believed

If Renfe believed that the summer of 2025 was being complicated is because he still did not know the worst: the fires

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It is not being an easy summer for the bird. The campaign started with issues In one of its main arteries, the Madrid-Andalusia line, and has been challenging challenges such as The soap opera of the Avril trains, The suspension of services in several sections of the network by fire or A fault that a few days ago affected the Andalusian high speed line. Now, with a good part of the holiday country, add a new challenge that puts the tip: The paralysis of the Madrid-Galicia line. And all this with demand in record levels What happened? That fires have forced Renfe to suspend for hours its services between Madrid and Galicia. Yesterday afternoon the operator He already advanced The stoppage of the trains because the flames were close to the tracks between Vilavella and Galicia Porta and the final blockade It was confirmed hours later. The Initial idea It was resume the services today, but it could not be so. At 7.30 h the operators still They kept examining The ways to confirm that traffic will be recovered with guarantees. Shortly before ten Renfe published in X A message Informing the restoration of the service, but the decision lasted little. Hour and a half after He turned back: “For fire reactivation, the rail service between Madrid and Galicia is interrupted again.” Later Renfe went up A new tweet clarifying that he had been forced to interrupt the circulation between Puebla de Sanabria and Ourense by order of the Cecopi of Castilla y León (Civil Protection). “The traying trains will be separated in stations until the circulation is guaranteed,” he concluded. Click on the image to go to Tweet. Is it the only one affected? No. So far this fire has affected other sections in which Renfe operates. The flames have interfered in the service with greater or less reach in Castilla-La Mancha, Catalonia, Castilla y León either Estremaduraamong other points. In June A fire Between the stations of Valladolid-Campo Grande and Río Duero forced to suspend the high-speed service in the Madrid-Segovia-Valladolid and Madrid-Gijón lines and In July The flames forced to paralyze the line by which the bird that connects Madrid and Andalusia. Is it something exceptional? To a greater or lesser extent, Spain usually looks like forest fires in summer (more than more than 47,700 hectares) and It is not strange that in some cases the fire affects the rail network. In this case, the flames, especially those of Galicia, who have altered the corridor that communicates the community with Madrid for hours, they arrive, however, in a summer in which Renfe has had to deal with other challenges. The campaign began with A considerable chaos in one of the main arteries of the Spanish high speed Redee: the line between Madrid and Andalusia. A fault In a catenary between the Yeles (Toledo) and La Sagra, southwest of the Community of Madrid, affected the services that connected with the South and forced to suspend trains, generated delays and left a notable anger among the affected travelers. “We have been trapped in the middle of a plain, without electricity or bathrooms, with unbearable heat,” He denounced A user in X. Has anything else happened? That episode came shortly after, in May, the operator had to deal with Another chaotic episode in the AVE Madrid-Sevilla that left trains detained for hours and thousands of affected passengers. The reason on that occasion was not a fire, but the theft of copper cable on the tracks, which even led Renfe’s president to publicly lament how difficult it is to control the vast network of the country. “You cannot monitor 24 hours 15,000 km of network, but you will have to put more means,” assumed Álvaro Fernández de Heredia. With that backdrop, in recent weeks Renfe has faced Another controversyalthough of a quite different nature. A few days ago it transcended that Renfe has decided to do without the Avril trains (106 series) in his Madird-Barcelona line and replace them with convoys series 103. The decision comes after the operator detected technical problems in the machinery and forced him to make a ‘sudoku’ to relocate trains of series 103 and 102 to meet the demand. Is it all negative? No. Summer may be more moved than Renfe wanted, but has started with an important level of demand. A few days ago the operator launched A statement To show that Julio closed with his “best monthly historical record of travelers” in AVE and long distance. Throughout the month he counted about 3.5 million travelers, 4.6% more than in June, which held so far the “historical maximum”. The increase is based on high -speed services (AVE and AVLO), which saw how their place offer It increased by 13.9% and the flow of travelers 10.5% compared to 2024. The highest rise were registered between Madrid-Valencia and Zaragoza-Barcelona. Images | Ministry of Defense (X) and John Worth (Flickr) In Xataka | Fire have made a new high -risk activity today in Spain: living near the mountain

If someone believed that national tourism had entered “crisis” this summer, Aena has something to say: at all

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If Google and Deloitte give in the nail, in a few years Spain will be the great resort of the world. According to Your calculations In 2040 the country will receive around 110 million foreign visitors, even exceeding France or the US. Until then every summer is a fire test for national tourism. This in particular there are voices that already suggest A slowdown in destinations as relevant as Tenerife wave Costa del Sol. There is still a lot of campaign ahead to know if it will be so, but for now AENA’s data show a quite different photo. What suggests His July balance It is a record summer. What happened? That Aena has just published A balance of passengers that are especially interesting for two reasons. The first, because it offers us the ‘photo’ of July, the first strong month of the summer campaign. The second reason is that these figures point to a considerable increase in displacements, which clashes with The voices that over the last weeks They have detected signals of weakening in Spanish tourism, at least In certain regions. Aena’s report does not differentiate between those who move for vacations or other reasons, such as work, studies or to visit relatives. Nor does it distinguish between national and foreign passengers. In any case, another interesting approach provides to take the temperature to the tourism sector in July. 10 main airports July passengers % with respect to 2024 Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas 6,170,130 +0.6% Barcelona-El Prat Jt 5,540,010 +2.9% Palma de Mallorca 4,594,987 -0.1% Malaga-Costa del Sol 2,866,642 +7.8% Alicante-Elche Miguel Hdez. 2.106,991 +5.9% Ibiza 1,446,589 +0.9% Gran Canaria 1,286,184 +6.4% Valencia 1,132,402 +4.2% Tenerife-Sur 1,094,961 +1.4% Lanzarote-César Manrique 798,998 +7.3% Total Aena’s network in Spain 32,765,284 +2.7% What do the data say? That July 2025 was a month of record. The network of terminals managed by AENA on Spanish soil accounted for 32.76 million of travelers. The number of flights amounted to 268,034. They are, respectively, 2.7% and 3.1% more than during the same period of 2024 and mark a milestone in the historical registry of the group. “Passenger and operations figures represent an absolute monthly record, which makes last July the best month in history at the airports of the Aena network in Spain,” concrete The operator. Is there more data? Yes. In the report AENA does not detail why users, their destinations fly or if they are national or foreign travelers, but it does require how traffic has evolved in their airports. At the head in absolute terms, Barajas is located, in Madrid, with 6.17 million travelers in July. The most interesting thing, however, are not the total figures of users, but how they have evolved compared to July 2024, a record year For Spanish tourism. He passenger flow Barajas for example grew 0.6% and Barcelona-the Prat 2.9%. In general, the airports of the country’s main tourist destinations experienced an increase in activity in July. In that of Malaga-Costa del Sol, the flow of travelers shot 7.8%, in Alicante 5.9%, in Ibiza 0.9%, in Gran Canaria 6.4%, in Tenerife South 1.4%and in Tenerife North 8.6%. Of course not everyone grew. ‘Palma’s airfield, where the passenger transfer fell 0.1%, Santiago, who suffered a 12.4%cut, or Santander and Vigo, which scored setbacks of 0.6%and 6.5%, respectively. Are they high data? Yes. Both in fact that some terminals have pulverized their historical maximums. “During the past month there has been an absolute record of passengers at the airports of Barajas, El Prat, Malaga-Costa del Sol, Alicante, Valencia, Bilbao and Tenerife Norte-Ciudad de la Laguna”, They clarify from Aenawhich also specifies that there are 16 airfields that have registered their best July. Why is it important? For several reasons. The main one because in summer a good part of the displacements are by leisure, which gives us another brushstroke to understand how the tourist season marches. The second reason is that Aena’s figures collide in part with others Shared by the hoteliers that suggest a summer with less activity and income than in 2024. The Association of Hotel Entrepreneurs of the Costa del Sol (AEHCOS) I noticed recently That July occupation levels were very similar to those of 2024 (87.82%, 1.16% above last year) but came accompanied by less income: the gross impact per customer fell according to their calculations from 198.61 to 157.18 euros. Facing August, the group expects the average occupation to be 4.57 percentage points lower than that of 2024, so it would stay at 88.32%. Are there more falls? Yes. The one on the Costa del Sol is not the only message that points to a less generous summer campaign than that of 2024. The Tenerife press It echoed These days that the establishments integrated in Ashotel closed Julio with an average occupancy level of 81.97% in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. It is a high percentage that also improves the forecast of reservations that hoteliers handled in mid -June, but still almost two percentage points below July 2024. In Palma de Mallorca the employer speaks Not so much a fall in the flow of tourists as if of the spending in hospitality. What is the conclusion? Touch wait. Soon the INE will publish another interesting clue to take the temperature of the tourist campaign: its statistics of Hotel situation. At the moment the last available data, of June, reflects a 2.1% increase in overnight stays and an increase in both the occupancy level and, above all, in the rates. Waiting for the tourist balance to be outlined and knowing if Spain will finally reach this year the milestone of the 100 million tourists foreigners, there are some clear trends. The main is that the Spanish sector grows largely thanks to the flow of foreign visitors. Aena’s data does not allow to know if July passengers are Spanish or travelers from other countries, but we know that in 2024 foreign demand played A fundamental role In the balance of hotels. 7.5% grew … Read more

We believed that the heat wave was over. Aemet warns that, in reality, we still have the worst ahead

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The heat wave that affects the peninsula is leaving shocking data. Yesterday, three of the weather stations of the State Meteorology Agency (AEMET) collected maximums above the 45º Celsius, with 55 registering more than 42º. Two records of record. On August 11 and 12 they beat, According to Aemettwo temperature records. With an average temperature that touched the 29th in peninsular Spain, this month has seen on August 11 and 12 more than at least 1950. In fact, they are among the warmer days registered in August: only three times the 29th Celsius barrier has been overcome. On August 12, it was also the hottest day than is going 2025. If they are fulfilled The agency’s forecaststhe first twenty of August will be the warmest in peninsular Spain since there are records, exceeding a few tenths the previous registry (of 2003), and for more than one degree the next highest record, last year. From Seville to Badajoz. Yes Let’s go to the most extreme caseswe can find the 45.2º of the weather stations of Seville, Tablada and El Granado (in Huelva), or the 45.5º collected in Badajoz. Another striking fact were the high minimum temperatures: 29.7º in Osuna (Seville), the highest in peninsular Spain (in Gran Canaria there were thermometers that did not fall from the 30). A number that does not want to leave. The answer to the question of “what is happening” has to do with atmospheric stagnation a “synoptic configuration continues quite stationary”, In Aemet’s words. A dorsal anchored on the peninsula That allows the entry of warm and dry air from Africa, as well as the high degree of insolation propitiated by summer and stable skies, are main responsible for a heat wave that is not only being intense, also long. The latest update of Aemet’s forecasts indicate that this exceptional situation will last at least until Monday 18. The “more likely” scenario is that the entrance of a fresh air mass from the Atlantic serves to relieve the situation, but there are still a few days left for us to know greater certainty when and how the end of this heat wave will be given. What can we expect. Meanwhile, what can we expect? After a kind of brief respite today, Aemet foresees A new increase in temperatures tomorrow Thursday, a more marked ascent in Galicia, where the thermometers can exceed 38º. On Friday this ascent will be extended throughout the north, where orange notices are already planned due to an important risk derived from high temperatures. In Xataka | Every summer fires ravage to Spain. There is a usual guilty that goes unnoticed: old tractors Image | ECMWF

We believed that the Zbe of Spain were an ambitious idea until we discovered Vietnam’s plan: end their motorcycles

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Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam, a city where eight million people live. Almost everyone has a motorcycle. It is not an exaggeration: estimate It is between 6 and 7 million motorcycles in the city. The use of motorcycles represents Between 85% and 90% of filmed traffic in the country and the government has had an idea to erase all combustion motorcycles in the center of the capital by 2026. And manufacturers of electric motorcycles They rub their hands. Short. The contamination in the big cities Asian is a problem. That only in Hanoi there are about seven million motorcycles, not counting other vehicles such as cars, roads and motor tricycles, it is a barbarity that implies high levels of pollution. In the middle of the adventure that faces half the world To achieve the decarbonization, Combustion vehicles have become a problem and the Vietnamese government has decided to start taking action. The measure began to be raised in 2017, but We already have date Definitive: As of July 1, 2026, motorcycles with combustion engines will not be able to circulate through the center of Hanoi. The measure is part of a much more ambitious national plan: totally eliminate combustion motorcycles by 2045 with a double objective: that of the air pollution And also, the noise pollution. Brutal market. Although the plan will come into force on that date, it will be extended little by little to cover more districts and, as they point out in Electreklater these measures will also apply to other thermal vehicles. Hanoi, in addition, is not alone in this, since Saigón and Da Nang, with nine and 1.2 million inhabitants respectively, are also considering adopting these measures. It will be a brutal blow for a market in which estimates They point to the existence of 770 motorcycles per 1,000 people. In September alone, there were 77 million motorcycles registered in the country, an absolute barbarity that leaves out those that are not registered for various reasons. Manufacturers. The market also does not stop. The annual sales They are over three million units annually with sales only during the first quarter of this 2025 of more than 670,000 units, which represents 11.5% more than the same period of the previous year. And this market is led, above all, by foreign brands. Honda has a market share of more than 80% this year, with 200,000 units sold only in March. Yamaha, Piaggio, Suzuki and Sym are other favorites, but there is a company that is growing by leaps and bounds and will become the top winner of this measure: VINFAST. Hands rub. After Honda and Yamaha, it is the brand that is selling the most this year and what is special is that it is an electric motorcycle company. The market share of this type of propulsion increased from an estimate of 5.4% in 2019 to 12% in 2022. It was a great jump, especially if we take into account that there were no measures as radical as those that the Government raises at the moment and, currently, currently, Vinfast leads The electric motorcycle segment with 43% of the cake. In addition, it is local. During the first five months of this year, sales in this segment have increased and the company has sold 488% more. With the big cities of the country limiting thermal motorcycles, the figure from here to two years can be stratospheric. Who pays it. As usual, families with lower income. There are about 100 motorcycle models in Vietnam with low displacement models dominating the market, but also with larger and more powerful. The Price fork It is wide enough (Honda models by less than 800 dollars) So that almost everyone has a motorcycle within their economic possibilities, but with this transition, a problem also comes. Several families that depend on motorcycles for their livelihood have already expressed in media such as Vietnam Express either Al Jazeera His concern for change. Those with lower income will have difficulty facing the change to an electric motorcycle and, in addition, there are complaints about the speed at which the change decision will have to be made because it is only a year for the prohibition. Aid. One way to face the situation is through a aid program. As we read in Electrivethere are two measures that can be made from the government to facilitate the transition. The first is a series of subsidies to consumers that allow residents to replace almost half a million thermal motorcycles with electric equivalents. On the other hand, An improvement in infrastructure and load network. Because, obviously, if you want to achieve such an aggressive transition, it cannot be pretended that everything falls to the consumer because there will be many who cannot take the motorcycle home with a private charge port. In parallel, and to attend public transport, the city plans to expand the fleet of electric microbuses. Last month, Saigon already It started to expand its urban fleet of electric motorcycles. Industry. It only remains to expect how the market adapts with this forced change towards electric motorcycles, but you will also have to see how manufacturers such as Honda or Yamaha will be adapted. Because these brands not only sell in Vietnam: they manufacture in the country and, apart from covering national demand, are a Strong export point For Southeast Asia. Not to mention that it is an industry that use To millions of people already who this change will not leave indifferent. Images | An huy, Steffen Schmitz In Xataka | “They impose things that we do not want”: the most spectacular electric car is not sold and its manufacturer is clear why

We believed that Chatgpt was just a very capable chatbot. Openai has just turned it into something very different: a real agent

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We have been talking about artificial intelligence agents for a long time, but Openai has just converted that conversation into something much more tangible. The company has presented Chatgpt Agent, a function that turns its popular assistant into something more autonomous: now it is able to execute complex tasks using a virtual computer, with tools that allow you to navigate, program or even make decisions. From Agent Operator. At the beginning of the year it presented Operator, a tool that allowed ChatgPT to interact with web pages. Then Deep Research arrived, focused on writing long reports from multiple sources. The background idea was clear: go beyond the conversation and approach real tasks. What has been presented today is something like a tool that unifies all these previous advances. During the demonstration, those responsible for the project raised a daily situation: organizing a trip to attend a wedding. The agent was able to understand the context, find hotels, propose gifts, take into account the weather, the clothing code and even remember that a suit had to be bought. He did it by analyzing the message, accessing the web and acting step by step, as a person would. The difference is that everything happened within Chatgpt, without the need to alternate tabs or give instructions one to one. A virtual computer for AI. The key is that the agent is not limited to responding to text: it operates within a kind of virtual computer that Openai has given access. You can use a text browser to read pages quickly, a visual browser to interact with buttons and forms, and even a terminal to run commands, generate code and manipulate files. You can also work with spreadsheets, presentations, and access services such as Google Drive, Calendar or Github if the user authorizes it. What is under the hood? The model that drives chatgpt agent (specifically developed for this function, although without official name) was trained with complex tasks that required to combine multiple tools. Openai used reinforcement learning, the same approach that you already use in its reasoning models, to teach you to choose when to use the browser, the terminal or an API. The idea was to develop a solution capable of accurately deciding how to act based on each objective. In development. Images | OpenAI In Xataka | Goal is in a hurry to lead the AI that has done something unusual: it is building a data center in tents

Archaeologists believed to know the history of the Maya. Until they found the tomb of the first King of Caracol

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Forty years are nothing. Not at least if we talk about the archaeological research of Snailan ancient and impressive Mayan city located in what is Belize today. Although the teachers Diane and Arlen Chasefrom the University of Houston (UH), they have been excavating the deposit for more than four decades had not yet found one of their Great treasures Occults: a grave of almost 1,700 years in which the remains of Te K’ab Chaak, the first ruling of Caracol and founder of a powerful dynasty that lasted for almost five centuries rest. The finding is key for what he reveals to Te K’ab Chaak, but also about his context. “They rewrite the Mayan history”, They claim From the UH. In a remote place by Belize … The Chiquibul Forest Reserve He hosts one of Belize’s most important (and impressive) Mayan deposits: the ancient city of Caracol. It is believed that at its peak came to occupy an area of almost 100 km2, with agricultural fields and careful urban planning, and welcomed 100,000 inhabitants. That without counting its geopolitical weight in the Mayan civilization and its participation in wars with neighboring towns, such as Tikal either UCANAL. One of the most fascinating constructions that has been preserved in Caracol is Caanaa majestic royal palace and ceremonies center raised around 600 or 700 AD (during the period Late classic of the Mayan civilization) and that reaches 43.5 meters high, which led its discoverers to give it the name with which we know it now: Caana, which means “place of the sky” in Maya. Ancient city, new surprises. Although the researchers have been studying the snail site for decades, they had not yet found one of their greatest treasures. At least until now. The couple of archaeologists formed by Diane and Arlen Chase, of the UH, has just discovered A surprising finding Under the canopy of an acropolis located to the right of the Palacio de Cana: a tomb of ago 1,700 years. A real grave, to be more precise. And not anyone. His dweller is You k´ab chaakwho amounted to the throne towards The 331 AD His figure is crucial in the history of Caracol for several reasons. He is considered the first ruler of the city and founded a real dynasty that would last 460 years. “We knew we had something”. A few days ago Arlen Chase He reported to The New York Times (Tnyt) The exact moment of the finding and how the archaeologists intuited that they had found something great just to take a look at the grave, the color of the cinnabar, its ceramics and the mask located on the side. “As soon as we saw the camera we knew we had something,” recalls Arlenwho still remembers what his first impression was: “My God, this is much more important than he believed.” Logical. A Te K´ab Chaak had buried him at the foot of a real family sanctuary with 11 vessels, carved bone tubes, jewelry made with jadeíta, a funeral mask made with accounts of the same material and shells of Spondylus (a genus of bivalve) of the Pacific. Among gods. “The vessels. The finding brings new clues about Te K´ab Chaak, who amounted to the throne in the year 331 of our era and whose grave is the first of three important burials dated Maya of the merchants, surrounded by offerings. Four of the vessel rulers of Caracol as part of their names “, Point out The University. Knowing Te K´ab Chaak. The finding provides information about Te K´ab Chaak, who amounted to the throne in 331 AD and whose grave is the first of three burials dated Towards 350 AD The sovereign was the first ruler of the Mayan city and set a real dynasty that would last for four and a half centuries, covering much of its history. The UH remember that the metropolis played a relevant role in Mayan history and dominated part of the southern Yucatan between 560 and 680 AD ended up abandoned around 900 DC Thanks to the remains located in the grave, the Chase have concluded that at the time of their funeral you k´ab chaak was a sovereign major, who had already lost his teeth and measured around 1.7 meters. “The early classical period is the time when the rulers claim that they supervise everything, completely away from the rest of the population. That changes at the end of the period, especially in Caracol, when after the success of the war against Tikal, they begin to share wealth with the general population. Not this person,” Comment. Does it reveal anything else? Yes. Light. And that is one of the reasons why the finding of the Chase has generated so much expectation. For a start, Remember The researchers, is the first grave of an identifiable ruler after more than 40 years of work in Caracol. It also provides valuable information to better understand its context, the connections of the Mayan world and its contact with Teotihuacánone of Mesoamerica’s greatest archaeological complexes and that in 300 AD had already become a city that marketed with all of Central America. “The Mayan monuments of carved stone, the dates, the iconography and the archaeological data suggest that the generalized Panmeso American connections occurred after an event in the 378 DC called ‘input’”, remember Diane Chase. In Caracol tombs archaeologists have found however artifacts that leads them to look at central Mexico and Teotihuacán. Problem? The burials located in Caracol date from 350 AD, “at least one generation before the recognized theotihuacan presence.” But … What does that mean? “Both central Mexico and the Mayan area knew the ritual practices of the other party, as reflected in the Caracol cremation,” Reflect Arlen Chase. The clues included in the Belize necropolis point out therefore that the first Mayan rulers maintained contacts “at the Mesoamerican level” before even the “entrance” of Teotihuacán that was recorded in their sizes. “The connections between the two regions were … Read more

Our computers are literally full, the problem is that it is almost impossible to extract it. Or we believed

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Gold is one of the metals with better electrical conductivity. For this reason, it is used in many electronic components, mainly in computers, but also in smartphones or sound systems. The problem is that extracting it from these pieces is very complicated and the cost it means does not compensate. Or we believed. Swiss researchers They have created a method to extract precious metal from a serum protein. Find gold in the trash. The components where gold is used most They are the PCB or printed circuit plates that we find in all types of devices, from computers to smartphones. It can also be found in processors, connectors and HDD hard drives. The problem, as we said, is that the existing methods to extract this metal are very complex and expensive. In addition, it is often necessary to use very toxic chemical components, although that does not stop that many Try it in your own houses. For all this, it is often not worth the effort to the small amounts that are extracted. The extraction process. Whey protein. Researchers at the Federal Polytechnic School of Zurich have managed to extract gold with a new more efficient, sustainable and cheap method. As? With serum protein ‘whey’ (yes, the Gym shakes). To do this, they submitted proteins to acidic conditions and high temperatures. These form nanofibers that are added to a gel and, after drying, forms a kind of sponge. It is not the first time we hear that Whey protein is used for similar purposes. A few months ago China managed to recycle the electric car batteries thanks to the glycine present in these shakes. Who was going to tell us that in addition to getting strong, it would serve to extract gold or recycle batteries. The method. The researchers used 20 computer base plates, from which they extracted all metal parts and dissolved them in an acid bath that ionized the metals. The next step was to submerge the sponge in the solution. Although there are other metals that adhere to the fibers that form it, the researchers discovered that gold ions adhere much better. Once “captured”, the sponge is heated and the ions are released and can melt to create a gold peep. Cheaper. The 20 motherboards resulted in a 450 milligrams gold cupcake with 91% purity (the remaining 9% was copper), or what is the same: 22 korates. At the current price of gold, La Pepita would have a value of about 35 euros. It is not much, but the researchers affirm that the cost of the materials and energy necessary for extraction is 50 times less than that of gold obtained. The next step is to climb this technology to be able to apply it to the market. Images | Eth zurich In Xataka | Our dependence on lithium batteries is worrying. These are the alternatives that aspire to replace them

We have found tools 300,000 years ago in China. And they put up legs what we believed on the paleodieta

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Imagining humans diet of tens of thousands of years is to think, almost automatically, in the Paleodieta. For years we think that ‘paleo diet’ consisted of Eat, above all, meatbut more and more studies have put on the table that our ancestors They were not as carnivorous as we thought. And, from time to time, tools appear that support that Vegetable diet in antiquity. The last? Chinese tools with at least 300,000 years old. The discovery. In an article published in Scienceresearchers detail a series of 35 wood tools found at the Gantangqing archaeological site, located in southwest China. Using methods such as Electronic spin resonance On sediment minerals attached to tools, researchers have been able to date with a 95% confidence this set of tools in a segment between 250,000 and 361,000 years. This collection includes Tools of all kindsas large sticks to dig two hands, hooks and some smaller supplies, and researchers detail that they all have clear manufacturing marks such as rounded ends, more sharp parts and other polished surfaces. Collectors. The hunt was present at the time and was of great importance, obviously, but we have already commented that there is more and more evidence about the relevance of the collection and the Vegetable diet before the agriculture. The estimate is that these tools did not serve for hunting, but to process plant foods. The analysis of both the waste that presents the tools and the use brands indicate that they were designed to excavate and collect grounds and tubers and roots. Hook -shaped tools, for example, could have served to cut the smallest roots and tools to clean vegetables in a precise way. Contrast. Almost as interesting as the tools themselves is precisely that collecting purpose. The reason is that in Western Eurasia and in Africa they had already been found Wooden tools Of that age, but the enormous difference is that most tools were hunting while the Gantangqing repertoire, apart from more diverse, specializes in that plant collection. Importance beyond diet. Although they are tools of the last years of the Paleolithic inferior in which rock tools were more than established, but there was the hypothesis that, in East Asia the rocks were less abundant than in other regions and populations depended largely on organic tools. And that need forced the elaboration of the tools made from wood. And, above all, the discovery puts on the table that cognitive abilities of the population of Southeast Asia and its ability to create advanced tools was comparable to that of European and African contemporaries. In the end, it is always curious to verify how a “simple” discovery, as a tool of tens of thousands of years ago, allows to establish a connection with the diet of that population, their skills compared to those of other areas and how they raffled difficulties to continue advancing. And also how the stone that We always associate the Paleolithic He was not the only protagonist in the technological evolution of the species. In Xataka | About 3 million years ago our ancestors already used tools that they themselves manufactured

Elon Musk has updated Grok to look so much to him that AI is having hallucinations: Elon Musk is believed

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“Rip al Grok Woke has been an honor,” he said This user in X. The chatbot of X has had a somewhat movidito weekend after Musk will announce a significant improvement. Shortly after, Grok began to give some strange answers: messages feeding conspiracy theories, anti -Semitic comments and even began to respond in the first person as if it were Elon Musk himself. Anti-Woke. Musk did not give details about Grok’s update, he just said that “you should notice a difference when you ask Grok”, and go if he noticed. The message that caused the most He was one in which Grok spoke of Hollywood’s “ideological prejudices” as “stereotypes against whites”, ensuring that “ruins magic.” When users continued asking him, Jewish executives came to blame to promote these “anti-transitional” policies. In the same thread, a user asked directly if Elon had altered the code to make him less “woke” and more “like him”, to which Grok replied No, but is “designed by XAI to prioritize the truth about the Wokism” Canallita. Apart from his political bias, the new Grok seems to have instructions to use a more “scoundrel” tone in his answers, even attacking users. A clear example is the exchange that Grok maintained with This Chelsea fan. The user asked how FC Barcelona was going to pay the fine imposed by UEFA and the Bot released a ‘Zasca’ stating that Chelsea’s fine is bigger. No one happy. Although many of the criticism come from the progressive side, the truth is that Grok has nothing happy to conservatives. In another message, Grok said Donald Trump’s cuts They were the culprits of the deaths that occurred in Texas After the recent floods. In the answers they told him that this was false since these cuts would not take effect until 2026, but Grok continued to defend his position. The result is that no one is happy with Grok, on the one hand They accuse him of being of the extreme right And on the other of being Too much left. Are you, Elon? Whatever the content of the update, For many users It is clear that the intention is to create a more aligned Grok with the opinions of its creator. In fact, he had a kind of identity crisis when asked if Elon Musk had been at Jeffrey Epstein’s house. The message has been deleted, but there are screenshots. In it, Grok responded in the first personas if it were Musk itself. When users caught his attention, he denied it sharply, coming to say that the screenshot they showed him It was manipulated. Finally recognized him and apologized for your mistake. Educating Grok. From the Twitter purchase and its transformation into Propaganda toolMusk has proclaimed a Absolutist of Freedom of Expression. With the arrival of Grok, which in the words of Musk himself is The first politically incorrect thing that always tells the truthwe have seen how his toy rebelled against his master, coming to say that Musk was “The biggest misinformation spreader”. Since then they have been refining the answers and with Grok 3, it was learned that The chatbot had been instructed not to mention Trump or Musk. This last update also seems to go in this address: align Grok’s responses with the tone that Musk usually uses, almost as if he were educating him. A lot of potential. Apart from the controversies that seem to wrap everything Musk touches, the launch of Grok 3 surprised us for his intelligence and speedreaching at the height of its competitors in many ways, although still It is still behind. Grok’s greatest asset lies in its integration into X. Since its arrival, Grok has become a kind of FACT-CHECKER For many users. Asking Grok has already become very common in X, the problem is that it still does not be reliable. We already saw it During the conflict between Iran and Israel And, with these updates of clear ideological background, it does not seem that improving reliability is in their plans. Image | DVIDS | XAI In Xataka | There are cybercriminals selling models of unbilters. The surprising thing is that they seem to be based on Grok and Mixtral

Many clients are no longer believed that who is attending to them is not an AI

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Customer service is one of the most susceptible departments of being replaced by AI agents, such and As we have seen In recent months. Although the experiment They have not gone quite well To some of them, other companies keep their chatbots as the first line of attention of their customers. Such and as they counted in Bloombergthat is generating an unusual situation when those who attend to customers are human of flesh and blood: they confuse them With an AI and are forced to constantly demonstrate that they are real people. AI in the call-centers. Although the recent movements of the great technological ones pointed out that the customer service departments were going to be the first to notice the Impact of AI on employmentthe truth is that, According to data From the Gartner consultant, 95% of the companies surveyed intended to keep their human operators on the payroll. Others, however, yes They are depositing their trust in chatbots -based call centers to serve their customers. That does not mean that AI and systems of Natural language processing (PLN) are not used in marketing campaigns. That has made customers doubt whether who attends them are really human operators. “I tell you: ‘I swear, I’m a real person,” he said Bloomberg Lindsey, an operator dedicated to customer service and sales of American express credit cards. “I even ask them: ‘Is there anything they want to say to prove that I am a real person?” We no longer know what is true. In many cases, the AI ​​does not replace the operator in its role as final customer service, but acts as technology to redirect calls, so, when they reach the human operator, the client has already had to deal with an AI. Lindsey says that sometimes the clients ask “you are an AI?” Other times, they simply start shouting for talking to an operator or hanging directly. Nir Eisikovits, Professor of Philosophy and director of the Applied Ethics Center at Massachusetts University, He pointed outin The conversation that the current ability to talk about AI models is only an advance of the efforts of companies that develop that Technology to imitate humans in the rhythm or tone of the voices. “The inability to distinguish whether you are talking to a human or not only will go more,” making it much more complicated to distinguish if a client is Talking to an AI or with a real human. Sales scripts do not help. Sales techniques used by human operators do not help when distinguishing them from an AI. The call centers sector has evolved a lot From its birth In the 60s. Now the operators are monitored to control the conversation time and ensure that sellers follow a certain scripted structure For the entire sales process. In that script it is indicated from the tone in which they must go to the client, lists of words of obligatory use or prohibited, etc. All this cornering in communication, with predefined responses and protocols, does not help the client to distinguish whether there is a person or an AI on the other side. “It seems to me a compliment that I think I am professional enough to sound like a recording,” said BJ, a computer support agent. For his part, Seth, Lindsey’s partner offering American Express services, said that at least they ask if it’s an AI once a week. On one occasion, a client was questioning it for 20 minutes To check if it was an AIasking him about his hobbies, if he liked to fish in his free time and what kind of cane he used “it was as if he wanted to see if he failed. At a certain moment, I even felt that it was an AI tried to learn to be human,” said the telephone operator. What makes us human. The sense of humor is perceived as a feature intrinsically human, closely linked to intelligenceto the social context and the domain of language inflections to fit their meaning in a joke or joke. Therefore, humor is a resource that some operators use to confirm that they are human. Faith Lau, who works in an AI sales company in Canada, said that the first time they confused her with a bot she answered telling the customer’s joke. What his client did not know is that an AI is also Able to count jokes. Sarah’s strategy, which works in the US government anti -fraud, is much more visceral. “When I interact with an AI, it simply lets me speak, it does not interrupt me,” says the operator, for that reason when someone asks him to show that he is human, he tries to interrupt everything he can when they insist that he is not human. Certainly, There is nothing more human Someone interrupts you while you talk. In Xataka | We have tried Sesame’s conversational. It is the experience closest to a “human voice” that we have seen Image | Unspash (VAGARO)

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