achieve

Japan has made an airport not lose a suitcase in 30 years. Now you have to achieve another milestone: that it does not sink

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Now that that moment of the year is approaching where millions of travelers prepare to face the flights that will take them to the long -awaited holidays, an airport room is also ready for the arrival of one of those evils assumed as part of the package: the lost or lost suitcases. Although there is an exception. In Japan an airport has erected as the most efficient of the planet. They have been three decades Without losing luggage. His problem is another, and is underground. 30 years without a complaint. As we said, in a sector where loss is almost evil assumed by travelers, the Kansai International Airportin Japan, it offers an amazing anomaly: in its three decades of operationhas never lost a suitcase, a baby cart, a couple of skis or a single bag. The feat, which its employees describe with modesty as a simple consequence of following the rules, has made Kansai a reference of silent efficiency. Serving the regions of Osaka and Kyoto, and with 30 million passengers International a year, its record cannot be attributed to a low volume of traffic. What distinguishes it is meticulous attention to detail: from aligning the handles of the suitcases to facilitate their collection until they personally deliver fragile or bulky objects directly in the hands of the passenger. In Xataka Nobody wants to spend three hours on a Saturday. And that’s why hypermarkets go down Operational discipline. Had in Japan Times Tsuyoshi Habuta, supervisor of one of the luggage manipulation companies in Kansai, which behind there is no special training or secret systems. According to him, merit lies in Comply with established processes And act carefully: each suitcase is treated as something valuable, not only for its content, but for what it represents for the passenger. Your team manages some 3,000 pieces a dayand the manipulation procedure of is a ballet Synchronized revisions and cross controls. Each piece is counted not only at the time of check-in, but also during and after the flight. The workers inspect that the number of packaged packages coincide exactly with those downloaded, both in the airplane warehouse and in the safety control rooms. If something does not block, the search begins immediately. The rule of the quarter hour. Plus: There is a tacit rule. Deliver all luggage in the collection zone in less than fifteen minutes From landing is a priority. This system is what has made the airport a world reference of efficiency, being awarded eight times with international awards for its excellence in the delivery of luggage. Airport Aerial View Omotenashi philosophy. Behind this impeccable history is also the Japanese concept of omotenashior hospitality as art. According to testimonies of the workers themselves collected by NPRcommitment is not only with logistics efficiency, but with the happiness of the passenger. For them, excellence is not an objective achieved but a constant improvement, fueled by the humility of learning every day and the responsibility of representing Japanese quality to the world. This collective attitude generates an organizational culture where The error is not allowednot for fear of punishment, but for professional pride. Wonder of engineering. The airport, opened in 1994, is built entirely About an artificial island In Osaka Bay and remains one of the infrastructure projects more ambitious and expensive Never performed. Conceived to relieve the saturation of the Osaka airport, Kansai has evolved to become the third busiest airport from Japan. Its initial construction cost around 14,000 million dollars, but with expansions and adjustments it has reached an estimated value of 20,000 million in 2008figure that, adjusted to current inflation, could double. Endowed with characteristics such as flexible asphalt tracks capable of resisting earthquakes and a high structure on 900 hydraulic cats that allow leveling the terminal as the ground sits, the airport has even resisted the devastating Kobe earthquake 1995 without compromising its operation. Osaka Bay Marine bed The problem: it sinks. It We count a while ago. Despite all his technological advances, Kansai faces a persistent and increasingly worrying threat: It is sinking. Since its inauguration, the airport has already descended about 11.5 meters And it is expected that another additional four meters could descend before 2056, approaching dangerously to the sea level. This situation is due to the fact that it was built on land earned to the sea, a highly compressible alluvial clay base that, under the weight of the artificial island, releases water and contracts, causing the progressive sinking of the soil. Although engineers have tried to accelerate land consolidation through “sand drains” (deep holes stuffed with sand to evacuate moisture), the settlement was not completed before starting construction, and the effects continue to accumulate over time. {“Videid”: “X8ST3IM”, “Autoplay”: False, “Title”: “Japan ride generated with Sora”, “Tag”: “”, “Duration”: “17”} Fight against the sea. In 2018, a powerful typhoon flooded one of the slopesconfirming that the problem is not theoretical or distant. In response, the containment dike rose in 2.7 meters To prevent future floods, but experts agree that these measures are palliative and will not be enough in the long term without a large -scale intervention. Yes, the airport is designed to adjust structurally and adapt to the movements of the land, but the geological environment itself (that species of “wet sponge” of loose clay) represents a continuous and silent threat. Every centimeter that descends more compromises its future viability, and although for now it remains an example of advanced engineering, the countdown to its physical obsolescence has already begun. In Espinof I’ve seen ‘Rogue One’ after finishing ‘Andor’. I still have the impression that they are two half films forced to meet Monument with expiration date. In summary, Kansai is a fascinating paradox: a symbol of what human engineering can achieve and a reminder of the limits that imposes nature. While continuing to operate effectively recognized worldwide (With its unmatched record of delivery of luggage without losses), its future survival asshole a complex equation between technology, resources and political decisions. Without large … Read more

Overcoming our brain when making the purchase is not easy. Some researchers have developed a tool to achieve it

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“Codazo theory.” It’s how we could translate Anglo -Saxon expression, “Nudge Theory”, Which refers to the study of actions focused on giving us A “little push” Towards a specific decision. The concept is especially used in the context of the behavioral economy, That place where the economy is mixed with psychology. We know that companies often resort to these “pushcins” to lead us to purchases that generate more benefits but can we use this tool to improve health? Digital tool. The answer is yes, and there are many researchers who work to develop this type of tools. The last It has been developed By a team of Duke-Nus Medical School and it is a digital tool that aims to facilitate the task of choosing healthier products in our purchase on-line. An imperfect system. Choosing healthier food products is not always easy. Yes, we can always make sure that our purchase car is full of fruits, vegetables and other basic foods to cook at home, but this option is not always realistic. Labeling systems such as Nutriscore They can help us choose better, but they have Important limitations. The first is that evaluating the healthy of a product in a simple index is not always easy and sometimes leads us to important inconsistencies. The second, that this index must compete with marketing strategies that seek to buy a product, regardless of how healthy or ceases to be. Beyond labeling. To exceed these limitations, Duke-Nus’s team designed a digital tool destined to facilitate a purchase on-line better informed at nutritional level. This tool complemented the information available on the Internet purchase page, adding additional information. This additional information included a traffic light based on the index Nutriscore of products, complemented with other tools. First, the page ordered the products based on this index, first showing the healthiest products instead of doing it alphabetically. Second, the tool incorporated the follow -up of the products in the purchase car, indicating what proportion of food was labeled as green, yellow or red. Third, the digital tool also showed healthy alternatives (with similar prices and characteristics) to selected products. Studying alternatives. The team tested the tool through an experiment. They asked a group of participants to make three purchases on-line over three to six weeks. Some of the participants used this tool, while others used the conventional portal. The team observed that the purchase cars of the people of the intervention group scored better in the nutritional index. They also contained less calories, less fat in total and less saturated fats, less sugar and less salt. The details of the study were published In an article In the magazine American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Public health issue. By will or necessity, there are many people who seek to eat healthier, and that begins in a healthier purchase. Achieving it for oneself is not easy, but it is not to help these people without falling into prohibitions and Tax Methods. Here is like the behavior economy and Nudge Theory They can help us: the same tool often used to take us to more advantageous options for sellers can also be used to improve the health of consumers who wish to improve their diet. In Xataka | The three expert tricks so that they do not lead you with food labeling, according to one of the country’s biggest specialists Image | Lothar Boris Piltz

The 16E iPhone looked like a stumble. In the end it has been decisive for Apple to achieve an unpublished milestone in its history

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Apple has been in the smartphones market for almost two decades, but I had never managed to lead global sales in a first quarter. That has just changed. Between January and March 2025, the Cupertino company has been at the top of the world ranking, ahead of Samsung and with Xiaomi completing the podium. Counterpoint Research has been in charge of putting figures and context to the new Apple milestone. The keys? An unusual launch calendar for the company, a solid growth in emerging markets and a good global behavior just before the earthquake of the tariff war driven by the United States. At the top of the podium. Apple led global smartphones sales in the first quarter of 2025 with a 19% market share. In addition, it achieved a 4% increase in units sold compared to the same period of the previous year. In second position Samsung appears, which obtained 18% and experienced a 5% drop in units sold. Xiaomi, meanwhile, maintains third place with sustained growth. Its evolution has been progressive: in the first quarter of 2023 it had 12% of the market, in 2024 it rose to 13% and in this start of 2025 it has reached 14%. Although its position has not changed, the constant improvement in quota reflects a difficult to ignore rise. An unusual launch. A key part to understand Apple’s leadership This quarter is at the launch of the iPhone 16E. The device was announced on February 19 and reached stores just a week later. Although it is not usual to see new iPhone in this section of the year, there are precedents: The iPhone is original It was launched in March 2016, And the third generation also did it in March, but 2022. An iPhone discussed, but sold without brake. Although the 16E iPhone has not fully convinced those who expected a more competitive proposal in quality-pricethe truth is that its market performance has been remarkable. It is a model with a more accessible approach, but with a hardware reinforced to be compatible with Apple Intelligence. Despite doubts, its launch has had a strong reception. A trimester of contrasts. The global market grew by 3% year -on -year in this first quarter, promoted by China, where “public subsidies reactivated demand, and for recovery in emerging markets such as India, Southeast Asia or Latin America. On the other hand, markets such as Europe, the United States or even China showed signs of exhaustion, according to the analysis firm. A market that does not stop. Samsung started the year with a slower pace due to the delay of Galaxy S25but sales rebounded after its launch and that of the new A. Xiaomi series, meanwhile, reinforced its presence in both new markets and in its country of origin. Vivo became the brand that grew most among the top five, while Oppo maintained fifth place thanks to good results in India, Latin America and Europe. Other manufacturers also gained ground, although they were out of the top five. Huawei was the largest seller in China during the quarter. Honor and Motorola also grew strongly in several international markets, intensifying competition in segments where great global brands predominated. Tension on the horizon. Although the quarter leaves positive figures, the immediate future is not clear. The threat of new tariffs, driven from the United States, has forced brands such as Apple to move file quickly. The company came to charter flights from India to mitigate possible problems. At the moment, exemptions have appeared on stage, but uncertainty persists. Images | Thai Nguyen | Medhat Dawoud | Ricardo Aguilar (Xataka) In Xataka | If the question is “who will win if prices for tariffs up” the answer is: “Second -hand mobiles”

If we want to eat less, eating more slowly is a valid strategy. In Japan they are investigating how to achieve it

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Losing weight, or maintaining our weight under control is more than solving the simple calorie equation consumed against burned calories. Numerous more or less hidden factors can unbalance this balance, factors ranging from the metabolic to the sociological. The other factors. A Japanese researchers team He has investigated in how factors such as the number of bites, the rhythms we perceive in our environment and gender affect the duration of food. The goal is to eat more slowly to make us easier to have our weight under our control. Slowly. The idea of ​​stopping the rhythm with which we eat to eat less and be able to lose weight is not new but we can find it in guides and recommendations of More than a decade ago. It is not an infallible recipe, but According to expertsaid. The logic behind has to do with how the stomach and other organs of the digestive system transmit information to the brain and how it processes it. This occurs in two ways: first through nerve impulses, and then through the chemical signal that some hormones transmit. Replicating one of the hormonal signals that indicate that food has satiated us is precisely one of the mechanisms for which the consumption of Drugs like Ozempic makes us lose weight. An aid. Now, even when we talk about a “trick” like this, say it is easier than doing so. That is why the new study has analyzed how different factors affect the speed with which we swallow food. And in this, men and women have differentiated guidelines. “While the science of nutrition often deals with the metabolism and absorption of food, and dietary content, there are limited evidence in Japan that eating behavior connects both (points). This intrigue led me to study eating behavior, which involved gender differences,” pointed in a press release Katsumi Iizuka, co -author of the study. 33 participants. To put these ideas to the test, the team responsible for the study He put pizza portions to 33 participants, healthy adults between 20 and 65. They measured the number of bites and the times they already chewed what rhythm. They also used metronomes and headphones to induce more or less accelerated rhythms to check the response of the participants. As expected, the team observed important differences in the habits of men and women: on average these took longer to eat their portion (87 seconds in front of the 63 d them men). They also chewed more (107 times against 80 on average) and took more bites (more than double). Change the rhythm. However, gender was not the only factor that affected eating habit: rhythmic stimuli affected the time required to consume food. A 40 pulse tempo per minute (BPM) markedly elongated the duration of food compared to those who ate without rhythmic stimulation. The details of the study were published In an article In the magazine Nutrients. Facilitating work. Now, there are also reasons why being cautious when generalizing the results of the study. First, we must take into account the limited sample (33 participants). Second, also for the existence of cultural differences between our context and Japanese. These differences both to gastronomic culture and gender differences between men and women and the way in which each society expects to behave when they eat in public. Despite this, the results can help us design strategies to facilitate weight loss that best suits each person, taking into account, for example, their gender. The study can also allow us to know more about how changes in context can help us influence our eating behavior, such as using music with slow tempos to force more leisurely meals. In Xataka | Beyond tobacco: we have just discovered that food can also affect the risk of developing lung cancer Image | Surprising_media

Honor will try to be a reference in the AI ​​era. Will invest 10,000 million dollars to achieve it

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Honor has taken advantage of his presence in the MWC 2025 to make it clear that he will not miss the AI ​​era. In fact, the Chinese firm has announced its Honor Alpha Plan initiative, aimed at “building an open ecosystem” of AI devices. And it is already very clear how to achieve it and a first example of what we can enjoy on its devices. 10,000 million dollars in five years. The firm will invest a true fortune in the next five years to be able to boost the use of AI systems on its devices, and it seems that the intention here is to raise an open and interoperable approach. It has been associated with Qualcomm or Google to achieve it, which seems to aim especially to Android devices. And a first Agent. The new manufacturer’s AI system, called Honor AI, welcomes “the agricultural era”, and will precisely allow users of their devices to use it to, among other things, reserve a table for dinner with hardly any effort. Reservations in restaurants. In a small demonstration Shared in x Honor showed how it has been possible to integrate its AI with platforms as opening to make a table reservation in a restaurant near the MWC. Honor AI understands you and deduces things alone. In fact, the petition indicated that the reservation would be carried out in order to enjoy local specialties without more, which quickly made the intention “based on location and sought typical dishes of Spanish gastronomy. And it’s just the beginning, they say in honor. From that moment on, the model “begins to reason”, They assured In honor, and after analyzing even traffic to avoid possible delays, it suggests a reservation at a table at 7:30 p.m. The system has been developed in collaboration with Qualcomm and Google to create a functional AI agent that allows you to be connected to APIS dystitnas and platforms to interact with the graphic interfaces of these services without apparent problems. But. The demonstration is very similar to one of those that Amazon made last week when presenting its new Alexa+, which also raises those options of agriculture with which to automate various types of task. It seems clear that these types of options are those that will first reach our devices, and it is very likely that honor is not the only one to offer such an option. Hyperrápidas transfers. In the event, honor managers also talked about a new file transfer system capable of transmitting files between mobile phones from different brands at transfer speeds of 125 Mb/s, but also ensure that this option will also end up reaching Macs, PCs and mobile devices to enjoy those wireless transfers between all those products. AND DEPFAKES detection. With the purpose of protecting our privacy and the security of our data, in honor they have worked in several areas. Thus, they launch their technology to “anonymity” certain data of the photos and prevent them from climbing to the cloud, but they also have another curious system. It is a Deepfake detector, which allows if we receive for example a video or we are in a video call, the system warns us if it is suspected that it can be a video of a person generated by AI and not a real person. Aimage. Honor has also presented a new AI system for image processing taken with its cameras. Called Aimage, it consists in the first place of a kernel of AI. This component uses AI models both in local and in the cloud that will provide various options. For example Improvement of the definition of imagesTelefoto by AI, draft with AI (such as the magic draft of Google) or the “expansion” of images if we need to extend an image for example to be higher or more wide. In Xataka | The AI ​​is not starting on Western phones. China has very different plans with Depseek and its brands

Cal Newport strategies to achieve the impossible in less time

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Notifications interrupt. The meetings proliferate. The entrance trays They devour time. In this digital ecosystem, sustained concentration has become scarce and valuable. Cal Newport called him “deep work” in his book ‘Centrate’ (Deep Work): This state of concentration without distractions that allows to solve complex problems. There is something paradoxical here: the knowledge economy demands more deep thinking, but our digital tools actively work against it. Look at the use metrics of your phone. How many notifications do you get up to date? Surely more than 100, possibly more than 200. Each is a microinterruption. Recover the concentration after It is not immediate. We often enter that state that we could define as “being busy but without advancing.” We confuse activity with productivity. Before smartphone, prolonged concentration was almost a basic ability. Today is An act of resistanceIt is almost a heroicity. Great innovators apply in their own way of deep thinking. Steve Jobs boasted of his contemplative walks. Bill Gates, of his “weeks of reading” a couple of times a year. There is something. What does Cal Newport suggest to incorporate time of this type into our lives? Program deep work. Block specific time for tasks that require total concentration. Minimize context change. Each jump between tasks consumes mental resources. Grouping similar tasks reduces this “cognitive tax.” Create rituals. The will is limited. Rituals automate decisions about when and how to work. Embrace boredom. Our aversion to be disconnected erodes our ability to attention. Boredom has its advantages. Audit tools. Not all technology deserves a place in our professional life. Basecamp or Shopify have already implemented measures such as Days without meetingsor a firm commitment to asynchronous communication. Deep work offers something that empty trays and completed tasks cannot: meaning. The psychologist CSIKSZENTMIHALYI called him “flow“: That state where time disappears and work becomes its own reward. The need to think deeply is no longer a strategy to copy Newport, it is almost an intellectual need. In Xataka | Nobody says that he knows how to read in the curriculum. Maintaining these three data does not make sense in 2025 Outstanding image | Sauv Thapa Shrestha in Unspash

There are people convinced that in 2030 we will achieve immortality. These are your arguments

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Live more and live better, but above all live more. Longevity is the obsession of many, including some “futurologists” who believe that eternal life (understood as the end of deaths due to natural cause) is close. Objective 2029. As close as This same decade. Before even its end, to be exact. That is the forecast of Google and “futuristic” Ray Kurzweil’s exingender. This was what I pointed out a few months ago In an interview For the company Bessemer Venture Partners. This raises some doubts, as this arguments based on this notion and if we are close to getting out of death indefinitely. In the interview, Kurzweil expressed it as follows: “Science advances and is healing several diseases. You are receiving on average about four months a year (…) however, scientific research is also in an exponential curve. By 2029, you will have received a whole year account. So you lose a year, but you receive a year back. ” “Exhaust speed ”. Kurzweil’s idea revolves around Longevity escape speed concept. In physics, the exhaust speed is a speed that allows us to counteract the gravitational pull of a body and boost away from it thanks to the simple inertia. In this context, the escape speed means something different, which does not lead us to escape something physical but to get away from death from death. The idea is simple, and that is that the increase in life expectancy grows exponentially until it reaches a point where this life expectancy increases in more than a year. Thanks to advances in medicine and other fields, life expectancy has been significantly increasing throughout the world, but, at least for now, indefinitely prolong our life expectancy looks like a simple chimera. Arguments For a short time, if we trust the Kurzweil arguments. The main argument is the rapid advance of contemporary medicine. Medical advances have allowed us to overcome numerous infectious diseases through treatments and vaccines. Kurzweil himself puts as an example the speed with which the Covid vaccine (obviating perhaps the titanic development effort, which was also based on previous works in immunization and genetic). However, it is also true that we continue advancing a lot in the fight against diseases such as cancers. We are even close to Replicate technology which gave us the Covid vaccine in the fight against some tumors. On the other hand, diseases closely linked to age such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson continue to be a challenge for scientists who still seek to understand the causes of these disorders to combat them effectively. Not just health. The increase in life expectancy is not only limited to the health field. Our world is safer than it was in the past. Transport is safer than a few decades ago, less frequent wars, and violent crimes occur to a lesser extent. These factors have also contributed to the increase in life expectancy and is likely (not sure) to continue doing it in the future. Not so fast. There are those who believe that we will reach the exhaust speed soon without reaching Kurzweil’s optimism. For example, George Church, a genetic expert at Harvard University that indicated that, perhaps throughout our lives, we can reach this evolutionary point. A little more optimistic than Church, Aubrey de Gray, president of the Longevity Escape Velocity Foundation, proposes that it will be throughout the 2030s when we reach it. Will it arrive? There are many reasons to be skeptics, not only with the ambitious Kurzweil agenda, but with the very concept of escape speed of longevity. As we indicated above, there are reasons for some skepticism. For example, the fact that advances in a disease do not imply advances in others. Even cancer is so varied that it implies that, while some are perfectly treatable, others still represent a huge threat to our life. Infectious diseases represent another stumbling block: although we had advanced a lot in the creation of vaccines and antibiotics, the latter are losing efficacy by leaps and bounds before the arrival of the “superbacteria.” Neurodegenerative diseases also remind us that not only just dodge death, while we do not improve our quality of life in the last stages of our life, these improvements will be little. In Xataka | We have been looking for the secrets of longevity. We have found one in the RNA of some worms Image | Harli Marten

some of his advice to achieve it

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As main sales responsible, Steve Ballmer was a key piece to build the foundations of what is the current Microsoft. Your energy and charisma They captivated Bill Gates when both coincided in the halls of the Harvard residence. A few years later, Bill Gates would claim him at his side to turn Microsoft into one of the more prosperous technological ones of the next four decades. While it is true that his time as Microsoft CEO It cannot be considered of the brightest of the company Regarding productit was regarding the development of the company. As published FortuneBallmer tripled the annual income of Microsoft, and prepared the land for Satya Nadella to catapult the company to the place it occupies today, with a capitalization of 3.2 billion dollars. However, unlike Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer is part of that exclusive company managers club that have been made Milmillonarios without founding the company which has made them a millionaire. According to the Forbes Millionaires ListBallmer’s fortune amounts to $ 121,400 million, surpassing his mentor and friend Bill Gates with 108.8 billion dollars. These are the five keys to Steve Ballmer that have led him to reach the business success. You have to see the pitch Steve Ballmer owns the NBA Los Angeles Clippers team, but since his university time he has been closely linked to team management, as Bill Gates recalled in his newly published book ‘Code Source: My beginnings‘in which he pointed out that Ballmer directed the University Soccer Club. “If the CEO does not see the playing field, no one else can do it. The team may need to see it too, but the CEO really needs to see all the competitive space,” explained Steve Ballmer to Fortune in An interview 2013. Ballmer let out The mobile telephony trainbut he focused on the climbing of his Cloud computing model anticipating what really made a difference a decade later. Following sports parallelism with the mythical Wayne Gretzky phrase: “I patino where the album will be, not where it has already been.” Surround yourself with the best talent While he was in charge of Microsoft, Ballmer surrounded himself with some of the best talents from Silicon Valleyas Steven Sinafskywho was in charge of Windows, or J. Allard, one of those responsible for the project Xbox will not be forgotten In a drawer. “We are better when we have very talented people with whom we also worked together,” said the millionaire to Fortune In 2013. In An interview with The Wall Street Journal In 2009, Ballmer said that “to be dynamic”, companies should promote internal workers “70% or 80% of the time” and someone really committed to the project. The manager said that, one of his favorite moments during the hiring process was when he asked the candidates “‘Tell me something you are proud.’ He could see the passion in his eyes,” said Ballmer. Get it on everything and change your mind Something that Steve Ballmer learned is that, in technology, everything changes very quickly and is necessary constantly rethink the land on which it is stepped on not to be suspended in a vacuum. It is something that also learned Steve Jobsrethink everything and change your mind when the evidence leaves no doubt. “There was a time when people said that all the money was in the software; “Then someone will say: ‘Oh, the most important thing is advertising’”, alluding to the Google model. “The only certain thing is that the playing field is constantly changing,” said Ballmer. Therefore, the important thing is know how to adapt to changesand not remain static. Something that came out very expensive to Kodak reference companies Like Nokia, or Blackberry. Act in the short term, plan in the long term One of Bill Gates’ greatest concerns at the head of Microsoft was to make a mistake and not be able to pay the payrolls of its employees. He said In an interviewIn 2017 with Ellen Degeneres. “I was always worried because the people who worked for me were older than me and had children, and always thought: What happens if they don’t pay us? Can I deal with the payroll?” Gates spread that obsession with his friend Ballmer, as well as his strategy to prevent this fear from conditioning his decisions. The solution was to have a vision long -term optimistic, but a more pessimistic attitude immediately. “To do well the important things that generate all the money requires a very long period of time. Executing in a way that allows you to do it is a short cycle,” said Ballmer. Of course, it is something that has put into practice in its current main business, transforming a team that was falling in a fallen layer until it became one of the most profitable, while still projecting to the future With a totally new stadium. Know your weaknesses and learn to overcome them “Obviously I understand the business issues than technology. I have grown up, and when you grow up, you say: ‘Go, I was not aware of how much I did not know,” Ballmer said in 2013. In that aspect, Ballmer coincided with the decalogue of knowledge for Get success Professional Sam Altman published on his blog staff. Build yourself and Find personal growth makes it transit by new roads that open new opportunities. In Xataka | What was from Steve Ballmer: of charismatic substitute for Bill Gates in Microsoft not to hit any decision Image | Flickr (Microsoft Sweden)

In ‘The Last of Us’ cordyceps is a zombie fungus. In Nepal it is a sexual fungus so exclusive that people die to achieve it

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In 2006, The BBC Earth serieswith David Attenborough narrating the chilling sequence, he first revealed to the world of What was capable of a parasite fungus in the body of a creature. We had never been participants in something like that, and the guest that carried the disoriented ant of the colony was going to turn the scene into television history. Years later, the clip with the spores of the parasite fungus cordyceps served as inspiration for the game ‘The Last of Us’, and the subsequent series. In the real world, Cordyceps is also dangerous. A fungus wrapped in myth. The story I told Bloomberg in a report. In the extreme heights of the Himalayas, The cordyceps sinensisknown as “Yartsa Gunbu” in Tibetan or “Caterpillar Fungus”, has been used for centuries in traditional Asian medicine. Its peculiar origin, growing like a parasite inside the ghost moth larvaeand his reputation as a powerful aphrodisiac, they have made it one of the most coveted natural products in the world, reaching exorbitant prices that can reach up to $ 136,000 per pound in Chinese markets. Popularly known as the “Viagra del Himalaya”, the fungus has generated a whole multimillionary industry behind With a growing global demand, especially in China, South Korea and Japan, where it is a symbol of status and prestige. Booming market of falsifications. While in the West the cordyceps can be found in cheap supplements in stores like Amazon, most of these products do not contain the real fungus, but synthetic versions or similar species without the alleged desired effects. In fact, Stanford University research estimates that The global cordyceps industry moves up to 11 billion dollars annuallyalthough much of this trade is based on imitations. According to German mycologist Daniel Winklerwho has spent two decades studying the fungus in the Tibet, authentic products are rare and are sold almost exclusively in Asia at prohibitive prices. Nepal: an economy around the fungus. In Katmandú markets, each store seems to sell the precious fungus, with merchants such as KC Bastola, who offers different levels of quality with prices ranging between $ 10 per piece and $ 4,000 per poundstill relatively low values ​​compared to the final price after the passage of intermediaries. As we said, Here the business is dominated by Chinese buyers, Many of them identifiable for their luxury clothing, which acquire large amounts of cordyceps to resell them in their country of origin, where the government imposes strict regulations on their harvest and trade. We talk about a trade that has generated an economic boom in rural communities of Nepal and Tibet, where Collectors like Tek Bhadur Budha manage to earn up to $ 15,000 a yearenough money to keep their families and send their children to study in the capital. The danger: more deaths than in Everest. Cordyceps sinensis collection It is an extremely dangerous job. The reason? It is carried out in rugged land, more than 4,500 meters altitude, where collectors spend whole days looking for tiny fungi, often on knees and with temperatures below zero. Every spring, entire villages leave their homes and set up improvised camps on the mountaineven closing schools for children and adolescents to participate in the collection. A fact to put it in context: in recent years, more people have died hunting Yartsa than climbing Mount Everest, victims of extreme cold, avalanches, sudden floods and violent clashes between collectors. Everything is worth. For its part, the Dalai Lama has described the cordyceps industry as a crisis for Buddhist culture because its high value has caused violence, exploitation and corruption in the region. Criminal gangs have murdered collectors and have appropriated harvest territorieswhile the use of child labor is an extended practice, with minors dedicated to looking for fungi in extreme conditions. In addition, the lack of regulation allows intermediaries to buy the fungus at very low prices, leaving collectors at a disadvantage against a market dominated by large merchants. Is it really an aphrodisiac? Despite their reputation as sexual stimulating, scientific studies They have found little conclusive evidence that cordyceps has a direct impact on libido. An eight -week study only identified that Consumers felt more energy, but without significant improvements in sexual desire. It happens that the placebo effect and cultural beliefs play a key role in their consumption. According to anthropologist Tawni Tidwellalthough the fungus does not improve its own sexual desire, You have seen notable results in peoplewith men reporting stronger and more lasting erections, and women affirming an increase in their sensitivity. On the other sidewalk, Tashi Tsering doctor, defender of cordyceps, argues that The fungus harmonizes the five cosmic elements (Earth, fire, water, air and space) and that its effectiveness lies in an energy balance rather than in a direct biochemical action. That said, its consumption is not exempt from side effects. In fact, the author of the Bloomberg report said that after drinking a cup of yartsa tea experienced an intense gastrointestinal reaction. The ecological impact of the fungus. It is another cordyceps problems. The growing fungus market has generated an environmental crisis in the Himalayas. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has cataloged it as a species vulnerable to extinctiongiven that Demand has led to overexploitation which exceeds the natural capacity of regeneration of the ecosystem. More than 130 tons of cordyceps per year are collectedcausing soil erosion, abnormalities in snow cycles and changes in ecological balance. In fact, experts warn that if the situation continues, the wild populations of the fungus could disappear in a few decades. Illegal regulation and traffic. Unlike Nepal, where cordyceps collection follows a more open model, China strictly regulates its harvest and sale. This results in Many Chinese merchants cross the border illegally to acquire large quantities of the fungus in Nepal and then traffic it back to China inside suitcases or vehicles. According to Rajendra BajagainMember of the Parliament of Nepal, this activity is out of control, with foreign buyers promoting a black market … Read more

China is very clear about what it has to do to free itself from US pressure: achieve technological self-sufficiency

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The geopolitical scenario in 2025 is, if possible, even more uncertain than in 2024. The two protagonists are unquestionably USA and China because they are the two great powers that are disputing world supremacy. And each one of them leads a side with notable allies with whom it shares an evident alignment in the economic, technological and military fields. China’s technological development has been deeply conditioned for more than two years now by the sanctions that the US is deploying and his allies. These bans primarily seek to stop the development of China’s semiconductor industry, but their implications reach many other industries due to the omnipresence of chips, such as the military, robots, electric cars or telecommunications, among others. others. China needs to achieve technological self-sufficiency at any price China’s medium-term economy is at stake. And the world leadership for which it competes with the United States, too. The Government led by Xi Jinping is fully aware of how important it is for its country to put an end once and for all to the dependency that still exists today of many foreign countries from a technological point of view. Precisely this dependency has been taken advantage of by the US to prevent Chinese integrated circuit manufacturers from accessing the most advanced lithography equipment it produces. the Dutch company ASML. “By managing our own affairs well, we can promote the stable and healthy development of China’s economy.” This is the situation in which The Chinese Administration has promoted the holding this Monday of a meeting in which the country’s political and social leaders urged industry executives as a whole to dedicate your resources to the technology sector. Its dual purpose is to materialize new engines of economic growth and promote China’s technological independence under the leadership of the Federation of Industry and Commerce, which will be the institution that will guide the private sector on this path. “By managing our own affairs well, we can promote the stable and healthy development of China’s economy,” has declared Premier Li Qiang. During 2024, the gross domestic product of this country has grown by 5%, and several intensely industrialized regions, including Zhejiang province, aim to grow by at least 5.5% during 2025. The fact that the meeting among Chinese leaders was celebrated on the same day that Donald Trump has returned to the White House It has a marked symbolic character. A fact that is worth not overlooking is that at last Monday’s meeting, in addition to the political and social leaders of China, several very prominent people participated. from the field of science and technology. One of them was Liang Wenfeng, the founder of the investment company High Flyer Quant that backs the startup of artificial intelligence DeepSeek. Wei Hongxing, founder of AUBO Robotics Technology, also participated in this event. What is still not entirely clear is how China is going to act in the face of a probable escalation of the tariffs imposed by the US under the mandate of Donald Trump. We probably won’t have to wait long to check it out. More information | SCMP In Xataka | Historical record for China: its chip industry has produced more than ever in 2024 despite sanctions

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