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This is how Mario Rodríguez, CPO of GitHub, sees the future of programming

May 31, 2026 by usatoday24

Almost five years ago we asked ourselves Why program when a machine could do it for you?. It was July 2021 and GitHub Copilot was launched, the first major AI assistant that also boasted of being powered by GPT-3. That was quite a turning point for the world of developers, and since then we have experienced the explosion of a segment that has been the first to test the honeys of generative artificial intelligence. Among those who were at the forefront of that development is Mario Rodriguezan engineer born in Cuba but who emigrated to the US when he was 14 years old. After studying at the University of Miami, Rodríguez began working at Microsoft, and has developed his entire professional career there. In 2018, following the acquisition of GitHub by Microsoftjoined the management team as vice president of product. Since August 2024, he has been its Chief Product Officer, and therefore he is the one who decides where GitHub goes as a platform. It is an enormous responsibility considering that we are dealing with the collaborative platform that has become the social network for programmers on its own merits. A few days ago we had the opportunity to sit down to talk with him precisely to talk (“in Spanish, I prefer it, that’s how I practice it”) about the present and especially the future of GitHub, now totally involved in the generative AI revolution. The competition tightens Github Copilot was an absolute pioneer in normalizing that code generation support between 2021 and 2023, but the absolute dominance that seemed to have with the appearance of Cursor and, later, in mid-2025, with the release of Claude Code by Anthropic. In the last year and a half, Cursor’s popularity surpasses that of GitHub Copilot, at least if we take into account visits to their respective websites. Source: Sherwood News. Both AI agents have not stopped growing since then, and the popularity is moving apparently to these new platforms although GitHub Copilot still has an exceptional market share in this segment. If we talk about Claude Code, things are even more striking, because his success is such that even Microsoft engineers themselves they have been using it instead of using the company’s own alternative. The situation was so unique that Microsoft has ended canceling your Claude Code licenses to force their engineers to use Github Copilot, although there is a strong financial argument here: heavy use of Claude Code was becoming too expensive. Microsoft executives recently stated in The Informationwere very concerned about the erosion of their leadership. Rodríguez is clear that now there is more competition, but clarifies that “we knew that was going to happen“. Not only that, because he added that “competition is good. “It’s exciting for me to wake up every day and see what we have to do to continue leading.” GitHub Copilot App, currently in Technical Preview, is the company’s answer to Cursor or Claude Code. Source: GitHub. But GitHub, as he explained, is much more than GitHub Copilot, “it is a platform in itself.” That doesn’t mean they don’t continue to push that part, and in fact in May GitHub announced the launch of the preliminary version of GitHub Copilot App, which, as Rodríguez explains, solves a gap because Cursor or Claude Code (among others) offered “the Integrated Desktop Environment (IDE), which is what we didn’t have. Beyond the model: why GitHub’s strategy is not to compete in pure AI At the moment the situation is what it is: OpenAI has its AI agent for programming, called Codexbut it also develops one of the best frontier models in the world, GPT-5.5. Google, the same: it has Antigravity as an IDE, but it also has models like the recent one Gemini 3.5 Flash. Anthropic is not short, of course: it has Claude Code as an AI agent, but it also has its Claude Opus 4.7 model as a very clear reference in the field of programming and agentic software engineering. Even Cursor, which initially only had its AI agent to program, has ended up launching a surprisingly good model in programming tasks, Composer 2.5. GitHub has the tool, but not own model. For Rodríguez this is not a problem at all, because he sees GitHub as something that goes beyond the modelas a native platform for collaboration in development tasks. “For me the code repository is like a garden that is alive and there are always AI agents collaborating with the human in that repository. So, when you change one thing, people say, ‘Oh, you changed it, this has to change.’” In fact, although GitHub Copilot appeared with OpenAI models as the main protagonists, today it is a multi-model platform that works with cloud models but also with local models. Actually Microsoft does have own models like MAI“but our strategy is not the model. Where we believe the value is in the systems themselves, not in the models.” In fact, he pointed out, in the model segment things change too quickly. “Tomorrow the best will be OpenAI, the next day Anthropic, then it may be an Open Source model… what’s the difference? Every day it changes, and differentiating at that layer is very complicated, so where we are going to differentiate ourselves is in the platform itself, in our AI agent platform.” For him, GitHub’s role is differentiating because it is not an IDE or a model, but a platform. One that not only provides tools to share code and work with it, but also focuses on what he calls “macrodelegation and microsteering“(“macrodelegation and microdirection”). Macrodelegation is high-level autonomy, which makes the developer focus not on looking at each line of code, but on the results. Microsteering is the constant control to correct course, having a human being in the loop (human-in-the-loop) so that errors can be avoided and micro adjustments made. These are the options that GitHub proposes for the future, and they also focus it on two crucial tasks: “For all this to … Read more

El Corte Inglés is selling off LG, Samsung and Sony TVs with OLED and miniLED panels in its online outlet

May 31, 2026 by usatoday24

El Corte Inglés usually has a large assortment of devices in its online outlet, and for a few days we can find many televisions from brands such as LG, Sony and Samsung. The interesting thing is that they are very good TVs with OLED and miniLED panels and they are also on sale. LG OLED C4 by 699 eurosthe previous generation of our recommended television based on its quality-price ratio. Samsung S93F by 699 eurosa TV with an OLED panel that has a 55-inch screen. Samsung QN90F by 799 eurosa smart TV with a miniLED panel and a 65-inch diagonal. Hisense U8Q by 999 eurosanother TV with a miniLED panel, but in this case with a 75-inch screen. Sony Bravia XR-A95L by 799 eurosa television with OLED panel technology and a 55-inch diagonal. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links LG OLED C4 If you look for the television with the best quality-price ratio in 2026our recommendation is the model LG OLED C5. But if you want a “similar” TV that costs less, the LG OLED C4 Right now it is in the El Corte Inglés outlet for 699 euros. We are talking about a particularly interesting television because it incorporates a OLED panel that looks exceptionally good. In addition, its diagonal is 65 inches, it offers a native refresh rate of 120 Hz and is compatible with both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Samsung S93F For the same price of 699 euros we meet him Samsung S93Fa television that also incorporates a panel with OLED technology, although in this case it is 55 inches and comes with anti-reflective treatment. It offers a native refresh rate of 100 Hz (up to 144 Hz via VRR), supports HDR10+ and also Dolby Atmos. Plus, it works with both Alexa and Google Assistant. Samsung S93F (55 inches) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Samsung QN90F With a slightly higher price of 799 euroswe have the Samsung QN90Fa television that in this case incorporates a Neo QLED panel with miniLED technology, so it is ideal if you want a model that performs well when playing film, series, sports and video game content. Its screen is 65 inches, it has anti-reflective treatment, its refresh rate reaches 165 Hz through VRR and it is compatible with HDR10+ and Dolby Atmos. Samsung QN90F (65 inches) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Hisense U8Q It is not cheap at all because at the El Corte Inglés outlet it costs 999 eurosbut he Hisense U8Q It is a quite interesting television for everything it offers. It also comes with a miniLED panel that offers a refresh rate of up to 165 Hz (VRR) and its diagonal is in this case 75 inches. It has anti-reflective treatment, is compatible with both Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision and HDR10+ and its stand is adjustable in height. Hisense U8Q (75 inches) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Sony Bravia XR-A95L Finally, El Corte Inglés also has in its online outlet offering the Sony Bravia XR-A95La television that 799 euros It has a panel with QD-OLED technology. Its diagonal is 55 inches, its refresh rate reaches 120 Hz and it is compatible with both Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. Sony Bravia XR-A95L (55 inches) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | El Corte Inglés and Compradicción (header), LG, Samsung, Sony In Xataka | Best home theater projectors. Which one to buy and five recommended models from 299 to 18,000 euros In Xataka | Mega-guide to set up a home theater: projector, screen, sound system and more

export 10 million units

May 31, 2026 by usatoday24

China has multiplied its car exports. While sales in the local market seem slightly stagnant, the number of vehicles leaving its borders has skyrocketed to the point that, everything indicates, we will see a new export record this year. And it makes perfect sense. Almost a million. China exported 901,000 vehicles last April, of which 796,000 units were passenger vehicles, they explain in Associated Press. It is a figure slightly higher than that of last March but, above all, it is completely disconnected from the 2025 data since 85% more cars have been exported than in April of last year. So far this year, the total number of vehicles exported now exceeds 3.13 million units, which represents a growth of more than 60% compared to the January-April 2025 period, they explain in CNEV Post. 10 million. It is the objective, they point out in this latest publication, for this year. If the pace is maintained, exports would far exceed this figure. Last year, China placed 7.1 million vehicles in other markets and the forecasts They pointed out that this year they would grow slightly to 7.4 million. However, this new barrier of 10 million vehicles that looms on the horizon represents a new historical milestone. Last year it already grew by 21.1%. If we maintain this pace we would be talking about growth above 30%. Because? China has an internal problem. With aid for the purchase of electric cars withdrawn, sales of this type of vehicle have fallen. The first months of the year were especially bad but little by little they have been recovering. The rise in fuel prices as a result of the crisis Hormuz has had a lot to do with. China, which in 2025 once again broke a new record for cars sold, faces a new problem. Last year, with a view to the withdrawal of aid, many cars were self-registered which were difficult to find an outlet for. The market fell into a wild price war and sales of new cars slowed down. The result is a perfect storm for an industry without aid, with a lot of stock that needs to sell cars to a culture that continues to prioritize family savings. Between January and April of this year, 25% fewer vehicles have been sold in China of passengers than last year. We sell them outside. The only way out for the Chinese industry is to take its cars outside its borders. This is being the lifeline for some of their companies. BYD, for example, is reaching export levels that were not expected until 2030. All this movement is allowing China to position itself as a country that offers technological cars at affordable prices. This has allowed them to grow more than 220% in Brazil and reach close to 200% growth in South Korea, Australia and Germany, they point out in Al Jazeera. The perfect car for each market. Although the Chinese market is aimed at new energy vehicles (NEVs in China include plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles), the country’s advantage is that right now it has the perfect technology for each place. This type of vehicles has increased its exports in more than 40% so far this year but its main market continues to be Asia. Where electricity has very little penetration, such as Australia or Japan, its growth rates can be very high. But in other markets like Europe, China has plug-in hybrids that are not subject to tariffs. These types of vehicles are being welcomed with open arms, especially in countries like Spain where the purchase price is the determining factor. Four of the 10 best-selling models with this technology are Chinese. More and more objectives. It must be added that the country has been making efforts to reach new markets. Despite warnings from the United States, some Chinese brands aim continue gaining followers in Mexico. And exports to Canada have been shot. Even in Japan, BYD will try to sell its own kei car a rarity that no foreigner had dared until now. Besides, all Latin America is accepting the arrival of more and more Chinese vehicles. The cars continue to arrive while BYD puts the plant built in Brazil into full operation and announces new releases specific to Europe of its plug-in hybrids. And without forgetting the rest of the companies. While BYD has grown its exports by around 10% at the beginning of the year, Chery has grown by more than 200%, Geely by more than 51% and Leapmotor, now backed by Stellantis, by almost 400%. Photo | In Xataka | While half the world wants to distance itself commercially from China, there is a country that is increasingly doing just the opposite: Spain

The great deindustrialization of Europe, on a map that divides the continent into two

May 31, 2026 by usatoday24

Europe is a continent and many different realities and the economy is no exception. we see it in the industrial fabric, in GDP, in salaries and on the map that you see above these lines: the weight of the industry in employment, or what is the same, what population that works does so in a factory. Although we are going to see it in a big way and with the legend, at first glance something stands out: while there are states that have industry as their main source of employment, in others what rules are services. The weight of the industry in employment in Europe. More specifically, the map represents the percentage that factory employment represents in total employment in each European region in a range that goes from 3% (the lightest areas) to 34% (the dark red areas). The map in question is the work of the cartographer of Milos Popovic and for its preparation it takes the data corresponding to 2023 from Eurostatthe official statistical office of the EU, which publishes these series systematically for member states, allowing them to be compared. Why it is important. Because beyond offering direct employment, the industry is the sector that contributes the most to productivity growth throughout the economy, according to data from Eurostat and the analysis of the European Center for Austrian Economics Foundation. When there is no industry (or there is it in small doses), the services that replace it tend to concentrate on activities with lower productivity and lower wages. On the other hand, losing industry implies dependence on third parties: we saw it in the pandemic when buying masks and we continually suffer it in strategic products such as semiconductors. And it also takes its toll on exports and deteriorates R&D capacity. What percentage of total employment does the industry occupy? Eurostat via Milos Popovic The two Europes: that of industry and that of services. Broadly speaking, Europe is divided into two blocks: the center, the east and some exceptions in the north of the Iberian Peninsula concentrate between 24 and 35% of its employment in manufacturing. On the other side of the coin, Ireland, the Nordic countries, Greece or southern Spain are below 13%. This division is due to several moments but the reasons are identical. Central Europe is the factory of the old continent and much of the blame lies with the EU enlargement in 2004a moment in which European and global multinationals relocated their production to those economies, taking advantage of low labor costs, the existence of labor and, obviously, this new scenario of access to the common market. Germany, the exception and the industrial anchor of Europe. Germany is simply an anomaly in Europe. While France, the United Kingdom and the Nordic countries have been reducing their industrial weight for decades, Germany has been able to maintain robust manufacturing: it represents around 19.7% of the country’s gross added value compared to the European average of 15.6% thanks to an industrial fabric made up of medium-sized companies specialized in machinery, automotive, chemicals and capital goods. But it is not being easy at all: energy is expensive, competition (especially Chinese) is fierce in industries such as the automobile industry and the drop in demand is forcing the Central European country to undergo a profound restructuring. And layoffs: without going any further, ThyssenKrupp Steel advertisement in 2024 a workforce cut from 27,000 to 16,000 workers, an example that summarizes what is happening throughout Teutonic heavy industry. The deindustrialization of the West. Industrial weight loss in Western Europe is not new and does not stop: according to the GMK Center with data from the World Bankthe EU’s share of global industrial added value fell from 20.8% in 2000 to 16.3% in 2023 and between 2018 and 2024 alone, 700,000 jobs were lost in the old continent in the industry. France is a magnificent example because it is the most illustrative case: the industry barely represents 10.6% of its gross added value, almost half that of Germany. Spain stands at 11.7% although it has abysmal differences between the more industrial north (La Rioja and Navarra) and the tourist south. In Xataka | There is one fact that summarizes Europe better than any speech: the minimum wage gap between the east and west of the continent. In Xataka | The best paid jobs in Spain in 2026: from 56,000 euros for a doctor to 250,000 for directing private banking Cover | MilosGis

We knew that living near the sea made us “gain” years of life. What we didn’t know is that it was literally

May 31, 2026 by usatoday24

We have known for a long time that getting closer to nature has benefits for our health. Beyond avoiding pollution in our cities, getting closer to the natural environments around us can improve our psychological well-being, perhaps even encouraging us to lead a more active life. Little by little, we are also observing that something similar happens if we change the mountain for the sea. More sea, more life. A study has observed a correlation between residing in coastal areas and greater longevity. The analysis provide evidence of the link between bodies of water and the health and well-being of people. Of course, the relationship between “blue spaces” and health is a little more complex than it might seem. 50 kilometers. The study observed that the benefits of living near the ocean improved the quality of life of people residing within a strip of about 50 kilometers of the coast. Inland, however, they observed a very different trend: people who lived near bodies of water of a certain size (about 10 km² in surface area) tended to have shorter life expectancies. “Globally, coastal residents are expected to live a year or more longer than the median age of 79, and those who lived in more urban areas near inland rivers and lakes were more likely to die around age 78. Coastal residents likely lived longer due to a variety of interconnected factors,” highlighted in a press release Jianyong “Jamie” Wu, member of the team responsible for the study. 66,000 census areas. The study was carried out in the United States, where the team analyzed 66,263 census areas, studying life expectancy and its relationship not only with the proximity of bodies of water, but also with socioeconomic and demographic factors to control the results. Details of the study can be found in an article published in the magazine Environmental Research. Searching for the cause. The team points out different factors that could mediate this relationship, such as milder temperatures, better air quality, more opportunities for recreational activities, better transportation, less vulnerability to droughts, or income. These factors could explain why residing near the coast is associated with a longer life expectancy, in contrast to people who live near inland waters. “Pollution, poverty, lack of opportunities to be physically active and a greater risk of flooding are the main triggers for these differences,” Yanni Cao indicatedco-author of the study. Correlation or cause? Fits remember that the existence of a correlation does not always imply the existence of a direct (or even indirect) causal relationship. For example, if income is the determining factor, this causal relationship could take different forms. A possible route would start from the fact that the coastal areas they would be more expensiveso they would attract people with more income, income being a factor that we know affects our life expectancy. Another possible way would be that coastal areas generate higher incomes by offering more job opportunities, and these incomes would again be the determining factor in longevity. In both cases the mediating factor is the same, but the causal relationship is not. In Xataka | Why it is hotter in cities than in the countryside: the urban heat island effect In Xataka | Perhaps aging better does not depend only on the body: science is also beginning to study the effect of art and culture Image | Emiliano Arano This article was originally published in August 2025

Science has measured how dinner affects sleep and the result explains why you wake up craving sugar

May 30, 2026 by usatoday24

Almost everyone has experienced an annoying night tossing and turning in bed after a heavy dinner or fat. Under this pretext, science has gone one step further to demonstrate that the relationship between what we eat and how we rest is completely bidirectional, making what we eat determine whether we are going to rest better or worse. And the most surprising thing is that sleeping poorly can cause us to need to consume more sugar the next morning. A Granada studio. In February 2026 the magazine European Journal of Nutrition public a revealing investigation led by the University of Granada, where researchers monitored the habits of 146 adults with obesity. To do this, they used special watches to analyze accelerometry over a period of 14 days, to later cross-reference the activity data with dietary surveys of what had been consumed throughout the day. Prohibited items. One of the most interesting conclusions reached was undoubtedly the relationship between certain foods and poor rest. And to be clear, the elements that should be prohibited at our dinner are the following: Saturated fats. Eating excess protein and, more specifically, eating red meat for dinner. French fries, or fried foods in general, reduce the quality of sleep. Alcohol is one of the classics on this topic, since, although it generates a feeling of sleep, it destabilizes its quality. Large meals cause slow digestion and cause nighttime awakenings, preventing you from entering into a deep and restful sleep. Highly recommended foods. On the contrary, the passport to restful sleep seems to lie in another type of nutritional profile. Interestingly, carbohydrates, often demonized at night, were associated with better rest in this study. Although we are not talking about sugar directly from the sugar bowl, but rather complex carbohydrates, such as brown rice or potatoes, because help transport tryptophan to the brain. But in addition, the consumption of oily fish such as salmon or sardines is also recommended, since they are rich in omega-3 and especially tryptophan. The reasons. As we see, tryptophan is key in the diet to induce quality sleep, and it is no wonder. Biochemistry tells us that the tryptophan that we ingest through the diet is converted into serotonin and, subsequently, that serotonin is transformed into melatonin, the well-known sleep hormone. And for this chain to work we need very important factors such as vitamin B6, magnesium or zinc. But this also adds to a much less difficult digestion when talking about foods that are barely fatty and that do not require a lot of work on the part of our body and that do not invite reflux symptoms to appear that can be really annoying at night. Specific foods. With scientific support behind it We find the kiwi, since here a trial pointed out that eating two kiwis, one before going to sleep, reduces the time to fall asleep by 35%. But it also increases sleep duration by 13% due to its contribution of antioxidants and natural serotonin. Additionally, green leafy vegetables such as spinach, chard or lettuce provide magnesium and tryptophan. And if vegetables are not for you, we also have eggs, either boiled or in an omelet, which provides tryptophan and vitamin B6, along with the classic grilled chicken breast, which is also an excellent source of tryptophan. The rebound effect. However, the true clinical contribution of the research is to show that this problem is, in reality, a cycle that feeds on itself in a dangerous way. Here the researchers found that when participants experienced a poor night’s sleep, breakfast was marked by a higher consumption of sugars and a lower intake of fiber. Images | Slaapwijsheid.nl Debbie Tea In Xataka | We have accepted that “deep sleep” is the standard for sleep quality: science points in another direction

Their bosses promote people they see

May 30, 2026 by usatoday24

He debate about whether a person is more productive at home or in the office has been a constant since companies insisted on putting people in the offices after years of teleworking. Even there are experts who say see the debate more polarized than ever before. A new study suggests that work remote harms workers, compared to going to the offices. And the reason is simple and has been defended by many, both bosses and workers: “employees who are not physically close to their bosses (or who don’t live in the same city as the headquarters) are seeing fewer opportunities. “Not because they have underperformed, but because they have become less visible.” 10 years TELEWORKING_ the BEST, the WORST and the TRICKS Regarding this, the magazine Work, Employment and Society, experimentally demonstrated With data from 1,000 UK managers, when managers do not have performance data on a remote worker, they are significantly less likely to be promoted or receive pay increases. Of course, according to the study, when they are provided with objective performance data identical to that of in-person workers, the penalty disappears. A study by the Deel companya global HR platform. HH. concluded a few weeks ago that a third (36%) of Workers in Europe say they are worried that physical distancing is harming their careers professional. It also says that more than half, 52%, would feel anxiety if they lived more than an hour from work. We have already seen various surveys of young professionals and many They bet on going to the offices for this same matter. Workers want to live far away, but they see harm According to this study, many workers have responded that they would be willing to move further from city centers, or even to another country, if that meant more affordable housing or being able to be closer to family (and they say that they would not even mind working outside of conventional hours to be able to be in another country if there is a time difference). But, at the same time, various professionals affirm that They are seeing that performance alone does not help them grow professionally. and who have witnessed that their managers, consciously or not, tend to reward the people they see most frequently and that “office conversations become opportunities.” Even as a clear example, we have the case of Dell, a company that openly warned employees that those who did not want to return to the office would resign. also to promotion possibilities within the company. Even too imposed obligations such as going in person yes or yes for all those who live less than an hour from the office. According to Forbesall this has been creating two types of employees: those who are considered eligible for promotion due to their proximity and those who are excluded of key decisions simply because they decided to live somewhere else. The experts: we must rethink this traditional model To all this, the warning given by the experts who produced this report is that “companies that assume that everyone can be present at all times are not only misinterpreting their workforce, but also limiting their reach.” From Deel they believe that, with remote and hybrid work becoming the norm, “traditional ideas about proximity to the office need a profound revision. Expanding the hiring approach and work culture is a necessary measure has been around for some time and can open new avenues of talent for organizations facing skills shortages. And this new Deel survey reveals that employees across Europe they increasingly want to move further away from their workplaces to live closer to nature (31%), reduce their living expenses (28%) and spend more time with family (26%). However, “that desire clashes with what many bosses want (but in many cases do not need): control“, as these human resources experts explain. Almost two thirds (60%) of bosses They said they would prioritize hiring in their own time zone or from those who lived within a reasonable distance. from work (58%), although almost as many (51%) also admitted that this mentality made it difficult to find the skills they needed. Image | Photo of LinkedIn Sales Solutions in Unsplash In Xataka | In their search for balance between productivity and mental health, Generation Z is clear: four-day work week This topic was originally published on Genbeta in September 2025

It is no longer enough to count fingers to know if an image is made with AI. Now you have to learn technical drawing

May 30, 2026 by usatoday24

Detecting images generated by artificial intelligence has become a game of cat and mouse. And the worst thing is that it is going to get worse. For a time, we all began to focus on the hands and in the number of fingers that the AI represented in the images of people through the diffusion mechanisms of the models. A few years ago it was obvious to see when an image was created by AI. Now, with image models and video increasingly precise, the task is much more complex. The good news is that there are still ways to detect if an image has been generated by AI, although seeing the pace at which the models advance, this may soon change again. Detecting them is less intuitive than before, but just pay attention to geometry, shadows and perspective. Basically, technical drawing. Who is behind this idea. Hany Farid, a specialist at the University of California at Berkeley and one of the world’s leading experts in image forensics, has spent more than two decades dedicated to determining whether a photo or video has been manipulated. Santiago Lyon, former director of photography for the Associated Press who now works in digital security at Adobe, describes Farid in a Science report as “a kind of dean of digital forensics”, precisely because he has been at it for so long. Farid helped found this discipline more than 20 years ago, and says that AI is the biggest challenge he has faced. Farid exemplifies his method with this image. If we draw a line towards the horizon between the tiles and the skirting boards, we see that the lines do not converge at a single point, which tells us that the image is generated by AI It’s hard to know what’s true and what’s not.. We are losing the ability to trust what we see. The combination of generative AI, capable of creating images almost indistinguishable from reality, and a warm regulation on social networks It makes the hoaxes amplify, making it increasingly difficult to know if what we are seeing is real or not. And in many cases, we don’t even care. Farid speaks directly of a “global war for truth”, with consequences for people, institutions and democracies. In a TED talk He said that he believes that the percentage of fake images on the Internet is close to 50%. It is no longer useful to focus on pixels. One of the first techniques Farid developed was based on the “noise” left by real cameras. An authentic photo is born from light hitting an electronic sensor; An AI image, on the other hand, emerges from a statistical process that converts random noise into an image consistent with the text requested. This very different origin left traces detectable at the pixel level. The problem is that generators have learned to imitate even those imperfections, sensor noise and lens artifacts. As explains Science report, many of Farid’s pioneering methods based on statistical relationships between pixels “no longer work well, if at all,” because AI images are created from scratch rather than edited over a previous photo. technical drawing. AI, says Farid, “doesn’t know physics, doesn’t know geometry, and does all kinds of atrocities.” And that’s where technical drawing comes in. According to Farid, these are the three fronts that we must examine: Vanishing points. In the real world, parallel lines (train tracks, floor tiles, the sides of a wall) converge toward a single point as they move further apart. It is a principle that artists have known for centuries, but that AI ignores because it does not understand three-dimensional space. If those lines don’t meet at a single point, the scene is physically impossible. Shades. The Sun is so far away that its rays reach the Earth practically parallel. That means that the lines connecting each object to the shadow it casts should also intersect at a point consistent with the position of the light. In many AI-generated images, those lines don’t even come close to crossing. Highlights. The same principle applies to mirrors, as lines connecting one point on an object to its reflection should converge at a vanishing point. When they don’t, the image is given away. The same thing happens in this image. If we draw a line that passes through both the vertices of each cube and the vertices of its projected shadow, we see that they do not converge at a single point either. Track accumulation. No technique is infallible on its own, and Farid insist in that the method consists of accumulating clues, as in an investigation. In his TED talk he exemplified this with an image made with AI of several soldiers looking forward. In it he detected the suspicious pattern in the noise, the absence of a coherent vanishing point on the walls and shadows that did not intersect. Three anomalies that gave clues that the image was not real. The underlying reason why this approach stands up better over time is that AI companies are not looking to fool forensic experts like Farid, but rather the average user, since we are at a much lower bar. As he himself says“the visual system forgives all kinds of nonsense in photos because it doesn’t care.” In this image, if we draw a line from a point in the figure to the same point reflected in the mirror, we see that the lines do not converge at a single point either. Doubts and limits. Not everyone in the field shares the same optimism. Some researchers reaffirm that each detection technique has a very short “useful life”, sometimes a few months, because AI improves very quickly. In fact, the famous mistakes on six-fingered hands disappeared in a flash. Farid, however, is skeptical that AI will ever master complex real-world physics, like an explosion, because simulating it is devilishly difficult and companies have little incentive to go that far. Still, he acknowledges that receives a dozen emails every day from journalists … Read more

We believe that the refrigerator can handle everything, but reheating the same container several times is a feast for bacteria.

May 30, 2026 by usatoday24

Something that can be common in many homes, especially when all its inhabitants work daily, is cooking on the weekend for the rest of your life. This practice today is called “batch cooking“and logically it involves a very common practice: take a large container out of the refrigerator, heat it a little, let the rest cool down and put it back in the refrigerator. Everything changes. Although food may look and taste the same to the naked eye, at a microscopic level, each cooling and reheating cycle turns the container into a real amusement park for bacteria. The danger. To understand the problem of reheating the container several times, you must first know a basic concept in food safety, which is ‘danger zone‘. This is nothing more than a temperature range that goes from 5 ºC to 60 ºC, where the bacteria present in food multiply at a high speed. Regarding this, there are different studies that indicate that every time we take the container out of the refrigerator, it heats up and cools down again to consume it later; the food slowly passes through that “danger zone.” If done several times a week, minutes are adding up and hours in which microorganisms have free rein to proliferate. There is more. Although when we get sick we can automatically blame bacteria, the truth is that sometimes the pathology can be generated by thermostable toxins generated by bacteria such as Bacillus cereuswhich produce a characteristic gastroenteritis that many of us have been through. This means that, even if we cook a food and kill the bacteria, its virulence product is still there and causes illness when consumed. Even if it boils. More than one reheated. Different scientific models have studied what happens when cooked foods suffer what is called “temperature abuse.” Here the science suggests that the fluctuations from going from the refrigerator to the counter, heating and cooling again, trigger the microbial load and sink the sensory quality of the dish. The case of rice It has undoubtedly been one of the most listened to, especially because of the danger it entails. Here science indicates that each reheating and cooling cycle exponentially increases the microbiological risk if adequate temperatures are not reached and maintained. One of the big problems of rice it’s in the bacteria Bacillus cereus, whose spores survive cooking and germinate if the rice is left at room temperature. The issue here is the toxins it generates, which end up with very serious gastrointestinal poisoning, which makes it dangerous to reheat rice from one day to the next when it has not been stored correctly after preparation. The chemical problem. Beyond the safety of the food, it is also important to focus on the container that contains it, since the constant cycles of intense cold and extreme heat in the microwave can degrade plastics. With this, it is achieved that the migration of chemical compounds towards food, especially fatty foods. That is why the jump to glass containers can be very interesting to improve food safety at home. How to do it right. To avoid these gastric scares, it is best to divide the food into different containers that correspond to an individual portion, even if it means washing many more pots on a daily basis. Also, when cooking, you should not leave the pot on the counter all afternoon, but rather it is better to cool it quickly and quickly place it in the refrigerator within a maximum of two hours. The temperature at which we reheat is also important, highlighting the need to reach 70ºC throughout the food for a minimum of 15 seconds in order to reduce the risk of contagion. Images | freepik In Xataka | Against tupperware: more and more voices think that storing food in plastic is not a good idea

During World War II, a bell was buried to protect it. A farmer found it in 2024

May 30, 2026 by usatoday24

One morning in August 2024, Laurynas Družas once again passed his metal detector around his village, Antašava, in northern Lithuania. But this time, unlike the previous ones, he was lucky: He found something he had heard about all his life. In fact, explains This farmer by profession, who bought his first metal detector when he was 18. There it was, two meters underground, the bell of his town’s church. The bell tower of the Jackaus church had been without a bell since 1942 because someone had kept it safe in the middle of the Second World War. Maybe too good, because getting her back had become a chimera. Saving the San Jacinto Bell. In 1942 Lithuania was occupied by the Nazis within the Reichskommissariat Ostland. The previous year, the United States had joined the fray and Germany had failed in its attempt to conquer the east in Operation Barbarossa. In this scenario, the bell of Saint Hyacinth of Antašava disappears. Druzas account that the townspeople risked their lives to hide it from the occupiers with all the sense in the world: it is worth remembering that the Nazi party issued a decree to confiscate the bells and melt them for war purposes. And be careful because at that time there were no tractors: they did it with a horse, a cart and brute force. Quite an act of resistance, protection of heritage and a truly dangerous mission to hide a bell that weighs more than half a ton behind the backs of the Nazi occupiers. The bell became a legend. And time passed, Antašava said goodbye to the Nazis, Lithuania ceased to belong to the USSR to become independent in 1990 and the bell was still missing. The problem was that, as the years went by, those who knew where the bell was buried began to forget the exact place: the landscape changes, bushes grow and memory becomes blurred. But people knew that there was a bell in the bell tower and that it was hidden and the story was passed from generation to generation. In fact, Laurynas’ grandmother knew approximately where she was because as a child an uncle showed her the area. Grandma forgot the exact location, but not the idea of finding it. He passed that “obsession” on to his grandson who, 82 years later, found it. A bell with 100 years of history. The bell of the Antašava church was cast in Poland in 1908 in a foundry that, as confirmed by the Polish “campanologist” Dr. Piotr Jamski, is still active today in the hands of a different family than the original. After 82 years underground, its state of conservation It was almost perfectneither the bell nor the wood show any signs of deterioration, as Laurynas Družas himself described after the discovery. The only thing missing was the clapper, which according to oral tradition was dismantled the same night the bell was buried and kept separately in a house in the town, although it is still missing. When the discovery came to light, heritage professionals they took care to verify its authenticity and origin. Back to the bell tower. In August 2025, a year after the discovery, the bell he returned to his houseto the church of San Jacinto. Polish technicians installed the system to make it ring next to the other bell that was already in the bell tower. Vidmantas Družas, Laurynas’s uncle and church bell ringer, account that the two bells are now connected and ring by pressing a button. In Xataka | We have found a fortress from the Bronze Age: it had been hidden under the Romanian forest for almost five millennia In Xataka | Some 5,000-year-old tombs went unnoticed for millennia. Until we look from the sky Cover | Authorius Vilensija and Vadym Alyekseyenko

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