more than 2 km and you can walk like 2,000 years ago

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For centuries the Romans dedicated themselves to expanding throughout Europe and North Africa, taking over the Mediterranean and weaving a wide network which spanned from the Nile Valley to Britannia. A vast world in which his mark is still present today, more than a millennium and a half later. However, few places can boast of preserving a vestige like the one that has stood in Galicia since the 3rd century AD. There, in Lugo, it remains a wall apparently immune to the passage of time that continues with an appearance not very different from what the legionnaires saw in their day. That makes it a unique treasure. A magnetism that does not go out. In a world in which immediacy rules and in which chronicles are out of date within a few hours of being published (the war in Iran leaves a good example), the Lugo wall is a rare bird. It was built nearly 2,000 years ago, between 3rd and 4th centuries of our era, and has been endorsed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site for more than a quarter of a century. However, despite its long history and enormous popularity, the fortification continues to make headlines in 2026. A quick search comes to check it. News, reports, guides…all about a monument almost twenty centuries old and all signed in recent months. The interest in the Lugo wall does not fade. Just as other large constructions inherited from the Romans or the pre-columbian civilizations. What is the reason? That the Roman wall of Lugo is unique. And we don’t mean it in a kind, complimentary way or with the purpose of extolling its virtues. No. Its authenticity is objective and is recognized by UNESCO itself, which in 2000 included it on its World Heritage list and its benefits still stand out today. The UN technicians emphasize its “exceptional universal value” and remember why it is such an unusual piece: “It constitutes the most complete and best preserved example of Roman military architecture in the Western Empire (…). It represents the best example of late Roman military fortifications.” “Despite the rehabilitation works carried out, the walls retain their original layout and construction elements typical of their defensive function, with walls, battlements, towers, fortifications, doors and stairs, both modern and original,” comments UNESCOwhich remembers that it also maintains the original layout. “Very few complexes can offer the same historical authenticity and archaeological integrity, both in size, integration and continued use.” Is that so strange? In case there were any doubts, the United Nations office insist: “The authenticity of the walls of Lugo lies in the fact that they have survived 18 centuries intact. During that long period, numerous interventions have been carried out on specific parts for practical and aesthetic purposes, which means that they are not preserved exactly in their original form; therefore, from a restrictive interpretation, they could be considered to lack a certain authenticity. However, as a whole, their authenticity is impeccable.” The unique character of the construction is also claimed by Spanish institutions, starting with Turespaña, which presents it as “the only Roman wall on the three continents that experienced Roman domination that has remained entirely intact.” The same idea is emphasized from the Xunta de Galicia and the Lugo Provincial Councilwhich insists that, despite the changes it has experienced to adapt to the times and the city, “it continues to preserve its perimeter intact, a circumstance that makes it unique in the world.” A lurking colossus. If the above were not enough to highlight its historical value, the fortification draws attention in itself. Perhaps it only represents a tiny part of what the Great Wall of China (with which by the way is twinned for almost two decades), but even so the Galician defense is large enough to stand out in the urban area of ​​Lugo. In total it measures 2,117 meterswith an average thickness of 4.2 m and an unequal height that ranges between eight and 12 m. In some sections it reaches seven wide. Its plan is rectangular and, according to Tourespañacovers 34.4 hectares. As for the structure, it is built with earth-based mortar, loose stone and pebbles. Gates and towers. The above is just part of your business card. In addition to the wall itself, the complex includes a dozen gates and a good part of the original towers. Both elements are interesting. Regarding the doors, the Provincial Council technicians remember half of which are considered original from Roman times. The other five opened from the 19th century to adapt to the urban development and accessibility needs of Lugo. There are those who believe that this adaptation was key for its preservation. With respect to the towers, the autonomous administration points out that the wall preserves 71, most of the 85 original structures. Other sources speak of only 63 “cubes” preserved, among which include one of the most emblematic towers, A Mosquera, which still preserves two original windows. The fortification also has quadrangular structures. They complete the set the stairs, the ramps and the archaeological remains. Although the conservation of the wall has received various endorsements important, not everything is perfect: in February a storm caused a section of several meters will collapse. According to The Voice of Galicia It is the first collapse in two decades. A gem with legend. A construction like the wall of Lugo is not only defined by its history, it also accumulates centuries and centuries of tradition and legends. One of them, perhaps the most famousmaintains that the Romans did not build the fortification to protect a city but rather a forest, the ‘Sacred Forest of Augustus’, ‘Lucus Augusti’, from which the current name of the city originates. What we do know is that it took shape mainly between the 3rd and 4th centuries AD and today it stands out for two things. The first, for being “an exceptional legacy” of Roman architecture and engineering, a merit recognized by UNESCO itself. The second, because it … Read more

Forgetting dreams when waking up seemed like an unimportant anecdote. A Spanish macro-study has linked it to Alzheimer’s

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Today, one of the great challenges that modern neurology has with the Alzheimer’s It is not just treating it, but detecting it before it shows its face, since right now there are several therapeutic options that manage to stop the progression of the disease. That is why our effort is to find biomarkers that warn patients that something is happening, and the last one is related to dreams. Spanish research. Based on the Vallecas project and promoted by the Reina Sofía Foundation or the CEIN Foundationand who has pointed out how not remembering dreams can be a risk marker for Alzheimer’s very premature. But to reach this conclusion, researchers have had to analyze a cohort of 1,049 people cognitively healthy older adults, who have been closely followed for a period of up to 10 years. In the end we are talking about a large amount of information that has intersected with the genetics and lifestyle of all patients, and even with the moment in which the first molecular markers of Alzheimer’s began to appear. The dreams. At first glance it might seem like an anecdotal correlation that what happens with our dreams has some relationship with Alzheimer’s, but the reality is that it has a very solid neurobiological basis. And to understand it we have to go to what is known as the default neural network, which is a set of brain regions that are activated when our mind is at rest, wandering or precisely dreaming. Scientific evidence accumulated in recent years has shown that the default neural network is highly vulnerable to Alzheimer’s pathology and is, in fact, one of the first areas to suffer structural and functional damage. In this way, if this network begins to fail in the earliest phases of the disease, it is logical to think that functions associated with it, such as the consolidation and memory of dreams, will be diminished. They have gone further. One of the most interesting points of this Spanish study is that it was not based solely on patient surveys, which may have reduced reliability. Here the researchers looked for important biomarkers, such as the presence of the APOE ε4 allele, which is a genetic variant that predisposes one to suffer from the sporadic form of the disease. In addition, they also analyzed the tau-217 protein, which today is one of the blood markers that indicates a possible Alzheimer’s disease in the early stages of the disease. And only with a blood sample. That is why these results now gain greater strength when it comes to relating the problem to dreams and Alzheimer’s. A paradigm shift. Don’t be scared if you woke up this morning without remembering what you dreamed, since this is completely normal and depends on many factors such as stress, the sleep phase in which we wake up or even age. Here the researchers only point to a sustained pattern of loss of dream memory in older people who, so far, do not have any obvious cognitive problems. That is why this discovery is purely clinical and preventive, since scanning the entire population is unfeasible due to cost and risks. However, asking a patient in consultation about their sleeping habits and their ability to remember what they dream about is free and non-invasive. But logically this has to be accompanied by an effective screening system to be able to diagnose the disease even before the first serious symptoms appear. Images | Slaapwijsheid.nl Robina Weermeijer In Xataka | Dementia is devastating largely because it arrives without warning: some researchers already predict it seven years in the future

If fog was deadly in Ukraine’s winter, spring is offering Russia a key advantage: greenery

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In modern conflicts, small changes in the environment can completely alter the balance of combat, even in the face of advanced technologies such as combat drones or sensors. Throughout history, factors such as climate, the ground or the vegetation have conditioned entire offensivesdeciding when and how to attack. In many cases, the difference between advancing or being exposed didn’t depend on a weapon, but on what was happening in the landscape. The same is happening in Ukraine. The cold as an invisible brake. It we count in several occasions. Last winter, the war in Ukraine was marked for a factor as silent as it is decisive: the visibility and conditions meteorological conditions that favored some over others, where the absence of vegetation and phenomena such as the fog and the cold They turned the battlefield into an exposed and lethal space for any offensive movement. In that environment, the drones dominated the air with ease, detecting practically any movement and converting each advance into an immediate risk. Russia, despite its superiority in resources, saw its momentum partially slowed while Ukraine took advantage of this scenario to stabilize the front and launch limited but effective counterattacks. Spring changes the script. With the arrival of spring, that balance begins to break because the terrain is no longer the same nor is the visibility. The vegetation, especially the lines of trees that run through the agricultural fields, introduces a concealment element which profoundly alters the dynamics of combat. So, I remembered this morning the new york times that what was previously an open space dominated by sensors and drones is transformed into a fragmented environment where movement is once again possible, even if in a limited and slower way. Trees as a tactical weapon. Tree lines, inherited from the soviet era to protect crops, they have become natural corridors for the advance, withdrawal and reorganization of troops, offering cover from constant aerial surveillance. In a conflict where large mechanized movements have lost effectiveness, the war is now being fought on foot and in small groupsand this vegetation cover reduces exposure and increases the chances of survival. Vegetation does not eliminate drone threatbut it does hinder their detection ability, enough to change the probabilities on the ground. The Russian advantage. They remembered in the Times that, although both sides benefit from this new coverage, Ukraine recognizes that the effect can favor Russia more due to its greater number of troops, which allows it to better take advantage of any concealment opportunity and advance with fewer relative losses. In areas such as around the Dnieper River, where vegetation has grown especially dense, Russian troops can concentrate and maneuver with a level of discretion that did not exist in winter. This change does not guarantee decisive advances, but it does increase the options for achieve tactical progress. War and the seasons. If you like, the evolution of the conflict confirms to what extent seasonal factors They continue to be decisive even in a dominated war by advanced technologywhere each season alters the rules of combat. If winter favored the defense by exposing the attacker, spring introduces a room for maneuver that Russia tries to exploit to regain initiative. Even so, the constant presence of drones maintains large areas of the front as spaces of high lethality, which limits the scope of any offensive and suggests that, despite the change in scenario, the war will continue to be slow, costly and still far from being resolved in the short term. Image | 7th Army Training Command In Xataka | If the question is where Russia’s missiles come from in the Ukrainian war, the answer is surprising: from cigarette filters In Xataka | Neither drones nor missiles nor AI, the war in Ukraine has turned a vehicle from 1950 into a key piece: the M113

a mysterious whistle without explanation

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In 1969, the Apollo 10 astronauts and one of the Apollo 11 astronauts They heard an intriguing whistle between ghostly and spatial that left them stunned. In both cases, they heard this type of music when they were flying over the Moon. Therefore, it could be expected that the Artemis II crew would have heard it as well. However, we know that he has not. Not only because they have not commented on it, but because today the origin of that sound is known and in the case of this new mission it would have been impossible for them to hear it. Nobody will believe us. It was the month of May 1969 when the Apollo 10 mission, the equivalent of Artemis II if we compare the Apollo program with Artemis, made its particular trip to the Moon. When they were orbiting around the far side of the satellite, the entire crew began to hear a mysterious whistle. The pilot, Gene Cernan, was the first to comment on the matter. “That music even sounds like outer space, right? You hear it? That whistling sound?” Everyone else joined in the comments, which later would appear in NASA transcripts. Later, John W. Young would add: “We’re going to have to find out about this, no one will believe us.” History repeats itself. Contrary to what Young thought, they did believe them. So when the Apollo 11 astronauts embarked on their own journey two months later, they were warned that they might encounter that sound. Two of the astronauts on this mission didn’t hear it, but one did. As the command module pilot, Michael Collins, would later explain in his memoirs, when he was flying over the Moon alone, with his companions perched on the satellite, he heard exactly the same noise. Even though he had been warned about it, he couldn’t help but be overwhelmed. No aliens in sight. In reality, the sound that all these astronauts heard was not alien at all, but something very terrestrial and human: an interference. Apollo 10 didn’t just fly over the Moon. He also tested the empty lander, to check that it undocked correctly from the command module. It did not touch the selenite surface, but it did separate and descend a little. It was at that moment that the sound was heard. In the case of Apollo 11, only Collins heard it at exactly the same moment. When the two parts of the ship were separated. Over time, those in charge of NASA’s transmission system discovered that it was interference between the lander’s radio system and the command module. When they separated, their respective radios they competed between them, causing this curious effect. YoIt is not possible that it was heard in Orion. On the Apollo missions, astronauts could use the command module or the landing module. While the second was on the Moon, the first remained orbiting around it, with only the pilot on board. Instead, Orion consists of a single capsule powered by European Service Module engines. For this reason, during the lunar flyby nothing was separated from the ship and there were no different radio systems that could interfere. Even so, communications systems are no longer what they were. Even if they had separated, a way would have been found to avoid interference. Or maybe not. Yeah your urine freezes and They have to wear t-shirts as blindsperhaps communication would have also given them some problems. The children surpass those parents. Artemis is a younger mission than Apollo, but it has already surpassed it in many aspects. Although the Artemis II astronauts have carried out a mission very similar to that of Apollo 10, they have gone further, breaking his record and, furthermore, they will possibly also surpass them in speed when they enter our planet again. It is a more advanced mission, but without mysterious music or whistles. It’s progress, but also a little more boring. Image | POT In Xataka | The Artemis II astronauts will carry out experiments in what will be their own study models

It turns out that they have a loving arm that tastes the sex of females

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Few animals are as fascinating as octopuses. These very intelligent invertebrates (since I saw “What the pulse taught me“I have a hard time consuming it) They have a brain in each armthree hearts, blue blood and a nervous system distributed by its tentacles. However, one of its greatest mysteries was truly intimate: how does a male manage, in the absolute darkness of a sea crevice, to locate the female’s reproductive system with surgical precision. Until now, science thought it was pure tactile instinct, but no: a recent study from Harvard University published in Science and led by Pablo Villar has discovered that the octopus does not look, it tastes love with the tips of its fingers. fingers suction cups. The love scene. Octopus mating is a sophisticated maneuver of extreme delicacy. The protagonist is the hectocotylthe third arm of the male: this tentacle is not used for eating or exploring, but for loving (in the most reproductive sense of the word). The maneuver is as follows: the male introduces this arm under the female’s mantle and there navigates between vital organs until he finds the oviduct, an opening of just a couple of millimeters. Once located, both remain motionless for approximately one hour, the time necessary for the transfer of sperm packets that the female will store throughout her life in a specific gland. Fingers that smell and taste. What the study shows is that the octopus does not “see” the path, but rather “feels” it on a chemical level. If it sounds strange, it is because humans actually lack that sensory modality, contact chemoreception. Going a little more into detail: the female emits progesterone, which will be the chemical lighthouse for the male in this internal navigation. He sensor of the hectocotyl is in its suction cups, covered by an epithelium similar to our retina or tongue, rich in receptors CRT1. According to the experiment, the male’s love arm is indifferent to other hormones: only when its CRT1 detects progesterone is the search and coupling response activated. It is literally tasting your goal with your fingertips. Why is it important. Beyond the obvious biological curiosity, this discovery has critical implications such as helping to understand how species separate and how biodiversity arises, as these receptors act as a sensory barrier: if the male’s receptor does not match the female’s chemistry, there is no copulation. On the other hand, they also put on the table the seriousness of endocrine disruptors as environmental contaminants, substances that act by imitating hormones that can confuse the male octopus and cause it to get lost. Finally, it is valuable information for aquaculture: octopus farming is a global challenge due to its complex reproduction and this finding is a step forward to optimize its sustainable breeding. From hunter to lover. One of the most fascinating aspects of this paper is how this ability originated: the octopus did not invent this loving arm out of thin air, but rather it is a recycling of an old tool for a new use. And originally the CRT1 receptors were used to detect molecules from their prey during hunting, but over time these receptors mutated with a kind of “hydrophobic pocket” that made it possible to develop that special sensitivity towards progesterone. An evolution from a survival sensor to one of genetic continuity. In Xataka | We knew that octopuses were very intelligent. But not to the point of having a “brain” in each arm In Xataka | England is experiencing an unprecedented invasion. The problem is that they are octopuses, and they are devouring everything they can find. Cover | Dear Sunflower

Plastic is the great recycling nightmare. Car battery acid aspires to be the great nightmare of plastic

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Have a problem with recycling. Thus, in general and even in countries that the more they try and complicate things. But, specifically, we have a problem with plastic recycling. It is a difficult and therefore expensive process, rather than producing new plastic, which leads to a scenario in which potential waste accumulates. To complicate things further, there are many types of plasticsand some are terribly difficult to recycle. But the University of Cambridge has had an idea: a solar reactor to destroy those difficult plastics. And the secret ingredient is car battery acid. The data. Before entering the ‘invention‘ from Cambridge, let’s go with some context. Recycling is not collecting, and vice versa. An example of this is Japan, a country in which there are areas in which there are 45 different categories of garbage that citizens must separate and where only 20% is recycled. In Spain, with an infinitely less obsessive systemwe are around 39%. And what is not recycled is burned in Japan and sent to landfills in Spain. Focusing on plastic and according to Cambridge researchers, the world produces 400 million tons per year and only 18% is recycled. And, as I say, there are plastics such as nylon or polyurethane that are particularly complex to recycle because their chemical structure is very resistant, which makes breaking them down complex and very expensive. plastic fulminator. This is where the discovery of the University of Cambridge comes into play. What they have developed is a solar-powered reactor that uses a very special ingredient: car battery acid. This component breaks the structural chains of the polymers into more basic chemical blocks and, therefore, easier to assimilate, such as ethylene glycol. Once the new material is obtained, a very special photocatalyst is what allows it to be converted into hydrogen and acetic acid, putting an end to that ‘rebellious’ plastic. By fluke. The team of researchers comments that the discovery was practically an accident since they knew that battery acid could be used for the process, but it was not convenient because, just as it melts plastics, it ‘eats’ the catalysts. Theirs, however, held out, and it turns out to be cheap and scalable. It is a photocatalyst composed of carbon nitride functionalized with cyanamide and integrated with molybdenum disulfide promoted with cobalt. Lots of text to say that it is a hybrid material specifically designed to remain stable in a strongly acidic environment. According to the team, it is economical and solves two problems at once: it dissolves difficult plastics and reuses battery acid that usually ends up as waste after extracting its lead content for resale. Future. In the tests, the team points out that the system has worked for more than 260 hours without losing performance and works with the aforementioned plastics, but also with that of the plastic bottles They are also not particularly easy to deal with. They claim that their discovery offers a potential cost reduction in recycling tasks because, in addition, reusable hydrogen is produced in the process. The key here is finding a way to collect the battery acid before it is neutralized for uninterrupted use to break down plastics. The team comments that they do not promise to solve the problem, but they demonstrate how waste can become a resource. new life. This approach approaches the problem from the angle of decomposition, but there are other proposals to give these plastics a second life. Because ‘melting’ them may be expensive, but if they are put into presses they can be turned directly into bricks or paving stones for the streets. This is what Nzambi Matee proposes, a Kenyan materials engineer who has proposed convert that waste into construction material. Like the University of Cambridge experiment, it addresses two problems at the same time: recycling and creating necessary non-polluting construction elements, and this idea is catching on because the authorities have given the green light to use this 2.0 brick to pave the streets of Nairobi. Returning to battery acid, the business arm of the University of Cambridge is looking to commercialize the company, but now the most complicated thing remains: making it a standard. Images | Cambridge University (Beverly Low) In Xataka | The big problem with nuclear energy has always been its waste. Russia can now recycle them up to five times

Now there are solar panels and 50% more inhabitants

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Crossing the interior of the Iberian Peninsula today is getting used to a landscape increasingly dominated by immense plains of glass and silicon. The proliferation of macro photovoltaic parks in the so-called “emptied Spain” is usually accompanied by a bitter and repetitive narrative: towns that give up their lands to large companies in exchange for a mirage that does not stop the rural exodus. However, what happens in Belinchón (Cuenca) completely breaks this script. A demographic jump of 50%. For a municipality in the interior of the peninsula, Belinchón’s figures border on science fiction. According to INE datathe town hit rock bottom in 2017 with just 314 inhabitants. Today, in 2026, the population exceeds 470 residents. It is an increase of practically 50% in less than a decade. This “boom” has an economic explanation. The municipality has given up 1,200 of its 8,000 hectares to install a 600 MW photovoltaic hub, divided into 12 plants. This immense infrastructure has allowed the City Council to multiply its budget by 30, going from a survival economy to managing three million euros annually. The philosophy behind this resurgence is summarized by the mayor in his interview with The World: “We don’t want to tell people to come live in Belinchón; we are trying to make a Belinchón so that people want to come.” The local welfare state. The case of this Cuenca town serves to dispel some widespread myths. As the analyst Alejandro Diego Rosell reflects in your LinkedIn accountthere is a popular belief that “photovoltaics fills land with panels, but leaves no wealth or local employment.” Rosell uses precisely the example of Belinchón to demonstrate that, although long-term maintenance does not generate thousands of jobs, the immense tax revenues for municipal coffers radically transform the lives of residents for decades. With this three million budget, the City Council has woven an enviable welfare network. As detailed The World200,000 euros per year are allocated to direct social aid: 1,500 euros per student, a baby check of 1,500 euros, 500 euros for glasses, 2,000 for dental expenses, in addition to subsidies to improve the accessibility of housing and support for local businesses. All this, keeping taxes to a minimum. Even at the infrastructure level, the construction of the modern Center of Light and Knowledge and a state-of-the-art gym stands out. The next step. Belinchón does not stop at renting its lands; Now it wants the energy to directly impact the electricity bills of its inhabitants. According to PV Magazinethe City Council put out to tender the “Municipal Solar Self-Consumption Project” at the beginning of the year. It is a 600 kW installation structured in six blocks, equipped with cutting-edge technology (Trina modules and Huawei inverters), with an estimated value of almost 600,000 euros. As detailed Renewable Energiesthis new plant will allow residents to benefit from a very significant reduction in their electricity bill, which will range between 70% and 80%. But the great challenge for the future, as López Castejón confesses to The Worldis to attract industry. “Closing the circle is generating electricity, storing it and consuming it with electro-intensive industry,” he says. The town demands that the companies that are going to consume that energy settle on the adjacent lands to generate, now, hundreds of permanent jobs. “Nobody opens a restaurant if there are no customers,” says the mayor. The global impact. To understand the magnitude of what is happening in Belinchón, we must look beyond its borders. The solar plants in this Cuenca municipality are playing a key role in the international green economy. According to ANDl Economistthe company Zelestra has recently launched the Belinchón I, II and III projects (162 MW in total). Production is supported by the program Energize (managed by Schneider Electric), which means that Belinchón’s sun is serving to directly decarbonize global giants in the pharmaceutical industry, such as Takeda, Teva or UCB. The right to dream in emptied Spain. Beyond the megawatts, the tons of CO2 avoided and the millions of euros, Belinchón’s main achievement is intangible. As illustrated by the report The Worldphotovoltaics have given back to the people “the ability to dream.” Mayor López Castejón once again lets his vocation emerge to explain his long-term vision. “As we firefighters say, every big fire has a small beginning,” he says. In the case of Belinchón, that small spark has been the sun, and it has served to ignite a future that, just a few years ago, seemed completely off. Image | Antalexion Xataka | We used only a third of sunlight: now we know how to use molybdenum to squeeze each photon to the maximum

The industry does not stop raising the price of games and I have gotten hooked on this free movie guessing game

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There’s something perversely satisfying about spending weeks thinking more about Al Pacino movies because of one game than any recent AAA release. This movie guessing game has no cutscenes spectacular nor does it come with an ambitious built-in trailer. This is a free website, without invasive advertising, that makes you chain movies with an unknown rival from the other side of the world. Is called ‘Cine2Nerdle‘, and its Battle 2.0 mode is, right now, the hardest thing for me to leave in the browser. How to play. The daily puzzle puts you in front of a grid of 4×4 tiles. Each card contains a word or phrase. The objective is to rearrange them by exchanging positions until each row or column alludes to or describes a movie. There are between four and five movies hidden on each board. When you have three tiles of the same movie lined up, they light up yellow; when you complete all four, the row is resolved. And when you have four horizontally you have to reorganize in search of the fifth. All with limited movements, of course. What makes Cine2Nerdle genuinely interesting in its single-player mode is its constant cheating. A card can belong to a row because it is the place where a movie takes place, and simultaneously to a column because it is the last name of the leading actor in another. This game of polysemy also affects false paths; A proper name can have multiple owners, an initial can be a title or the name of a character. Each puzzle is more like a crossword puzzle than a logic test. Its secret: Battle Mode. The daily puzzle is already good enough, but what makes ‘Cine2Nerdle’ a diabolical invention is the Battle mode, and more specifically its second version. The basic idea is a 1vs1 duel in real time: both players start from an initial film and have 25 seconds, taking turns to chain together others that share at least one member of the artistic team: actor, director, screenwriter, director of photography. And so on until someone is left without an answer or runs out of time. What Battle 2.0 added over the previous version is a layer of strategy that transforms the game. Before, games could last about an hour if both players knew cinema well. Now each player carries a “battle kit” that includes items as a condition for immediate victory (for example, mentioning four science fiction films from the eighties or connecting films with an actor without using him as a direct connector), life savers (small helps, such as revealing facts about the films) and the possibility of banning films or actors to the rival. Thus the games are resolved in about five minutes. The good thing: before each game you prepare the kit of aids and objectives that you have gained while playing, and thus you can make up for your film-loving shortcomings. Pure RPG mechanics. The strategy. You have to use the aspects in which you are strong and have knowledge to drag the rival there. For example: are you an expert in horror films from the eighties? Mention long career directors who take the game from the present, where everyone knows titles, to decades past (e.g. John Carpenter). Take the game to your territory, and there, begin to uncover increasingly rare films, and reinforce your choices with prohibitions on using the best-known actors in the cast. The remains of ‘Wordle’. When the New York Times bought ‘Wordle’ for more than a million dollars By early 2022, the game already had millions of daily users. The formula was simple: one word per day, shareable on networks, without unnecessary additives. What followed was an avalanche of thematic derivatives: geography (Worldle), music (Heardle), mathematics (Nerdle)… Most did not survive a year. Cine2Nerdle He is one of the survivors. It was created by Nilanth Yogadasan, who had already published CineNerdle (a puzzle of film frames that were revealed little by little). The jump to “2” completely changed the mechanics and also, as its creator recognizesis a nod to the style of titles like ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’: the sequel that puts the number in the middle. The kind of winks for coffee lovers that turn a game for film nerds into an accessible and fun experience. In Xataka | The Spanish Puzzle Championship exists, real professionals participate and there are prizes of up to 1,000 euros

More and more Spanish bars refuse to let you pay at the table. Its objective is very simple: greater rotation

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“To pay, at the cashier.” It doesn’t matter if you live in the very center of Madrid, the most touristy area of ​​Barcelona, ​​next to Malagueta, in Vigo or a remote town in Bierzo, it is most likely that at some point in the last few months you have heard that phrase when you ask a waiter to please charge you. To pay for the coffee you just had, you must get up and go to the checkout yourself. Or what is the same, you do not have the option of being charged at the table. It seems like a minor issue, but this decision is not accidental: it responds to a logic that seeks to speed up the rotation in the premises and get the most out of them. “Excuse me, can I have the bill?” In Spain there are some 87,000 restaurants and food stalls, almost 163,400 drinking establishments and 270,200 “food and beverage services”, according to INE datawhich gives a pretty clear idea about how we live in Spain: we like (a lot) to go out for coffees, beers and tapas. Therefore, no matter what region you live in, chances are that in recent months you have sat at a table in a bar or restaurant. And that’s also why you’ve probably noticed that it’s becoming more and more common that when you want to pay and ask for the bill, answer the same: “To pay, at the cashier.” Unraveling the mystery. The question is obvious. Why the hell are they asking us to pay at the cashier? Are we not hindering the passage of other customers like this? Does it have any advantages over the option of paying the bill directly at the table? The mystery was cleared up a few months ago Jairosanbor, a tiktoker that usually publishes on his account videos related to the world of hospitality. And the answer is quite simple: although several factors come into play, everything is limited to a simple question of rotation in the premises. In other words, make a business profitable and get the most out of it. Time and agility. The logic is simple. If the customer receives the bill at their table, pays and the waiter charges them, even having to return to the bar to get change, a process is lengthened that could be simplified if the payment is made at the cashier. It may be a matter of minutes, but over the course of an entire day, a week, a month or a year (even more) that time can translate into higher turnover. More rotation. More clients. Higher income. “A little trick”. “What you get is that the customer gets up without any problem and leaves you the table free so that someone else can automatically sit down. If you had him here waiting for you to bring him the bill, charge him, he leaves and comes, in the end more time is wasted,” comments Jairposanbor in his TikTok video, of just 30 sure. “It’s a little trick for the rotation.” Personnel issue? The “little trick”, as the hotelier defines it, may seem simple, but it has given rise to a good number of articles about the themein the pressand some debate in the comments of the video. There are those who relate it, for example, to the greater or lesser availability of waiters in the establishment. “Another trick: add more staff and if the customer leaves happy that they don’t have to wait, they’ll probably come back,” comment a user. Another adds that charging cash may increase turnover and profitability of the establishment, but it can have a negative effect: it places more workload on the employee behind the bar. Cash vs card. They would come into play more keys. For example, although it is increasingly common for restaurants or cafes to allow payment by card, especially in large chains, in those cases in which the business only accepts cash, the “collection at the counter” rule simplifies the process quite a bit. No picking up cashround trips between the bar and the table to look for change or for the money to ultimately pass through several hands within the business. Useful, not infallible. Of course the tactic can be useful, but it is by no means infallible. First because, as some users also comment on TikTok, there are customers who do not like being sent to the bar to pay for their drinks. Second, because rotation is not 100% guaranteed either. As another remembers tiktokerthe trick fails when there is more than one person at the table, only one gets up to pay and then returns to his seat to continue chatting. A sector in change. César Sánchez-Ballesterospresident of the Tourism and Hospitality Federation of the province of Pontevedra, Feproturprovides some extra keys. Tricks like the one shared by Jairoposanbor seek greater optimization, but that is not the only way that hoteliers follow to achieve it. For years the group has opted for new strategies, such as online reservations, letters with QR codeapps that allow you to make orders and pay… Until reaching extreme examples such as experiments of McDonald’s in the US, with stores where there is hardly any interaction with staff. Of orders, payments… and personnel. “We see more and more examples of optimization,” comments Sánchez-Ballesteros, who remembers in any case that the client always has the last word, as has been made clear in the comments of TikTok: he is the one who decides what compensates him, what practices he considers good, what bothers him or the services he is not willing to give up. Against this backdrop, there is another factor that conditions work in restaurants and bars: the shortage of qualified personnel, which further reinforces the urgency that businesses have when it comes to polishing internal processes. It’s nothing new. For years the hospitality industry has been pointing out on a recurring basis the shortage of professionals, a deficit that becomes especially visible in times of … Read more

take advantage of one of the largest sources of renewable energy

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The energy wave drive It has a great advantage over other more popular renewable energy sources, such as the sun or wind: it never rests. Waves are an almost continuous and enormously energetic resource. And yet, it is the ugly duckling of green energies because its unpredictable and far from constant nature turns energy extraction into a titanic task in terms of efficiency. An American startup, Panthalassa, has been testing for a while In Pacific waters, a prototype that rethinks from the ground up how to relate to the ocean: instead of resisting it, it follows the flow. The invention. He Ocean-2 It is a device that at first glance looks like a giant buoy. In fact, in tests in Puget Sound, Washington, several people reported an unidentified floating object. The spherical part of the end (the node) has almost 10 meters in diameter and is mounted on a tubular hull approximately 60 meters long (which is submerged under the sea). But the analogy with the buoy is accurate in that it is a simple structure that sways with the waves. When it is horizontal it moves and when it is vertical (when it looks like a buoy) it starts working. Why it is important. Because the oceans They cover 71% of the Earth and its energy has an advantage that solar and wind power lack: consistency. The ocean generates energy regardless of whether it is day or night, even if it is calm or the sky is cloudy, which makes this energy source the ideal complement to stabilize networks. The endemic problem of this technology is its low efficiency. If this prototype can be scaled, it could become an alternative and complement to clean and independent energy for coastal areas. Context. In the midst of the race for AI and data centers, the great bottleneck of the United States is the energyso much so that they are dusting off old energy solutions as fossil power plants and resurrecting its nuclear industry. Of course, and although his role in the US, Israel and Iran war is different from Europe and so is its access to oil, the reality is that the price of a barrel being uncontrolled does not benefit them either. In that scenario, it is expanding your investment in renewables. Wave energy has been promising and disappointing for decades. Salt, corrosion, biological growth on structures, and the brutal cost of offshore maintenance have literally and figuratively sunk dozens of projects around the world. The result: almost everything has remained in the pilot phase. Nor has efficiency ever been anything to write home about. And while wave power has stagnated, the price of solar and wind has fallen so rapidly that it has left other clean energies without a competitive advantage. However, wave energy faces another opportunity: Ocean Energy Europe figure The portfolio of planned deployments until 2030 is at 165 MW and the United States has invested $591 million in ocean energy in the last five years. How much energy it produces and uses. In the test he managed to generate up to 50 kW in decent wave conditions, enough to power a small coastal town. However, its priority application is not the domestic electrical network, but something more specific such as clean fuels and computing: producing green hydrogen that is transported to shore in autonomous ships, and powering data centers in the ocean. How they do it. The design of the Ocean-2 has a more philosophical than technical point: it is not so much about resisting the ocean but about accompanying it. As the waves oscillate, water is propelled through an internal pipe to the spherical surface and then descends through turbines to generate power. It has hardly any moving partsbeyond the turbine, integrated into the steel structure The buoy does not have nets or elements that can trap marine fauna, it operates silently and with slow movements: Panthalassa’s environmental manager, Dr. Liam Chen, explained for local TV KOMO that its soft, low-impact design allows you to “live in harmony with the ocean.” Testing in Puget Sound showed no visible alterations to the surrounding marine ecosystem. According to the co-founderGarth Sheldon-Coulson, these machines can be made for around $1,500 per kilowatt. What comes next. As account its co-founder, have been working for about ten years: the first four or five years was only R&D, in 2021 they launched their predecessor the Ocean-1, in 2024 the Ocean-2 was released and the Ocean-3 is already in development and It is making steady progress in its financing. Yes, but. So far, everything is testing and prototypes because the project is in the experimental phase, that is, there is not a single commercial kilowatt generated, nor a connected network, nor long-term durability data. And the sea is not exactly an easy environment: knowing how it will withstand storms and the passage of time, what maintenance will be like or simply something as basic as the transfer of energy from the device to the network is essential. Without forgetting the cost, especially given the collapse in the costs of solar or wind energy, both technologies that are already mature, consolidated and very cheap. In Xataka | With oil skyrocketing, Japan has resurrected an old idea to extract infinite energy from the ocean In Xataka | Something is happening in the oceans for which we have no convincing explanation: the waves are disappearing Cover | Panthalassa and Matt Paul Catalano

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