Australia

Amancio Ortega takes Pontegadea’s logistics business further than ever: to Australia

by

In its efforts to expand the reach and diversification of its logistics businessAmancio Ortega, is leaving our antipodes, to buy a significant stake in an Australian logistics giant. This operation represents Pontegadea’s first entry into the Australian continent and strengthens the investment arm strategy of Ortega in the global logistics sector, an area that the millionaire has proven to control very well since it is the key to Inditex expansion as a global fashion giant. The Australian adventure of Amancio Ortega. According to information of Financial Review Spanish magnate, through his family office Pontegadeais going to join a group of investors led by the Macquarie Asset Management fund, to present a purchase proposal for 100% of the Australian technology giant. Qube logistics. The operation values ​​the company at 11.6 billion Australian dollars, which is equivalent to about 6.9 billion euros. This offer involves paying 28% more for each Qube share than the price at which it was trading just before the first proposal was made known. The purchase would be made through an agreement approved by shareholders at a meeting, without the need for a traditional public purchase offer process. Macquarie already owns 18.4% of the company, so the operation would ensure control of the rest of the shareholders. His first operation in Australia. This is the first investment that Pontegadea makes outside Europe or USAand is committed to addressing it by diversifying its logistics business. As is customary every time Pontegadea faces a new challenge, it does so from a conservative profile staying in the backgroundletting its partners take the initiative in direct management. On this occasion, the operation is led by the consortium formed by Macquarie, which includes other investment funds such as UniSuper, Brighter Super and Mercer. The intention with this purchase is to take advantage of Qube’s position in the Australian and New Zealand supply chain to expand into Asia, where trade is growing. Qube Business. Sydney-based Qube is the largest import and export logistics operator in Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia. It is responsible for storing goods, managing ports, distributing containers by road and manufacturing transport equipment, in addition to providing services to sectors such as mining, energy and construction. The purchase of this company coincides with Pontegadea’s recent investments in the port operatorsand logistics warehouses, but it opens a new investment door, bringing the company closer to the import and export business with Asia. Previous investments in logistics. Although this is its first foray into Australia, Pontegadea has already invested significantly in logistics assets in Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States. In October 2025 bought a logistics center of 80,000 square meters in the vicinity of Liverpool, leasing to Amazon, for 81 million euros. In addition, Pontegadea acquired a portfolio of warehouses and logistics platforms in Europe and the United States for more than 900 million dollars, and entered the British port business with the purchase of 49% of PD Ports. These operations show a clear commitment to diversifying Pontegadea’s portfolio towards logistics infrastructures in different countries, and not focusing only on real estate investments. In Xataka | Amancio Ortega has been donating millions of euros to Spanish hospitals for years. The question is if there is something more fundamental Image | GTRES, Unsplash (Nathan Cima)

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

by

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

75% of the universe is made of unknown matter. Australia has gone to look for her 1 km underground

by

More than a kilometer underground, in an old gold mine in a small Australian town, a group of scientists is building a laboratory that aims to look where no one has been able to look before. Its name is SABER South, and its mission sounds simple but borders on the impossible: detect the particles that make up dark matter, that mysterious component of which, until now, we only sense its existence. The search begins. To understand how we got here, we have to travel back to 1998. That year, an experiment in the underground laboratory of Gran Sasso, in Italy, registered a strange signal which some interpreted as a clue to dark matter. That observation, known as DAMA/NaI, ignited a scientific career that has not stopped since. Now, Australia enters that global race. According to ABC News AustraliaSABER South will be the first dark matter detector in the southern hemisphere and will begin collecting data next year. Its director, physicist Phillip Urquijo, explains that the objective is to reproduce the Italian observations and check whether these signals are real or the product of interference from the environment. Currently, three other teams—in Italy, Spain and South Korea— they are still trying to replicate the original experiment. However, the Australian project has a unique advantage: its location in the southern hemisphere will allow the data to be compared with those from the north and rule out seasonal or local effects. The enigma of the invisible universe. Powered by the University of Melbourne and the ARC Center of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics, seeks to understand the nature of a substance that surrounds everything, but that no one has ever seen. The Standard Model of physics accurately describes the particles and forces we know, but it still leaves too many gaps unfilled. One of the biggest is this: why don’t galaxies disintegrate? What holds them together if everything we see—planets, stars, gas, dust—barely adds up to 5% of the universe? The rest is hidden from view. The physicists They estimate that around 27% would be dark matter and another 68% would be dark energy. Physicist Elisabetta Barberio, director of the ARC Center of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics, puts it bluntly: “Between 75% and 80% of the universe is made of something we can’t see or touch. This experiment brings us closer to discovering what most of the cosmos is really made of.” Therefore, if SABER South detects WIMPs —those hypothetical massive particles that interact weakly—, we would be facing a new form of matter and, perhaps, facing a physics that goes beyond the Standard Model. Simply put: it would demonstrate that almost everything that exists has a tangible structure. And every time humanity has understood a new force or particle, technologies that previously seemed like science fiction have appeared: semiconductors, lasers or magnetic resonance. A mine converted into a cosmic laboratory. The experiment is carried out at the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL), excavated 1,025 meters deep a distance that is equivalent to a protection of almost three kilometers of water, enough to block cosmic rays and natural radiation that could interfere with the measurements. The laboratory is air-conditioned, has filtered air and has data connections linking to the University of Melbourne. At its heart, a room-sized detector houses ultrapure sodium iodide (NaI) crystals. When a WIMP particle collides with an atom in the crystal, it produces a tiny flash of light, so weak that it lasts just a few nanoseconds. These flashes are captured by photomultiplier tubes (PMT), devices capable of transforming light into measurable electrical pulses. The crystals they are submerged in a scintillating liquid—linear alkylbenzene (LAB)—that acts as a “veto”: if the LAB detects light at the same time as the crystal, the event is discarded as background noise. The entire system is sealed inside a low-radioactivity stainless steel tank, surrounded by alternating layers of steel and polyethylene, and monitored from above by a muon detector. A machine that listens to itself. SABER South will operate almost autonomously. According to the technical reports of the projectthe system records in real time the temperature, humidity, detector voltage, nitrogen gas flow and even mine vibrations. If something goes out of normal values, it generates an automatic alert. In addition, human presence will be minimal: scientists will monitor the data remotely and will only access the laboratory for specific maintenance tasks. Even before its construction, the operation of the detector was simulated with the GEANT4 software, a tool also used by NASA and CERN. These simulations allowed us to estimate the background radiation levels and optimize the sensitivity of the system. Each light pulse captured will be analyzed with programs designed to distinguish between noise and possible real signals. Some are not optimistic. In a study by the University of Ottawa, physicist Rajendra P. Gupta poses that what we think we see as dark matter could just be a mathematical effect. Their model suggests that the fundamental constants of the universe could vary with time, and that the so-called “tired light”—the loss of energy of photons as they travel through space—would explain the observations that until now we attribute to an invisible mass. Waiting for the flash. For years to come, SABER South’s crystals will remain in the shadows of the mine, waiting for a flash so faint it could barely illuminate a speck of dust. If that signal is confirmed, it would be the first direct trace of dark matter, the invisible glue that holds galaxies together. But if it doesn’t appear, it will also be an answer: a sign that perhaps the universe works in a way we don’t yet understand. As detailed theoretical physicist Nicole Bellfrom the University of Melbourne: “This project represents the definitive quest to understand the world in which we live.” And perhaps, in that tiny spark beneath the ground, humanity will find the answer to a question it has been pursuing for decades: what is the universe actually made of? Image | … Read more

The US attacked China with tariffs and China has counterattacked by stopping buying meat from them. The big winner has been Australia

by

The United States was one of the main exporters of beef to China, but the tension between both countries and the tariff war has ended this relationship. The winner of the situation is Australia, which is already the country that exports the most beef to China, but also one of the main partners of the United States. What is happening. There was no official statement from the government. Last March, China did not renew its beef export licenses with the United States and has found a new partner to meet demand: Australia. Beef exports have increased 35% in the first half of the year and the Australian livestock sector has already invoiced 6.6 billion dollars, according to Nikkei Asia. Shipments to the Chinese market have grown by 65%, but they have also increased to the United States by 48%. It’s a double victory. Why it is important. China is the largest importer of agricultural products and is using this stance to harm the United States. They already did it with their decision to stop buying soybeans from the United Stateswhich was their main supplier, and now they have done it with beef. The beef trade between the United States and China produced around 120 million dollars a month. Now that number is zero. It is another example that dismantles Trump’s storywhich defends tariffs as a beneficial measure for the United States. Skyrocketing prices. The price of meat reached its all-time high last September, according to data from United Nations. In particular, the increase in the price of beef is caused by several factors. On the one hand, the decrease in production in countries such as the United States, New Zealand and Europe. In the United States specifically, the shortage has been caused because of the drought. On the other hand, tariffs and geopolitical tensions have put pressure on international market prices. The game board has been reconfigured, with the United States and China turning primarily to Australia and Brazil to meet their demand. perfect position. At least for the moment, Australia wins because it is in a good position with the main meat importers. In China they are already the first supplier of beef, while in the United States they are the second behind Brazil. The key is that while Trump imposed 50% tariffs on Brazilin Australia they only have 10% because they mainly export minced meat for hamburgers. Australia and China. There was not always harmony between the two nations. In 2020, China suspended imports of Australian beef. The reason given was labeling problems for some products, but everything indicates that the decision had more to do with the critical stance of the Australian government about China’s handling of the coronavirus. Image | Wikipedia, PXhere In Xataka | China has just beaten the United States in the most unexpected fight: that of branded coffee shops

Deloitte delivered a report made with AI to Australia

by

Generative AI has come a long way, but hallucinations are still the order of the day. And the AI ​​prefers to invent an answer rather than say it doesn’t know something. Those of us who use it often know that we cannot trust it 100% and we always have to do checks. At Deloitte they didn’t think checking was important and now they have to return almost $300,000 to the Australian government. What has happened? The Australian government’s employment department commissioned a report from consulting firm Deloitte. It was published last July and everything was going well until, as they say in APa University of Sydney researcher alerted the media that the report was riddled with erroneous references, including a fabricated quote from a court ruling and references to studies that did not exist. The company withdrew it and a revised version was released. Why is it important. The consulting industry is a multi-billion dollar business (it is estimated that by 2024 it will generate a whopping 354 billion dollars) and, due to its very essence and way of operating, it is one of the sectors vulnerable to “replacement by AI”. AI is already a technology widely used in the sector for tasks like big data analysis, report generation o presentations and other administrative tasks. The Deloitte case is a good example of this, but it shows that human supervision is necessary. We will probably encounter more such cases in the future. Consequences. The government paid almost $300,000 to Deloitte for preparing the report, so the firm must partially return the amount. However, Barbara Pocock, Senator of the Green Partybelieves they should return the full amount: “Deloitte misused AI: they misquoted a judge and used non-existent references (…) These are the kind of things a first-year college student would get into a lot of trouble for.” Dissimulate, it has not been noticed. Chris Rudge, the researcher who discovered the cake, says the document contained at least 20 errors, including a reference to a book written by someone he knew that did not exist. Perhaps the most serious of all is that he quotes a completely invented phrase from a judge. Despite this being such an obvious case, Deloitte has not admitted that the errors are generated by the use of AI and has limited itself to commenting that “the matter has been resolved directly with the client.” Image | Wikipedia In Xataka | Klarna is very clear that AI is the best possible ally. So he used her to replace his CEO

Australia has decided to make a contribution to the lunar race in the most Australian way possible: with a giant spider

by

The new lunar race does not consist only of returning to the moon, but to stay. And for that infrastructure is needed. NASA wants lunar concrete houses for 2040ESA has already found a method to pave roads from the regolitoand China trust that 3D impression accelerates your plans to create a large lunar base. Now an Australian company has put its own bet on the table, one that could not be more Australian: a Robot spider. A giant robot spider that prints houses. His name is Charlotte, and he is a hexapod robot (entomologists will forgive me) that displays his six legs to become a huge 3D printer capable of moving along the land as he built a house. Presented during the 76th International Congress of Astronautics in Sydney, this creation of Australian companies Crest Robotics and Earthbuilt Technology has been Designed for a double purpose: Solve the housing crisis on Earth and, incidentally, prepare to build the first bases on the moon, something that Australia could contribute as a partner of the Artemis program. Build at the speed of 100 masons. Although the most striking of Charlotte is the arthropod inspiration design, its true magic lies in the combination of advanced robotics with a very particular 3D printing system, which can have a key advantage on the moon. Instead of depending on massive porches, such as other 3D construction printers, Charlotte promises to place himself on the walls that he creates and walk with his six legs to move as he adds layers to the building. This gives it an agility and portability that traditional printers do not have. According to its creators, you can build A 200 square meter house in 24 hours, so it will work at the speed of 100 masons. On the moon the whole floor is concrete. On paper, Charlotte meets several of the requirements to manufacture on the moon: it is light, you can fold its legs to occupy much less space in a rocket, and is designed to collect the materials available locally. On Earth, it promises to manufacture houses with sand, earth or crushed brick. On the moon, the plan is to collect soil regolito, compress it in a flexible tank and use the compacted material to form the layers of walls with already tested 3D printing techniques. It is an industrial and automated version of the construction technique with sacks. The regolite, the fine and abrasive dust that covers the lunar surface, is both a problem and a solution. It was a nightmare for Apollo missions, adhering to costumes and equipment, but it is also The fundamental raw material For any lunar construction project. If one day there are people living on the moon, they may do so in houses built in the most Australian way: with a gigantic spider (forgiveness, hexapod) robot. Image | Crest Robotics In Xataka | Forget the “little step for man.” The new moon career is not for glory, it is for the control of its resources

Australia has analyzed teleworking since before pandemic. His conclusions disassemble the reasons for the return to the office

by

Although teleworking is no longer the preferred option by companies, or at least not their full -time variant, remote work continues to maintain much higher values that those who registered before pandemic. That shows that, in a way, teleworking does arrive to stay in Very specific contexts. Australia has been observing the real impact of teleworking for four years and consolidated data contradict old prejudices. “Working from home makes us happier,” The authors assure of a study by the University of Southern Australia, ciming a new more flexible and productive labor model. Time flexibility: the new office fruit. The Australian study is especially revealing because it began before the pandemic and the rise of teleworking and has been extended for four years, which leaves a much more defined photo of how remote work has impacted on the way of working and its consequences. According to the study, the possibility of choosing from where to work has allowed to improve both the mental and physical health of workers, although there is still a certain friction from corporate culture. According to A report of the International Labor Organization (OTI), the flexibility provided by teleworking is already equal to The emotional salary with which companies try to capture and retain the best employees, replacing other benefits. Most satisfied employees with their work. The data collected by the study reveal that before the pandemic, the Australian worker used about 4.5 hours per week only in displacements to the office. That time optimization It makes those who work from home enjoy “ten extra days of free time a year against those who go to the office”, dedicating 33% of that time to leisure, which implies “more opportunities to be physically active and less sedentary.” A factor that also highlighted the Academic Study which was carried out in Spain from the Lacaixa Foundation. According to the authors, these data “usually go hand in hand with worse mental health and with lower scores in the assessment of our own health.” Thanks to teleworking, employees have gained “hours of rest to sleep and, for example, breakfast more peacefully”, which helps reduce levels of template stress. In turn, this recovered time also has a reflection in healthier habits, such as home preparation or the increase in the consumption of fruits, vegetables and dairy. The result has been a more varied and healthy diet, with less dependence on ultraprocessed foods that require less preparation time. Positive whenever it is by choice. If something has shown us the experience of “forced” teleworking during the confinements of 2020 is that the teleworking It is not for everyone. Since this study allows to contrast the situation of employees before and after the massive arrival of teleworking, it also reveals how it affects that change of work model in workers The researchers found that the well -being and mental health They improved especially when teleworking was voluntarily chosen, while “when employees work from home for obligation, mental health and well -being tend to get worse.” Productivity in evidence. One of the main arguments of companies for the return to the office has been the alleged fall in productivity that was associated with teleworking. In this sense, researchers blame the problem more to an inability to assign tasks and New model management not in a direct casuistry of teleworking. “In many cases, managers who claim that teleworking reduces productivity responds more to a lack of management than a real performance problem,” says researchers in their conclusions. The conclusion after four years of monitoring is unequivocal: work performance and productivity seem to stay stable or, in most cases, improve when working from home. These results coincide With other research that They disconnect the decrease in productivity of the company with the teleworking. The distance does affect the cohesion of the equipment. Great corporations like Amazon wielded The argument of the cohesion of the equipment To impose The return to the office. In that sense, the study prepared by Australian researchers recognizes that “the connection with the classmates is difficult to reproduce at a distance,” admit those responsible for the study, and alert about the risk of loss of cohesion in the work teams. But, as has been demonstrated with some strategies back to the office, the problem can be mitigated by facilitating efficient communication channels. A Recent study Posted in the magazine Naturerevealed that this Team cohesion problem It currently persists with the hybrid day model, provided that consistent communication patterns are not established. In Xataka | A Barcelona company wanted to try the four -day week. He ended up firebaging an employee for having two jobs Image | Unspash (Rodeo Project Management Software)

During World War II, Australia sent an ornitorrinco to Churchill. Died on the trip and 82 years later we know why

by

In 1943, a camouflaged ship departed from Australia to England with an ultrasecreta load to the peculiar: An ornithorrinco called Winston, a diplomatic gift for British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The creature died during the trip and for 82 years a German submarine was blamed. Some researchers They have discovered What really happened. Winston was not loaded by the Germans. Australian students They have resolved the enigma After examining the archives of the naturalist David Fleay, who captured the animal. The boat’s temperature records reveal that Winston died due to thermal stress by crossing Ecuador, not because of enemy attacks. Temperatures exceeded 27 degrees Celsius for a week, well above the survival limit of the species. Why Australia gave an ornitorrinco. In the middle of World War II, Australia felt abandoned by Great Britain while Japan approached the Pacific. Australian Foreign Minister Herbert Evatt knew that Churchill collected exotic animals and thought that an ornitorrinco, a creature that many considered at the time a taxdermic hoax, could tip the balance in favor of Canberra military support requests. The trip that should never have done. Winston was captured near Melbourne and embarked on a specially designed container, with burrows lined with hay, Australian stream water and 50,000 worms for the 45 -day path. David Fleay, the naturalist in charge, opposed from the beginning: no ornitorrinco had ever survived such a long trip and exports of the species were prohibited. The cause of “official” death. When Winston appeared dead in his tank, Churchill wrote to the Australian prime minister expressing his “pain” for loss. To avoid a diplomatic incident, death was hidden for years. When it finally came to light, the version that the Ornitorrinco had died from the stress of the attacks of the German submarines, a story that Fleay himself supported publicly. The clues of the logbook. Harrison Croft, a doctoral student at Monash University, agreed to files in Canberra and London that included interviews with the caretaker of the Ornitorrinco. “They made a kind of autopsy and he was very concrete: there was no explosion, everything was calm on board,” Croft explains. In parallel, an Australian museum team Digitized the collection Fleay staff, where they found the daily temperature record that revealed the real cause of death. Ship’s logbook. Image: Australia Museum Ornitorrincos Based Diplomacy. Australia tried again in 1947, sending three ornithorrincos to the New York Bronx Zoo. Betty died soon after arriving, but Penelope and Cecil managed to arrive healthy and saved to the country, even becoming authentic celebrities and a hook for the press at that time. The media expected them to be reproduced, but after a four -day “romance”, the thing did not go as expected. Image: Australia Museum The way to reproduce from an ornitorrinco is fascinating, since they are monoturem mammals, which means that, despite being mammals, they put eggs. In fact, they are one of the only five species of mammals that do this (the other four belong to species of Equidas). So when they saw that Penelope did not end up reproducing, it became a fun scandal at the time. In 1957 he disappeared mysteriously and Cecil died the next day of “broken heart”, according to the press. Since then, Australia strictly prohibited the export of ornitorrincos. Only two have left the country In 70 years, both to the San Diego Zoo in 2019. Cover image | Yousuf Karsh and Michael Jerrard In Xataka | If Spain believes that velutinas are a problem is because it does not know what the US has found: radioactive wasps

Australia was discovered in 1606 by Dutch. A theory defends that someone advanced a century: the Galicians

by

Thinking about Australia is thinking about Rare animals with A single objective: kill you. It also implies thinking about the entire country as a British prison. Obviously, it is an exaggeration, but relating Australia with the British is the most normal when it was they who, in 1770 and under the orders of the captain James Cookthey began to colonize the area. But a historian did not believe in official history and developed his own hypothesis: Australia was discovered by the Spaniards. By a Galician ship, specifically, that was brought eucalyptus and left some granaries. 1606, a busy year. The British did not discover Australia, or from afar. The classic Greeks already theorized about something they called “Terra Australis Incognita“Or” unknown land of the south. “They imagined a continent that should be there for the theory of geometric symmetry and even included in European maps without really knowing if there was something there. In 1606, Things changed. The Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon He explored the northern coast of Australia and other explorers from the same country mapped both the north and the west later decades. In 1770, the British Cook arrived at the east coast, explored it and, that same year, he claimed it for the United Kingdom. So He was born The current new South Wales and the English had a new territory to colonize. As? With prisoners that They sent there in 1788. Lost Spaniards. But in 1606 they were not only the Dutch spinning around Australia. Pedro Fernández de Quirós He was a Portuguese explorer in Spain who, in 1605, decided to start from Peru to find that “Incognite Terra Australis.” He reached the current Vanuatu, an island east of Australia, also to the current Tahiti. After weeks, it landed in a larger territory and finally I thought I had given with “Terra Australis.” The christening as “Austrialia of the Holy Spirit” and was so happy. Currently, it’s called Holy Spirit and is part of the Vanuatu archipelago. Quirós and his other ships threw themselves into the sea again, but the ships separated and the captain of one of them, Luis Váez de Torreshe started looking for the main nave. He returned to Holy Spirit, He turned around for the Strait between Australia and New Guinea … and left. The area is named after ‘Strait of Torres‘In his honor and the Australian writer George Colllingridge affirmed that Torres “had discovered Australia without being aware of it.” Robert Langdon. It seems that the Spaniards/Portuguese did not set foot in the continent, but there are those who grabbed a burning nail, defending yes, that the Spaniards had been the first to reach Australia. And if you are thinking that it would be a Spanish historian taking breast, no: it was Robert Langdonan Australian historian who is called the same as the protagonist of ‘The Da Vinci Code‘. Langdon relied on several pillars to develop his theory. The most important was the discovery of guns of Spanish ships discovered in the Atolón de Amanuan atoll of French Polynesia halfway between Australia, New Zealand and South America, in 1929. Langdon defended in his’The lost caravel‘that those cannons were from the San Lesmesa Galician caravel that was shipwrecked in the territory and that pushed its navigators to start exploring the territories of Oceania. They were also reported findings of Spanish armor and helmets in New Zealand that would support this idea, but there are more details that support that idea of ​​the historian. ‘Patakas’ in Australia. A classic construction of Galicia are the Hórreos. It is a peculiar construction to conserve food, such as grain, moving them from soil moisture. They are like high barns that are associated with Galicia, but really in other European countries and even in Japan. This is important because Langdon speculated on the influence of those explorers who departed from Galicia in the architecture and culture of the area. As? With the supposed presence of Galician granaries in the territories of Oceania. The “problem” is that, as there are barns similar to the granaries in other parts of the world, in Polynesia, New Zealand and Australia. They call them ‘Patakas’. Eucalyptus in Galicia. That Galician granario in Oceania would imply the cultural bond between Galicia and Australia, but Langdon also relies on the presence of eucalyptus in Galicia. It is an endemic species of Australia and yes, they took Galicia from the contine In the nineteenth century. In addition, Langdon also used anecdotes to support his belief, such as the presence of indigenous people with light skin and eyes, morphometric aspects in the face that differ from that of the rest of the residents of the Pacific or who knew the metal. The alleged route made by the descendants of the shipwrecked of the San Lesmes No changes in wiki. The arrival of Australian eucalyptus to Galicia is fine Documented And there is no record of transoceanic contacts before the modern era, and that in Australia there are Patakas such as Galicians also implies causality. The result is that there is a lack of evidence that supports Langdon’s theory, and the majority studies carried out by other historians thanks to the period writings show that yes, the Spaniards made several expeditions, but it was Dutch and English who made the greatest advances in the exploration of the continent and its subsequent colonization. Posts to theorize … Now, Langdon was not the only one who threw himself into the pool with alternative theories. Rowan Gavin Paton Menzies He was a British writer and submarine lieutenant who jumped to fame when he affirmed, without providing evidence, that China had arrived in America before Colon. Their Opinions They were embodied in ‘1421: the year in which China discovered the world’. Not happy with it, and also without evidence, he launched the hypothesis that China had arrived 350 years before Cook to Australia and that, in 1434, China sailed to Italy and sowed the spark of the Renaissance. In the … Read more

Australia has executed 750 Koalas with snipers uploaded to helicopters. Even if it seems, it was for its good

by

The Koalas are one of the most recognizable (and probably beloved) symbols in Australia and in part of their territory, such as New South Wales, Queensland or the Territory of the Australian capital They are considered in danger of extinction. Neither one nor the other has prevented a group of snipers being killing hundreds and hundreds of these marsupials in the BUDJ BIM National Parka wide nature reserve located to the south of the country. They do it from helicopters, with the support of the government and supposedly for “Humanitarian reasons”. The big question is … why? Snipers, helicopters and koalas. A priori are three concepts without too much relationship with each other, but those are the protagonists of the controversy that has shaken in recent days the Victoria statesouth of Australia, where the Budj Bim National Park is located. Local press days ago He started informing that hundreds and hundreds of koalas were sacrificing there. If the news was not surprising (and sad) already won even more impact When it transcended How the killing is carried out: animals are dejected From helicopters with the aid of snipers. All this of course with the PLACET of the Department of Energy, Environment Climate (DEECA), The conservation authority, as confirmed recently The ABC chain. Click on the image to go to Tweet. How many koalas have they dejected? The exact encrypts can dance based on the source that is consulted, but they all agree on something: the campaign is ending hundreds and hundreds of koalas in the region, more than half a thousand. In the middle of the month, as the news progresses, Yahoo News assured that had sacrificed between 600 and 700 marsupials. There are activists who raise However, the total balance of the measure above the 700 copies And in the last hours Europa Press (AP) rounded the figure talking about “Up to 750 koalas”. And what is the reason? Humanitarian reasonsaccording to The authorities allege of Victoria. The sacrifices are part of a precipitated euthanasia campaign in turn, the government insists, for The forest fire that devastated in March around 2,200 hectares of the Budj Bim National Park. The flames would have affected part of the fauna (including the koalas) and also devastated 20% of the Natural Reserve. The result: injured animals, abandoned and have seen how much of the eucalyptus they need to feed. No other options? Although the use of helicopters and snipers can be striking (and unorthodox), the Victoria government assures that the decision was adopted after “exhaustive evaluations” and that the koalas that are being down are “severely affected” by the forest fire. Moreover, Deseca claims that he has not found other alternatives to face the problem beyond hiring professional shooters and uploading them to helicopters. “All other methods considered are not adequate given the impossibility of safely accessing large areas of the affected landscape due to the remote location of the animals, which are often found at the top of the treetops, the extremely rugged land and the safety risks that lead to work in an area affected by fire and with damaged trees,” James Todd explainshead of Deca, to Vox Magazine. Do you all think the same? No. and good proof is that the news about the campaign has unleashed an intense controversy in the state of Victoria, the Australian team and beyond even the country. The reason: the scope of the measure. The Animal Justice Party He has denounced that local authorities “are not making any effort” to verify whether females dejected from the air have, for example, young. AND Alliance for the Koalas It even goes further and denounces that technicians have no way to check from the heights if the specimens they deduct are really in “bad conditions.” “It seems very indiscriminate,” Rolf Schlagloth agreesresearcher at the CQUNIVERSITY Australia specialized in Koalas. “The rescue should always be the first option if possible.” Beyond shots and helicopters. Among the activists and experts, not only has the selective koala slaughter bothered. Throughout the last days, voices have also been raised that they see in what happened in Budj Bim An example More than “the poor management of the species and its habitat” and warn of the effect of eucalyptus felling or the threat of global warming and fires. “We cannot eliminate forest fires completely, but more healthy forests and with greater continuity they can help reduce the risk and severity of the fires. The Koalas habitat must be extensive and be connected, and the management of the blue eucalyptus plantations must take into account the koalas,” SCHLAGLOTH ZANJA In a recent interview with Vox Magazine. Taller slopes. That last nuance is important. In Another article Posted in The conversation By Liz Hicks and Ashleight Best, two law experts at the University of Melbourne, remember that Budj Bim National Park is surrounded by commercial eucalyptus plantations, hectares full of foliage that end up receiving koalas in search of food. The problem is that this availability of the sheet leads to the populations of the marsupial to increase. And once the plantations are talked, those same animals return to the protected park. The result: greater pressure in the area and greater vulnerability to fires such as March. “Animals point out that logging is one of the reasons why Budj Bim had so many koalas,” They add. Images | ART WARRIOR (Flickr) and NGHIA NGYEN (UNSPLASH) In Xataka | The US wants more reindeers to be in Alaska and has an idea to achieve it: to reduce wolves and bears from helicopters

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.