Mobile Tech & Gadgets

plasma in a nuclear fusion reactor, in color and at 16,000 fps

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Seeing the inside of a nuclear fusion reactor is, for obvious reasons, complicated. We are talking about temperatures of millions of degrees Celsius, hotter than the core of the Sun. However, the British company Tokamak Energy has just given us unprecedented images of what is happening inside its ST40 spherical reactor: a video in full color and at the incredible speed of 16,000 frames per second. An unprecedented ballet of colors. What we are seeing in the video is, in essence, the choreography of the elements within the tokamak. The ST40, like most of these reactors, uses hydrogen isotopes (deuterium in this case) as fuel. When this gas turns into plasma, it emits a characteristic pink light, which dominates the scene. But the interesting part begins when researchers introduce lithium, which glows red. And no, this is not just a visual spectacle. Every color, every bright filament we see in these images, is a gold mine of information that is helping scientists solve one of the biggest challenges on the long road to commercial fusion energy: how to tame plasma so that it does not degrade reactor materials. What exactly are we seeing? In the images, we see how small granules of lithium are injected into the reactor chamber. Upon entering the outer, colder areas of the plasma, the neutral lithium is excited and emits an intense crimson red light. As they penetrate the hottest and densest regions, lithium atoms lose an electron, become ionized (becoming lithium ions), and begin to glow greenish. Once ionized, lithium no longer moves freely. It is forced to follow the invisible, but very powerful magnetic field lines that confine the plasma. Those green filaments that we see dancing in the video are, literally, the lithium drawing the magnetic cage of the reactor. What is all this for? The lithium acts as a protective shield for the reactor. Recording what happens in color is not easy, but it helps identify whether the impurities that Totakak Energy is introducing into the reactor radiate in the expected place. And if the lithium powders penetrate to the core of the plasma. This experiment is part of research into a mode of operation called the “X-point radiator” (XPR) that uses elements such as lithium so that the edge of the plasma radiates and loses a large amount of heat before touching the reactor walls. It is a protective “atmosphere” that cools the plasma just at the last moment, reducing component wear without sacrificing core performance. The advancement of Tokamak Energy. This approach is the centerpiece of the Dell ST40 upgrade program, which has received funding from the US and UK energy departments. The goal is to coat all the components that face the plasma with lithium, a technique that has already been demonstrated in other laboratories, such as Princeton, to improve plasma performance. This type of visual diagnostics complement the incredibly complex systems that are being installed in reactors such as the JT-60SA in Japan, the most advanced tokamak in the world currentlywhich uses lasers to measure plasma temperature and density indirectly. A global career. While colossal and institutional projects such as ITER They mark a long-term pathwhich plans its first deuterium-tritium experiments by 2039, more agile companies like Tokamak Energy are exploring new designs and technologies, such as spherical tokamaks and high-temperature superconducting magnets, to accelerate the arrival of commercial fusion. The closure of the historic JET reactor in the United Kingdom, who said goodbye breaking an energy recordmarked the end of an era, but its legacy is the foundation on which all these new advances are built. This new window into the heart of plasma is not only visually impressive. It is a small step that brings us a little closer to the goal of replicating the energy of stars on Earth. Nuclear fusion just got a lot more colorful, and that’s great news. Image | Tokamak Energy In Xataka | While the West still waits for fusion energy, China has found a shortcut

Who or what excavated the ravines on Mars? The answer is even stranger than we always thought

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For years, we have seen images of strange grooves in the dunes of Mars that seemed to have been carved by liquid water, feeding the hopes of finding conditions for life. But the reality, as often happens in these fields, is much stranger and fascinating as shown a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters which not only confirms that the culprit is carbon dioxide ice, but has discovered a completely new mechanism that seems straight out of science fiction. The study. Dr. Lonneke Roelofs of Utrecht University, lead author of the study, described it in a way that will be familiar to many of us: “I felt like I was watching the sandworms from the movie Dune.” And it’s no wonder. In his experiments, he saw blocks of dry ice not only slide, but literally burrow and dig into the sand with explosive force, a phenomenon never before observed. Recreating Mars. To solve the mystery, the research team used the martian simulation chamber ‘George’. Inside this two-meter cylinder, they recreated the conditions of Mars’ thin atmosphere, which has a pressure of only 700 pascals compared to Earth’s 100,000 pascals. The experiment was simple: place a tray with dune sand, adjust the inclination and drop blocks of CO₂ ice from the top. Here the process that was being sought was that of sublimationthe direct passage from solid to gas. On Earth, this is a calm process, but on Mars it is extremely violent. The enormous temperature difference between the ice and the sand on which it is located, combined with the low pressure, causes the CO₂ to expand explosively and generate immense force. Results. In this case, the team discovered that the ice blocks moved very differently depending on the steepness of the slope. On steep slopes (>22.5º) the ice block slid rapidly, at about 0.8 m/s, over a layer of gas, almost floating. This movement created straight, shallow channels with almost imperceptible ridges. This is something that coincides with the channels seen in the highest parts of the Martian dunes. In the case of gentle slopes is where the real magic happened. The block moved very slowly, at about 0.0003 m/s, and instead of sliding it was partially buried in the sand. Explosive sublimation threw grains of sand ballistically in all directions, carving a deep channel beneath the block and with high ridges on its sides. This ‘digging’ movement perfectly explains the deep channels, high ridges and sinuous curves that for so long They baffled scientists. But finally, when the block finally stops at the foot of the dune, the sublimation effect continues to occur and generates the characteristic pits. The importance. These findings are very relevant to understanding Mars as a planet. First of all, the results confirm that one of the most active and striking phenomena is driven by CO₂ processes, without the need for have liquid water. In addition, it gives us a physical model that explains all the strange characteristics of the ravines. Sharp curves, for example, are not due to the flow of liquid, but to an excavating block that changes course due to small irregularities in the terrain. Finally, the formation of these ravines requires very specific conditions, such as sufficient accumulation of CO₂ ice in winter and sufficient solar radiation in spring to heat the sand and cause violent sublimation. In short, the mystery of the grooves in the Martian dunes has been solved, and the answer is not the water we long to find, but a violent and exotic physical process, more typical of an alien planet. Images | Daniele Colucci POT In Xataka | NASA has a plan to speed up our arrival on Mars: crash things into its surface

Calls and SMS pretending to be our bank are the past, scams with AI cloned voices are the future: Crossover 1×26

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Scams are a lifeless thing. They surround us and they flood us because we have never been more connected and more distracted. And scammers and hackers know this and try to get more out of it. And that’s how it goes for us. We talk precisely about that reality in this episode in which Jaume Lahoz has as a special guest Maria Aperadoran expert in cybersecurity and criminology, and who makes an exhaustive review of the techniques that are most used to scam us. The ones before, and the ones now. Thus, it tells us about banking scams and identity theft, but also about the danger that the user faces when they install fake applications or when they resort to pirated software and broadcasts: in many cases, saving some money to watch a match or be able to play a video game can make let’s install some malware without realizing it and, of course, ending up being very expensive. But all these methods are now added the danger posed by artificial intelligencewhich allows cybercriminals to attack more and better than ever. especially with deepfakes and cloned voices that can end up convincing us… and ruining us. There are, of course, ways to protect yourself and to avoid possible scares. María Aperador tells us about all of them and opens a door to hope. As that one said, be careful out there. On YouTube | Crossover

MrBeast has just revealed what his new business adventure will be: becoming a banker

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Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, is the best example of maverick entrepreneurwhat has happened to do videos for your channel from YouTube to lead a multi-billion dollar business project. Your best move: diversify. First there were the videos, later his own production company, a brand of very very profitable chocolates and now…a bank. According to one trademark registration applicationthe popular youtuber plans to become a banker from an app installed on your smartphone. A mobile bank: what do we know so far? According to the application submitted Before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, published by different American media on October 13, the company Beast Holdings, LLC, which brings together the different business branches of MrBeast, has registered the trademark “MrBeast Financial”. According to the description of the application, the new brand not only aims to offer a banking app, but also supports associated services of personalized financial advice, insurance, instant money transfers and a robust section for operating with cryptocurrencies. Although no release dates or technical specifications of the app have yet been communicated, public documentation shows the intention to offer payment services in digital assets and decentralized commerce, all managed from a simple mobile interface and focused on young users. As and how they point from Business Insiderone of the requirements for filing a trademark application is an affidavit of firm intent to use the registered trademarkso it seems that, although a presentation date for the project has not yet been announced, MrBeast’s plans to enter the financial market have been launched. MrBeast and the crypto world MrBeast’s history in the cryptocurrency universe is nothing new. Various sources highlight that the youtuber has recognized investments in digital currencies ranging between 1.5 and 2 million dollars in bitcoin and recurring mentions of their operations with NFTs and other tokens. An investigation estimated that, between 2021 and 2023, MrBeast would have achieved profits of worth between 20 and 23 million dollars with cryptocurrencies. However, it is one thing to operate with greater or lesser success with cryptocurrencies or investments, and quite another thing is to venture to create a Fintech platform from scratch that bears your name. “You’re risking the reputation of your brand,” Josh Gerben, a trademark attorney who advises entrepreneurs and celebrities, told Business Insider. “If you’re in an energy drink or a clothing line, the chances of something going wrong are pretty low.” However, the advisor highlights that it is unusual for a content creator like MrBeast to delve into such a regulated and cumbersome sector as is the banking. A recent example is found in X, Elon Musk’s social network that since the millionaire bought it wants to return to the origins of his name to turn it into a banking app from which to make payments and money transfers. Obtaining the necessary permits is being a bureaucratic labyrinth even for someone as bold as Musk. The millionaire YouTuber has collaborated being the visible face of applications and financial services before, but it is the first time that the popular creator is in charge of a financial project of these characteristics, especially considering that in 2024 it was revealed that, who really acts as financial director of his fortune, it was his mother. In Xataka | MrBeast has discovered a much more lucrative business than making videos on YouTube: selling chocolate Image | Prime VideoUnsplash (Edi Kurniawan)

No, China has not turned off the tap on batteries for electric cars. The reality is much more complex

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China is, to the electric car, the child who arrives with the ball after having a snack. He is, in fact, the boy who has the ball, a regulation soccer field at home and lets in whoever he wants when he wants the most. Or that’s what we might think if we take into account its leadership in the supply chain, access to rare earths and battery production. The last step is to maintain greater control over lithium and, in the future, solid-state batteries. But to what extent is it true? The latest. A few days ago, China announced important changes when it comes to its exports. Among them, he confirmed that he was going to monitor the licenses that allow the export of vehicleswhich was understood as a way to prevent manufacturers without experience or infrastructure in the destinations from selling cars that they later cannot service. In the same way, has announced restrictions to the export of rare earths. My colleague Javi Márquez explained that “the country will be able to decide what is exported, to whom and for what purposes, under national security criteria. Applications for military purposes will bein principle, denied, while those related to semiconductors or artificial intelligence will be examined on a case-by-case basis. The last movement is related to the exports of batteries for electric cars and the music points to a similar melody. Starting November 8, licenses will be issued to export lithium batteries and graphite anode material compounds. Once again, it points to issues of national security and response to protectionist policies in USA and Europe. No batteries or equipment. With these new licenses, China will control both the finished product that is intended to be exported abroad and the equipment necessary to produce these compounds outside its borders. In summary, the following is controlled: Lithium batteries, cells and battery packs with a density greater than 300 Wh/kg. The equipment and technology to produce the above items. Iron phosphate and lithium needed to produce cathode materials. Also nickel-cobalt-manganese hydroxide and nickel-cobalt-aluminum hydroxide and lithium-rich manganese-based cathode materials. The equipment to produce all these compounds. Graphite anode materials The equipment necessary to produce them. The reaction? Numerous experts They have emphasized that these new licenses have the true objective of reducing and limiting exports to stop the advance of Chinese competitors in the electric car industry. Investors have understood the same and in Reuters They reflected the consequent fall in the stock market of giant battery producers such as CATL but also of vehicle manufacturers such as BYD. In South China Morning Post They also mentioned China’s intention to maintain its leadership in the electric car market. Putting the magnifying glass. But is it true that China is doing everything it can to torpedo its rivals? According to the International Energy AgencyChina manufactures three out of every four batteries for electric cars. However, the limitation of a density greater than 300 Wh/kg is not coincidental. Walter Zhang, senior analyst at Fastmarkets, points out that batteries for electric cars are really not in danger. “The policy ensures that the export and sales of NCM (230-280 Wh per kg) and LFP (160-210 Wh per kg) batteries for electric car application are not affected,” explains in this article. And he points to another point of view: “the measures may be more aimed at restricting smaller companies from entering into technology exchange agreements with Western partners.” Module and pack production equipment is not under this new regulation either, so It won’t impact that much either. in production abroad. So? If the majority of electric car batteries are not affected, what is the point of these restrictions? Everything indicates that there are two ultimate intentions when it comes to lifting this tighter control over the batteries. The first is to increase control over the export of batteries that can be used in military vehicles. In an increasingly tense international context, the State is guaranteed to have greater knowledge of who wants and can export but also in what quantities and for whom. The second thing is that as investments in research bear fruit, the next step should be the production of denser batteries. Batteries that would store more energy in less space. And there, the solid state batteries they are projecting themselves as the great leap in quality in the electric car market. Solid State Batteries. Solid-state batteries promise to be the definitive big leap for the electric car. With them, the manufacturers claim, an electric car will be able to travel more than 1,000 kilometers between recharges. They are also more powerful, safer and will suffer less degradation caused by charging cycles. Nothing sounds bad except that producing them is, at the moment, extremely expensive. Both companies and Toyota has already been lowering its expectations pointing out that it will be a type of compound that can only be included in vehicles with a very high price range. Again, ahead. And although Toyota says it has made progress in these compounds, Nissan has been researching them for years and Mercedes says it already has one (which obviously cannot scale) it seems that Chinese manufacturers once again have the lead. MG assures be very close to mass producing them. BYD too ensures that it can put them on the market in the short term. And beyond the promises, NIO has demonstrated that its semi-solid state battery (a previous step before reaching these energy accumulators) can travel a thousand kilometers without stopping to recharge. China controls the supply chain of the materials to produce these batteries but also the equipment that can produce these compounds. It seems that the measure is aimed at putting obstacles in the way of mass production of an innovation that can change the automobile market. free way. As we have seen, control over exports opens the door to selling current batteries for electric cars outside the country. It makes sense, now that Chinese companies like CATL have reached agreements with giants like … Read more

The chaos of streaming is causing a phenomenon that we thought was in recession: downloads are increasing

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The market fragmentationhe price increase of subscriptions and a user experience increasingly less friendly are the main factors pointing to an uptick in unauthorized downloads. Since Netflix began raising rates and banning shared accounts, customers have raised the threat of a return to downloading. Now, for the first time in years, the numbers seem to back them up. Temporary drop. The emergence of services streaming like Netflix devoured unauthorized downloads. With the promise of a wide and accessible catalog for a fixed rate, the platforms significantly reduced the consumption of movies and series outside of conventional channels. However, the utopia of that completely legal market subject to companies has faded. Recent reports show an uptick in access to this type of content, reversing the trend of the previous decade. The data. According to the Observatory of Piracy and Consumer Habits of Digital Content of 2024, digital piracy in Spain increased by 9% last year, reaching a record figure of 42,782 million euros in value of content defrauded through 7,330 million illegal accesses. In addition, the study indicates that for the first time access to platforms has been recorded through apps, social networks and decoders, growing the aggregate figure even more (an additional 14% compared to the previous year).​ Because? As we pointed out, this rebound is due to a series of circumstances that have changed the outlook for the streaming: Streaming is no longer convenient. Although perhaps the main reason for the public’s disenchantment with the streaming is that the supply is increasingly dispersed– To access all relevant content, the user must subscribe to multiple services. The exclusivity strategy that studios use to attract and retain subscribers has broken that ideal convenience of accessing content legally thanks to the streaming. To watch a series with multiple seasons, the user may need to subscribe to different platforms or wait months for the service to change. This dynamic clashes head-on with the immediacy that consumers expect from digital content. All of this is made worse by the licensing war: each studio wants its own titles on its platform exclusively, and leads to the need to subscribe to very specific platforms to access such popular franchises as Marvel, Star Wars or Stranger Things, for example. Technically poorer service. In addition to price and fragmentation, the service offered by some platforms has also worsened, further eroding user loyalty. Many services They have reduced the bitrate in their transmissions to save costs, leading to worse image quality. This loss of quality is often a trigger for users to search for an illegal version that offers a better viewing experience, which makes no theoretical sense: an unauthorized copy of a film often looks and sounds much better than the one available online. streaming. lUnauthorized downloads have evolved. But in addition, traditional downloads by torrent consumption on websites is now added streaming built outside of unofficial platforms, unauthorized IPTV services and the distribution of content through social networks like Telegram and WhatsApp. 96% of movie and series consumption in 2023 was done through streaming Unauthorized: you no longer have to download anything, which reduces the risks. It is a very tempting panorama. Gabe already said it. Specifically in 2011, Gabe Newell said that “Piracy is not a price problem, it is a service problem“. Faced with a legal market that is expensive, fragmented and inconvenient, users see unauthorized downloads as a kind of alternative “service” that offers all the content with better quality and for free. It can be said that it is a problem that the industry itself has partly created. In Xataka | Spaniards “torrenteros” around the world: when you go to live in Germany and discover that you can’t download anything

Reddit’s AI has recommended heroin use to treat pain. It’s actually the most Reddit thing that could happen

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In December of last year Reddit announced Reddit Answersa chatbot-type AI tool that draws on all the information shared by Reddit users. Everything was going well until he started giving medical advice and ended up recommending that a user take heroin. Knowing the tone of some users of the platform, this is actually the most Reddit could respond. what has happened. They tell it in 404Medium. The recommendation appeared on the r/FamilyMedicine subreddit in a question about how to manage pain without using opioid substances. First he suggested using kratom, an unregulated substance that is banned in some states. The user who created the thread asked about the use of heroin to manage pain, to which Reddit Answers gave several answers: one warned him of the danger, while another directed him to users who had had good experiences with heroin to treat pain. Angry moderators. The user who reported the responses, who is also a moderator and works in the health sector, published an extensive post warning of the danger of this type of response. He complains that moderators cannot deactivate Reddit Answers in their communities and that this is a problem especially when dealing with sensitive topics such as physical and mental health. Solution. Reddit Answers is still in beta, but has already been launched in many countries and languages. In the case of the mobile app, suggestions appear within the threads and, as we said, they cannot be deleted. After complaints from users, the platform made an important change and now Reddit Answers does not provide answers on sensitive topics. It now displays the following message: “Reddit Answers does not provide answers to some questions, including those that may be potentially unsafe or may violate Reddit policies.” The answers depend on the users. According to Reddit itselfthe replies feature uses artificial intelligence so we can “get answers, insights, and recommendations from all over Reddit.” That means that if a user tells in a thread that heroin saved their life, it can appear on Reddit Answers, which is exactly what happened. On a platform where anonymity is the norm, tone outputs either confessions of crazy stories They are the order of the day. Imagine that an AI responds to us based on the content of Forocoches. Well that. Image | Brett Jordan in Unsplash In Xataka | The price to pay for having AI is the looting of all Internet content. And Perplexity is just the latest example

Our grandparents even poured vinegar on lentils and fried eggs. Science is now legitimizing them

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I don’t know if it’s out of habit or memory, but I’m also one of those people who puts vinegar on lentils. It is an automatic gesture, inherited from my grandmother, who said that “they rested better this way.” For years I thought it was just another hobby from another era, one of those routines that survived more out of nostalgia than science. But it turns out no: vinegar is back, and not just in salads. Networks recover tradition. In both viral videos and cooking shows, vinegar has gone from being a forgotten ingredient to becoming a protagonist. In tiktok either YouTube There are plenty of clips in which users teach the “drip trick” on fried eggs or lentils. Some well-known chefs they have turned it to become fashionable for its ability to balance flavors, just as our grandparents did: to “kill the flavor” of what they didn’t like and enhance what they did. In French cuisine there is a classic dish, oeufs à l’assassin, in which cooks add a splash of vinegar when frying the eggs to intensify the flavor and give creaminess to the yolk. And if we look towards home, in Castilla it was common to add vinegar to both the lentils and the fried egg, a custom that, according to researchers from the Río Hortega Hospital in Valladolidcan even reduce the allergic response to these foods. Acetic acid modifies gastric pH, improves digestion and transforms the allergenicity of certain compounds. So were our grandparents right? What was previously done by intuition — to “kill the flavor” or “settle the stomach” — today has a scientific explanation. Nutritionist Luis Zamora has explained “A splash of vinegar on lentils or having an orange for dessert helps absorb vegetable iron.” The reason is in vitamin C and acidity: both protect non-heme iron—that of plant origin—and facilitate its assimilation. Along the same lines, dietitian Diego Ojeda has assured: “Your grandmother was absolutely right: to help the body understand vegetable iron, you must add vitamin C, like that provided by vinegar or lemon.” In addition, this acidity helps break down antinutrients such as phytic acid, present in legumes and responsible for some of the iron being lost during cooking. In fact, scientific publications match: adding a source of acidity to a meal rich in legumes can multiply up to three the amount of iron absorbed. In studies carried out with cellular and animal modelsvinegar or lemon juice showed similar effects when added to dishes rich in vegetable iron. But nowadays it has become abused. From a minimal splash to a shot. On social networks, thousands of people began to drink “shots of apple cider vinegar” on an empty stomach with the promise of losing weight or “detoxifying” the body. However, the study that popularized that practice It was retracted due to statistical errors, and science has found no solid evidence that vinegar causes weight loss. Experts also warn that excessive consumption of vinegar on an empty stomach can irritate the stomach, damage tooth enamel and cause digestive discomfort. It is not, therefore, about drinking it as if it were a miraculous elixir, but about using it with common sense, as grandparents did: a few drops to enhance flavors, balance dishes and help digestion. The gesture that never left. Perhaps our elders did not talk about antinutrients or bioavailability, but they sensed the essential thing: that vinegar, in addition to giving flavor, helped the body feel better. Today science confirm They weren’t so wrong. That acidic touch that gave character to the lentils or softness to the fried egg has a chemical explanation, a nutritional basis and, above all, an enormous cultural load. Because in the end, between the laboratory and the kitchen, there is the same principle: good traditions do not go out of style, they just needed a good explanation. And every time the vinegar sparkles in the pan or perfumes a stew, we are not only cooking: we are also honoring a way of understanding food, time, and memory. Image | FreePik and FreePik Xataka | Thousands of people have been drinking apple cider vinegar before eating to lose weight for years. An erroneous study is to blame

allow free hunting in 254 municipalities

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Given its long tradition livestockGalicia has earned the title of ‘cow country’but there is an animal that is on the way to dethroning them: the wild boar. There are many in the community. very many. And that translates into damaged farmland and traffic accidents. The Xunta has decided to provide a solution by pressing a red button thought a priori as a resource “exceptional”although in recent years he has resorted to it half a dozen times: “the temporary hunting emergency”. It sounds very bureaucratic, but it’s easy to understand. In practice, the Xunta has given the green light to the free hunting and no limit of the species in more than 250 municipalities. What has happened? That Galicia wants to stand up to the thousands of wild boars that populate its fields and mountains. And it has decided to do so by bringing out the institutional ‘heavy artillery’, which translates into the declaration of the “temporary hunting emergency” in almost 40 regions spread throughout the region. Medio Rural’s announcement has published today in the Official Gazette of Galicia (DOG) and in practice it means giving carte blanche to hunters so that they can shoot wild pigs without limit until February 2026 in more than 250 municipalities. There is no maximum number of animals that can be shot or captured. What does the measurement say? Open the door to adoption “special control measures” to reduce the population of wild boars in 38 regions of Lugo, A Coruña, Pontevedra and Ourense, which covers a total 254 town councils. In all of them, hunters will be able to shoot or capture wild boars without limits or regardless of the sex of the prey, although the authorities ask that “adult and sub-adult” females be prioritized. Hunting calves and females with offspring is also allowed, although with prior authorization from the General Directorate of Natural Heritage. What hunters should pay attention to is where they are: the DOG distinguishes between “hunting” and “non-hunting” lands. In the former, wild boar may be hunted every day of the week, although adjusting to certain guidelines established in the standard (in hunting-free areas, for example, hunts must have authorization); In the latter it will be necessary to have a permit. Is it a new measure? To measurements. The declaration of “temporary hunting emergency” has just been be published today to come into force tomorrow, but it is not the first time that the Xunta uses this figure to control the populations of wild pigs in the community. The Department of the Environment has already used the same instrument in four other times: in 2019, 2021, 2023 and 2024. In fact, this time it will affect fewer municipalities than last year. The Spanish remember that then the measure also came into force in october and extended until February, covering nearly 85% of the region. The Xunta ruled out extending a figure that has always been presented as “exceptional”, but it did maintain a protocol in spring that contemplated preventive raids. Why do you hunt wild boars? In 2019 Jacobo Feijoo, forestry engineer at Unións Agrarias, published in Galician Field an article in which he tried to clarify how many wild pigs live in Galicia. His conclusion is that there could be at least 180,000. “In other words, taking as a reference the 26,000 square kilometers of agricultural and forestry areas of Galicia, we certainly have at least 6.90 wild boars per km2,” the expert added, adding that with that level of concentration we can now speak of “high densities.” Coexistence between this high volume of animals, crop fields and traffic is not always easy. In the advertisement In which the Xunta declares the hunting emergency, it recognizes that “the effects caused by wild boar populations have been experiencing an increase in Galicia as a whole in recent years”, a phenomenon that the regional government relates “largely to changes in the use of the environment and the ecological characteristics of the species.” “It has been confirmed that it causes multiple damages in agriculture and traffic accidents and its increasingly common presence in peri-urban areas is an additional problem,” insist the Galician Executive. “Likewise, a high population increases the risk of the spread of certain diseases, such as African swine fever, which would make their eradication difficult at any given time, if necessary.” Does it have that much impact? In March The Voice of Galicia revealed that last year alone the Xunta dedicated more than 4.1 million euros to compensate farmers who had seen how their crops (both large farms and self-consumption orchards) were damaged by wild boars. It may seem like a lot of money, but according to Environment data, in one year (from August 2023 to July 2024) these large animals caused damage to 2,800 agricultural hectares. The money invested in prevention is added to the compensation money, which brings the total bill to 4.6 million. The proliferation of wild boars is not only felt in the fields. It also affects roads, increasing the risk of accidents. Again according to The Voice of GaliciaIn 2024, more than 3,700 collisions were recorded. Images | Iván PC (Flickr) and Leopoldo de Castro (Flickr) In Xataka | The ranchers of Asturias have been complaining about the wolf for years and now they have obtained what they longed for: permission to hunt it

control who sells and where you buy, all in ChatGPT

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A few days ago we talked about how OpenAI is turning ChatGPT into the Windows of AI. It’s not really about whether OpenAI is building an operating system. It’s about what kind of power you’re looking for. And the answer lies in two models that define exactly what OpenAI pursues: Apple’s App Store and WeChat in China. The App Store controls distribution. Decide what apps exist, how they are promoted, what commissions are charged. WeChat centralizes functionality. Within a single app you do absolutely everything: you call, you shop, you order taxis, you pay bills, you reserve restaurants. OpenAI wants both things at the same time. And so far no one has achieved it. The moment. Apple actively blocked superapps on iOS. The documents from the Epic v. Apple trial made it very clear: allowing one app to do everything “would threaten the monopoly” because “adherence to the system would decrease.” Apple called it “letting in the barbarians.” Meta tried it with Facebook. Musk, in his own way, tries with X. They failed because Apple didn’t let them and because they didn’t have the right platform. The play. Ben Thompson, of Stratecheryhe sees it clearly: OpenAI follows Microsoft’s original strategy with Windows. Apple integrates hardware and software, controls everything, but leaves room for competitors because it cannot serve all markets. Microsoft dominated without having to sell hardware. He only controlled the platform. OpenAI does exactly that: Control the interface. Control who users reach. And let others build on top. The difference with 2023-2024 is enormous. So They launched the GPT Store. Failure. Our own GPTs were and are very useful, but those of others were isolated in a store that no one visited. Now the Spotify, Canva, Zillow, Uber or Booking apps are not in a separate store. They are integrated into the core of the experience. They appear when they are relevant. They work within the chat. Who is this good for?: For developers, they receive immediate access to 800 million weekly users without going through Apple or Google. Without building an audience from scratch. But in exchange, they have absolute dependence on an OpenAI that decides which apps are approved, which ones stand out, or how they are monetized. If your app competes with something OpenAI wants to do, you’re out. It is the classic dilemma of platforms. Rapid growth in exchange for zero control. For companies that sell products, the rules of the game change completely. Before you would type “hotels in Valencia” in Google and browse through ten results. Now you have to explicitly say “search on Booking” or “search on Airbnb”. Strong brands in people’s minds will survive. Those that lived off organic traffic from Google will disappear. There are entire businesses that prospered thanks to SEO in the Google era. Those businesses were never really strong because they were optimizations for a specific technological era. The wave of snippets several of those businesses were loaded in the search results. The next wave will sweep away a few more. The problem. Microsoft is OpenAI’s largest investor and infrastructure partner. But now they compete directly. Microsoft launched Copilot Studioits own platform for businesses to create custom agents. And that competes head-on with what OpenAI has just launched. If OpenAI had remained a simple model provider, Microsoft would have turned it into commodity. This app platform is a declaration of independence. It is pure coopetition: partners who must compete for the dominant role. What’s at stake. Sam Altman summed it up this week: “Most people will want to have a single AI service, and that service has to be useful throughout their lives.” Your entire life not understood as “from today until you die”, but rather as “all areas of your life.” Work and pleasure, leisure and business. What OpenAI pursues is not to be one platform among many. It is to be the platform: The place where everything happens. Where users spend their time. Where companies have to be to exist. Apple without the hardware. WeChat without regulatory restrictions. The App Store without the bottleneck of manual approval. Everything at once. Maybe they will get it. Maybe not. But they are executing the perfect play at the perfect time. And that, in technology, is sometimes enough. Another thing is that Excel resists. In Xataka | The more money they lose, the more they are worth: ten AI startups have skyrocketed their valuation by $1 trillion in 12 months Featured image | Xataka with Mockuuups Studio

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