the other side, Airbus accuses Dassault of protect historical privileges incompatible with a modern multinational project. The international success of the Rafale, unexpectedly converted into a symbol of independence compared to the F-35, has further strengthened the French position and has strained the distribution of burdens and responsibilities. None of these frictions are new, but they are have become more corrosive at a time when cooperation is no longer just desirable, but necessary. What should have been an alliance between equals has led to what analysts describe as a marriage of convenience full of suspicions, in which every tactile decision on intellectual property, industrial distribution or technological transfer becomes a clash of corporate cultures. The political factor. Added to the industrial complexity is the political vulnerability of its promoters. Macron, cornered by an internal budget crisis and by the prospect of a 2027 that could hand power to the far right, has lost the ability to impose rhythms or guarantees in long-term projects. Merz, for his part, deals with a economy that seeks to reinvent itself and with a rise of the far right which forces careful internal calibrations, but unlike France, Germany yes it has resources: Its defense budget is heading towards a doubling that transforms Berlin into the dominant partner in financial terms. This asymmetry introduces a power imbalance that irritates both Paris and the industrial partners involved. Believe or not believe. This being the case, cooperation fundamentally requires trust, but that trust is precisely the resource that is most scarce. Without clear leadership, without a sustained common vision and without an architecture that credibly distributes risks and benefits, FCAS has become a hidden battle for influence rather than a joint project. What no one says, but everyone thinks. They remembered on Bloomberg that, as delays increase, hypotheses begin to emerge that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. It we comment a few weeks ago, one way is to transform FCAS into an umbrella digital interoperability that allows each country to build its own plane, all connected by a common data system. This path would allow Dassault to follow a sovereign path, while Airbus would concentrate its efforts on mission systems, companion drones and data fusion. But there is more. Another alternative, more ambitious and politically riskier, would be to abandon the national distribution of work, which assigns tasks by flag, and move to a distribution by industrial skillsrewarding whoever can make each piece better and faster. This last option is what specialists have been asking for for years, but it is also the one that clashes head-on with the electoral incentives of each government. European defense remains organized to maximize benefits at the national levelnot common efficiency, and as long as this does not change, they will repeat the same blocking patterns. Without deep reform, FCAS risks becoming another example of ambition being suffocated by domestic politics. Consequences of failure. He FCAS failure It would be more than the collapse of an industrial project. It would represent a devastating message for a continent seeking to demonstrate that it can guarantee its security without completely depending on the United States. While the F-35 changes balances in the Middle East and while Europe watches, almost daily, how Russian drones penetrate western airspacethe world is moving towards a technologically different war. The countries that lead this transition (from autonomous swarms to sixth generation platforms) will determine the correlation of power of the 21st century. Giving up on FCAS would mean accepting that Europe is late, that it is not prepared for the industrial leaps that modern conflict requires and that, despite the rhetoric of strategic autonomy, it continues to depend from external suppliers for their critical capabilities. This dependence is the same one that Macron and Merz say they want to overcome, although the failure to fulfill their own projects pushes them, step by step, towards it. Between two waters. If you will, the outcome from FCAS It will be a … Read more

Something is moving in the north and the polar vortex is weaker than ever

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Something is happening in the north and we’ve been saying it for days. Forecasts pointed to a huge sudden stratospheric warming during the last week of November. I said ‘huge’ and it is not a rhetorical device: it is normally very difficult to know what consequences such a warming will have; but being so big, meteorologists they already speculate with a complete destabilization of the polar vortex. And the strange thing about all this is not that there is such a big “sudden stratospheric warming.” That’s relatively normal. The strange thing is that we are facing a very precocious one. Surely, before the earliest of the entire record. And that has set off all the alarms. What is the polar vortex? But let’s start at the beginning: the ‘polar vortex’ is a stream of strong winds (west → east) that revolves around the large reserves of cold air found above the planet’s poles. It is formed in the stratosphere; that is, at about 16-48 kilometers high. On a metaphorical (or ‘journalistic’ if you push me) level, the polar vortex is what the cold contains at the pole. Logic tells us that, in summer, the vortex is reduced to a minimum and, although it is true that we have never seen it disappear, it becomes so weak that it loses any influence over the time of the hemisphere. But in winter the situation changes and it does so radically. Very often, during the winter the vortex grows and, although “usually a solitary creature“and harmless, it is common for it to overflow and end up affecting the rest of the hemisphere. That is what it seems we are going to see these weeks. And what is sudden stratospheric warming?? To understand this process well, it is good to remember that the atmosphere is a “lasagna of air layers” and each of them follows its own logic. That is, they function quite differently and independently; but never completely independent. This is what happens between the air circulation in the troposphere (the one closest to the surface) and the circulation in the stratosphere (the layer directly above): they are related, yes; but, in substance, each one goes their own way. During the “sudden stratospheric warming“, a part of the troposphere warms rapidly and, as a consequence, invades the stratosphere, causing a profound alteration of the circulation at high altitude. That is, for a few days, everything turns upside down. Okay, so what’s going to happen? The data begins to indicate that the countdown has already been activated. As they pointed out from Meteored“a record has been recorded in the speed of the zonal wind of the polar vortex, this would be weaker than ever on those dates.” That is to say, we have just found the first sign that warming is already underway. The problem is that, as Víctor González pointed out“the ease of predicting sudden stratospheric warming in the medium term contrasts greatly with the difficulty of anticipating its consequences.” Hence, we already know with almost absolute certainty that something is going to happen in the stratosphere of the north pole, but it is not clear what is going to happen. And we know nothing of its consequences? Not for now. What’s more, it seems likely that the consequences would not be seen until mid-December. For now, the experts will have “monitor the alteration of the stratospheric polar vortex and then monitor its propagation to lower levels, finally observing how the tropospheric circulation and the polar jet may behave.” This is very meticulous work, but very necessary. We already know that this type of event is related to historic cold waves and, in that case, we better be prepared. Image | Severe Weather In Xataka | The last hope of winter in Spain is desperate, but increasingly possible: the breaking of the polar vortex

a new and painful explosion

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The great hope for the next generation of Starship flights has gotten off to a bad start. SpaceX has suffered a new setback at Starbase, and only its rapid ability to iterate can save the furniture. An ephemeral life. The Super Heavy Booster 18, the first booster of the new version 3 of Starship, burst during the early hours of November 21 while SpaceX engineers validated their structural improvements. The prototype, which was due to launch during flight 12 in early 2026, lasted just 14 days after its assembly was completed. 48 hours after being moved to the Masseys test bench at Starbase, a pressure test of the gas system caused the liquid oxygen tank to burst. Redesigned systems. SpaceX’s objective was to test the rocket propellant systemswhich were redesigned for version 3. Fortunately, Booster 18 did not contain methane or liquid oxygen, which would have caused a large explosion like the one that Masseys destroyed in a fuel load from Starship 36 last June. With the area cleared and the Raptor engines not yet installed, Booster 18 has only caused one victim: its own structure, which has been rendered useless. The usual suspect. Although an official investigation is underway, the analysis of NASASpaceFlight points to the same component that caused the Starship 36 explosion: the rupture of one of the COPV tanks that store high-pressure nitrogen or oxygen gas in the rocket. These tanks are responsible for operating the valves and engine starting systems. The explosion of one of them could have caused a chain reaction in the adjacent COPVs strong enough to burst the wall of the rocket. And now what. The loss of Booster 18 is painful not only for being the first version 3 booster, but for being the prototype assigned to test the new Pad 2 launch pad at Starbase. Without a physical rocket to place at the base, SpaceX will not yet be able to fully test ground systems, such as the new platform’s tanks. As if it wasn’t already aggressive enough, SpaceX’s schedule is becoming even more tense. And the company maintains flight 12 scheduled during the first quarter of 2026. SpaceX has very ambitious goals in the short term, including the in-orbit fuel transfer tests that it will need to take astronauts to the Moon with Artemis III. a mission in which he now competes with Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin. Image | SpaceX In Xataka | A genius named Tom Mueller designed the engines for the Falcon 9. And now that genius wants to beat SpaceX on its own turf

Einstein is the biggest rock star of the 20th century

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Every now and then a news story is published where this or that scientist claims to have achieved something surprising: deny or confirm a theory put forward by Albert Einstein more than a hundred years ago. The unusual interest that the physicist arouses today is only the result of a process that already occurred while he was still alive: his status as a “star”, his status as celebrity. How is it possible that a theoretical physicist has achieved such fame and recognition? At Xataka we believe we have the answer: remove Adele and Taylor Swift because, behind Einstein’s casual hair, hides the biggest pop-rock star of the 20th century. Einstein’s story has everything to succeed, a story that could be called “the gravitational physics equation that made Spielberg cry”: that of a young Jewish man, shy, somewhat clumsy and with speech problems who fails his exams and, as he finishes his degree, cannot find a job. in yourshas to get to work in a gray patent office. That young man will take three years to revolutionize the world of physics and, by extension, the world in general. The tours Einstein spent much of the 1920s and 1930s on tour. Precisely, he was outside Germany when the Nazis took power and that, taking into account the desire they had for himsurely saved his life. He visited many places and there are hilarious anecdotes. Of course he was also in Spain. And the media and society at the time went a little crazy. Julio Camba wrote in El Sol that “the public that filled the classroom of the Faculty of Sciences. Mr. Einstein was welcomed with a great round of applause. Undoubtedly, all of us gathered there admired him a lot; but if someone asks us why we admired him, they will put us in quite a serious situation.” Cartoons like this image of Bagaria that we attach below filled the front pages of the newspapers in Madrid, Zaragoza and Barcelona. After all, he was already a Nobel Prize winner (the diamond disk of science). Thanks to that it became popular even among the popular classes, such as says historian Thomas Glickwalking down the street, a chestnut seller recognized him on the street and shouted to him “Long live the inventor of the automobile!“How long live it!” The groupies and the haters There is no rock star without groupies. That’s how it is. Fans sneaking into the singer’s house to steal a souvenir are a classic in the world of music. It also happened to Einstein. In late May or early June 1978, Michel Aron (newly named editor of New Jersey Monthly) approached a 27-year-old editor named Steven Levy and said, “I want you to find Einstein’s brain.” Rumors had been circulating for years about the brain in question. Steven Levy scoured the entire United States to find the coroner who performed the physicist’s autopsy. When he found Thomas S. Harvey He confessed that he had stolen the organ without the family’s permission and had been taking it around the United States for more than 30 years. Undoubtedly, Einstein also took the fan phenomenon to another level. Einstein some strong smear campaigns. It is logical, taking into account that among his detractors were some of the greatest experts on haterism in history. “100 scientists against Einstein“was perhaps the most aggressive campaign. But he resolved it with a phrase: “One hundred? Why so many? If I were wrong, only one would be enough…”. For the rest, the truth is that it must be recognized that he quickly became an endearing, distracted and somewhat crazy being. Einstein for a while They say that at a social gathering, Marilyn Monroe crossed paths with Albert Einstein, they started talking and, at some point, she said to him: “Professor, we should get married and have a child together. Can you imagine a baby with my beauty and intelligence?” Einstein very seriously responded: “Unfortunately I fear that the experiment will go the other way and we will end up with a son with my beauty and intelligence.” The anecdote, which is almost certainly lieshows the social and cultural stature of that Jew from Ulm called Albert Einstein. A carving that has generated countless cultural products. Some tremendously good. Become a symbol of peace, creativity and the use of science to help humanity, any excuse is good to celebrate it publicly. For our part, we just need to finish with what is perhaps the most important quote that Einstein said in his life. “Rest and be relatively good.” In Xataka | Einstein’s first violin had passed unnoticed. Until an auction house put it up for sale. In Xataka | What is a light year and why it is impossible to travel it in less than a year, according to Einstein’s relativity In Xataka | More than 100 years ago Einstein predicted gravitational lensing. Thanks to this we have discovered a “dark matter bridge” Image | Collab Media

Every Christmas there are people who fill their balconies with lights and decorations. The Horizontal Property Law has something to say

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It happens December after December. As the holidays approach, there are balconies, windows and facades that are invaded by a mixture of led lights, garlands, papanoels Various Christmas-themed pendants and ornaments. Where before there was a simple and nondescript terrace, suddenly there is a confusing mass of colors, lights and shapes that leaves bouncing a tricky question: Do apartment owners have the right to turn their balconies into small theme parks? To answer it you have to go to the LPH. Lights, give me (many) lights. The one from Vigo may be the best known casebut there are many cities in Spain that in recent years have begun to fill their streets with thousands (or even millions) of Christmas lights, far surpassing the decorations that could be seen a decade ago. In the Galician city they boast this year of having nearly 12 million of LEDs spread across 460 neighborhoods, in Madrid they talk about 13 millionin Alcalá de almost fivein the busiest areas of Malaga they will shine 2.7 million…And so on a long list of cities that every Christmas put on a peculiar suit of lights. And what happens in the buildings? The City Councils are not the only ones that get carried away by this lighting fury. Every year there are people who transfer this display of lights and decorations to their own homes, both inside their homes, with Christmas trees, nativity scenes or garlands, and to balconies and facades. It comes with taking a walk through most cities to see people who, when December arrives, fill their terraces with colored LEDs or even decorations that stick out from the balcony. The catalog is extensive: papanoels pendants, decorations of wise men climbing stairs or garlands that fall from the façade. Can they do it? A quick Google search shows that that question reborn each Decembercoinciding with the dates on which people decorate their homes. Can the rest of the neighbors forbid me from giving free rein to my passion for Christmas decorations? Are there limits when we talk about decorating balconies? If I want to decorate a common area of ​​the building, do I need permission from my neighbors? These are questions frequently enough that platforms specialized in both law and the real estate market have devoted attention to them over the last few years. Two clear cases are Legalites and Photohouse. The best: communication. These may seem like far-fetched questions, but we must take into account a fundamental fact: the balconies, facades and roofs of a building do not have the same condition as the living room or kitchen of a home. Terraces, for example, are usually spaces for private use: they are enjoyed exclusively by the owner of the apartment, but in reality they are common elements, so the owner cannot do whatever he wants with them. Without going any further, before carrying out a work, what recommend agencies like Reale is to consult with the board. The same logic can be transferred to Christmas decorations if what we have in mind is to make a huge display of lights or decorate the facade. The first thing is to confirm if the community statutes regulate the exterior aesthetics of the building. As they remember in LegálitasIf we want to install decoration that invades the sidewalk, public spaces or street furniture, it is also advisable to consult the City Council first. After all, the private use of these spaces may require a permit or even entail the payment of a fee. LPH Word. When we talk about communities and coexistence, there is a reference standard that is always good to keep in mind: the Horizontal Property Law (LPH). The text does not specifically talk about LED lights, Christmas trees or papanoels pendants, but gives some guidelines that are applicable in these cases. One of its clearest articles on the matter is the seventh, which clarifies what exactly the owner of an apartment or premises can and (cannot) do: “You may modify the architectural elements, facilities or services of the building when it does not undermine or alter the safety of the building, its general structure, the external configuration or state, or harm the rights of other owners, and must report such works to whoever represents the community.” “The owner and occupant of the apartment or premises are not allowed to carry out activities in it or in the rest of the property that are prohibited in the statutes, that are harmful to the property or that contravene the general provisions on annoying, unhealthy, harmful, dangerous or illicit activities,” adds the LPH in the same article. In case there were any doubts, the norm (citing in turn the Civil code) remember that there are elements subject to a “co-ownership” regime. Why is it important? Because although the wording of the LPH may be generic and does not explicitly talk about Christmas decorations, it touches on the key points that can generate conflict between the different neighbors of a block. To be more precise, it emphasizes that no owner can “undermine” the “external configuration and state” of the property or “harm” the rest of the tenants. So, if we decide to turn our balconies into small tributes to Christmas, we will have to ask ourselves a series of questions first: Do the decorations hang or stick out enough to affect the “exterior configuration” of the property? Is the installation of outlets, wiring and lights safe? If they are very close to another neighbor’s window, can we cause inconvenience? “Out of prudence”. The most advisable thing is therefore to keep all these issues in mind and above all to be aware of the internal rules of each community. Also communicate with those responsible. So advises it in elDiario.es Patricia Briones, from the College of Property Administrators of Madrid (CAFMadrid). “Any neighbor who wishes to install decorative elements in a common space on a private basis must, out of prudence and to avoid conflicts, request authorization from the board,” … Read more

The objective is to know how they disappeared

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For decades, paleoanthropologists have grappled with a biological paradox. Neanderthals, a species supposedly adapted to the frigid cold of Europe, had huge, wide noses. A feature that in theory is completely inefficient to be able to warm the frigid air before it reaches the lungs. But due to the lack of fossils, experts could not explain what exactly had happened to this species until now. A reconstruction. In order to understand what was happening here, the experts they have managed to rebuild digitally the inside of the ‘noseAltamura Man‘, the best preserved Neanderthal in the world, without even touching it. And what they have found dismantles much of what we thought we knew about the face of our evolutionary cousins. The objective in the end has been quite clear with this study: to know one more reason why they became extinct from our planet. And all because right now the extinction of this species remains a mystery, although the latest studies suggest that They are more integrated with us than we think. The calcite prisoner. To understand the magnitude of this finding, you must first understand the subject. The ‘Altamura Man’ was discovered in 1993 by a group of spologists in the Lamalunga karst system, southern Italy. And it is not a normal fossil. The skeleton is complete, but it fell into a natural well and became trapped in a chamber where, over the millennia, water and limestone did their work. Today, the Neanderthal is literally embedded in the cave walls, covered in “popcorn” calcite formations that have protected it, but also made it impossible to extract it without destroying it. This mineral “prison” has had an unexpected advantage: it has preserved bone structures so fine and fragile that they normally disappear in the fossil record, such as the nasal turbinates and ethmoid laminae. It is the first time in history that we have a complete Neanderthal nasal cavity. Virtual dissection. Since they couldn’t remove the skull to put it in the laboratory’s scanner, they had to take the laboratory to the cave itself. Something that at first seems like a completely impossible mission. The solution found was endoscopic technology, since using high-resolution medical probes (such as those inserted into the bronchi to explore them) they passed through the ocular and nasal cavities of the fossil. The magic came from combining these images with photogrammetry techniques, since an exact 3D model of the inside of the skull was generated. Central heating. Once we had a pretty good photograph of the inside of this Neanderthal’s nose, it was time to interpret. For years there was a hypothesis in mind that to compensate for having a wide nose in a cold environment, Neanderthals must have unique internal structures. There was talk of vertical projections and medial thickenings that would act as radiators to heat and humidify the air. Two fundamental points so that you could breathe correctly. But the result of the analysis has said different things. First of all, the inside of the nose is strikingly similar to that of a modern human, just in a larger facial “frame.” This means that the supposed exclusive adaptations they had were not present in this fossil, and the airways did not have an ‘alien’ architecture as might be expected. A new extinction. In this way, Neanderthals do not seem to be able to adapt to such cold environments to be able to breathe properly. We as humans have many mechanisms to heat the air before it reaches our lungs to guarantee gas exchange. But this is something that was not found in our ancestors. In this way, if cold air reaches the lung, respiratory difficulty can be found, which at high temperatures can effectively cause the death of a species if we contextualize ourselves in extremely cold environments. Why his face. If the giant nose wasn’t an ultra-specialized “air heating machine,” why did they have it? The study suggests that we should stop looking only at the climate. The very characteristic face that this species had seems to be the result of two specific factors: Genetics of the ancestors. Very high energy demand that required a lot of oxygen and that is why a huge air intake was needed. Altamura Man lived during MIS 6 (about 130,000-170,000 years ago), a cold time, but in southern Italy he enjoyed a more temperate climate. Its nose, “normal” on the inside but enormous on the outside, suggests that the facial evolution of this species was not a straight line directed solely by the thermometer. Images | Aldo Hernandez Paul Pastourmatzis In Xataka | We still don’t know why Sapiens triumphed over Neanderthals. But we have a new hypothesis

eight original tech (and non-tech) gifts to advance Christmas shopping

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There is very little left until the arrival of Christmas, so it is a good time to buy gifts. If this year you have to give a good gift, in this article we are going to review eight original ideas of tech and entertainment with which you can hit the nail on the head. Govee TV Backlight 3 Lite by 53.99 eurosa TV accessory with which to have a very different experience when watching movies and series. Ember 2 by 148.95 eurosa smart cup with temperature control. Sofa strip pro 34.43 eurosa power strip with several sockets. OutIn Nano by 119.99 eurosa portable coffee maker to make coffee anywhere. Rocketbook Core by 30.64 eurosa reusable notebook in A5 size. Playmobil from ‘The Fantastic Car’ by 59.97 eurosincludes three figures and lights and sounds. LEGO from ‘Home Alone’ by 299.99 eurosa set with many traps hidden inside. Donkey Kong Game & Watch by 125 eurosa second-hand console of the iconic character. Govee TV Backlight 3 Lite Philips Ambilight technology can offer a very different experience when watching movies and series, which is why some brands have tried to get closer to it through their devices. He Govee TV Backlight 3 Lite It is a pack that includes a strip of LED lights that is placed behind the television and a camera that captures the colors of the TV to reproduce them on the LED strip. It can be found for different prices depending on the size of the television: Govee TV Backlight 3 Lite for TVs 32 inches by 42.49 euros. Govee TV Backlight 3 Lite for TVs 40 – 50 inches by 45.49 euros. Govee TV Backlight 3 Lite for TVs 55 – 65 inches by 53.99 euros. Govee TV Backlight 3 Lite for TVs 75 – 65 inches by 72.99 euros. Govee TV Backlight 3 Lite The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Ember 2 The Ember 2 It is a curious smart cup that is capable of maintaining the temperature for a long time. Costs 148.95 eurosYeah; but it is very interesting for everything it offers: up to 90 minutes of constant heat (from 50 to 62.5 ºC) and is capable of maintaining the temperature. In addition, it can be paired to the mobile phone through the app to set the ideal temperature, personalize the settings or receive notifications. Of course, it can only be washed by hand. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Sofa strip Not everyone has an electrical outlet next to the sofa, so a good power strip can be very useful. The one of Brennenstuhl Not only is it beautiful thanks to its textile surface, but it can be placed on the sofa and has a good price of 34.43 euros. Furthermore, it incorporates two USB-A ports and an electrical outlet (European) and includes a three-meter long cable. Brennenstuhl power strip The price could vary. We earn commission from these links OutIn Nano For the most coffee lovers, on Amazon we can find the OutIn Nanoa portable coffee maker with which you can prepare coffee anywhere. By 119.99 euroswe are talking about a travel coffee maker that weighs only 670 grams and that, according to the brand, is capable of preparing coffee in 200 seconds. On the other hand, it incorporates a battery, it can be recharged in the car through a USB port and You can prepare ground coffee or capsules. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Rocketbook Core Beyond traditional notebooks, there are some very practical smart notebooks. He Rocketbook Corefor example, has a price of 30.64 euros and it is reusable, so using the erasable gel pen that is included we can erase what we have written to continue writing. Through your app we can send the written pages and view them on the mobileits cover is waterproof and the pages are A5 in size. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Playmobil from The Fantastic Car Playmobil has a good catalog of sets based on movies or series and the ‘The fantastic car It is now on sale for 59.97 euros. Includes lights and sounds, plus three character figures Michael Knight, Devon Miles and Bonnie Barstow. In addition, it is also worth mentioning that it comes with scenery in case we want to display it. Playmobil The Fantastic Car The price could vary. We earn commission from these links LEGO Home Alone Now that Christmas is coming it’s a good time to watch some movies like ‘Home Alone’. And what better than to do it together with him Home Alone LEGO set. Its price in the official store is 299.99 eurosconsists of 3,955 pieces, comes with five minifigures and can be opened to see the many traps inside. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Game & Watch If you want a good dose of nostalgia, be careful because on eBay we can find the Donkey Kong Game & Watch by 125 euros. It is expensive and not new (used, works and sold by TodoConsolas), but it is one of the few ways that can currently be purchased. It can be folded and has a similar format to the Nintendo DS. If you are interested, you can also find the Green House Game & Watch for a price of 135 euros. This is also a used console which, as mentioned in the store, may show signs of use. Nintendo Game & Watch Donkey Kong The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Image | Govee, Ember, Brennenstuhl, OutIn, Rocketbook, Playmobil, LEGO, Nintendo In Xataka | Capsules, automatic or manual. The best coffee makers according to your tastes and needs In Xataka | Ambilight technology and alternatives: buying guide for LED systems to create ambient lighting on the … Read more

We thought Stanford, MIT, and Harvard were leading in AI. There is a Chinese university that surpasses them all

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To the northwest of Beijing there is a university campus that is not only the most prestigious in the country, it is also one of the most influential universities in the world in science and technology, even surpassing institutions of the stature of MIT or Stanford. It is called Tsinghua and some of the most important technological projects of the moment are being developed there. Change of focus. Tsinghua has been in operation since 1911, although it was not until 1952 when it became a polytechnic university. Among its former students there are figures of the stature of Nobel Prize in Physics Chen-Ning Yang and President Xi Jinping himself. From its inception, Tsinghua’s focus was the training of Chinese students who were going to continue their studies in the United States. Today that approach has completely changed. In the midst of an AI career, there is a nationalistic spirit and students tend to stay and develop projects in their native country. Leaders. They count in Bloomberg that Tsinghua University stands toe-to-toe with the best universities in the world. According to the US News rankingis the best university in the world in engineering, chemical engineering and electronic engineering; has second place in civil engineering and nanotechnology; It is third in materials science and fourth in computer science. There it is nothing. Intellectual property. Tsinghua is also the university with the most papers on AI among the 100 most cited and leads in patent registration, outnumbering MIT, Stanford, Princeton, and Harvard combined. According to LexisNexis data analyzed by Bloomberghave registered 4,986 patents on AI and machine learning in the last 20 years. In 2024 alone they registered 900 patents. However, according to the Stanford AI Indexthe most influential patents remain in American hands. Startups. The university not only focuses on training, it also has a startup incubator called X-Lab from which at least 900 startups have already emerged since it was created in 2013. They are currently very focused on projects related to artificial intelligence. The founders of startups such as Moonshot AIthe creators of the model Kimi K2either Sapient Inca startup that develops “hierarchical reasoning models” based on how the human brain works. They affirm that it is the way to achieve AGI, a different approach to that pursued by companies like OpenAI with LLM or WLM (world models). that LeCun recently defended. Chip war. Efforts are also being made in Tsinghua to give China a boost in the technological war with the United States. The clearest example is the chip created by a group of university scientists and it is 3.7 faster than NVIDIA’s A100. Not only that, the chip, called ACCEL, is also much more efficient. At the moment its mass production has not been achieved, but the innovation is there. Image | Tsinghua University In Xataka | Four decades ago, China decided to invest in training millions of engineers. Today that plan gives it an advantage in the race for AI

Xbox controllers

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The filtration of the peace agreement of 28 points drawn up by the United States with Russian input acted as a strategic jolt to Europe. For the first time since the end of World War II, European capitals contemplated the possibility of a settlement that would not only weaken Ukraine, but directly erode the foundations of their own security architecture. Thus a race has begun: that of securing its borders. The turn that woke up Europe. I was counting this morning the financial times that the document, right now in full discussionwas perceived in Europe as a covert capitulation to Moscow’s interests, one proposed limits on the size of the Ukrainian army, permanent vetoes on Ukraine’s entry into NATO, and even formulas that turned Washington into a neutral arbiter between Russia and the Atlantic Alliance, a turn that many on the old continent considered unacceptable. The fact that the draft was negotiated without participation of any Member State of the EU or NATO accentuated the feeling of vulnerability and marked a psychological limit: if peace is signed behind closed doors and without Europe, the consequences will fall precisely on Europe. Raising the tone. Hence, leaders such as Ursula von der Leyen or Friedrich Merz they will talk of “moment of destiny”, while Warsaw warned that no agreement could allow Russia to shape continental security as it wishes. The immediate result was a coordinated reaction: emergency video conferences, parallel negotiations in Geneva and an accelerated attempt to reinstate Europe at the center of the decisions that define its future. Political rearmament. European alarm is not limited to the fate of Ukraine. Covers the entire legal frameworkmilitary and diplomatic that supports continental stability. The proposal of ban forever Ukraine’s entry into NATO meant accepting a de facto veto right for Moscow over the Alliance, something that European diplomats consider more dangerous than any territorial setback. Similarly, the possibility that an agreement would prevent the deployment of European troops in Ukraine as a guarantee force frustrated the Franco-British ambitions to create a “Coalition of the Willing.” And even more serious, the draft introduced a “Russia-NATO dialogue mediated by the United States,” a scheme that reinterpreted the history of the Alliance and positioned Washington not as a committed member, but as an external referee. The levers. In other words, the protection of the European order could no longer be taken for granted. With the United States showing signs of withdrawal and inclination to negotiate bilaterally with Moscow, Europe discovered that its room for maneuver it narrowedand that his levers (sanctions, frozen Russian funds, G7 membership, single market access rules) were even more valuable than he believed, and that he now had to use them to secure an essential seat at the table. Economic control. The leaked texts they pointed to concessions that would have emptied Europe’s most powerful tools: the ability to sanction and condition Russia’s re-entry into the global economy. The idea of ​​​​creating investment funds with the 210 billion euros of the Russian Central Bank frozen in the EU, so that both Washington and Moscow could benefit, caused outrage in Brussels. For the EU, these assets are not just a sanction: they are the heart of the future repair architecture and the key to financing Ukraine in the years in which the United States withdraws. Similarly, the proposal to reinstate Russia into the G8 would be equivalent to a political amnesty for Putin, blowing up years of diplomatic isolation and contradicting the entire European effort to penalize his aggression. Therefore, while the draft negotiated in Geneva was trimmed and softened, Europe reaffirmed that no peace can return to Russia the economic and strategic benefits it lost after invading Ukraine. Without sustained economic pressure, any truce would be temporary, and with it, the EU retains the only element that can still force Moscow to negotiate seriously. A race against time. The biggest change that this episode caused is the acceptance, in all European capitals, that Europe must prepare for a scenario in which the United States already not be your guarantor automatic. Doubts about American commitment have opened a cycle of accelerated reflection about air defenseindustrial reconstitution and autonomous military deployment. From France and Germany to Poland, the question is no longer whether Europe should take on more responsibilities, but whether it can. fast enough. The war in Ukraine has shown that ground defense is essential, but also that European security it is played in the air: drones, missiles, FPV swarms, electronic warfare. Russian drone raids in Poland and Romaniawhich a few years ago would have been unthinkable, have become the most visible sign that the line between the war in Ukraine and the security of European territory has been blurred. All of this has triggered a profound rethinking of how shield the European skyhow to integrate heterogeneous systems and how to develop cheap, scalable and quick-to-deploy defenses. The ally that no one expected: Xbox controllers. Thus, in the midst of this urgent race to strengthen their defenses, Europe and NATO have found the most unexpected allies: lthe xbox controllers. Systems like Merops (a drone interceptor used in Ukraine and already adopted by Poland and Romania) are controlled with controls identical to those that anyone buys in a store for 30 dollars. Far from being an anecdote, this solution represents the search for simplicityspeed and familiarity: soldiers trained in video games can operate these platforms in a matter of days, and become effective pilots in two weeks, something unthinkable with traditional military systems. The form of control, key. The intuitive ergonomics, commercial availability and robustness of the controllers have made these devices an unexpected standard of the new European battlefield. In fact, a soldier who pilots the interceptors told Insider that the Xbox controller is the ideal option. “It’s compact and easy to pack and store, and the Xbox controllers are very durable,” explained during a Merops demonstration in southeastern Poland last week. What was once a leisure accessory has become a … Read more

There are a lot of people replacing the oil on ham toast with coffee and orange. And oddly enough, it makes sense.

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“You insist on putting olive oil on our Iberian ham toast and this is like putting sugar on top of a chocolate cake.” Víctor Sanchego did not know it, but with those words was about to make thousands of people prepare the strangest breakfast we’ve seen in a long time. How come you don’t have to add oil to the ham? Sanchego’s argument is that “the fat of Iberian ham contains more than 60% oleic acid, the same component of extra virgin olive oil.” Therefore, as happens in a perfumery when we have already worn several colognes, when we mix oil and ham at the same time our taste buds become saturated. “Instead of helping it enhance the flavor, it is subtracting it,” says the ham man. The reality, of course, is more complex. The general idea is true for Iberian ham: adding oil (especially if it is an intense and complex one) blurs the flavor profile and can actually oversaturate the bite. This, however, does not happen with the rest of the hams or with the rest of the oils. It is, so to speak, a borderline case. And a well-known one, at that. The normal thing when we talk about Iberian ham, in fact, is that it is recommended to enjoy it alone or with an accompaniment that cleanses the palate, such as a piece of neutral bread. Nobody usually proposes eating a plate of ham with a glass of EVOO on the side. The striking thing about all this is not that. The striking thing is the coffee with orange zest. Because Víctor Sanchego does not propose to eat ham with white bread, nothing like that. He suggests smearing the bread in a mixture of black coffee and orange peel, toasting it and, now, putting the Iberian ham on top. It’s a strange thing, yes; but we cannot define it as madness either. We said before that the ideal thing is to eat Iberian ham with something that ‘cleanses the palate’ and Sanchego’s idea goes directly there: coffee, due to its dry and intense qualities, allows us to enhance the organoleptic properties of our ham. Is it the most interesting decision? Well, the truth is that I couldn’t say. On a theoretical level, there could be dozens of similar combinations that fit better with our usual organoleptic repertoire; but without a doubt it is bold and many of those who try it (on social networks) They are delighted with the result. And that, without a doubt, is good news. Not because of the ham, not because of the coffee, not because of the orange zest. It’s good news because culinary Talibanism It is a practice that greatly impoverishes our understanding of food. And it limits us for no reason. Being open to ‘playing’ with products as iconic as Iberian ham is a symptom of a gastronomic maturity that, used well, can help us resolve problems in a much simpler way. big problems of the food security of the century. Image | Stephan Coudassot | Nathan Dumlao In Xataka | Why salads are the biggest source of food poisoning and what to do to avoid it

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