age

The Middle Ages seem like a dark age. Until you discover that they were able to count up to 9,999 on their fingers.

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Historians have been trying for decades free her from her bad reputationbut it’s still hard not to feel a pang of compassion when one thinks of the Middle Ages. Logical. We have been burned with the idea that it was a time of wars, epidemicsfamines, wars and superstition in which humanity moved away from the advances of previous centuries to throw itself into the arms of barbarism. Things change when you find out that an 8th century monk was capable of doing something that will probably seem impossible to you (and most people): count up to 9,999 with your handsrepresenting any number with just your fingers. Count with your hands? Exact. If we keep doing it in a rudimentary way (and limited) today, in a time when almost everyone walks around with a phone in their pocket, imagine how important the art of counting on your fingers was centuries ago. How do you do addition and subtraction when you have nothing to rely on? And by nothing we do not mean a calculator or a primitive abacus, but tools as basic as paper and a pencil or pen to take notes. For centuries those who wanted to do calculations were content with what was closest to hand. And usually that was (pardon the redundancy) his own hands, his 10 fingers and the universe of combinations that opened up his joints and, above all, his imagination. The result is an ancient art that has fallen into disuse over the centuries, but came to acquire an astonishing level of perfection. In fact it can date back to ancient times, long before the Middle Ages. One name: Bede Venerabilis. If we know the peculiar way our ancestors had to count astronomical figures with their fingers, it is thanks largely to a Benedictine monk who lived between the 7th and 8th centuries in what is now the United Kingdom. His name: Bede, although he is usually known as Saint Bede the Venerable. In 725 the religious wrote ‘De temporum ratione’ (‘The Calculation of Time’), a treatise that talks about the cosmos, calendars and the best way to calculate the date of Easter, a relevant topic in its day. Before addressing most of these questions, the author however touches on a simpler and more important question: “De computo vel loquela digitorum”how to make beads with your fingers. Bede does not expose us to a system devised by him, but rather he describes to us a practical art that has its roots long ago. The power of one hand. “Before we begin, with the help of God, to talk about chronology and its calculation, we consider it necessary to first briefly show the very necessary and practical technique of counting on the fingers,” starts Bede in the first chapter. From there it goes on to explain how we should place our fingers to show the numbers from 1 to 9,999. By complicating the system a little more you can reach 999,999. There is even a symbol for the million “Somma di arithmetica”, by Luca Pacioli. And how the hell do they do it? With imagination, ingenuity and also a certain agility with the hands. Especially if what we want is to represent high figures. In Scientific Culture UPV/EHU mathematics professor Raúl Ibáñez signs an interesting article which details how the system works, including graphics and translated quotes from Bede himself, who first explains how to place the fingers of the left hand to represent low numbers. “When you say one, bending the left little finger, place it in the middle joint of the palm. When you say two, bend the second finger placing it in the same place,” clarifies the Benedictine monkwho continues patiently explaining to us how to show figures with the left hand, move to tens or make the jump to hundreds and thousands with the help of the right. The key is in the meaning of each hand and groups of fingers, which are assigned the value of the units of thousands, hundreds, tens and ones. If we want to go further and express tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands we will only have to vary the position of each of the hands with respect to the body. Beyond the Middle Ages. In a video published in 2020 by the BBC, Seb Falk, author of ‘The Light Ages’, also explains how centuries ago they managed to represent astronomical quantities with their fingers. The most surprising thing is that the system long predates Vera. “It was used from Roman times to the Middle Ages (11th to 13th centuries) throughout Europe,” says the historian. “Just as when we write we have a column for units, another for tens, for hundreds and thousands, they dedicate the little finger, ring and middle fingers of the left hand to the units and the index and thumb to the tens. On the right, the thumb and index indicate the hundreds and the other fingers, the thousands.” In short: ten fingers, 9,999 numbers. It’s all a matter of internalizing the system, understanding its dynamics and playing with positions. The truth is that the method is so curious that it has aroused the interest of authors after Bede, such as the mathematician Jacob Leupoldwho addresses it in an 18th century treatise; or the famous Luca Pacioliwhich refers to (with some changes) in ‘Summa’. Why get so complicated? At a time when we are accustomed to walking with smartphones (with their respective calculators) in their pockets and it is not difficult to find paper and ink, perhaps we will be surprised by the system that the Venerable Bede tells us about. Things change when we think about the resources they had available centuries ago. And the range of possibilities that such a system opened up, which only needs something as simple and universal as the fingers of the hands. “It was a code, a sign language, that was used in markets, as it was an effective way to communicate … Read more

the minimum dose of exercise that science points to changing the health of those over 60 years of age

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In the 1980s, gerontologist Robert N. Butler launched a phrase that has become in a mantra of modern medicine: “if exercise and physical activity could be packaged as a pill it would be the most widely prescribed and beneficial medication for the population.” Forty years later, science has stopped treating that phrase as a metaphor and turned it into a mathematical calculation. The ROI of the force. Until now, we knew that sport was healthy, but data on its direct clinical profitability were lacking. The GENUD research group, led by José Antonio Casajús, published in Experimental Gerontology at the end of 2025 one of the strongest evidence to date. The essay, carried out with 123 people over 80 years oldprescribed a treatment of three weekly supervised exercise sessions for six months. The clinical results were clear: improvements in functional capacity, reduction in frailty and increase in quality of life. But the data that has aroused the interest of health managers is economic. The conclusion here was that while the cost of the intervention was only 164 euros per person, The savings to the system exceeded 1,000 euros. The clinical squat. If exercise is the ideal drug, clinical evidence points to the squat being the most important active ingredient here. Many studies have precisely validated this movement, which can mean the world to some people, not as a gym exercise but as a diagnostic and treatment tool. Biomechanics is key. Why is the squat so important to medicine? First of all because it is an exercise that demands more on the hip extensorsvital for an elderly person to be able to get up from a chair or bed without help. But in addition, it also activates the quadriceps and plantar flexors more. At the metabolic and cardiovascular level, the impact is systemic. The venous compression that occurs during the squat increases venous return and cardiac output, acting as a natural pump that combats orthostatic hypotension. Even in post-stroke patients, fast squats have been shown to activate the injured rectus femoris, correcting asymmetries and improving postural control. How long. You don’t have to work hard, since a recent study showed that a program of just one minute a day, that is, about thirty seconds of squats and thirty seconds of push-ups, is enough. This is something that was seen with prescription by primary care physicians, improving physical performance in patients over 60 years of age with excellent adherence at 24 weeks. Anti-cancer effect. Beyond the effect on adults, important implications of physical exercises in pediatric cancer have also been seen. This was evidenced by Carmen Fiuza-Luces, from the Physical Exercise and Pediatric Cancer group, who directs the “La Aceleradora” project of the Unoentrecienmil Foundation. And contrary to the belief of having “absolute rest” when you have cancer, the evidence shows that exercise during treatment of pediatric solid tumors It achieves what no drug can. For example, it reduces the side effects of chemotherapy, protects the heart from the toxicity of the treatment or prevents atrophy in sick children. The problem is not the drug. The problem with prescribing exercise in consultation is lack of knowledge about the ‘dose’ that should be given. Just as a doctor does not say ‘take an antibiotic’ without a clear duration and frequency, the same thing happens with sports. You can’t say ‘do sports’. In these cases, exercise requires a dose in the form of frequency and duration, the intensity that must be personalized to each patient and, above all, monitoring with adaptation to the patient’s pathology. Looking for the front door. The Health and Sports Working Group of the Collegiate Medical Organization, coordinated by José Ramón Pallás, is pushing for integrate exercise into the National Health System as a therapy equivalent to drugs. The goal is for the “3 sets of 10 squats” recipe to be as official and binding as any blood pressure pill. In this way, science has done the numbers and all that remains is for the administration to make a move. Images | Victor Freitas In Xataka | Neither 10,000 steps a day nor killing yourself in the gym: the “sweet spot” of exercise according to science is 30 minutes

We believed that a vegetarian diet guaranteed longevity. In extreme old age, the data says just the opposite

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There are many positions in nutrition about what food It is the one that will give us a better old age. One of the positions that you have surely heard is the need to reduce meat consumption to prioritize vegetables for everyone the benefits that they contribute. But now science is pointing out that what works at age 40 may not be ideal at age 90. The change of course. A published study this same year in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has shaken the hornet’s nest of gerontology after analyzing thousands of elderly people. The conclusion they have drawn is that among those over 80 years of age, those who consume meat are more likely to become centenarians than strict vegetarians. But before you rush to cancel your salad order, read the fine print: the key is not the meat per sebut weight, fragility and the fight against muscle loss. The data. In order to reach this conclusion, the study analyzed data from a longevity survey in the Chinese population carried out between 1998 and 2018. In total, the researchers followed 5,203 participants who were over 80 years old, classifying them based on omnivores or vegetariansincluding vegans and ovolactovegetarians. The results. Adjusting for age, gender, and baseline health, the study yielded a surprising finding: vegetarian diets were associated with a 25% lower chance of reaching age 100 compared to omnivorous diets. A correlation that was statistically significant mainly in the elderly who were already thin. Thinness. This is a really important point to present one of the nuances of this research. And the advantage of carnivores disappears in people who have a weight within the established normality. Thus, the negative association between being vegetarian and extreme longevity was observed almost exclusively in participants with a BMI lower than 18.5. That is, extreme thinness. This reinforces what is sometimes known in medicine as the “paradox of obesity in old age“. While in youth overweight is a risk factor for almost everything, in extreme old age, having energy reserves and muscle mass is life insurance. This is why the authors of the study emphasize that the consumption of foods of animal origin seems to act as a protective factor against malnutrition and frailty in these vulnerable individuals. Because. The biological explanation that suggests that meat is good in old age is based on the constant fight against degradation. One of these events is the dreaded sarcopeniawhich occurs when the natural loss of muscle mass accelerates over time. One of the objectives here, as we have repeated many times, is to maintain muscle with highly bioavailable proteins that are in meat, eggs and milk. In addition to this, the study suggests that strict vegetarians, especially thin ones, may not be ingesting enough total calories to maintain their physiology in stressful situations. And it is not crazy now, but previous studies have already pointed out that, although restricting meat reduces mortality in young people and middle adults, this effect was reversed in old age. They don’t cast a shadow. Logically, this study does not negate the many benefits of a plant-based diet for the general population. In fact, there are studies that suggest that for the vast majority of the population the priority continues to be preventing serious chronic diseases such as diabetes. However, this work suggests that nutrition must be dynamic, since the requirement in middle age is not the same as in the last years of life. Images | Simon Godfrey Kile Mickey In Xataka | Being bored is psychologically positive but it has an undesirable consequence on your body: it makes you gain weight.

At the age of 16 he created a picosatellite from his room in Madrid. Today your company is at the global forefront in IoT communications

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While the majority of 16-year-olds were thinking and doing other things, it occurred to Julián Fernández (La Línea de la Concepción, Cádiz, 22 years old) create a 250 gram picosatellite from scratch. That project and that ambition changed his life and ended up causing him to found Fossa Systems in 2018. Today, six years later, we are faced with a leading company in this market that has things very clear and a spectacular projection. From Gran Vía to space. Fernández commented in a recent interview on RTVE how Fossa is the Spanish company that has launched the most satellites into space: currently there are 24 satellites. The project of his company – based on Madrid’s Gran Vía street – is to create a constellation of 80 small satellites. They have that many licensed, and all of them are specifically designed for communications with IoT devices. This is not a Starlink. Comparisons are odious, but often useful, and it is inevitable to look at Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite network. The latest versions of its satellites weigh between 800 and 1,250 kg, while Fossa’s nanosatellites do not exceed 6 kg. Starlink’s need huge solar panels because processing their broadband communications consumes a lot of energy, while Fossa’s use batteries that can last up to ten years. Nanosatellites for IoT. The focus is also very different, because Fossa’s nanosatellites have the mission of moving small packets of data in an ultra-efficient way. They are designed so that a sensor on an oil barrel, cow collar, or cargo container sends short, informative messages such as “pressure level OK” or “location: X.” They are totally designed for those short and critical communications in the Internet of Things. Spain is beginning to truly emerge. Fossa has already raised more than 12 million euros between private and public financing, has more than 50 employees and headquarters in Madrid and Portugal—and soon in Asia. They have become an absolute benchmark in their segment. and although at the moment they are launching with SpaceX, they hope to do so soon with PLD Spacethe other jewel in the Spanish aerospace crown: “Spanish satellites on Spanish rockets.” Satellite sovereignty. Fossa’s technology is being especially used in the defense sector: more than 80% of its turnover comes from this segment. As Fernández explained in that interview, “we cannot depend on the US for a technology as critical as satellite communication and sovereign and independent systems are needed.” A notable bet. The fact that Spain is, for the first time, the fourth European country that invests the most in space. Along with Poland it is the one that has increased its contribution the mostwhich now reaches 22,000 million euros. Hello, “New Space” model. Fossa has taken advantage of a new paradigm known as “New Space” in which from large space megaprojects we move to agile developments in which miniaturization and cost reduction is enormous. Fossa Systems is capable of creating a new satellite and putting it in space in six months, but that satellite also costs hundreds of thousands of euros, not tens of millions of dollars. There is another fundamental advantage: Fossa Systems does everything except the design and manufacturing of the semiconductors and the launch of the satellites. That verticalization, that “not depending on almost anyone” is another of its strengths. The future: satellites (somewhat larger)… and licensing. From that initial picosatellite of 250 g we have moved on to the current FOSSASat FEROX of about 6 kg, but the future involves manufacturing somewhat larger satellites of about 20 kg. They hope to complete their constellation of 80 satellites before 2030, and while they do so, Fernández has another objective that he will surely have no problem completing: obtaining his degree in telecommunications engineering at the Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid, where he is currently pursuing that degree. In Xataka | PLD Space has a detailed plan to become Europe’s rocket factory. And the pieces have started to fit

Until now, Mexican children under 14 years of age did not have to pass an interview to enter the United States. That’s over

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Mexico is preparing for an image that is difficult to see in recent years. With the changes in immigration policy and of access to the United States As a backdrop, the Trump administration has decided that both Mexicans under 14 and those over 79 will no longer be exempt to pass an interview with a consular officer to obtain their “non-immigrant” visas. In practice, this will affect children and the elderly who want to travel to the neighboring country to spend their holidays, for studies, business or for medical reasons. What has happened? That the US State Department has changed slightly the guidelines that Mexicans who want to apply for a nonimmigrant visawhich is used for tourism or business trips. And it has done so in an aspect that has generated some expectation in the country. From now on (from a few months ago actually) and as a general rule, Mexicans under 14 years of age and those over 79 must undergo a consular interview in person to obtain the document, just like the rest of the population. So far both (children and elderly) They used to be exempt. What does the US say exactly? The guideline collected in the official website of the US Embassy and Consulates in Mexico is quite clear: “All applicants for non-immigrant visas to the US, including those under 14 years of age and those over 79, will generally be required to appear for an in-person interview with a consular officer.” There are some exceptions, although for specific cases and as long as those involved meet “certain requirements”, such as presenting the petition in their country and not having been rejected before. For example, applicants for diplomatic visas or those who want to renew their B-1, B-2, B1/B2 permits or Border Crossing Card or Folio are exempt from the obligation. Of course, your passes cannot be expired for more than 12 months. This is also new, as remember The Country. Before they could take advantage of Dropbox process (visa interview waiver program) for 48 months following the expiration date of the document. Screenshot of the official website of the US Embassy and Consulates in Mexico. Why is it important? For several reasons. The first, as has been responsible for highlighting part of the Mexican press, is that in practice the change will mean that children and octogenarians will have to meet in person with a consular officer if they want to obtain their visa. In the case of minors under 14 years of age, it is no longer useful for their parents to come alone with all the documentation. The second reason is that the concept of “nonimmigrant visas” is broad. The list published by the US Department of State shows that its vast range includes those people who want to cross the Mexican border for business, tourism, to receive medical treatment, as athletes, to study or work as seasonal agricultural workers, among other cases. What do you recommend doing? The range is so wide that there are those who advises plan the procedures well in advance, especially at the busiest consulates, and starting from the base that the applicant will most likely have to pass the interview. The US administration itself remember That, if necessary, the consulate can request this procedure even from those who are exempt. Is it something exceptional? No. The US has tightened the access conditions for citizens of other countries (not just Mexico) and has become stricter with the requirements required of applicants for family-based immigrant visas. At the end of 2025 even transcended a proposal from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that proposes that foreign travelers who want to cross the border in the United States must reveal up to five years of their network history. In the case of consular interviews for Mexican visa applicants, the change in criteria has come up against another handicap: a confusion in the dates. As remember The ImpartialIn July 2025, a guide was published that advanced the changes and stated that these would come into force as of September 2. According to a later update, the change was activated later: in October. Images | Global Residence Index (Unsplash) and Francesca Albert (Unsplash) In Xataka | More and more Americans want to live outside the US but they have a problem: Europe is closing its doors

dominate in the age of AI and video games

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Officially, CES 2026 in Las Vegas starts tomorrow, January 6, but as usual, some companies have wanted to stand out to capture the spotlight. One of those is an AMD that is pushing its processor division hard and that has stood at the event with three new Ryzen. Not three different processors: three categories. As it could not be otherwise, there are many “artificial intelligence” in the equation. It is something that the company’s latest processors for Consolidated PCslike the Asus ROG Xbox Allythey have made it clear, and that in these new families it continues to be promoted. That said, we are going with all the new AMD processors, including some more industrial ones that are not interesting for us as users, but that says a lot about the state of the technology industry in general and The United States and AMD itself in particular. New AMD Ryzen AI 400 APUs Image | amd First things first: the Ryzen AI 400. It is an APU, a package that integrates CPU, GPU and NPU to process artificial intelligence tasks. This type of units is found in established consoles, laptops and PCs, and this AI is responsible for “inventing” frames per second with tools such as ‘frame generation’ or reconstructing the image with AMD’s FSR and the Nvidia DLSS. In this new family, we see improvements in memory speed, cores and frequency, but what stands out is the performance of the NPU. It has 1.2 times more TOPs than previous Ryzens. Manufacturers are expected to start launching compact laptops and desktops at the end of January this year, and the features of all Ryzen AI 400 processors are as follows: Cores/threads Maximum frequency cache memory speed NPU TOPs GPU CUs Ryzen AI 9 HX 475 12 / 24 5.2GHz 36MB 8,533 MT/s 60 16 Ryzen AI HX 470 12 / 24 5.2GHz 36MB 8,533 MT/s 55 16 Ryzen AI 9 465 10/20 5GHz 34MB 8,533 MT/s 50 12 Ryzen AI 7 450 8 / 16 5.1GHz 24MB 8,533 MT/s 50 8 Ryzen AI 7 445 6 / 12 4.6GHz 14MB 8,000 MT/s 50 4 Ryzen AI 5 435 6 / 12 4.5GHz 14MB 8,000 MT/s 50 4 Ryzen AI 5 430 4/8 4.5GHz 12MB 8,000 MT/s 50 4 Ryzen AI Max+ Image | amd On the other hand, there are the Ryzen AI Max+. They are also APUs that integrate graphics, processor and NPU, but the TDP is higher because they are designed for more demanding tasks such as 3D modeling, video editing and video games with comparable image quality, according to AMD, to what we would have if we used a conventional CPU plus a graphics card. Now we will see the frequencies, cores and bandwidth, but AMD has focused on commenting that the characteristics of this processor allow AI models to run in local mode without depending on the limitations of the cloud. In fact, the model Liquid AI It is the one they mention as local execution and it can be downloaded for free by everyone who has a Ryzen AI processor. And, of course, comparisons are odious, but they have put an Asus ROG Flow Z13 face to face with an AI Max and at MacBook Pro M5 to tell us that the Asus performs 1.4 more in AI tasks, 1.8 more in content creation, has 1.8 faster multitasking and better performance -1.6x- in ‘Cyberpunk 2077‘. Here is the entire family: Cores/threads Maximum frequency NPU TOPs GPU CUs GPU TFLOPS Ryzen AI Max+ 395 16 / 32 5.1GHz 50 40 60 Ryzen AI Max+ 3 392 12 / 24 5GHz 50 40 60 Ryzen AI Max+ 3 390 12 / 24 5GHz 50 32 48 Ryzen AI Max+ 3 388 8 / 16 5GHz 50 40 60 Ryzen AI Max+ 3 385 8 / 16 5GHz 50 32 48 New Ryzen 9000, because not everything is AI Image | amd If the two previous families rely on AI to be able to handle models locally and to improve visual parameters in video games, now we move on to the new Ryzen 9000. These are processors designed for the desktop, and within the new family of Ryzen 5, Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9we have real beasts with a TDP of up to 170 W and maximum frequencies of up to 5.7 GHz in the most powerful of them: the Ryzen 9 9950X3D. It is a processor with 16 cores and 32 threads with a combined cache of 144 MB and AMD itself is not the one it has used for its comparisons because it is a processor more designed for creating content than for video games. Looking for a greater balance, there is the Ryzen 7 9850X3D. It has 8 cores, 16 threads, a TPD of 120 W and a maximum frequency of 5.6 GHz. This is 400 MHz more than the fabulous 9800X3D and maintains compatibility with the AM5 socket. If you already had a previous processor compatible with that socket, the change is very simple. These are all the new Ryzen 9000: Cores/threads Maximum frequency cache TDP Ryzen 9 9950X 3D 16 / 32 5.7GHz 144MB 170W Ryzen 9 9950X 16 / 32 5.7GHz 80MB 170W Ryzen 9 9900X 3d 12 / 24 5.5GHz 140MB 120W Ryzen 9 9900X 12 / 24 5.6GHz 76MB 120W Ryzen 7 9850X 3D 8 / 16 5.6GHz 104MB 120W Ryzen 7 9800X 3D 8 / 16 5.2GHz 104MB 120W Ryzen 7 9700X 8 / 16 5.5GHz 40MB 65W Ryzen 5 9600X 6 / 12 5.4GHz 38MB 65W Ryzen 5 9600 6 / 12 5.2GHz 38MB 65W And, although it is not new, AMD has recalled that they launched Redstone recently. This is the name they have given to FSR, its image reconstruction technology and pixel generation. Most new games are already compatible with Redstone and it is something that we can see in this video and that only interests you if you have a Radeon RX9000: Embedded APU, the … Read more

There is an age at which we should stop drinking alcohol forever. Neuroscience is clear why

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For years, popular culture and certain observational studies have sold us a comfortable idea: moderate alcohol consumption could be harmless and even beneficial for the heart. However, when we focus on the brainthe story changes radically. It is neurotoxic. A growing stream of neurologists and new epidemiological evidence point to an uncomfortable reality: alcohol is a neurotoxinand there is a biological age from which our brain loses the ability to tolerate it. Although official guidelines do not prohibit retirees from drinking, scientific literature suggests that The ages of 65-70 mark a critical boundary. Crossing it with a drink in hand could be accelerating cognitive decline and dementiawhich are very prevalent diseases at that time of life. Although there are exceptions, with people who are very long-lived and point out that their ‘secret’ is having a glass of alcohol daily. Although genetics may play an important role here. The neuronal reserve. Neurologist Richard Restak popularized a strong clinical recommendation: you should stop drinking completely at 70 years old. Is it an arbitrary number? Not at all. It is based on the concept of “neural reserve”. According to science, a young brain has room for maneuver before the arrival of these toxins. It has enough neurons and plasticity to compensate for the slight damage caused by ethanol, but, however, natural aging leads to a loss of neurons. That is why drinking in old age is, basically, burning fuel from a tank that is already in reserve and that is not going to be refilled. It is accelerating. Science in this case is quite clear that alcohol-related brain damage along with intense and prolonged consumption accelerates brain aging. And the fact is that with the same alcohol consumption, an aged brain has greater damage than a young one. Something that is explained because the neuronal repair mechanisms are also aged and do not have the same capacity as when a person is 20 years old to compensate. The data. The biggest blow to the idea that a little drinking “doesn’t hurt” comes from large cohort studies, such as the famous Whitehall II studiowhich followed thousands of people for 23 years. In this case, it was seen that people who drank between 14 and 21 glasses of alcohol per week were three times more likely to suffer from hippocampal atrophy compared to those who did not drink. And this is the fundamental region to have memory. For those who exceeded 30 units per week, the probability of atrophy shot up to almost six times more. But the most worrying thing is that no protective benefit was observed in the light consumption group (less than seven drinks a week) compared to general abstinence. Zero alcohol. These data along with brain imaging studies They point out that even ‘moderate’ consumption is associated with a significant brain alteration. This means that it can be stated that the safety margin for the brain is practically non-existent. The limit age. Why can 65 be a turning point? Although there is no international “dry law” for people over 70, organizations such as the Alzheimer’s Society from the UK warn that those over 65 are a special risk group. This is because there is already an aging liver that processes alcohol slowly, which means that the alcohol circulates through the body for longer. This is also added to the interactions that alcohol has with medications that can increase its toxicity and most importantly: increases the risk of dementia. You have to be careful. With all this data, science is quite clear that any consumption increases the risk of health problems, especially in regards to the brain. Although clinical guidelines still recommend simply “not exceeding 14 units per week,” the recommendation of experts like Restak and reading the most current evidence suggest a more aggressive prevention strategy. Given that we have no cure for dementia and that neuronal reserve is our only shield, giving up alcohol when entering old age is not an option, it is a logical cognitive survival strategy. Images | CHUTTERSNAP Simon Godfrey In Xataka | The alcohol industry’s biggest fear can be summed up in just five words: being teetotal is fashionable.

According to scientists, global warming will most likely lead to an Ice Age

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We usually imagine the climate change like an endless ascending line: more heat, melted glaciers and more acidic oceans. However, science has just put on the table a hypothesis that is not very intuitive: under certain extreme conditions, global warming does not end in hell, but in a real freezer. And the plankton, which seems harmless, has a lot to say in this regard. The identified. A team of researchers from the University of California, Riverside (UCR) and the University of Bremen has identified an instability in the carbon cyclea “glitch” in Earth’s climate operating system, suggesting that an ocean that is too warm and depleted of oxygen can trigger massive global cooling. The geological thermostat. To understand this finding, we must first look at how the Earth regulates its temperature in the long term. The classic mechanism is silicate weathering. Which basically means that when there is a lot of CO₂ in the atmosphere along with heat, it rains more and this rain dissolves the silicate rocks, dragging the carbon and the nutrients it stores to the sea, such as phosphorus. That’s where plankton uses that carbon to build their shells and, when they die, they sink, trapping CO₂ on the seabed. And although it may seem like good news that they store this gas that is seen as a great enemy on the seabed, the fact of reducing its concentration It means that the temperature drops. A paradigm shift. Until now, scientists saw this as a stable “thermostat”: if it is hot, the system works to cool the environment, and if it is cold it works less intensely. But now something radical arises: the thermostat has a catastrophic failure mode. According to their simulation models, when the system is coupled to the cycle of marine nutrients and biological productivity, the regulation can be unstable. And this is where the ideas of a future ice age begin. The plankton trap. For researchers, if we continue with extreme warming on our planet, erosion will increase to bring nutrients to the ocean. Something that will undoubtedly be appreciated by the phytoplankton and the algae that will accumulate it and when it dies, it will create an area in the water where there is not a hint of oxygen. In an ocean without oxygen, phosphorus once again dominates sea water which will create a vicious cycle where the algae They will consume large amounts of oxygen. The result is that the ocean floor begins to ‘suck’ CO₂ from the atmosphere at breakneck speedwhich is much faster than volcanoes or human activities can replenish it. The result is clear: a thermal collapse that can lead to a severe glaciation similar to what the Earth has experienced in the past. We had other fears. Right now on the table we had the suspicion that the collapse of the AMOCthe ocean currents that move water between various locations, will lead us to this situation. And they have a very important function: moving warm water from the tropics towards the north through the surface and cold, dense water towards the south through the depths. Something that a priori regulates global temperature. Global warming. A priori, anyone might think that continuing to emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is the solution to this. But the authors issue a warning: geological times are not human times. We are talking about a mechanism that operates on scales of hundreds of thousands of years, and that is why it will not cool the planet either in this century or the next. In fact, researchers suggest that if this mechanism were activated today, it would be an excessive correction that will occur long after we have suffered the consequences of global warming. The fragility of the system. The carbon cycle is not a simple scale that stays in balance, but is quite dynamic and complex. This is somewhat difficult, since it can easily become unbalanced. The idea that the planet can “overreact” to heat by causing extreme cold reminds us that the Earth has regulatory mechanisms that are indifferent to the survival of human civilization. Images | Javier Miranda Alberto Restifo In Xataka | The Earth is entering climate collapse with its first point of no return. Our only salvation is technology

Adobe presents itself as a champion of creators in the age of AI. Lawsuit alleges he used copyrighted books

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Adobe has built part of its artificial intelligence strategy on a very recognizable banner: protecting creators in a time of profound change. While other technology companies accumulated criticism for the origin of their data, the company presented itself as a responsible alternative. That position is now facing a lawsuit which focuses on the training of one of its models and the use of copyrighted works. The case is not an anomaly, but rather a reflection of a question that the industry has not yet been able to clearly answer. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in the U.S. Court for the Northern District of California and takes the form of a proposed class action. An author named Elizabeth Lyon accuses Adobe of using copyrighted books, including her own, to train the company’s AI models, with SlimLM at the center of the case, without permission. According to judicial documentation, these works would have been part of the training process of systems designed to respond to human instructions. Lyon claims to be acting on behalf of other rights holders who would find themselves in a similar situation. The great debate about data that trains AI To understand why this type of litigation is repeated with increasing frequency, it is worth taking a moment to look at how current artificial intelligence works. Beyond the visible applications, from chatbots to image generators, there are underlying models that act as the core of the system and learn from huge volumes of data. Generally speaking, more data can improve performance, although it is not the only factor. The problem appears when the key question arises about the origin of that information and the conditions under which it has been used. The model indicated in the lawsuit is not Firefly, Adobe’s best-known creative system, but SlimLMa family of smaller language models designed for specific tasks. These models are designed to assist users with document-related functions, especially on mobile devices. It is not an AI aimed at large-scale creative generation, but rather a system that operates in the background. That difference is relevant because it shows that the debate over training data is not limited to the most visible applications. According to the lawsuit, the conflict would not be in SlimLM as a final product, but in the data used during its training phase. Adobe has explained that these models were pre-trained with SlimPajama-627Ba open source data set published by Cerebras in June 2023. The court brief maintains that SlimPajama derives from RedPajama, another dataset widely used in the industry, and which in turn incorporates Books3, a massive collection of copyrighted books. That chain is the one that, according to the plaintiff, would have allowed the inclusion of works without authorization. Until now, Adobe’s public narrative on artificial intelligence has been primarily articulated around Fireflya product clearly identified with respect for creators and the use of licensed content. The company has defended that these models were trained with licensed content, such as Adobe Stock, and public domain material, and has accompanied that message with compensation programs for Adobe Stock contributors. The demand, however, is not directed at that visible front, but, as we say, at SlimLM, a more discreet model, integrated into assistance tasks and without a direct commercial presence. This separation is key to understanding the real scope of the case. The proceedings against Adobe are framed in a broader context of litigation in the United States related to the training of AI models. In recent years, authors and other rights holders have taken to court technology companies like OpenAIor Anthropicwith lawsuits alleging the use of protected works without authorization. Some of these processes are still open and others have ended in million-dollar agreements. This scenario explains why each new case is interpreted as another step in the legal delimitation of the use of data in artificial intelligence. For now, the case is in an initial phase and leaves many unknowns open. The plaintiff requests a unspecified financial compensation and raises the action on behalf of other potentially affected parties, while Adobe did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment. It will be the judicial process that determines whether the lawsuit is successful, is filed or results in an agreement. Beyond its specific outcome, the litigation once again puts the focus on an issue that remains unresolved: how to balance the advancement of AI with the rights of those who create the content from which it learns. Images | Rubaitul Azad | Adobe In Xataka | Gemini 3 Flash has surpassed GPT-5.2 Extra High in several benchmarks: Google has just changed the rules of the lightweight model

Australia has decided to ban social media for those under 16 years of age. The mystery is how they are going to achieve it

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December 10 was the date marked on the Australian calendar for prohibit social networks for minors under 16 years of age. Australia becomes the first country to implement a measure of this type, although there are others that also want to do it like Denmark or France. The ban is already in force, however there are still many doubts about how the measure will be enforced and how effective it will be. What exactly does it prohibit? The Online Safety Amendment establishes 16 years as the minimum age to have a social media account. This means that minors can access networks without logging into an account, which will allow them to consult public posts on social networks, watch YouTube or read Reddit threads. Without an account, they will not be able to access personalized feeds, receive notifications or communicate with other users. Currently, the amendment includes eleven services prohibited for minors: Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, X (Twitter), Reddit, YouTube, Twitch, Kick, Threads and Lemon8. It is not ruled out that the list will change in the future. How are they going to verify the age? The million-dollar question and the one that leaves us with the biggest doubt of all. The amendment details the prohibitions, but leaves it up to the platforms to do the work of verifying the age of their users. It does not say how they should do it, it only specifies that they will not be able to do it just by asking for the DNI and they will not be able to save data related to age verification. Although they do not establish rules on how to carry it out, the Australian Government published a report in which they concluded that age verification technologies were technically viable. In the report they analyze several methods: Checking documents and identity records. Age estimation using biometrics and facial recognition. Age estimation from the user’s behavior or fingerprint. Parental control mechanisms. Image: Wikipedia The doubts about the effectiveness We have the recent case of United Kingdom when it banned porn for those under 18. They also proposed various age verification methods such as those mentioned in the Australian report. The reality has proven to be more complex and, after the blockade, there were a brutal spike in downloads of VPN serviceswhich means that many users fake their location to bypass the block. The law is made, the trap is made. Furthermore, the system is not perfect. They count in NYTimes that some teenagers have used the facial recognition option in some apps and it has incorrectly estimated their ages. And there is also the issue of privacy. Although the law says that platforms cannot collect data from the age verification process, there is no standardization in this regard and if we have learned something after decades on the internet, it is that leaks happen. What are the platforms doing? Instagram, Facebook and Threads Meta has already done his homework. On November 20, it notified users minors under 16 that their accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Threads were going to be deleted. Regarding age verification, in September 2024 already announced “accounts for teenagers”which restrict certain features, such as making the account private by default and limited messages. To detect age, since April they have been using AI tools to detect users who lie about their age. In statements to Vergea representative of Meta has assured that the regulations “isolate adolescents from online communities and information, while providing inconsistent protection in the numerous applications they use.” TikTok and Lemon8 Bytedance apps have confirmed that from its entry into force, they will deactivate the existing accounts of those users under 16 years of age and will not allow them to create new accounts. Additionally, content from underage Australian users will be hidden. Regarding facial recognition, they offer several methods such as age estimation through facial recognition, credit card authorization, and verification of official identification documents. reddit Reddit has also started suspending the accounts of those under 16, but gives them the option to download their data first. In a post on the platformthey say that age verification will be done through “a prediction system.” The platform has taken a stand against this decision and states that the law “undermines everyone’s right to freedom of expression and privacy.” YouTube YouTube communicated that as of December 10, it would begin to suspend the accounts of those under 16, although they will be able to continue watching YouTube without being logged in since the law does allow it. They do not say how the age verification will be done, what they do say is that the new law is a mistake and that it will have a counterproductive effect since, by deleting the account, the possibility for parents to control what their children see will be lost, so minors will be even more insecure. snapchat In one publication on your website, Snapchat confirms that from December 10 it will block all accounts of those under 16. They will keep the account blocked for three years and if users turn 16 during that time, they will be able to recover it using age verification. Verification will be done in three ways: connecting the app with an Australian bank account, scanning the ID document and using the age estimation through a selfie. Twitch The streaming platform will prevent users under 16 from creating an account. For this they will use their verification system through facial recognition. Existing accounts will be deactivated starting January 9. Kick In the case of Kick, as published Guardianthey will use the same age verification system that Snapchat uses. X (Twitter) Elon Musk’s social network requested last September that the entry into force of the new regulations be delayed, as published Guardian. From X they expressed “serious doubts” about the legality of the regulations. What happens if the platforms do not comply? The law does not say how they should ensure that minors create an account, but it does say the consequences … Read more

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