two researchers have found how to approximate it within the game

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‘Minecraft’ seems, at first glance, to be the last place we would go to look for a mathematical constant associated with perfect circles. Its world is made of cubes, its landscapes rise block by block and almost everything we see in the game has edges. That is precisely why what Molly Lynch of Hollins University and Michael Weselcouch of Roanoke College have done is so striking: finding a way to approximate π within Minecraft without turning the game into a conventional calculator. What are we trying to calculate?. π It is the constant that appears when comparing the length of a circle with its diameter. It is an irrational number with infinitely many non-repeating decimals. On paper, it seems like an idea inseparable from continuous geometry, of clean circles without edges. ‘Minecraft’ plays in another terrain: everything there is represented by discrete units. That is why the challenge is not only to obtain a number, but to translate a mathematical idea into a gridded world. Too heavy a possibility. ‘Minecraft’ has already proven to be Turing complete, a technical way of saying that, in theory, any program can be implemented within the game if the right mechanisms are built. This opens the door to calculating π as a machine would do, with logical instructions transferred to the universe of blocks. But Lynch and Weselcouch didn’t want to solve the problem by brute force. Translating records, logical operations and steps of an algorithm into ‘Minecraft’ actions would have turned a teaching idea into a huge and inaccessible construction. The choice. Choosing was not a whim, explains Spektrum. Lynch and Weselcouch wanted to bring mathematics closer to young people, and they saw the game as a particularly useful tool to do so. The point was not to demonstrate that Minecraft could replace a computer or to search for a particularly brilliant approximation of π, but rather to take advantage of its internal rules to construct a comprehensible explanation. That’s why his work explored relatively accessible methods for calculating known constants within the game, without turning the experiment into a difficult-to-follow technical demonstration. The darts method. The mathematical key chosen by Lynch and Weselcouch was a technique known as the Monte Carlo method, which the aforementioned publication explains with a very simple image: throwing darts at random against a circular target inscribed in a square. If all the impacts fall within the square, but only some within the circle, the proportion between them allows us to approach π/4. Then it is enough to multiply this result by four to obtain an estimate of π, although we are always talking about a statistical approximation. The translation to the game. Lynch and Weselcouch brought that idea to ‘Minecraft’ by first building a kind of red circle with a radius of 11 blocks, then enclosed within a blue square. From there they needed random events that could be counted, which they found in two creatures in the game: the slimes, which continue moving even if there are no players nearby and change direction at random, and the zoglins, which kill them. To record these eliminations, they used hoppers, funnel-shaped blocks capable of automatically picking up objects that fall on them. The final figure. The researchers recorded 619 dead slimes, of which 508 were eliminated within the circle, and with that data they arrived at π ≈ 3.283. To do this, they compared the deaths recorded within the circular area with the total deaths in the square. It is not a particularly precise approximation, and Lynch and Weselcouch do not hide it: the method would gain precision with a larger structure and with many more recorded deaths. But that limitation does not ruin the proposal. On the contrary, it helps to understand that the goal was to turn an abstract mathematical idea into something visible within Minecraft. Images | minecraft In Xataka | If you had any hope of buying a Steam Deck OLED at a good price, the RAM crisis has something to tell you

We’ve spent years unraveling a signal from space that shouldn’t exist. And finally we have a “Rosetta stone” to decipher it

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It was the year 2018 when a team of Australian scientists detected a strange radio signal in the plane of the Milky Way. The radio pulse was too slow for any known astronomical object. It seemed more like some kind of anomaly or error in the telescopes than a new discovery. However, in 2025 another similar signal was located. And then another and another. Currently, there are at least 12 of these signals recorded, which have been named long-period radio transients (LPTs). Each of them includes a new feature that makes it impossible to find a common thread. Or at least it had been that way until now, since a new group of Australian researchers has located a sign that brings together several of the pieces of the puzzle. It has been so useful that it has been colloquially dubbed a space Rosetta stone. All the pieces together. The signal located in 2018 (although it was published in 2022) occurred every 18.18 minutes. With this periodicity, a star in the Milky Way increased its brightness for 30-60 seconds, and then decreased it again. Later a similar phenomenon was located, in which it was possible to see further. A binary system consisting of a white dwarf and a red dwarf was identified. The interaction between the two produced the emission of radio waves. However, when another LPT was detected, the emissions were not radio waves, but X-rays. How was a single phenomenon going to be defined if each one was different from the previous one? The key, finally, has been another LPT, initially located by the ASKAP telescope, of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). With it, and with the collaboration of other telescopes, a binary system composed of a white dwarf and a red dwarf has been identified, whose interaction gives rise to a periodic change in brightness, accompanied by the emission of radio waves and X-rays. All in one. With all the pieces, it has now been possible to reconstruct the event. Four telescopes to reconstruct history. The new LPT has been named ASKAP J1745-5051. It is not possible to know exactly how far away it is, although estimates place it between 1,300 and 30,000 light years away. Observations made with the ASKAP radio telescope made it possible to locate a periodic emission of radio waves every 81 minutes, which corresponded to a possible LPT. In order to check if the rest of the conditions that had been observed individually were met, it was observed with three other telescopes. On the one hand, space telescopes Swift and Einstein Probewith which X-ray emissions were detected. On the other hand, with the Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope (SOAR). With this, a binary system composed of a white dwarf and a red dwarf that orbit each other with a period of 81 minutes was identified. Everything fits. The full story. The conclusion when putting all the pieces together is the following. On each orbit, the white dwarf, which has a large mass concentrated in very little space, gravitationally attracts the red dwarf and extracts material from it. This is channeled by the magnetic field of the white dwarf itself until it reaches its surface, where it collides, producing a temperature increase of millions of degrees Celsius. Furthermore, this very violent interaction causes the release of energy in the form of X-rays. On the other hand, the gas accelerated by the colliding magnetic fields of both stars is what appears to produce the radio signals. A Rosetta Stone. The principal investigator of this new study It’s called Kovi Rose. We might think that this has had to do with the fact that the discovery is referred to as a space Rosetta stone. And maybe it has had a little influence, but the reality is that there are more reasons. The original Rosetta stone It was a fragment of Egyptian rock in which there was a text written in three different languages: ancient Greek, hieroglyphics and demotic writing. Because archaeologists of the time knew how to speak Greek, they were able to use it as a basis for understanding hieroglyphs. One language allowed them to reconstruct another. In this case, the new discovery is also in three languages: radio waves, detected by ASKAP, X-rays, with which Swift and Einstein Probe work, and visible light from SOAR. Three languages, three pieces that, when read together, can help to understand the whole much better. With this Rosetta stone, the authors of the study hope to be able to unravel many of these mysterious signals from the Universe. Image | Hans Hillewaert (Wikimedia Commons)/Magnific In Xataka | We believed that the pyramids of Giza did not hide any more secrets. we believed wrong

the last film directed by one of the greatest masters in the history of cinema

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Clint Eastwood turned 96 on May 31. And a bit of coincidence, with a statement from his son, jazz musician Kyle Eastwood (saying that “he’s retired now, but I’ve been very lucky to be able to work with him on quite a few films”), we’ve learned that Eastwood is no longer going to make any more films. There have been no official statements, but the retirement of the person responsible for ‘Unforgiven’ or ‘The Pale Rider’ leaves us with a filmography full of great films, of all genres and intensities. Let’s celebrate by remembering the last of them, ‘Jury Nº 2‘, released in 2024 and which you can see in Movistar Plus and HBO Max. ‘Jury No. 2’ is a judicial thriller with a moral dilemma on board, as Eastwood likes them: Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) is called to serve on a jury in a high-profile murder case, and discovers that he himself could be more involved in the crime than he thought. The cast is completed with a veritable array of heavyweights such as Toni Collette, JK Simmons and Kiefer Sutherland. The film is Eastwood’s fortieth as a director. ‘Jury No. 2’ was conceived originally as a direct streaming premiere. The change to a limited theatrical release It arrived after some internal passes that yielded very favorable opinionsbut he barely received advertising coverage from the studio, which was said to have resented the author for the poor box office results of ‘Cry Macho’. It was finally released, as was later learned, not only out of respect for the director’s advanced age, but in recognition of his 50-year relationship with Warner Bros. This stimulating thriller closes an absolutely exemplary career, always halfway between popular genres and auteur cinema, since the time of his international fame aboard some of Sergio Leone’s most significant titles. Between those first successes and his recognition by critics starting with ‘Unforgiven’ in 1992, there was the creation of milestones such as Dirty Harry and a series of absolutely superb westerns and thrillers, often directed by himself. He has spent this entire century praised by critics and the public thanks to films like ‘Million Dollar Baby’ or ‘Mystic River’. In Xataka | Rafa Nadal won 22 Grand Slams and lost 18 more due to injury: the documentary that explores those last ones arrives on Netflix today

Bringing wind energy 100 km from the coast seemed impossible. Until China has thrown away its new metallic “heart”

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A 25,000-tonne mass of steel, with the surface area of ​​a football field and the height of a 15-story building, is currently crossing the ocean aboard an immense semi-submersible ship. The latest great milestone in Asian engineering is already underway. This colossus has just set sail from the port of Nantong, in the eastern province of Jiangsu, on a 1,090 nautical mile journey to southern China. The protagonist of this monumental journey is called “Hai Feng Zhi Xin“, which translated into Spanish means “heart of the sea wind.” As highlighted in an official statement collected by the agency PR Newswireit is the largest offshore converter station in the world, built by the state-owned Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (ZPMC). Its destination is the waters off the city of Yangjiang, where it will connect to the mammoth Qingzhou V and Qingzhou VII offshore wind farms, operated by the corporation Three Gorges. The “bottleneck” of offshore wind. To understand the magnitude of this project, you have to understand the historical problem that the wind sector faced. As the news agency explains XinhuaUntil now, the development of offshore wind energy has hit a physical wall. Conventional wind turbines produce electricity in alternating current (AC). The problem is that transmitting this alternating current through submarine cables over long distances causes severe and unaffordable energy losses. This technical limitation forced engineers to build wind farms in relatively shallow waters and very close to the coast. However, the wind resource is much stronger, stable and constant the further you go into the open sea. That’s where the technological solution of this new project comes into play as it acts as the largest power adapter on the planet. It collects the energy generated by no less than 163 wind turbines, increases its voltage and converts that alternating current into direct current (DC). So why is this a game changer? Because direct current can travel hundreds of kilometers underwater with minimal energy loss. The platform boasts a record unit capacity of 2,000 megawatts (MW) and operates with a flexible ±500 kilovolts (kV) direct current transmission system. In addition, it is a pioneer in the use of ±525 kV submarine cables for these distances. This technical conversion unlocks access to high-quality wind resources located more than 100 kilometers offshore, making ultra-deepwater wind finally commercially viable. When at full capacity, this metal “heart” will pump out 6 billion kWh of clean electricity a year, a vital boost to the decarbonization efforts of the industrialized Guangdong region. A 25,000 ton giant. Building a power plant in the middle of the raging deep ocean is not a viable option. The project was approached as a gigantic set of modular parts. Assembly, integration of all equipment and installation progressed in parallel onshore (Nantong), demanding an unprecedented level of supply chain coordination. Yan Bing, Senior Specialist of ZPMC cited by PR Newswireexplains that they adopted an integrated construction model of “land assembly, transportation as a single unit, and float-over installation.” This offshore installation method is overwhelmingly complex, requiring millimeter-level adjustment precision amidst strong ocean currents to fit the superstructure. Once locked into place, the platform’s working environment will be unforgiving. As detailed Xinhuawill operate completely autonomously, without a permanent human crew, controlled through intelligent maintenance and remote monitoring systems. Inside, a dense network of electrical, ventilation and fire control systems has been specially armored to resist the very high salinity and corrosive humidity of the deep ocean. The urgency of this megaproject. This feat is within China’s 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030). The Asian country has set the goal of reaching 100 gigawatts (GW) of installed offshore wind energy capacity by 2030. China’s problem is that its nearshore wind resources are quickly becoming saturated. Just in February this year, the country connected the first 20-megawatt offshore wind turbine to the grid in Fujian province (made entirely from domestic components), followed by the installation of the world’s largest floating wind platform in Yangjiang. The 100 kilometers from the coast are no longer an unbreakable border. With the imminent ignition of its new energy node, China not only alleviates the energy hunger of its coastal areas, but also establishes a replicable technical model that demonstrates to the entire world that the future of clean energy inevitably requires losing sight of the shore. Image | Xu Congjun/Xinhua Xataka | Japan has realized that it cannot depend on gas, so it is going to set up a mega wind farm on the coast of Tokyo

We are obsessed with magnesium as a dietary supplement. Your “overdose” has a name: hypermagnesemia

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In recent years, magnesium has become the star supplement for many people. Promoted as the definitive remedy to sleep betteravoid muscle cramps, slow aging or reduce stress, has managed to penetrate a society that has seen these benefits as a real lifesaver for their daily lives. However, taking magnesium without a laboratory-documented deficiency is not only useless, As we have commented on several occasionsbut it can trigger a very dangerous clinical condition. There are differences with respect to the vitamin complexes that we also sin of taking in an abusive way without an analysis involved. And in these cases the excess is usually easily eliminated through urine without major impact, but serum magnesium operates in a very narrow physiological range, and this means that when we saturate our body exceeding its safety limits, the adverse effects manifest themselves in a domino effect that compromises everything from the digestive system to the heart rate. And it’s something we fall into thinking that ‘the more the better’. The balance. Our body has all its parameters well regulated within a range of fairly well-defined values ​​so as not to generate pathology due to excess or deficiency. In this case, different references suggest that the normal value of magnesium in blood ranges between 1.7 and 2.2 mg/dL, and can reach 2.4 mg/dL in some laboratories. Hypermagnesemia is formally diagnosed when these levels exceed 2.5 or 2.6 mg/dL, and the truth is that it is easy to reach these extremes in the case of widespread supplementation when there is no clear deficit. Its effects. In the case of overdoing it with magnesium intakethe first warning that we are going to have will be in the digestive system, since the magnesium here will act by attracting water to the intestine, causing diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal cramps. But when we increase the excess to a moderate range of between 4 and 6 mg/dL, magnesium begins to act as a depressant of the nervous system and a vasodilator, which translates into a drop in blood pressure and muscle weakness. In serious cases. When levels exceed the barrier of 6 mg/dL, the condition becomes critical, and here the guidelines warn of a profound neuromuscular blockade that can lead to muscle paralysis, which can be fatal if it reaches the respiratory muscles. But it does not stop there, since the cardiovascular system also goes into crisis in this situation, and the electrocardiogram of these patients shows severe alterations that cause it to lose its natural rhythm. The role of the kidney. In completely healthy patients, this organ acts as an extremely filter efficient when it comes to excreting all the excess magnesium through urine. However, when we talk about people who have compromised kidney function, the kidney will not be able to work properly removing magnesium from supplements, so it will accumulate quickly, generating all the complications we have seen before. The physiology. For all this, you cannot take magnesium like a candy, trusting that all the benefits they sell us will magically come true. The recommendation is always to consult a doctor to determine this mineral, and supplement (if necessary) with a maximum between 250 and 300 mg of magnesium per day. Exceeding this dose, especially by consuming multiple supplements or abusing magnesium-containing laxatives, is playing Russian roulette with our electrolyte balance. Images | MIND FAVOR In Xataka | Like so many supplements before, we need to be clear about something about magnesium: it’s not going to work miracles.

Thousands of Spaniards are obsessed with Hyrox. So Amazfit has launched two smart watches for them

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Crossfit is dead long live Hyrox. The other day a colleague asked me what the hell is that, and I had a hard time answering him in a simple way. So that we understand each other, it is basically a mix of running and seasonal exercises. You do one mile, move on to a station (sled pushing, burpees, rowing, weighted lunges), you do another mile, move on to another station for a total of eight. A boom that already brings together thousands of participants in competitions. Such is the Hyrox boom that one of the most relevant smart watch manufacturers in the world, Amazfit, has released two especially oriented for sports measurements of this discipline. Let’s take a look at the new ones Amazfit Balance 3 and Balance Ultra. Technical sheet of the Amazfit Balance 3 and Amazfit Balance Ultra amazfit balance 3 amazfit balance ultra DIMENSIONS AND WEIGHT 47.5 × 47.5 × 12.5mm 48.6 x 48.6 x 13.3mm MATERIAL Grade five titanium for the case Stainless steel and grade five titanium versions for the case SCREEN 1.5 inches AMOLED technology Resolution 480×480 3,000 nits peak brightness Supports glove mode sapphire lens 1.5 inches AMOLED technology Resolution 480×480 3,000 nits peak brightness Supports glove mode Sapphire Lens STRAP SIZE 22mm 22mm CONNECTIVITY Dual band GPS Bluetooth 2.4GHz WiFi Dual band GPS Bluetooth 2.4GHz WiFi SENSORS BioTracker PPG biometric sensor (supports blood oxygen measurement) temperature sensor Acceleration sensorGyroscopic sensorGeomagnetic sensorbarometric altimeterAmbient light sensor BioTracker PPG biometric sensor (supports blood oxygen measurement) temperature sensor Acceleration sensorGyroscopic sensorGeomagnetic sensorbarometric altimeterAmbient light sensor ENDURANCE 10ATM 45 meters diving 10ATM 45 meters diving processor ZPS3044S ZPS3044S memory 64GB 64GB BATTERY 780mAh 780mAh COMPATIBILITY iOS and Android iOS and Android SOFTWARE Zepp OS 6 Zepp OS 6 PRICE 349 euros for the steel version 449 euros for the titanium version 599 euros, unique titanium version Born for Hyrox Amazfit Balance Ultra vs Amazfit Balance 3 The most notable thing about the new Amazfit Balance Ultra and Amazfit Balance 3 is that they are specifically designed for Hyrox. It’s not that they have just one specific way to practice this sport, it’s that they have an entire library of hybrid training plans to prepare ourselves when making one. They are able to create strategies depending on the actual length of the track we are going to compete on, and even the size of the ROX Zone (the transition area between the running track and the exercise stations). The degree of analysis during Hyrox training is more than precise: We will see the weather in each of the stations in the apptarget pace, completed pace and average pace. In addition, a monitoring system called Hybrid Chargein which not only a measurement of physical parameters is made objectively: the watch will also ask us about our subjective sensation to track our recovery even more completely. These measurements will also analyze how we have performed in our training, to tell us if we have done better in the strength or resistance stations, with the aim that we are clear about the points to improve. Two great clocks with all the letters Beyond the specialization in Hyrox that Amazfit has wanted to provide to its Balance 3 and Balance Ultra, we are faced with two watches with more than interesting specifications. The panel is both 1.5 inches, AMOLED, with sapphire coating (it is quite difficult to scratch us due to the physical properties of this material), and with a peak brightness of 3,000 nits. Don’t you know if this is a lot or a little? It is the same brightness of a iPhone 17 Pro Maxwithout going any further. The main differences are in the battery. The Ultra model has 780mAh and lasts up to 30 days of typical use according to Amazfitwhile the Balance 3 has 658mAh and up to 21 days of typical use. Although in real use with GPS the figures go down, Amazfit is well known for offering one of the most complete autonomy in sports watches. There are also slight differences in the finish: The Ultra model is finished entirely in grade five titaniumwhile the Balance 3 has grade five titanium and stainless steel versions. Of course, the steel Balance 3 is not completely metallic (just the frame), the casing is plastic. These watches have something that their competition does not usually include: a Dual band circular polarization GPS antenna. This curious name refers precisely to how many GPS satellites transmit signals (circularly), which allows the signal to reach widely and with less interference. By the way As Amazfit usually does, there are dozens of sports modes, measurement of blood oxygen, heart rate, sleep and stress (among others), all through the app Zepp Lifewhose data can be synchronized with third-party apps such as StravaAdidas Running, Apple Health or Google Health. If you have never tried an Amazfit, it is worth knowing that incorporate ZeppOS 6. It is a hybrid between a simple java system and a complete system like WearOS either WatchOS. It has its own “application store” (a small repository), countless watchfaces (both official and third-party), and it works quite correctly. Besides, It is a system that allows callswith hardware that incorporates a microphone and speakers to be able to respond from the watch, just as we would do in the most advanced systems. Versions and price of the Amazfit Balance 3 and Amazfit Balance Ultra The Amazfit Balance 3 and Amazfit Balance Ultra are from the company’s most advanced watchesand they will arrive in Spain at the following prices. Amazfit Balance 3 in stainless steel case | 349 euros Amazfit Balance 3 in titanium frame | 449 euros Amazfit Balance Ultra in Titanium Case and Frame | 599 euros With the Ultra, Amazfit begins to look closely at the heaviest rivals on the market, looking for a niche in the Hyrox athlete that has not yet been covered. In Xataka | The Deportivo de la Coruña store knows how many people come in, … Read more

The problem is not spending a lot of tokens, it’s that most of them are being wasted

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A year ago, Sam Altman did a striking prediction: as the production of data centers becomes automated, the cost of intelligence (AI) should at some point converge with the cost of electricity.” Or what is the same: access to AI would be very, very cheap. That has not happened by any means, but in addition to spending a lot of tokens, we are wasting them. So much AI for what?. He phenomenon of tokenmaxxing -he rampant token consumption more like fashion than something useful—has begun to set off alarm bells, because companies have realized that they are spending small fortunes for their employees to try to get the most out of AI. AI dismissal. A study by the startup EntelligenceAI affirms that for every dollar invested in AI, only 18 cents end up reaching production. The remaining 82% ends up being invested in correcting errors, rewriting code and executing review processes that do not generate direct value. This is what they call “unproductive spending,” and it is a warning sign because the success of this technology does not depend on us using AI non-stop, but on using it to improve productivity. Uber warns. Andrew Macdonald, COO of Uber, I questioned openly whether this massive spending by companies like yours on AI is really justified when it is not linked to improvements in productivity. The company has been one of those that has decided to cut spending on Anthropic models because the available annual budget had already been “vented” to use them. Investing in tokens ends up being unprofitable: the “useful part” is less than a fifth of what is invested, according to EIntelligence AI. The uncertainty is there. Other experts They warn just the opposite: This is just the beginning of what is to come, so taking action against AI consumption may be counterproductive. The problem is not so much that AI is being used, but rather that it is being wasted: this obsession with consuming tokens caused the CFO at Amazon, for example, to tell his employees “Don’t use AI just for the sake of using it”. The company rewarded those who used AI the most, so many ended up using it for trivial, redundant or useless tasks. Use AI appropriately. Matan Gringberg, CEO of the AI ​​startup Factory, told in WSJ how a manager at a major financial institution had told him that his employees were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a month on tokens. The problem was that some were using the most powerful models to answer simple questions or just to chat. The message here is clear: these models must be used appropriately to avoid wasting them: “If your daughter needs private algebra classes, you can probably find someone cheaper than Albert Einstein to give them to her,” he concluded. We are consuming tokens beyond our means. At the Google I/O event Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, explained that the company currently processes more than 3.2 trillion tokens per month, seven times more than a year ago. Faced with this demand, both it and other companies are “punishing” the trivial use of AI models. AI agents consume tokens like there’s no tomorrow. What has also happened is that the arrival and popularization of agentic programming tools, such as Claude Code, Codex or Antigravity, causes many more tokens to be consumed because with them it is possible to automate the execution of programming tasks (or other areas) on a continuous basis. The AI ​​model prepares a plan, executes it, and at each step thinks and evaluates its responses before continuing with the plan. This process is intensive in token consumption, and is the main reason why token consumption has skyrocketed. Flat rates, nothing. Monthly plans like ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro offered leeway for developers to consume huge amounts of tokens with hardly any limitations. However, both OpenAI and Anthropic and other companies have begun to change their strategies, limiting the cases in which these flat rates can be used so that users cannot abuse them. If they want to consume more they can, but always through a pay-per-use philosophy: the more you use, the more you pay for something that at least helps users be aware that they cannot use super-powerful models for useless conversations with their chatbots. Image | Xataka with Magnific In Xataka | If the question is whether using ChatGPT or Claude in English is more efficient and saves tokens, the answer is: yes

open a ghost road that almost no one uses

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A mousetrap. This is how José Manuel Tofiño, mayor of Illescas, defines the A-42 highway that connects Madrid with Toledo. The road runs collapsed every day but next to it it has the most underused toll road in Spain. The claim is obvious. The answer, so far, too. Maddening. It is one of the terms that best defines the journey that thousands of drivers make every day on the A-42 towards Madrid. And in the direction of Toledo. Because back and forth, morning and afternoon, there is only one reality on the A-42 highway: it is clogged. Although neighborhood and political complaints are once again on the table, congestion on the A-42 has been critical for years. Already in 2020the representatives of the Popular party of the Community of Madrid and the affected municipalities of Toledo demanded measures from the Executive. Now they are the PSOE politicians those who demand solutions. What’s happening? Simply, the A-42 is clogged daily while the A-41, which runs parallel, is empty. According to data collected by The Countrythe A-42 has an average traffic flow of up to 90,000 vehicles per day at some points, while the payment option barely exceeds 2,000 vehicles. The figure has even been growing in recent years given that the neighboring free highway is completely overflowing. And a little over a decade ago the cars that passed through the A-41 was less than a thousand a day. The situation has even been causing for years delays on adjacent roads. National roads that drivers try to use as a means of escape from the highway. Because? Although the A-42 has been living in an extreme situation for years, the problem has become entrenched in recent years. The A-42 is a road that connects Madrid and Toledo passing through La Sagra. It is an area close to Madrid known for cities where a good part of the workers go to Madrid daily, such as Illescas and Yeles (Toledo) or Torrejón de la Calzada and Parla (Madrid). Next to the city, the road runs through Getafe. A good part of those workers left Madrid during the real estate bubble before 2008 looking for larger houses and at more affordable prices. However, the current housing crisis has once again caused Madrid residents look favorably on these towns south of the city. The cranes, for example, have returned to Seseñaclassic bubble burst image. But, in addition, together with Illescas, a logistics center has been promoted that has become one of the great merchandise hubs in the center of the peninsula. This has also triggered the transport of heavy vehicles, which complicates circulation even more. Precisely, The proximity of the A-42 is one of the great attractions to carry the goods there on the way to Madrid. make it free. Therefore, in their latest claims, regional politicians ask that the A-41 be opened to all vehicles to alleviate the situation on the A-42. The measure they propose is very simple: if one road is empty and the other is collapsed, let it be liberalized. The problem is that the concession for the A-41 does not expire until 2040. At the moment, the road is completely free from 0:00 to 6:00, which is an alternative to the first to hit the road. However, local voices They attribute this to the intention of the concessionaire company to save workers’ salaries and emphasize that at that time it is not a problem to travel on the A-42 since it is first thing in the morning when it gets stuck. Or at least public transportation. In his report, in The Countrycollect the testimony of Alberto Blázquez, a 28-year-old computer scientist and resident of Palomeque (near the A-42) who takes his car to Illescas and, from there, takes a train to Fuenlabrada (Madrid) and makes a transfer to get to Atocha and thus ends up arriving at his workplace. This is what some workers have opted for when they see that it takes the same time by public transport as by car. What they propose is that the Cercanías network be expanded to Illescas to facilitate the train connection with the city and that bus connections be improved, which right now, other voices point out in that same report, are also overwhelmed since they left Madrid. These claims, as well as the construction of a third lane from Parla, are the requests that residents and Madrid residents have been demanding for years. So far, the only thing that has changed is that the problem is even more serious. Photo | Miguel Angel Masegosa Martínez and DGT In Xataka | The longest straight road in the world is a mental challenge: 240 km without curves, in the middle of the desert and with truck traffic

the cash cow strategy

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The hardware market in 2026 It’s complicated, no, the following. The memory crisis has caused a domino effect that has made renewing a PC or building it from scratch almost a luxury. Given this situation, AMD has decided that the best attack is a good defense. Its strategy is striking: extend the life of what already works. difficult times. During the Computex celebration, AMD has made several launches that appeal precisely to that practical and conservative spirit. In fact, there is also a striking commitment to nostalgia and a clear message: if you need to update your PC, there are ways to do it without having to take out a second mortgage. Nostalgia made processor. To start, AMD has relaunched the Ryzen 7 5800X3D with a “10th Anniversary Edition”. It is a striking launch because we are dealing with a chip for Socket AM4 that, as its name indicates, was already launched 10 years ago. It sells for $349 and seeks to attract users who do not want to make the leap to Socket AM5 and prefer to opt for a chip that was the most popular a decade ago. Obviously it is no longer, but it is still an interesting proposal for a certain sector of users. The reasonable option. The real protagonist is the new AMD Ryzen 7 7700X3D, a processor for socket AM5 that is launched at a recommended retail price of $329. Its 104 MB of cache in total make it more than suitable for gaming equipment, and it is a very interesting alternative to the top of the range, the 7800X3D. Extending the life of the plate. AMD knows that it is not the best time to update equipment from scratch, so it has given some reassuring news: official support for the AM5 socket will be extended until 2029, three years longer than expected. It is a way to extend the validity of a platform that still makes sense, especially with the current market situation. A peculiar graphic. We recently told how, for the first time in 30 years, Nvidia predictably will not present new GPUs for gamers in 2026. AMD does have something new: the Radeon RX 9070 GRE, which will have 12 GB of GDDR6 memory. It costs $549 and has 22% more performance than the 16GB RTX 5060 Ti. It’s not exactly a bargain, but it gives something that is appreciated in these times: options. Deprogrammed obsolescence. At this Computex 2026 fair it seems to be confirmed that the industry is stopping the usual planned obsolescence, and it is doing so out of pure economic necessity. Savings have become a priority in view of the situation, and the PC segment is currently moving away from the search for the “fastest and best.” In Xataka | A man paid $23 for a PC case at an auction. He discovered inside a 24-core CPU and an RTX 3080 Ti

is reinventing its AI chips from scratch

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Cambricon Technologies is an essential company in China’s plans to challenge the US for its leadership in artificial intelligence (AI). Although it is not as well known as Huawei or Moore Threads, this is one of the companies specialized in the design of accelerators for AI with greater growth potential. Be that as it may, these three companies are China’s clearest alternatives to Nvidia because all three have already managed to place competitive solutions on the market. The priority strategy of the Government led by Xi Jinping seeks to build a self-sufficient ecosystem capable of breaking Nvidia’s dominance in the market. However, as stated SCMPat the center of this rivalry is a fundamental design debate: should China continue betting on GPUs or is it preferable for it to make the leap towards ASIC technology (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit or application-specific integrated circuit)? ASIC chips are designed to perform a single specific task, unlike GPUs and CPUs, which are general purpose. Its main advantage is efficiency. And since they are optimized for a specific function, they consume less energy and are faster in that task. Even so, they have a disadvantage: their rigidity. They cannot be reprogrammed to carry out another function, so the debate we raised a few lines above makes perfect sense. Convergence seems inevitable Large Chinese technology companies that choose ASIC chips for AI gain performance in their specific models, but are tied to an architecture that does not adapt well if the type of workload changes. This is the problem with this approach. a report prepared by Morgan Stanley and published on May 8, makes the market dynamics clear: it predicts that Huawei will capture 62% of the Chinese AI accelerator market in 2026, followed by Cambricon Technologies with 14%. ASIC chip heavyweights increasing relevance and volume in China Among the large technology companies with their own chips, Baidu and Alibaba are around 5% each. In any case, there is no doubt about one thing: the heavyweights of ASIC chips are increasing in relevance and its volume in China. And they are largely succeeding because the performance gap between Chinese chips and Nvidia GPUs allowed for export has narrowed noticeably. Morgan Stanley data reflect that Huawei’s Ascend 950 cards and Cambricon Technologies’ Siyuan 690 cards exceed the performance of Nvidia’s H20 GPU. Zhang Haijun, an expert semiconductor analyst, holds that as AI models become more complex the line between custom ASICs and flexible GPUs becomes increasingly blurred. This scenario suggests that the winning architecture could end up combining elements of both approaches. Su Lian Jye, the chief analyst at consulting firm Omdia, defend That companies with strong AI engineering capabilities and a clear roadmap benefit from ASICs, while those handling mixed workloads continue to lean toward general-purpose GPUs. For now, the market momentum in China clearly favors specialists. To companies that bet on ASIC technology. Partly by choice. Partly because the sanctions have left them no choice. Image | Enflame More information | SCMP In Xataka | The US remains committed to stopping China. Now it has targeted the second largest Chinese chip manufacturer

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