Mobile Tech & Gadgets

Intel has a new ‘Roadmap’. And reveals why his future is in the hands of lithographs 18 and 14th

by

Intel’s short -term competitiveness is closely linked to the success of a single semiconductor manufacturing technology: The photolithography 18a. Ben Sell, Vice President of Intel Technology Development, confirmed At the end of last September that The 18A node already has the necessary maturity to enter large -scale production in 2025. And he also assured that he will benefit from the resources that have been reallocated from the 20A node. Right now this is the asset that Intel has to compete with TSMC and Samsung in the market for the production of integrated circuits in a year in which 2 Nm photolithographies They will take off yes or yes. Lithography 18a is erected above all about two essential innovations: Ribbonfet transistors Gate-alall-around (GAA) and energy delivery technology Powervia. We already knew this, but now thanks to Roadmap Updated that has just published Intel, we know much more. Lithographs 18A-PT and 14A will seal the future of Intel until 2028 Litography 14a will be the first in which Intel will use UVE High Opening Teams asml. In it Roadmap That we publish a little below in this article we can see that this integration technology will arrive in 2027, and shortly after, although that same year, the 14A-E node will also be ready, which will be nothing other than a review of the original integration technology. An important note: when Intel tells us about his 18th or 14th nodes what he is telling us is that These integration technologies are comparablealways according to Intel itself, to the lithographs of 1.8 Nm and 1.4 Nm of TSMC or Samsung, which are its main competitors. The 18A-PT photolithography will be compatible with advanced technology of Foveros Direct 3D The most relevant novelties that we can see in the new itinerary of this company are the 18A-P photolithography, which is a high performance review of the 18A node, and the 18A-PT integration technology. The first one will arrive in 2026. In fact, it is already being tested for the purpose of start large -scale production next year. The 18A-PT photolithography will be ready much later, in 2028, but it has a very important feature: it will be compatible with advanced packaging technology FOVERS DIRECT 3D Thanks to a hybrid interconnection system that allows you to stack chips in the vertical dimension. This packaging technique will be very important for Intel because it will allow the company currently led by Lip Bu-Tan compete with Advanced packaging technologies Cowos de TSMC and I-Cube, H-Cube and X-Cube of Samsung. The main difference between these implementations lies in the way in which integrated circuits on the substrate are distributed or stacked, a decision that deeply conditions the performance of the interconnections. Anyway, Intel’s current itinerary does not conclude with the 14A node. Keyvan Esfarjani, which is one of the top responsible for the subsidiary of this company that specializes in the manufacture of integrated circuits, confirmed In February 2024 that the production of chips in the 10A node (which will presumably be equivalent to the lithographs of 1 Nm of its competitors) will begin at the end of 2027. It makes sense if we are in mind that on that date Intel plans to start large -scale manufacturing in the 14A node, although, yes, the mass production of 1 Nm semiconductors will arrive later (possibly well entered 2028). Image | ASML More information | Tom’s hardware In Xataka | Intel has confirmed that the 20A node will be skipped to reduce expenses. The 18A node will enter production in 2025

The European Chips Law will fail. The European Court of Accounts believes that it is very unlikely to succeed

by

On February 8, 2022 Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, announced that the old continent wants to be a fundamental actor in The semiconductor industryand the first step to achieve it requires manufacturing 20% of the planet chips in 2030. The CHIPS ACT Directive mobilizes up to 43,000 million euros between public and private investment to make it possible, and the still little tangible Integrated circuit plants that Intel and TSMC have programmed on German soil are two key pieces on this itinerary. Despite its similarities, the US plan paints better than that of Europe. The country led by Donald Trump has an integrated circuit manufacturing infrastructure more solid than that of the old continent. In addition, Intel, TSMCSamsung, Texas Instruments and Globalfoundries are some of the companies that are already putting new avant -garde plants on American soil. And the US government seems to be determined to invest all the money that is needed to achieve the leadership position to which it aspires. The Court of Accounts report gives Europe a reality bathroom Europe needs to be ambitious if it wants to increase its relevance in the semiconductor industry. Have Asml and Intel facilities, Globalfoundries, and presumably in the future also of TSMC, within its borders he plays in his favor. However, the speech of European leaders, among which are Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, and Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner of Internal Market and Services, seems to be focused on the quantity, and is not enough. The quality understood as the capacity of a chip to deliver added value is also fundamental. The automotive and appliance industry are two of those that are essentially nourished by relatively simple integrated circuits, and it is important that Europe produces them. However, it is also essential that In European soil, avant -garde chips are manufactured such as those that require, for example, data centers and research centers artificial intelligence (AI). Otherwise Europe will continue to depend on the plants located abroad to be competitive in this strategic ecosystem. “We are currently far from the pace necessary to meet our ambitions. The 20% objective was basically an aspiration” As we have anticipated in the holder of this article, the European Court of Accounts, which is nothing other than “the financial guardian” of the European Union, has published A very thorough report in which he argues that the objective of achieving a 20% share in the world market of integrated circuits in 2030 seems unattainable. And this means that “it is very unlikely that the European Union achieves its objective.” At the current situation, as we have verified in the first paragraphs of this article, this conclusion is perfectly credible. The Court of Auditors points out some interesting ideas in which we are being briefly stopped. Annemie Turtelboom, the head of this audit, He maintains that “The European Union needs a dose of reality in its strategy for the microchips sector (…) This is a field that changes rapidly, is characterized by its intense geopolitical competence, and currently We are far from the necessary rhythm To fulfill our ambitions. The 20% objective was basically an aspiration. To achieve this, our production capacity would have to be four times higher in 2030 and we are far from achieving those figures at the current speed. “ However, the production capacity they currently have and will have chips manufacturers established in Europe in Europe is not the only problem. The Court of Accounts points something that is important that we do not overlook: access to raw materials that are necessary to produce semiconductors, such as Rare earths; The cost of energy and geopolitical tensions further hinder the European Union plan. And, of course, the Chinese chips industry, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and the US will not stop their growth, so these countries will not easily give market share. We will see what happens during the next five years, but objectively the panorama does not paint well for Europe. Image | TSMC More information | European Court of Accounts In Xataka | We already know what the chips that will arrive until 2039 will be. The machine that will manufacture them is close

Temu already shows the extra cost of the products in the US for tariffs and no, China is not paying as Trump said

by

Donald Trump defended his tariff plan during the presidential campaign with overwhelming phrases that they were among their followers: “It is not a middle class tax. It is a tax to another country” or “it will not cost you, it will cost another country.” The message was clear: Americans would not pay the price of their commercial war. And after his victory and arrival at the White House, that speech remained. Reality, however, is being quite different. The tariff war has already begins to move directly to the prices paid by Americans. And one of the most visible cases is that of Temu. The Chinese electronic commerce platform, which had earned a hole among the most popular applications in the country for its very low prices, has begun to apply “Import positions”Which exceed in some cases 100% of the original value of the product. Pay for the same. A concrete example helps to understand to what extent the situation has changed. According to NBC dataa pack of three sports shorts for men, which was offered for $ 23.61 with free shipping from China, ends up costing $ 56.36 once applied 32.75 dollars of import surcharge. That is, the customer pays more on tariffs than for the product itself. Bloomberg was a step further and analyzed the 14 most popular articles sent from China. The result was clear: in all cases, import taxes applied in the United States were higher than the original price of products. Temu begins to warn. Given this new reality, the platform has incorporated informative messages to alert users before finishing their purchases. “Imported articles to the United States may be subject to import positions. These charges cover all customs processes and costs, including tariffs paid to the authorities in your name,” can be read on their website. The ‘local warehouse’ label wins prominence. In response to the price increase, Temu has begun to boost the products that are already stored within the US territory. The company groups them under a specific category: “Local warehouse”. Although many of these articles are also manufactured in China, the fact that they are physically in the United States exempts them from new customs charges. Of course, this advantage has its nuances. As NBC itself has verified, some of these products marked as premises have higher prices than before, despite not being subject to surcharges. In other words, dodging the tariff does not guarantee finding a bargain. The context has changed, and that is also noticed in the local stock. The domino effect of tariffs. The price increase comes after a series of decisions that have completely changed the rules of the game. At the beginning of the month, the Trump administration raised up to 145% Tariffs at certain imports from China. Besides, has announced That as of May 2 will eliminate the exemption known as “de minimis”, which allowed most packages with less than $ 800 to enter the United States without paying taxes. Temu, between success and uncertainty. Since his arrival in the United States in 2022, Temu has conquered millions of users with a simple formula: ridiculous prices in clothing, technology and household items. Although the shipping times were long, many consumers were willing to wait if that meant paying less. That strategy, however, staggers now that the costs are rising and the tax advantage disappears. Complaints flood forums. Reddit has become one of the thermometers of discontent. Temu users Share screenshots of its shopping baskets to show the new prices, visibly inflated by import positions. Many express their frustration And they question if it will remain worth buying on the platform. Change seems to be caught by many by surprise. One of the shared captures in Reddit An increasingly uncertain commercial future. Today it is not clear how long the current tariff barriers will remain. China has responded by raising its own tariffs on certain American products Up to 125%and has described “joke” the possibility of continuing to climb. The tension not only affects companies, but also consumers who, little by little, see how the cheapest options are exhausted. For now, the products stored locally would be offering some respite. But if the situation continues, stocks could be exhausted and consumers would end up having to resort to more expensive articles, directly affected by new tariffs. The White House points to Amazon. In the midst of this pressure climate, the White House spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, accused the giant of electronic commerce to be “hostile and political.” The reason? An article by PunchBowl News suggested that Amazon was exploring the possibility of showing the exact cost of tariffs at the price of their products. The answer soon arrived: Amazon clarified that this idea was only considered for a specific section of its website, Amazon Haul, which competes directly with Temu, and that it was never contemplated for the main page. Showing tariffs can be seen as a challenge. The idea of ​​detailing these costs is not less: it would allow users to clearly see that, contrary to what Trump stated, the economic impact is falling on them. A warning for all players in the sector. The message to Amazon can also be understood as a signal to other electronic commerce companies. Explicit explicitly the impact of tariff policies could be interpreted as an uncomfortable political position for the White House. Images | Freepik | Theme | The White House In Xataka | Chinese companies have found a “shortcut” to dodge US tariffs: re -estate in South Korea

see through forests

by

The European Space Agency He just put in orbit a new mission of land observation. Equipped with the first synthetic opening radar in band P that travels to space, Biomass will make the most precise measurements so far from the forests of the world. Successful launch. The satellite He took off on April 29 at 11:15 Cest From the European Space Puerto of Kourou, in the French Guiana. He did it aboard a Vega-C rocket, which with this fourth launch has definitely resumed his activity after two years of delays for a failure in his second flight. Less than an hour later, Biomass separated correctly from the rocket, sending its first signal to confirm that everything works as planned. The mission has officially joined The Earth Explorers of ESAmissions designed to do science on the planet Earth. We do not know the forests well. The forests cover almost a third of the earth’s surface. The reason we call them “the green lungs of the planet” is that they play a vital role absorbing and storing gigantic amounts of carbon dioxide: about 8,000 million net tons per yearwhich help regulate the global temperature. Deforestation, forest degradation and changes in land use, especially in tropical areas (which house 70% of the terrestrial biomass), return the carbon stored to the atmosphere, aggravating global warming. The problem is that we do not know how much carbon the forests really store and how they are responding to factors such as the increase in temperatures, the atmospheric CO2 and human activity. This is where Biomass comes into play. The satellite will measure with unprecedented precision the amount of biomass (and therefore carbon) stored in the forests of our planet, as well as its evolution over time, to better understand the carbon cycle and the climate system of the Earth. Most of the carbon (it is estimated that 50% of the weight of a tree) is stored in the wood: trunk, branches and stems. The unique radar capacity in Biomass B band allows you to directly measure the amount of woody biomass (wood under the foliage of forests, the main forest carbon warehouse) on a global scale and with unusual precision from space. The secret is on the radar. The great innovation of biomass is its main instrument, built by Airbus: the first synthetic opening radar (SAR) in band p that travels to space. The radars work by sending microwaves and analyzing the echo that bounces on the surface. The key is in the wavelength. The P waves are long, much more than those used by other radar satellites such as the Sentinel-1 (band c) or the future Nisar (band L). This wavelength allows you to penetrate the dense cover of forests (the forest canopy) and even cross the clouds or rain, interacting directly with the woody parts of the trees (trunks and thick branches) and the forest floor. By measuring how the radar signal is dispersed when it collides with these elements, scientists can obtain detailed information about the structure of the forest, estimate their height and, most importantly, calculate the amount of woody organic matter above the ground. There is a delicate deployment. In order to project this radar signal effectively, the satellite will display in the next few days an impressive 12 -meter diameter reflective antenna, sustained by a 7.5 meter arm. A complex, but essential maneuver for the success of the mission. Biomass will operate in two main phases during its 5 and a half years of useful life: a 18 -month -old tomographic phase, in which it will perform multiple passes over the same areas from slightly different angles to create a 3D map of the forest structure. And an interferometric phase of 4 years in which it will use the difference between signals to measure changes in the height and density of the forest, estimating the variation of biomass over time. As we know that approximately half of that biomass is carbon, the mission will allow mapping indirectly, but very precise, where and how much carbon is stored in the forests, and what rhythm is being released. Image | Esjm Photography In Xataka | A study from satellite images has indicated the areas where the jungle could recover. Without human help

Without light at home, many Spaniards turned to another “shelter” for hot dinner or load the mobile: their car

by

Spain collapsed. In five seconds, The Government tells us60% of the electricity consumed at that time was lost and all kinds of electronic devices went black. Then we understood to what extent we depend on electrical energy. Without the possibility of plugging into the network, the batteries began to quote and, above all, they showed us the importance of having a Small electric survival kit. Because how can we load the mobile when we don’t have electricity? The question also resonated at a server’s house. First came the disappointment with the already known answer to the question “Didn’t you have some PowerBanks?” Then, a light bulb was lit: “We always have the car.” A shelter Luckily, we did not have to go down to the garage but use the car like a gigantic external battery would not have been a bad idea. In fact, it is not necessary to have an electric car although this technology allows us to even be more flexible. The USB shots From cars with combustion engines they generally serve us to plug small electrical devices and can get us out of trouble. Simply start the car and connect to one of its ports or take the lighter. In this case, the most basic and obvious option a situation like the one that We have lived in Spain on April 28, 2025 It is to load the mobile phone or an external battery that already helps us keep the electrical devices alive. Generally, cars’s USB shots are not especially powerful, so we will need to spend more time load the mobile phone that at home and surely we will have to forget the fast charge. As we will see, there are some exceptions to this. If your car is already a few years old, The normal thing is that you use a USB 1.0 or 2.0. This limits the load to 500 mA. With current phones, the load will be extremely slow or, simply, it will slow down your download if we are using the mobile phone at that time. If the car is more modern, it is easy for USB-C shots to deliver 5W of power onwards, which is more than enough to load a current mobile phone. Another solution if, as we said, the car is a few years on it is to use an adapter for the tambo. In this case, It has a voltage of 12 volts In direct current and its amperage is 10 A. The maximum power in this case usually reaches 120W so the maximum power to which we can load the car will depend on the adapter used. In stores like Amazon It is easy to find products for little money with up to 30W So we can load a relatively fast mobile phone or, if necessary, to a laptop if necessary. That is, it is not a bad idea to carry an adapter of these in the car. Not only is it a matter that in the case of a blackout we can load the phone, it is also interesting if, for example, we have suffered a breakdown and we have to wait for hours until we get an assistance. The possibilities multiply with an electric car. Currently, most of those sold in the market arrive with V2L (Vehicle to Load) technology, a standard of Bidirectional load that allows to load most of the electronic devices we have at home because, simply, it makes our car a domestic plug. Click on the image to go to the original tweet Click on the image to go to the original tweet To get an idea, the car becomes a huge battery with wheels that can provide us with electricity to 3.4 kW. That is, we can easily plug a microwave and, for example, dinner hot despite being in the middle of a blackout. Again, it is an interesting solution if we want to spend an night away from home and we want to make a timely use of a high consumption device like this. Keep in mind that a device such as A microwave can easily overcome 1 kW of power to function. Therefore, we could not start it without this type of V2L technology. Again, it is an interesting option without the need to face a blackout. If we want to spend an afternoon in the field and enjoy coffee after eating, A capsules coffee maker can be the solution. And more useful, we can Take advantage to have an inflatable mattress Wherever we go. The two previous cases are not isolated. Talking to other colleagues who have an electric car, some of them have confirmed that they took advantage of the car batteries to serve various home tools and, in fact, they regretted that in Spain the V2H technology (Vehicle to Home) or V2G (Vehicle To Grid) is not allowed. With the V2H technology You can pour the battery from an electric car to a house. Although in most cases the car itself reserves a minimum percentage that is usually at 20%, this bidirectional load could supply tens of kWh to a house, which can be used to maintain a house for several days. V2G technology allows even launching electricity accumulated in the car to the general electricity network and, therefore, electric cars could act as electric power stores that can be used in emergency cases. Photo | Hyundai In Xataka | Spanish Electric Electric

Black Swans. This blackout is a candidate to be

by

How can we prepare for the unpredictable? We are already planning a trip or starting a business, or even if we are quietly fringing some potatoes at home, being Prepared to eventualities You can save us more than one disgust. For a person on foot, and even for a company, dealing with a blackout can enter a category of “foreseeable unforeseen”: we do not know when they will occur but we know from past experiences that it is likely that at one time or another, our light will leave for a while. However, it is likely that people in charge of managing the peninsular power Bru what this week With the same attitude. From his point of view, what happened was something never seen beforea good candidate to catalog like what we call a “black swan.” First of all, what is that of the black swan and where it comes from. The concept was popularized back in 2007, in the book The Black Swan: the impact of the highly unlikely, written by Nassim Taleb, expert in statistics and finance. In the work as essayist of This controversial thinker The concept of uncertainty has a great weight, and the idea of ​​black swan is perhaps the zenit of uncertainty. We are not talking about The 2010 movie Directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Natalie Portman, nor of the animal (although the theory owes its name to this animal). A black swan is an event with two characteristics. The first is that it is a possible but so unlikely event that it is unique in its category, an event that would be unthinkable although in retrospect it could seem even predictable. The second is that it is an event of great impact, we are not talking about a currency that falls singing while we play with it boring. The origin of the name is, we said, in the animal. And, as Taleb explains in his book, until the arrival of European explorers to Australia in the seventeenth century, for the West Swannes were white and talking about a black swan would be limited to the context of the fantastic. Everything changed with the arrival in Oceania and the appearance of dark swans. A Clear example of such an event It would be that of the attacks perpetrated on September 11, 2001. Although on that date the kidnappings of airplanes by terrorists were not something strange, the idea of ​​crashing these vehicles against buildings to maximize the damage caused would have been difficult to imagine. The event would not need to point it out, it also had global consequences. The Covid-19 Pandemia also had global consequences, a global epidemic caused by a until then unknown virus could be seen as a black swan (and in fact There are those who see it like this). However, the idea of ​​a global pandemic, even the idea that it could be caused by a respiratory virus, was not so remote and many raised it as a matter not of “yes”, but of “when.” The 1919 flu pandemic experience, or epidemics such as SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) not only look a posteriori As warnings, but they were already seen before the pandemic. Prepare for the unpredictable Taleb, an expert in statistics, explains that when we try to estimate the probabilities of an event, in general we have to rely on what we already know. For example, if we want Estimate probability that a new company Continue active A year after its creation, we can serve statistics based on companies founded in the previous years. If we want to predict if a team will win a game, we can also back and attend to the statistics of the team and the rival. That is precisely the limitation of statistical tools: it is among extremely difficult and impossible to estimate the probability of an event that has never been given. Well, what about the blackout? Undoubtedly, the April 28 blackout has been an event of important consequences that We will still have to evaluatethe damages caused by the cut not only the economic but probably had ramifications in other contexts. That part is out of place, the Great question Now is whether this was an unpredictable event. We may not be able to answer this question with certainty yet since, although little by little we are going Knowing new details On what happened, it is still early to know with certainty the causes of this great blackout. As for the dimension, we can find comparable precedents if we look outside of Spain, such as the Italian blackout of 2003 either The one suffered by Texas in 2021. However, those great blackouts were, in a certain sense, conventional. In the Italian case, the cut of a high voltage line that connected Switzerland with Italy fell, dragging with him the entire network of the transalpine country. In the case of Texas, the cold and its impact on gas electricity generation was the cause that the system could not with the demand for electricity of the southern state. In Xataka | How to load your mobile battery when there is no electricity Image | Quartl

When reality overwhelms, we seek to understand it in fiction

by

The first thing that many Spaniards did as they recovered the electric current was to look for series and films related to blackouts. If possible, of Spanish or European nationality. In addition to robbing us in An extraordinary phenomenon That has just happened, there is a psychological explanation for this act: fiction comforts us and explains reality. Above all, that part of the reality that we do not understand or that we are great. ‘Broady’ goes from that. In 2022 Movistar Plus+ premiered ‘blackout’a miniseries of five self -conclusive episodes led by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Raúl Arévalo, Isa Campo, Alberto Rodríguez and Isaki Lacuesta. It started from a catastrophic event (a solar storm causes a global blackout, leaving society without electricity or telecommunications) to reflect, in each episode, a human phase in the face of the crisis: denial, emergency, confrontation, survival and balance. The series, realistic, is one of the main search trends the day after the blackout. People want to see a fiction that tells him what would have happened if the events had been even more serious. It is not the only one. Of course, there are more series on blackouts. In ‘Leave the world behind’ (Netflix), two families have to manage a mysterious blackout after a cyber attack. The French ‘The collapse‘He did not give many reasons for the collapse of society, showing the despair that emerges when the basic vital conditions disappear. The recent ‘zero’ (Netflix) blames a cyber attack on a global blackout and describes the consequent government response. Also a cyber attack is responsible for the disaster in ‘Blackout’, which leaves central Europe without electricity. Each with their tone and style, all of them agree to portray and explain an inconceivable situation. Explain the inexplicable. The narratives help us to understand what exceeds the boundaries of the rational: it is a catastrophe of such magnitude that it exceeds with great domestic space, be they transcendental questions that question the existence of, for example, an ultraterrene life. Those stories, whether religions, urban myths, rumors or, simply, films, help us put limits and tie by the plausible and the rational what we do not understand. That is why we approach series as ‘Blackout’: they help us understand what happened in days like yesterday. Beyond the blackouts. Of course, this phenomenon goes far beyond yesterday’s blackouts. A few days ago we talked about how ‘Conclave’ was reset With all the honors in cinemas, time to accompany the funeral of the Pope: a film explains us better than any documentary (because the emotion of fictions implies) the intestine weaves of the Vatican to succeed the deceased. And if we are going further back there is no more remember successes like ‘Contagion ‘during pandemic: A 2011 film that became suddenly relevant when it demonstrated an absolutely hechizing fortune teller (and reflexive). The Simpsons predicted it. Of course The Simpsons predicted what happened Yesterday, in an episode in which a mass blackout forced people to return to traditional forms of life. This mechanics of using the legendary animation series To explain everything Not only does it have a logical and material explanation (many years of stories, sharp satire of the present, acute and very observant scripts), but to connect with what we said above: we have a natural tendency to seek significant patterns and connections between facts, even when they are the result of chance. These patterns are marked by narratives, series and movies. It sounds to me. The familiarity of the fictitious It allows us to explain reality, and that is why the day after a collapse of the entire electrical system of a country (which is said soon, because we have not stopped to think about it), we go to series and movies that help us digest it with plots and subtramas, with characters with which we identify and with turns that we have already seen in dozens of occasions. When we immerse ourselves in fiction, neural networks are activated similar to when we live real experiencesand we integrate them into our own memories (although distinguishing them as fiction). And that helps us overcome them and turn page. Until next catastrophe. Header | Movistar Plus+ In Xataka | While almost all Spain immersed in chaos, a place continued to function normally: Mercadona

After the mass blackout of Spain he feared looting and security problems. Reality was very different

by

Nor pillage. Nor Latrocinio. No chaos unleashed in the streets. Although most of the country stayed yesterday to two candles (literally) and Thousands of Spaniards They went to sleep yet without electricity in their homes and businesses, on April 28, 2025 will not go down in history because it is a day of chaos. Not everything was An oil raftof course, but this morning the Interior Ministry He underlined that the night has been “quiet”, “without remarkable security incidents.” Nothing that the country has not already lived during the pandemic, when Spain already demonstrated its obedience during the alarm states to stop the COVID-19. That almost a country is based black (in energy terms), as happened on Monday at 12.33 h in Spain, it obviously has multiple derivatives. It affects the industry. It affects trade. It affects mobility and education. And affects security. Yesterday the government declared The national emergency in eight communities and one of the issues that was in the public debate during the first hours was precisely The media deployment To guarantee security. “Security problems” “Madrid has 9,000 streets, 3.5 million inhabitants … If a city is these dimensions, we are all aware, we are all aware that they can give Security problems at very diverse and different points “, warned In the afternoon the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida. Without electricity, many businesses were left without a dataphone, but also without surveillance or automatic systems that allow them to close their premises. The fear of looting and robberies during the blackout even led some merchants to monitor their stores. In Ayamonte, Huelva, there were who The night passed In their businesses unable to lower the blinds and in Granada the newspaper Ideal speaks of entrepreneurs in a similar situation that resisted to leave their premises. “People take advantage of to steal and we have no system here that allows us to ensure the store,” admitted a ABC The clerk of a store in the center of Madrid while waiting for the supply to be restored. His suspicion was understandable. Click on the image to go to Tweet. After the Dana de Valencia there were those who took advantage of chaos to make looting and take home batteries, sports material, telephones or consoles, for example, sometimes even with truck help. Only the night from October 30 the National Police arrested 39 people During a surveillance campaign in commercial areas and weeks later, in mid -November, the number of detainees for looting in the areas affected by the rains over 400. It is not even necessary that an event as devastating as the DANA of Valencia occurs. In 1977 New York lived An electric cut which lasted for a day and resulted in a “night of terror”, in the words of the magazine Timewith the looting of more than 1,615 storesmore than 1,000 fires, around 4,000 detainees and hundreds of injured police. A few weeks ago Before a mass blackout also affected much of Chile, the Buric government chose to decree the state of exception and imposed a curfew between ten and six in the morning. In Spain the authorities also chose reinforce securityalthough without reaching such drastic measures. The Government Precise that between Monday and Tuesday they deployed through the country More than 30,000 agents of the National Police and Civil Guard, to which other forces of autonomic and local bodies are added. Click on the image to go to Tweet. In Catalonia Los Mossos d’esquadra They lengthened shifts and activated a night security plan with something More than 7,200 agentswhile there were cities that also increased their local endowments. In Vigo The mayor said Yesterday that the Local Police would triple their efforts and at night 13 municipal patrols would be deployed, to which almost twenty nationals would be added. What has been the balance? A relative tranquility. At least if one takes into account that, although part of the country began to recover electricity within a few hours, there have been cities that took More than 14 hours in having light and the day was marked by Communications problems and traffic lights. The total alert balance is not yet known, but inner speaks of a “quiet night and without remarkable incidents of security or public order” and both the Mayor of Madrid like that of Barcelona They have highlighted the “civism” of their neighbors. “The Madrid have shown that they give their best in the most difficult moments. In front of the blackout, a lesson of civility,” Almeida presumes. That does not mean that the last hours have been An oil raft. Eldiario speaks Of robbery attempts, activated alarms and “some” burning containers in localities of Andalusia and in the city of the emergency services had attended in the afternoon Double of calls of the usual, although Many incidents They were related to people trapped in elevators or people with mobility problems. In Other cities From the country and less inhabitants, the dripping of notices to the authorities throughout the day was also intense. The most graphic answer He has given it However, this morning, Mayor José Luis Martínez- Almeida when they have asked him about how the night had gone in the capital, in which, he says, only a reysta and a launa was recorded. “Quieter than anyone”, summarizes the councilor from Madrid. Image | Xataka In Xataka | We still do not know what caused the blackout in Spain, but experts already dispute a theory: the role of renewables

Why many have felt more released than ever during the great blackout

by

In Madrid, during the longest hours of the blackout, Andrés had a “rare” sensation similar to that of the pandemic, as of the world arrested, of much slower time, of silence. In Malaga and without radio at home, Matías thought it was something local and began to water the plants. They were two hours of absolute inner peace. In Ciudad Real, if data or portable, Alex sat with his dog to enjoy the breeze that entered the window. And it was not the outside world. It could not be: in the houses there was the same usual noise, the streets were more full than normal, the universe continued to turn. What was happening? Peace in a world in ruins. Because that is the first thing that comes to mind: the paradox that in seemingly negative (or even tragic) situations such as blackouts, The pandemics Or external events of this type, people experience a rare sensation of peace, liberation or decompression. However, psychologists, sociologists and anthropologists make it clear that the paradox is only apparent. Actually, we are so accustomed to living in lives full of labor commitments, studies, social activities; lives immersed in a constant information flow … that such an event disrupts us deeply. Or, rather, it destabilizes us: as experts in behavioral activation therapies tell us, our day’s activities are as emotional anchors. Without them, we are much more susceptible to external incidents; whether positive or negative. The surprise, of course, is that they are sometimes positive. We could study it with great detail during the pandemic. For example, a group of researchers from the University of Cambridge They discovered that one in three young people had felt happier during the confinements. But he did not reduce them: it’s something, in fact, We find surprising frequency. But … why? It has theorized a lot about why (less social and academic stress: less loneliness, absence of bullying, more hours of sleep or more physical exercise during confinement …), but they all end up in the same place. To the elimination of the aversive elements of everyday life and the increase in pleasant activities, something else adds: the absence of responsibility. That is the key piece that allows to accept inactivity with less resistance. It is not free that among the health, for example, this type of phenomena were less frequent during pandemic (even when they were sick). The feeling of guilt or responsibility did not disappear and, in fact, it became a problem. What leads us to a question … What if the problematic is normal? In 1922, Dorothy Thomas realized a very curious detail: Unlike what we might think, mortality seemed to follow a “procyclical” pattern. That is, as the economy goes better, more people die. It is so. It is something we have seen one and again: The last great Spanish crisis is a good example. The evidence is solid: economic growth has as a direct consequence that people die more. As explained in the Silesia collective“There is something in the political-economic system of capital circulation and goods that, when accelerating, destroys the health of populations.” We do not usually repair them (because the benefits are high and because economic crises are not “good for health”) but it is so. Can something similar happen to mental health? It is a plausible hypothesis. As we explained a few weeks ago, ‘tiredness’ has become something ubiquitous in our societies. Practically half of the working population or they feel high levels of stress or have suffered burnout. We have built some social environments where a hyperproductivity centered lifestyle prevails (Toxic productivity), multitasking and permanent overload; where “feel the pressure of being productive at every moment of the day – always a list of slopes and guilt for not fulfilling it -” has become the new normality. And in a source anxiety, insomnia and extreme exhaustion. Losing all that can be a way to recover everything else. In fact, what they have demonstrated again these twelve hours of darkness is that, For many people, it is. But it also demonstrates the difficulty we have to ‘take control’ of our own life imbued as we are in increasingly complex socio-economic systems: only a historical event seems to give ourselves to recover it. Image | Own elaboration In Xataka | Bottle, improvised meetings and auditoriums: the blackout, in addition to chaos, brought an unexpected festive atmosphere

Two Spanish preppers tell us how they lived yesterday’s great blackout

by

Five seconds. It is what was needed to 60% of Spain’s energy vanished This April 28. At 12:33 in the morning 15 GW of generation were lost in the system, causing a total blackout that caught many without the necessary elements To face an absolute disconnection situation in which the radio was the only window to the information. But there are those who did not spend the dark night or eating food remains of the refrigerator. They are people who have gone preparing for this type of situation And they tell us how they lived it, their tricks and that everything were jokes in their surroundings until they had to ask for a flashlight to spend the night. “What happened yesterday cannot happen again. And he can never happen again,” I commented Pedro Sánchez, president of Spain, at the press conference on April 29. Little by little it comes to light Information about the blackout that left us from those 12:33 on Monday, without electricity on the peninsula and without mobile data to communicate. To the afternoon lake, the system, Thanks to emergency servicesbegan to relive little by little, but this is something that forces us to review something as fundamental as, it can be, undervalued: The weak points of the Spanish Electric Red. Now, not only authorities must act: citizens also have something to say thanks to preparation. But, of course, The idea of ​​giving supplies And to prepare a survival kit does not appear in our mind from one day to another without something that triggers that idea. Miguel Morales is one of those people who have a series of elements at home so it can happen. “He gave me by because, after Covid, it became clear that the difference between a critical situation and a house holiday was just how you were prepared,” he tells us. Isra Fernándezpartner of Applesferais another one of those preparations for whatever comes. In his case, that spark to start creating his kit was very previous. “I’ve always been a bit ‘tarado’ with this ‘, but maybe … the 11S. He caught me out of the institute and touched my head. Then, my friends and I were always with” And if one day something happened like in ’28 days later’? ” As clarification, ‘28 days later‘It’s a zombie apocalypse movie. But although he September 11, 2001 I could turn on that spark, as in the case of Miguel, the Covid was the climax. “We supplied and could help neighbors and friends,” Isra tells us. It had gas camping, canned food, survival rations and thirty liters of water. I told myself “If you have to go, I’m here prepared” During that period, “there were people who had a really bad and others who until well” thanks to those supplies they had at home, Complete Miguel. But … what supplies? In the case of a pandemic, non -perishable foods, many in can to make homemade hornos, are “The most useful thing you can have”he tells us. And, before a blackout like yesterday, the trick was to pull batteries. “I have two batteries and both were used yesterday. Isra comments that it has 50 AA and 50 AAA batteries, and both mention the radio. Whether batteries or crank, became something essential. “Although at the beginning it was limited to reading Red Eléctrica tweets, when the coverage fell were quite key to remain informed,” says Miguel. Apart from being able to charge with sunlight, these flashlights provide a good atmosphere inside the house | Photo by Miguel Morales Isra points out that, where appropriate, it is not batteries, but of crank. Thus it does not depend on batteries and its model (this) It is loaded by kinetic energy, solar or by power to feed a 10,000 mAh battery that, in addition to the point of light, serves as a charger. It also has AM/FM radio and compass. Isra’s flashlight Within that preparation, a very important point is food. Again: not so much for events that last a few hours, such as the blackout, but for others that can be expanded months or even weeks. Isra details an absolute arsenal of food, composed of four drums of water, honeyboats, peanut cream and 10 kg of powdered milk, as well as 20 legumes and fruit cans in syrup, stating that “the ideal would be to have about 100, mainly peas, chickpeas and food with vegetable protein.” Not everything is technology: there are also candles | Photo by Miguel Morales The Gas Camping is also a good idea because there are very compact equipment that allows you to heat food in this type of situations, but they are also interesting to use from time to time for certain dishes if in your kitchen you have hobbles or induction. And Miguel tells us that he spent the day with three types of food: meals prepared in can, instant noodles and fruit. Now, How do you collect that amount of cans? “During the last six months, in each purchase I have included long -lasting products. So I have not had to make a fat purchase and I have distributed the expense,” says Miguel. Of course, not everything is to have the material and there are a series of tricks to spend the day as well as possible in these situations. Sunflower oil, for example, does not work only for cooking, but to use fuel in the gas campsite if a blackout is dilated too much and you run out of gas. Canned cans not only serve to save foodbut to make homemade hornillos. Isopropyl water and alcohol garages | Photo by Miguel Morales On the flashlights, Miguel states that beyond those of focus, those that have a wide beam are more helpful to create atmosphere in a room than those that have the directed beam and there is another factor: the blackout may be or what makes us dust off the emergency kit does not catch us at home and … Read more

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.