Portable batteries are part of urban infrastructure in China. I have tried them and I need them to arrive in Europe

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After a decade of writing about gadgets and tens of thousands of miles of travel under my belt, a few weeks ago a destination managed to make me nervous. I was traveling, for the first time, to China. A few days before leaving, I realized that I did not have any batteries with the necessary certification and buying them in Spain is complicated. My idea was to get one there, but to my surprise I came across reality: hives of external batteries on every corner. Below I will tell you about my experience renting one and testing its loading speed. Powerbanks as urban infrastructure. A few months ago, my colleague Javier He already commented on his fascination with this ecosystem of external batteries that anyone can rent. It is really not something so new, since it has running since 2017 and its concept is very interesting. In China we need the cell phone for everything (AliPay and Wechat They are two apps that are your bank, your transportation card, your payment card, your way of ordering in restaurants and much more) and it is something that drains the battery. Therefore, the idea arose to locate stations with several external rental batteries at strategic points in the city. The market is dominated by four companies, they are in the main cities and the process is as simple as: Scan the station’s QR code. Take one of the removable batteries. Use them while we eat or move. Return them to any other point on the network (it does not have to be at the station where we took it). Photo: Xataka Photo: Xataka Photo: Xataka Photo: Xataka Photo: Xataka Photo: Xataka renting one. For me, who went with a iPhone 16 in your pocket (whose battery is no wonder), having something like this available was a lifesaver. And, since science doesn’t do itself, during breakfast I rented one available at my hotel with the intention of using it while I ate and returning it just before leaving. The process is indicated just above these lines and, in my case, I used AliPay. Photo: Xataka You have to go with the application previously configured and, in my case, I loaded a Revolut prepaid card. I didn’t have any problems during the week I was in Beijing. I scanned the QR code of the charging station with AliPay itself and… blessed translation system. It works when it wants and it translates some things regularly, but enough to understand it. The price is 0.12 yuan per minute (about 0.014 euros), but since I don’t have a bank account in China, I had to pay a deposit of 99 yuan (about 12 euros). As soon as I paid, the app told me what power bank I had to remove it and the station itself made the corresponding battery LED flash. To load. Charging experience. The first thing I liked is that you don’t need absolutely anything other than the battery. This includes a USB-C, Lightning and even micro-USB cable. They are short cables, but they are appreciated so you don’t have to carry yours in your pocket. It has LEDs that indicate the charge level and there really isn’t much more to say about the design. Regarding their characteristics, it depends, but they usually have 5,000 mAh and the big asterisk is in the power. 5V/2.4A It is about 12 W and that implies that it will charge at a slow speed. But hey, it is designed so that you can carry it for a while or while you eat and spend at least half an hour/an hour with it. Photo: Xataka On my iPhone 16, the charging times were as follows: I started with 26% battery and in 30 minutes I reached 45%. At 60 minutes it had reached 64%. After 90 minutes it was charged up to 82%. As I say, a slow experience, but I see it as feasible to spend an hour eating or walking between stores, and recovering 38% allows you to survive the rest of the day. When you return it, you have a map where you see all the available stations. I simply went to a different one, clicked on the finalize the transaction button, scanned the QR again and inserted it into the indicated slot. The final price was 14 yuan after almost two hours in my possession, about 1.73 euros to my account. And, the next day, I already had the 99 yuan deposit back in my Revolut. Reviews. Discussing the move with our teammates, we agreed that the price is not high for us, that we use the euro and for those 1.7 euros, well… it allowed me to continue the rest of the day. But we also wonder how the Chinese would view those 14 yuan. And it seems not very well. One of the complaints It is precisely that the price has been increasing in some points. If at the beginning it cost one yuan per hour, now it ranges between two and six. The reason is that it depends a lot on the location (more or less tourist areas, hospitals, hotels, bars, etc.). Coupled with the fact that it is a very fair power and cell phones have more and more battery life, it is almost better to buy an external battery if you know that every now and then you have to rent at one of these stations (which, in addition, can be full at times and you have to go around looking for another one to return the battery. The businesses themselves have also been dissatisfied at times, since it is a market monopolized by a few companies that, evidently, control both the rental price and the profits. Future. Despite this, for tourists, it is an extremely attractive option due to its convenience and because, let’s not fool ourselves, the exchange rate to our currency is favorable to us. And for the industry, it represents an important benefit. In 2020, … Read more

the household employees of the ultra-rich who earn more than Pedro Sánchez

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In the month of April we count a trend that was beginning to circulate among that sector of civilization that is capable of having eight or more figures in the bank account. The ultra-rich, after years spending fortunes on home automation of their mansions, had decided to return to analog times by eradicating any trace of technology in homes. But it’s one thing to throw LEDs, and quite another to throw a Picasso. Because they don’t ignore works of art and luxury furniture. In fact, they pay a premium for their care. Even more than a president of the government. The art of cleaning luxury. In the universe of the richest households on the planet, cleaning is no longer a household chore: it is a painstaking science, a highly specialized skill, and a six-figure job. He told it in a extensive Bloomberg report with cases like that of Gina, who with 26 years of experience in domestic service, is today a executive housekeeper in the San Francisco Bay that wins more than $100,000 a year for taking care of mansions where each piece of furniture is a work of art. Her rise from basic cleaning to managing multimillion-dollar residences reflects a global phenomenon: the transformation of luxury cleaning into a skilled profession driven by the sophistication of contemporary design and the shortage of trained staff. In these houseserror is not measured in stains but in thousands of dollars: a miscalculated rub can destroy the original finish of a knob or the shine of a collector’s piece. In this ecosystem, cleaning requires as much technical knowledge as a kind of restorer or even a museum curator. The new frontier of cleaning. All this is understood due to the rise of high-end design, which has raised standards of domestic work at unprecedented levels. In the houses where Gina works, the objects are no longer “furniture”, but investments and fragments of history: tables by Diego Giacometti more expensive than a Ferrarisofas by Jean Royère valued in millions or pieces by François-Xavier Lalanne that reach record numbers at auctions. Cleaning them requires knowing the materials, understanding their chemical reactions and applying precise protocols. Wood, metals, fabrics, glass or rattan become conservation challenges more than hygiene challenges. Common products and tools (such as popular Swiffer) are, according to expertsenemies of conservation: they alter surfaces, remove patinas or introduce chemical residues. The correct thing to do is almost artisanal: moisten your hands, use a cotton cloth and maintain just the right humidity to trap the dust without damaging the material. The border between cleaning and disinfecting, seemingly trivial, is essential: “You cannot disinfect without cleaning first,” repeat the trainers, aware that ignorance can cost more than an annual salary. Shortages and astronomical salaries. The value of these professionals has been triggered. Before the pandemic, a housekeeper with experience maintaining luxury homes earned a few $60,000 annually. Today, that figure easily exceeds the 100,000more benefits and bonuses. In fact, demand has grown at the same pace as extreme wealth and the proliferation of delicate objects. Training companies like that of Charles MacPherson in Toronto they offer five week programs that combine communication with the employer, home security and cleanliness with contemporary design. The lack of qualified personnel has made housekeepers executives in a good scarce and coveted. To give us an idea, they remembered in Bloomberg that some are the subject of “signing” attempts by other millionaires, aware that a good professional can be the difference between preserving or ruining a collection. The competition, Gina explained.is fierce: “There are very few truly professional people in this, and many see it as a minor job.” In reality, luxury has redefined cleaning as a technical discipline where knowledge outweighs strength, and confidence outweighs hierarchy. From home to museum. The cultural change surrounding this new elite of cleaners also reflects a mutation in the relationship of the upper classes with its spaces. Billionaires’ homes have become hybrids between home and gallerywhere maintenance is part of the value of the heritage. Owners not only buy beauty, they buy responsibility: each object requires a conservation regime, and cleaning becomes an extension of curation. Here a mistake can be catastrophic: the case of the housekeeper who, when trying to “reshine” the handles of a door, removed an intentional patina and caused $75,000 damageis already a classic of the sector. In these houses, the hands that clean are not invisible: they are part of the ecosystem that protects the investment and maintains the aesthetics. The paradox is that a historically undervalued profession has become, at the top of the social pyramid, a profession as delicate and exclusive as the objects it touches. Economy of precision. The rise of cleanliness luxury to professional category highlights the contemporary logic of the market: when wealth multiplies and objects become irreplaceable, the care becomes a luxury in itself. In this environment, the shortage of trained personnel raises salaries, but also redefines the prestige of the profession. The professionalization of high-end domestic service marks a new frontier in the care economy: that of maintenance as art. If you like, Gina and her colleagues are no longer cleaners, they are guardians of heritage material of an elite that prefers to pay more than risk a unique piece. Thus, in the meticulous silence of those mansions, where each surface is worth as much as a sports car, the cotton rag has become a symbol of status, precision and trust. Image | Pexels, Pexels In Xataka | Barcelona has surpassed Vienna and Geneva: the rich now prefer to live near the beach, have fiber optics and public healthcare In Xataka | If the question is which is the place in Spain where there are the most millionaires and why, the answer is obvious: in Madrid, of course.

have a server rack

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There are the technological geeks and then there are the tech geeks. Like this, in bold. Some believe that the summum is in achieve a powerful setup in which they combine power, backlighting and a great cooling system. But there are others who go further and are not satisfied with configuring a custom PC, no matter how ambitious that PC may be. No. For these other users, the true summum is to set up a server rack, a “domestic” version of the racks that we usually find in data centers and that allow them to experiment and have self-hosted services of all kinds. Long live homelabs That domestic “homelab” fever of which we talked a few years ago has made it increasingly common to see how these technology and do-it-yourself enthusiasts create mini data centers in which they can execute all kinds of tasks. There are of course homelabs consisting of a server (often a NAS) with several hard drives to host different services, but these server racks go one step further. In these racks, which anyone can buy on the Internet, they combine computers and servers of all types, hard drives and switches and connect all of this with cables—there too #cableporn comes into play— and then take advantage of those servers in areas such as home automation. There are many more possible applications, of course: one can set up one’s own servers for mail, web, multimedia, video surveillance, monitoring of those own systems and small (or not so small) private clouds. They can also use these environments to experiment in the field of cybersecurity and pentesting, or to “tinker” with experiments in the devops field. The possibilities are enormous… if you are willing to face the task. The great showcase for these unique technological DIY projects is Reddit, which has subreddits such as r/homelab where thousands of curious people gather to share their projects —“a homelab is never complete” is a kind of mantra in said community—and, of course, show off those racks that they have assembled with blood, sweat, tears and often a significant financial investment. Because what is clear is that setting up this type of system is not easy. Michael Lynch, one of the users who shares this hobby, he told in his personal blog in April 2024 the entire process that led him to create his first homelab. That post, very long and detailed, shows how when creating a homelab you have to take into account millions of details so that everything works as it should. And even doing so you can always find surprises. This hobby has also been promoted by some internet personalities who already worked with this type of content. Jeff Gerrling launched at the beginning of the year the Project Mini Rack for users who had ambitions of that type but wanted to have a “compact rack”. The result is certainly attractive and can be an excellent starting point for those who want to start in this world, but for those who do, a small warning: these systems are complex and the problem is not just assembling them and starting them up—and controlling things like energy consumption and noise— but, above all, keep them. And update them, of course. Because as we said, “a homelab is never complete”. Image | Jeff Geerling In Xataka | 25 fantastic setups that prove that placing two (or more) monitors in surprising positions makes a lot of sense

AMD will be the one to reinforce it with two new machines

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The AMD history It is full of ups and downs. They started by blatantly copying Intel, they had some of their best models at the beginning of the century, they were made with ATI and they went through hell while Intel dominated with the Dual and Quad Core. A few years ago, they took their Ryzen out of their sleeveswith those who have even managed surpass your great competitor. Now they want to become essential for the United States, which seeks to be “sovereign” in artificial intelligence. Their weapons? Two supercomputers that will help the US achieve its objective. And the ambition is… enormous. AI Action Plan. The United States is investing a huge amount of money with one goal: achieve superintelligence before China. The truth is that the two countries are competing in the same sector, but with radically opposite objectives. The US wants to get that AGI while China is looking for a cheap and functional AI to monetize as soon as possible. With that in mind, the US government launched an initiative designed to maintain and expand leadership in AI. Thus, the AI Action Plan seeks that advances in this segment be discovered, developed and deployed in US territory, strengthening both national security and the country’s competitive position. Billionaire strategy. It is something that costs a ‘mortar’ of money, but being a capital objective allows the funds to appear for the companies involved. And a billion just ended up in AMD’s coffers. As the company and the United States Department of Energy have release$1 billion in public and private funding will create a “secure, federated, standards-based infrastructure for U.S. sovereign science and AI.” Lisa Su is the CEO of AMD and he commented that his two new tools will allow “advance in the country’s most critical priorities in science, energy and medicine.” In addition, he has extolled the “power” of public-private partnerships. And they’ve shared some details about those tools. Lux AI. On the one hand, the Lux AI supercomputer. Jointly developed by ORNL, AMD, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and HPE, this equipment will be deployed in early 2026 as the first “AI Factory” supercomputer designed to train, tune and deploy fundamental AI models to accelerate scientific innovation. It will be driven by the AMD EPYC CPU and for the Instinct MI355X GPUand if with the above it was not very clear what it will do, in the statement they point to an approach to discover revolutionary materials (that can be used in new energy systems in which China leads with an iron fist), accelerate energy innovation, transform biology and biosafety and strengthen both national security and resilience. It’s still quite abstract, really. discovery. On the other hand, the Discovery supercomputer. The GPUs it will use will be the Instinct MI430X, but the CPUs have not yet been presented. AMD says they will be a next-generation EPYC codenamed ‘Venice’, and the set is designed for the nation to train, simulate and deploy AI models. The idea is that it will enter service sometime in 2028 and its function will be to run AI models that, for example, have been trained with Lux. Thus, thanks to enormous bandwidth, it will be able to boost AI to make discoveries in energy, biology, advanced materialsnational security and manufacturing innovation. Translation: It is expected to help design next-generation reactors, batteries, catalysts, semiconductors and critical materials. Something interesting that AMD has highlighted is that the applications developed for Frontier (another of the United States supercomputers) can be easily transferred to Discovery because it maintains the same programming environment. AMD and Intel as tech pivots. Apart from the United States, the great beneficiary of this operation will be the Oak Ridge National Laboratorynew home for both Lux and Discovery when their development is complete. And, apart from the new AMD supercomputers, this operation underlines that the United States considers these companies vital, along with Intel or Apple. Not in vain, Intel has been the star of one of the most ‘curious’ news stories in recent years as it is the first company since the 2008 crisis in which the US Government intervenes. 5 billion dollars to turn it into the country’s semiconductor “factory.” A factory that even It could be the safe passage of an Apple that it must manufacture in the US if it wants to avoid tariffs. In the end, the 1 billion for AMD is not an isolated case, but rather a United States that is focusing on development of a technology that seems to be the one that sets the standard in world research at the moment. Image | amd In Xataka | Europe already has its first exascale supercomputer: one million terabytes and 24,000 NVIDIA chips for a key mission

If when you think of a farm you visualize a red building with white corners, it’s the Swedes’ fault.

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5040-Y80R. That is the approximate designation according to the Natural Color System chart for color ‘red falu‘. It is a registered trademark and It goes beyond being a simple color: implies that a very specific pigment comes into play in its production that gives it that reddish tone and has transcended to the point of being part of the identity of an entire country thanks to its properties. That country is Sweden, and it all started as a waste product from a copper mine. By-product. Dalarna is a region located in the heart of Sweden, and it is home to the Falun Great Copper Mountain. The Vikings They were already exploiting this mine in 850, but the history of color dates back to the 16th century. It was then that they discovered that one of the mining byproducts could be turned into a useful pigment. Leaf From the production of copper they obtained what they called Falu rödfärgor “red mulch,” and was basically a unique mixture of over 20 different minerals. The reddish color was thanks to iron oxide, silica, zinc and copper itself. They started to mix it up with water, but also with other elements such as oils, tar or rye flour, and they discovered that they could obtain a paint with very interesting properties. better than paint. This red mulch mixed with the appropriate ingredients not only gave color to the wood, primary raw material in Sweden for both ships and infrastructure, but also acted especially well as a material protector. It was like an insulating layer, a shield that protected against the elementsprolonging its useful life, making repairs less frequent and, in addition, it was cheaper than importing wood treatments from other countries. The industry soon exploded. HE esteem that, by mid-1760, production was about 25 tons, but by 1930, that annual production exceeded 2,000 tons. Status. Now, it wasn’t cheap. Everyone wanted to paint their house that copper red color, but it turns out that it was a luxury reserved for the highest classes. When the pigment was discovered, and perhaps motivated only by its color, King John III ordered paint the ceilings of his palace with ‘falu red’, imitating the copper of the ceilings of other European palaces. Since then, those with the most power who could get hold of the pigment began to paint their houses. However, as production began to scale and gain traction, the product became cheaper and more people were able to access it, painting, if not all of their houses, the façade that faced the roads (which was what everyone passing by could see). Swedish edges of the 19th century contributed to popularize the image of the red houses of Sweden, immortalizing the idea of ​​rural life in red houses with white corners. One of Carl Larsson’s works The color of a nation. The color 5040-Y80R became the symbol of Sweden to the point that migrants who sought better luck in North America after the dissolution of the norwegian swedish union In 1905 they began to build their farms using this color. The image that many of us have of the red farm was created there. And it became so important to Swedish popular culture that there is a saying that symbolizes that simple life and harmonious in contact with the earth: den röda stugan och potatislandet (the red house and the potato garden). Today, the ‘Falu rödfärg’ is not as vital as it was years ago if we talk about production. The same has descended a lot because there is greater competition and synthetic products for paint the facadesbut it is still an example of “banal nationalism”, a symbol that exists without the need for flags and anthems, since its mere presence evokes belonging. Images| Xauxa Håkan Svensson, FrDr, HCa, Wigulf~commonswiki In Xataka | The world’s technology industry practically depends on a single road: the one that leads to the Spruce Prine mine

If the ship is damaged, they have three options

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Here we go again. Three Chinese astronauts are functionally stranded at the Tiangong space station after the apparent space debris impact with the Shenzhou-20 ship. The China Manned Mission Space Agency (CMSA) has not yet commented on its return. What we know. Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie were due to return to Earth on November 5. Its return flight was postponed to further examine the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft for the possible impact of small fragments of space debris while it was docked with the Chinese station. The three crew members they are safe. The damage to the capsule was discovered “during final checks prior to re-entry.” But the relief crew had already arrived, meaning there are two ships (Shenzhou-20 and Shenzhou-21) and six astronauts aboard a station designed for three. The CMSA focuses its investigations on the integrity of the ship’s heat shield and parachute systems. A failure in any of these elements during the ship’s atmospheric reentry could be catastrophic. What we don’t know. The CMSA is not a space agency counterpart to NASA and ESA, but a unit of the Chinese army that reports to the military command. Your communications are, consequently, limited. We do not know the extent of the damage to the ship or if it was really due to the impact of space debris. There is still no scheduled date for his return. It will depend on whether the ship is considered safe or the level of risks that the CMSA is willing to take. Assuming the ship is damaged, there are three possible options. The three options. The riskiest plan would be to attempt an in-orbit repair with a spacewalk. Commander Chen Dong is the Chinese astronaut with the most hours of extravehicular activity, but certifying a heat shield as “safe” after an impact is something totally new. If the CMSA decides to sacrifice the ship, then two other alternatives are open: the fast one and the slow one. The quick one would be to use the relief ship (Shenzhou-21) as a lifeboat for the three crew members of the Shenzhou-20. The problem is that the seats are molded to the body of each astronaut, so this option would require disassembling the seats of both spacecraft and exchanging them, a complex operation that has never been done in orbit. The slow option would be to prepare the next ship (Shenzhou-22) on the ground for an “emergency service”, launching it empty to the Chinese space station as happened with the Russian Soyuz MS-23 in 2023. It is the safest option, but also the slowest and most expensive to bring back the astronauts. Three times in three years. This is the first time that China has gone through a situation like this, but the third time in three years in which a crew is left in orbit without a clear return ticket. Soyuz MS-22 lost in spurts coolant liquid after the impact of a micrometeorite while it was docked with the International Space Station, which forced Russia to send the empty Soyuz MS-23 capsule to bring back the cosmonauts. In 2024, the two crew members of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft They became part of the permanent crew of the International Space Station waiting for a SpaceX Crew Dragon ship to arrive with two empty seats for their return. On this occasion, space junk had no nothing to see. Image | CMSA In Xataka | China has built a space empire in 30 years after being kicked out of the ISS. His revenge is about to be completed

overcrowded homes have skyrocketed

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In full housing crisis and with the registry growing thanks basically to immigration pushSpain has encountered a problem: it has more and more overcrowded homessomething that is usually considered an indicator of poverty and that basically tells us about housing “overcrowded”. The Eurostat data show that the Spanish ratio is still far from that of the EU or neighboring countries such as Italy, Germany or France, but even so the trend is revealing. Overcrowded homes? Correct. EITHER “overcrowded”another way to identify them. Basically both labels refer to the same thing: homes in which so many people live that their inhabitants exceed the capacity for which they were ideally designed, at least for comfortable coexistence. Said like this it may sound abstract, but both the INE as Eurostat They use some agreed criteria to recognize them. An “overcrowded home” is one that does not have a room per couple, for each tenant over 18 years of age or for each two young people of the same sex between 12 and 17 years old. There are more guidelines but they all point in the same direction. Thanks to them, technicians can then calculate their impact on society as a whole, the “overcrowding rate”. Year Spain France Portugal Italy Germany EU 2010 5 9.2 14.6 24.3 7.1 19.1 2015 5.5 7.4 10.3 27.8 7 18.1 2020 7.6 9.6 9 26.1 10.2 17.4 2024 9.1 10.4 11.2 23.9 11.5 16.9 And what do the statistics say? That in Spain this rate (the percentage of the population that lives in overcrowded homes) has not stopped growing in recent years. In fact the data from Eurostat show that in 2024 the indicator reached its highest level since 2004. If in 2010 the Spanish overcrowding rate was 5%, in 2020 it had risen to 7.6% and last year it stood at 9.1%. It may not seem like a high figure, but as remember The Confidential It is equivalent to millions of people (4.4) living in saturated environments. Why is it important data? More than because of the data itself (which is not especially high), because of the trend. Spain is far from being one of the European countries with the most overcrowded homes. The rate is considerably higher in Italy (23.9%), Germany (11.5%), Portugal (11.2%) or France (10.4%). Even the average of the 27 EU countries (16.9%) clearly exceeds the Spanish figure; but our country does stands out for its evolution recent. And not for the better. Between 2009 and 2024 the Spanish overcrowding rate increased by 75%, while in the EU as a whole and many other surrounding nations this same indicator decreased. What’s more, if we take into account the set of countries analyzed by Eurostat there is only one that has experienced an increase in the overcrowding rate greater than Spain: Netherlands, where it went from 1.7% to 4.6%. The palm in terms of volume goes to the Baltic countries. Eurostat map with data from 2023. Can it go further? Yes. Eurostat allows us to go further and that reveals to us that the rate of overcrowding does not affect the entire population equally nor does it have the same footprint throughout the country. As precise The Confidentialits incidence seems higher among those who live in rented houses (at market rents) than among those who live in their own homes, whether with or without a mortgage. If we go down to detail we also see that it is easier to find foreigners (especially non-EU) living in overcrowded homes than people born in Spain and who, therefore, have a family support network. Among the latter (Spanish) the worst part goes to the young people. A few months ago Foessa Foundation I already warned in a report on “households that are forced to share apartments with more people, return to parents’ or relatives’ homes to live with them, resort to so-called ‘nano apartments’ or that are unable to look for another home when the family increases.” According to their data, 3.4 million people (7%) live in “crowded conditions.” What are the causes? That the footprint of overcrowded homes has increased in Spain responds to several factors, but it is undeniable that the phenomenon has coincided above all with two clear trends. The first is the gradual increase in price of the home. According to the Idealista portal, on average rents have increased by 10.9% in the last year, which places the residential square meter (m2) at the highest values ​​since at least 2006. If we talk about the purchase and sale market, photography It’s not very different. This translates into stressed markets, fast pace and in which access is complicated to housing, especially among young people. In fact, for many, the only way to achieve home ownership is through a paternal donation. And the other factor? Population growth. At the end of the first half of 2025, 49.3 million people lived in our country, “the maximum value in the historical series,” as recognizes the INEwhich also remembers that this increase has a clearly identified demographic driver: immigration. The INE data does not leave room for many doubts. The number of people born in Spain has decreased, so the increase was mainly based on residents arriving from abroad. A revealing case is that of the Community of Madrid, which at the end of 2024 reached a historical milestone: surpassed one million people born in Hispanic America. 25 years ago there were not even 82,000. Is it the only reality? No. Paradoxical as it may be, in recent years not only has the rate of overcrowded homes grown. Those on the opposite pole have also done so: single-person householdspeople who live alone. This is clearly reflected in the Continuous Population Statistics published in July by the INE, which shows that in our country there are 5.54 million homes in which only one person resides. The data is already close to that of the most common household format, those made up of two people. Today they still remain … Read more

Galapagos tomatoes are ‘evolving in reverse’. And that is spectacular news.

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The Galapagos Islands They are the living laboratory of evolution. It was there that Charles Darwin observed the differences in finches that cemented his famous theory of natural selection and that laid new foundations for the evolution of the human species. Now, almost 200 years later, these islands are back in the news, but for a surprising reason: a species of wild tomato seems to be turning the evolutionary clock. But the most important thing of all is that this involution in vegetation opens the door for us to understand how small changes can give us a wide range of possibilities in human pharmacology. The discovery. A new study published in Nature Communications has discovered that, while evolution followed its “normal” course on the oldest islands of the archipelago, the tomatoes on the younger, more hostile islands have “devolved.” And they are actively recovering a chemical trait that their ancestors lost millions of years ago, something that doesn’t seem too logical. And it is not logical because we all have in mind that changes are always for the better to adapt to a specific environment. But these plants are giving us a completely different perspective than what Darwin saidalthough it has important applications especially in pharmacology. A chemical twist. The study of ‘involution’ focuses on the steroidal alkaloids (SGAs), powerful compounds that plants of the Solanaceae family (such as tomatoes, potatoes and eggplants) use as a natural defense. These compounds have a key characteristic: chirality. This means that a molecule can exist in two forms which are mirror images each other, as if it were our left and right hand, or even a reflection of ourselves in a mirror. The two ways are the following: The modern “tomato type”: mainly produces the 25S isomer. The ancestral “eggplant type”: produces the 25R isomer. In this way, the study is seeing that although years ago it was normal to produce 25R, it was later changed to producing 25S. Now, evolution is taking off again to return to the most ancient. Behind this is an enzyme called GAME8 that has dictated what type of chemical defense each plant produces. In fact, the researchers showed that by modifying just eight amino acids of the tomato GAME8 enzyme, they could stop it from producing its 25S compound and make exclusively the ancestral 25R. It is literally an evolutionary switch. Evolution in ‘reverse’. This is where the plot thickens. The researchers analyzed the Solanum cheesmaniaea wild tomato endemic to the Galapagos. And what they found challenges the idea of ​​linear evolution: On older islands, such as St. Kitts, tomatoes almost exclusively produce the ‘modern’ 25S isomer. On more modern islands like Isabela, tomatoes have changed and accumulate high levels of the ‘ancestral’ 25R isomer. It’s not that these plants were “left behind.” The data suggest that their immediate ancestors produced 25S, but the unique environmental pressures of younger islands have favored mutations in their enzyme. GAME8 that they have made it return to produce the ancestral compound 25R. It is a clear case of reverse evolution. Because. Younger islands are more arid and hostile environments, and science suggests that this ‘ancient’ chemical cocktail could offer better protection against pathogens or herbivores specific to that inhospitable environment, or even help the plant in different soil conditions. The important thing. Beyond being a botanical curiosity, chirality is a fundamental concept in pharmacy. One isomer of a drug may be therapeutic, while its mirror ‘twin’ may be harmless or, in infamous cases such as thalidomide, tragically toxic. Understanding how nature has managed to make a single enzyme (GAME8) change its product from 25S to 25R through a few mutations is a great advance for biotechnology. We could, in theory, use this knowledge to engineer crops with specific alkaloid profiles, creating more resistant plants or, conversely, eliminating anti-nutritional compounds. Images | Airplane CP In Xataka | The skull that changes everything: a million-year-old fossil suggests that ‘Homo sapiens’ did not come from Africa

Yes, next year I am going to carry the V-16 beacon because they force me to. It doesn’t even occur to me to throw away the triangles

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January 1, 2026 we will say goodbye to the triangles. Or maybe I would have to say that “we should say goodbye to triangles.” Because that is what the DGT wants. Traffic has decided that in just over two months, the V-16 beacon will be the one that signals breakdowns or accidents that occur on the road. And by the way, it prohibits the use of triangles. And I will say that, when I need them, I will continue using them. It’s not a tantrum. It is not a question of simple rebellion because I have to spend 30, 40 or 50 euros on a new accessory for my car. It is as simple a question as deciding what is best for my safety, that of my passengers and that of my car. A good (but improvable) idea I am not one of those who rant about the V-16 light for the simple fact that the DGT forces us to spend money on a new accessory for our car. I think it has its good parts but I also think it has some things that could be very improved. And, above all, I don’t understand why both devices cannot be combined. According to the DGT, we are experiencing a kind of epidemic of abuses when it comes to put emergency triangles in our country. Well, there are reasons to be skeptical. Between the years 2018 and 2022 (that is, a period that includes before and during the COVID-19 pandemic), an annual average of between 18 and 26 people died in accidents “after getting off the vehicle” on high-capacity roads, as reflected in the document itself which explains why the regulations and technical requirements of this connected V-16 beacon are changed. The DGT highlights the year 2019, the year in which 58 pedestrians lost their lives on high-capacity roads, of which 18 people were run over “after getting off the vehicle” by a particular group. In those five years, there were 108 pedestrian deaths on our roads that can be classified in that particular group. According to data collected by Statista8,615 people died on our roads between 2018 and 2022. That is, 1.25% of those killed on Spanish roads died from a collision under these circumstances. But the most problematic thing about the matter is that these very particular circumstances do not reflect the abuses that occurred while a person placed a triangle. Are you looking for that number? The DGT does not offer it. It talks about accidents on high-capacity roads but does not pay attention to the number of accidents when putting the triangles. That is, the organization is putting a patch on a problem for which we do not have clear or verifiable data. Yet, I break a spear for of the connected V-16 beacon. It seems like a good idea to have a system in the car that warns of an obstacle on the road and that can be installed on the roof of our car without having to get out of the vehicle. And all this despite the fact that it is already mandatory to start the car flashing. It also doesn’t seem like a bad idea to me that the beacon connects with the DGT in its platform 3.0 and so from Traffic they can give notice through the road panels that there is an obstacle on the road. Of course, notifying the emergency services is the responsibility of the driver and passengers. It would be appreciated if, since there is connectivity with DGT 3.0, Traffic would study fluid communication with these emergency services. Not to mention that in all new cars sold there is already the function eCall to sound the first alarm. I will continue wearing the triangles That said, I will continue to carry emergency triangles in my car. And I threaten to use them! (Insert image of Abraham Simpson yelling at the clouds here) No jokes. I have already seen the V-16 beacon in operation connected to the DGT in operation and I am sorry to say that its visibility level during the day and in good light tends to zero. I fully agree with what A few days ago José Lagunar expressedroad safety expert Auto FMin the article in which we asked three voices to give us their opinion. In broad daylight, the differences between setting the DGT V-16 beacon and activating the car’s flashing are: none. In fact, it should give us a clue about this that Netun Solutions, the creators of the invention and the first beacon approved by the DGT, are already selling us “more powerful” lights than the minimum required by Traffic. Will I put the beacon on the roof of my car? Well yes, because it is of no use to me to buy it and carry it in the glove compartment. Furthermore, the connection with DGT 3.0 to alert by the lights is welcome. But I will also put the triangles. With great care and with all the caution in the world but I consider that it improves visibility in case of breakdown. And we’re talking about a highway in broad daylight. But, What happens on a secondary road with a sharp curve? And with a pronounced change in gradient? Not putting emergency triangles in those situations, especially during the day where the light beam from the V-16 beacon is diluted, seems at least dangerous to me. In those cases, it is essential for me to place the emergency triangles. I am firmly in favor of the fact that both systems can coexist. The connected V-16 light doesn’t seem like a bad invention to me. At night, for example, the visibility of the triangles improves and even in a secondary vehicle in the above conditions it is likely to alert the rest of the vehicles sooner than the triangles. But if you use a battery, you are only forced to run it for 30 minutes. What happens if I am left stranded with … Read more

This is how forced ventilation works

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The cold arrives and the first bills scary heating. In many homes, the question is repeated every year: how to keep the house warm without skyrocketing costs? And, among neighborhood conversations, a technical term has emerged that generates curiosity (and some confusion): forced ventilation. What exactly is it? Is it mandatory? And why is there so much talk about her lately? When the cold reveals weak points. With the first freezing nights, the Association of Spanish Insulating Mineral Wool Manufacturers (AFELMA) has issued a warning: poor insulation takes its toll. According to their data, a third of final energy consumption in Spain – and CO₂ emissions – comes from buildings, mainly due to heating and cooling needs. “Every winter we see how many homes are not prepared to conserve heat,” says its president, Miguel Ángel Gallardo. But energy savings no longer depend only of good heating either to put weather stripping on the windows. In recent years, Spanish and European regulations have gone further: they are pushing towards a hermetic and efficient housing model, where ventilation stops being about opening a window “when necessary” and becomes a technical and health requirement. According to the Ministry for the Ecological Transition (MITECO)the Regulation of Thermal Installations in Buildings (RITE) establishes that all thermal installations must guarantee thermal well-being, hygiene and energy efficiency. In parallel, the Technical Building Code (CTE), in its section HS3 “Indoor air quality”requires homes to have a system that guarantees air renewal. That is, the law no longer understands ventilation as something optional. What changes is how it is done. So what is forced ventilation? Also known as mechanical ventilation, it consists of a system that automatically renews the air inside using electric fans and ducts. Unlike opening the windows, these devices guarantee a constant flow of fresh air and expel stale air without losing the accumulated heat. As explained by the specialized portal Heat and Coldthe current CTE regulations require ensuring a minimum indoor air quality, and there are two possible methods: Hybrid ventilation: It combines mechanical extraction and natural circulation when outdoor conditions allow it. Forced mechanical ventilation: Renews the air in a fully controlled manner using electrical equipment. In both cases, the goal is the same: ensure healthy indoor air without wasting energy. The key question: is it mandatory? In practice, all new or completely renovated homes must include one of these systems. If your house is old, you are not obliged to install it unless you do an energy renovation or seek an advanced efficiency certification. On the other hand, commercial premises, offices and other non-residential buildings are governed by the RITE, which also requires mechanical ventilation systems to maintain minimum levels of air quality, classified from IDA 1 to IDA 4, according to Certicalia. In other words, if you are going to renovate or build, you will have to include forced ventilation; If your apartment is old and you do not do any work, there is no immediate obligation. The other even more important question: price? Here comes the part that worries the most. Prices depend on the size of the apartment, the type of system and whether it includes a heat recovery, a device that uses the energy of the leaving air to temper the new air that enters. According to Certicaliaan efficient air conditioning and ventilation project can cost around 3,700 euros, although a basic installation with a heat recovery in a small apartment can be more affordable. However, experts emphasize that the investment pays off quickly thanks to energy savings. AFELMA estimates that improving insulation and ventilation can reduce heating consumption by up to 80%, in addition to avoiding humidity and condensation problems that can lead to costly repairs. As you remember from another specialized portalventilating in winter does not mean giving up thermal comfort. With a good system or simple habits—opening opposite windows for five minutes in the morning, using extractor fans in kitchens or installing heat recovery—you can keep the air clean without heat escaping. Towards a more efficient future. Forced ventilation with heat recovery is already one of the pillars of the Passivhaus standard, which defines almost zero consumption homes. Examples such as the Bolueta Tower in Bilbao or Casa 135 in Madrid show that these systems are not a fad, but rather a mature technology that allows you to save energy, improve comfort and breathe cleaner air. In the words of Siber Ventilationin just over a year, all new constructions must be Almost Zero Consumption Buildings. Mechanical ventilation, along with insulation and renewable energy, will be essential to achieve this. In a winter where every degree counts, knowing how the air enters and leaves our homes can make the difference between a cold home and a really comfortable one. “The real change begins with the materials that make up the home,” concludes the president of AFELMA. Because good thermal insulation—and adequate ventilation—not only saves energy: it turns a house into a healthier, more comfortable and winter-ready space. Image | FreePik Xataka | The patch to avoid another massive blackout is going to cost us 731 million euros. Iberdrola has already begun to collect it

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