Boom

It is the most symptomatic movement of the AI ​​boom

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NVIDIA it’s been a couple of years being the mortar of the artificial intelligence industry. There is a picture that explains it better than a thousand words: Their H200 chips feed the data centers that are used to train artificial intelligence and are object of desire even from some of the Chinese Big Tech, but they are already preparing a new generation called Rubin. And if there is anyone who is clear that these future chips should be the bricks of their new data centers, it is Mark Zuckerberg. The reason? They are necessary to achieve “personal superintelligence”. And that belief is what has inspired a multi-million dollar agreement. Yes, another one. NVIDIA’s future is bright for Meta There is no specific figure, but in The Wall Street Journal there is talk of an agreement valued at “tens of billions of dollars”. Goal is chasing a type of iartificial intelligence focused on everyday usebeyond with a chatbot. They trust it so much that They have assembled the AI ​​Team A and, to stop having promises and get products, they are going to make a all-in in future NVIDIA technology. Jensen Huang’s company has GPUs like the H200 with Blackwell architecture, but they are already finalizing the development of something else: Your new Rubin architecture And the Grace CPU. Grace is especially interesting because it marks the first massive deployment of NVIDIA CPUs based on ARM architecture. But it’s not just the GPU and the CPU: NVIDIA is going to provide all its ecosystem of hardware and software to Meta. “The complete NVIDIA platform”, as it has been called Huang. And there is something curious about this whole thing that perfectly exemplifies what is happening in the artificial intelligence arms race: companies are buying hardware that doesn’t exist to power data centers that only exist on paper. NVIDIA not yet is mass manufacturing its Rubin GPUs because it depends on Samsung provides HBM4 memories which are now starting to be mass produced. One of the leaders of SMIC, the great Chinese hope for semiconductors, described the process as “creating huge roads when there are no cars running on them yet.” He also noted that “no one has really thought about what exactly those data centers will do, but companies would love to build the entire capacity of the next 10 years in just one or two years.” As we said, there are no specific figures for this agreement, but Meta has dropped his wallet. In 2025 they invested 72 billion in AI and the forecasts were 115 billion for 2026. We say “were” because they have redesigned the plan to increase to 135,000 million to expand data centers and try to meet the Superintelligence Labs goals. At Xataka we always try to provide context when we talk about certain quantities, but it is so exaggerated that I can’t think of how to contextualize it. Well, yes: 135,000 million only Meta, it is less than the 650,000 million that will be spent this year between Amazon, Google and Microsoft. There’s the context. Images | NVIDIA, Mark Zuckerberg In Xataka | Western Digital has sold all its hard drive capacity by 2026: AI is devouring physical storage

“Tourismphobia” threatens to thwart Spain’s tourism boom. In Andalusia they have decided to nip it in the bud

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That tourism is a millionaire business It doesn’t have much discussion. Which is a sensitive sector in which it is terribly easy die of successneither. We are seeing it in Japan, where the avalanche of foreigners is encouraging a growing tourismphobia that already permeates the political sphere. In Spain the situation is somewhat different, but the record of travelers is also encouraging demonstrations against overcrowding, some as high-profile as the one that killed residents of Barcelona shooting with water guns to the vacationers on the terraces. In Andalusia they have decided to tackle the problem at its roots. “The Andalusian Treatment”. The Government of Andalusia just launched a tourist campaign, “The Andalusian Treatment”. The person in charge of presenting it was the advisor of the branch, Arturo Bernal, who explained its key points to representatives of the sector and the media. So far exceptional. The curious thing is that in this case the campaign does not seek to attract more visitors or open new markets. Its objective is to give certain guidelines to tourists and “raise awareness” about the sector. In the words of Bernalestablish “a contract of coexistence between the Andalusian and the visitor.” What does that mean? That the Andalusian Government wants to eliminate any hint of tourismphobia and insist on the importance of locals and tourists “coexisting” in the same territory. The statement launched by the Board leaves little doubt in this regard: although it is not excessively long, that word (“coexistence”) is repeated over and over again along with others such as “respect” or “responsibility.” Hence, during his presentation on Tuesday, Bernal asked his countrymen to join the “Andalusian Treaty” to achieve “tourism that reflects the best of our land and projects a future of opportunities for all.” He also spoke of “responsible tourism” and even turning the community into “an example of how a territory can welcome the world without losing its essence.” From theory to practice. The Board’s intention is to deploy the campaign through media and “innovative media” (it does not specify which ones) that allow it to be brought to visitors in the busiest points of the region. Its key piece is a video of two minutes in which tourists are encouraged to bet on local businesses and products, get to know the region beyond its large cities or respect the rest of locals and their right to enjoy spaces such as beaches. In total, the pact is articulated in eight points, including one that asks tourists to use water responsibly. Click on the image to go to the tweet. Tourism: side A and B. It is no coincidence that the Andalusian Government launches a campaign with that focus now, just when Spain registers a record flow of foreign tourists and aspires to become the most visited country of the planet, even ahead of France. The problem is that as the influx of tourists grows, so does the tension it exerts on commerce, transportation or (above all) housing, where the appearance of tourists is encouraged. vacation rentals. One word: tourismphobia. The result of this tension is a feeling of rejection towards mass tourism, a phenomenon that the Board knows well. In 2023 he published a report in which he already recognized that, although the majority of Andalusians agree that tourism is an economic engine, the sector must think about how it wants to grow in the future. “The excessive influx, especially of the most disruptive visitors, causes problems of coexistence, noise, dirt and incidents.” The report It goes further and leaves two warnings. First, the risk that the avalanche of tourists will saturate municipal infrastructure and resources. Second, an excess of visitors can end up degrading the quality of the destination. It’s nothing new. I warned about a similar risk not long ago a study from the Malaga City Council and in fact there are guides that they are already advising against visit certain saturated destinations in Spain, such as Mallorca or Barcelona. Beyond paper. Beyond the reports, the tensions generated by mass tourism can also be seen in the streets. Over the last few months, cities like Malaga, Seville, Palm, San Sebastian either Barcelona They have registered demonstrations by residents who are crying out against the saturation of their cities and the effect that this has (especially) on the residential rental market. Of all of them, perhaps the most media-worthy is the one that was held last year in Barcelona, ​​where a group of neighbors shot tourists in the street with water guns, an image captured by media around the world. There are billions of euros at stake. According to data managed by the Ministry of Industry and Tourism, only during the first ten months of the year have international visitors spent their time in Spain more than 118,000 million of euros, 7% more than in 2024. If we talk about Andalusia, during the same period the community received a record of 12.9 million of foreign tourists who accumulated an expenditure of approximately 18,000 million euros. Images | Chris Boland (Unsplash) In Xataka | There is a reason why Vigo is announcing its Christmas in Japan. And it has little to do with Japanese tourists

Iceland’s public television did not broadcast on Thursdays. Since then the legend of a Thursday “baby boom” has circulated.

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For approximately twenty years, Iceland decided not to broadcast television on Thursdays. The reasons for this decision were varied, but they triggered a belief: the obligation not to watch television made many young people look for other entertainment. And they did it. And the birth rate skyrocketed. Today we delve into the history behind this decision and decide what is reality and what is urban legend. TV stories. Iceland did not have its own television channel until 1966with the creation of the state radio station RÚV. Until then, the only television available to some Icelanders was the one broadcast by the US military base in Keflavík, since 1955 and with an antenna only for soldiers, an invention soon imitated by Icelanders. When RÚV began broadcasting (after the controversial decision to leave Icelanders unable to receive the signal, which caused a tidal wave of complaints), it did so with a very restricted schedule. Initially, it only broadcast two days a week (and a few hours a day). As its programming expanded, a day without television was established: Thursday. Why wasn’t it broadcast on Thursdays? There were two reasons. The most well-known and romantic reason is that they wanted to promote social and family life. The government wanted Icelanders to dedicate a day to socializespend time with family, read or enjoy the outdoors instead of staying home in front of a screen. People were encouraged to participate in community activities, meet with neighbors and keep traditions alive. There was also some concern about foreign cultural influence (already present with the programming at the Keflavík military base) and it was felt that limiting national television hours could help protect Icelandic identity. A more practical reason. But there was another reason of a budgetary and personnel nature. RÚV, the state broadcaster, operated with a very limited budget and staff. Leave a day without broadcast (and also a whole month in julyuntil 1983) was a practical way to give a day off to its employees, many of whom multitasked to keep the channel running. Since the station had a monopoly, it could afford this luxury without losing audience, since there was no other option to watch on television. A summit ended the custom. The first interruption of the Thursday blackout occurred in October 1986, when RÚV broadcast on an exceptional basis on Thursday to cover the historic Reykjavík summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. The definitive change, of course, came with the appearance of competition: in 1986 a new private channel, Stöð 2, was launched, broadcasting seven days a week. Since October 1, 1987, RÚV also began broadcasting on Thursdays, ending this tradition of almost two decades. The myth of “Thursday babies.” The popular belief that this tradition increased the birth rate is actually a joke or myth that Icelanders who lived during that time tell themselves: by not having the distraction of television, couples spent more time together, which supposedly increased the probability of conceiving. And although it is a correlation that has remained in the popular imagination of Iceland, there is no scientific evidence to show that the birth rate in Iceland increased significantly on Thursdays, or nine months after Thursdays. But it says a lot about how entertainment and family life were conceived not so long ago. Photo of Cassie Mouth in Unsplash In Xataka | The story of the old television that left an entire Welsh town without internet at 7 in the morning

For decades a silent boom has been taking hold in many regions of China: Christianity

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The recent history of Christianity in China is anything but simple. First for the Cultural Revolution and more recently, with Xi Jinping at the helm of the Communist Party, for repression against the unofficial churches. However, despite this troubled chronicle, experts tend to agree on something: in recent decades the Christian faith has expanded with force for the country. So much so that it already clearly dominates certain regions and there is who considers that in no time China will be “the largest Christian nation in the world.” How many Christians are there in China? The question is quite simple. Answer it, not so much. The China General Social Survey shows that between 2010 and 2018 the percentage of Chinese adults who identify as Christians (Catholic and Protestant) it was around 2%a percentage that can be found in essays about the matter. However, there is a quick search to find authors which differ significantly from that estimate, placing it at 3%, 7% or even 9% of the total population, which also includes children. In 2020 The Economist pointed that only Protestants make up 3% of the country’s population, although there are studies that suggest the real figure could be much higher if unregistered clandestine churches are taken into account. The reality is that it is not easy to have a precise figure. The reasons are multiple: the control of information by Beijing, the diversity of sources and methods in making calculations or even the “linguistic and conceptual differences between religion in East Asia and other regions”, such as warns Pew Research. How many believers are we talking about? The answer is again the same: it depends on the source. Although given the large size of China (1.4 billion inhabitants) even the most conservative calculations would leave a census of tens of millions. How many? Years ago, a Peking University study spoke of 40 millionWorld Population Review raises the estimate to 49.2 million and Visual Capitalist has even gone further, placing the figure close to 72 million. Is there more data? Yes. Other sources speak of some 20 million of adults, 60 million if the global population is taken into account, or even 100 million. Although its considerable disparitythe data lends itself to two clear readings. The first is the enormous weight of Protestants in the Chinese Christian community (some studies claim that represent 90% thanks to your great expansion). The second is that it is not necessary to resort to the most optimistic calculations to verify that China already surpasses (by far) the number of Christians in countries like Germany, France or Spain and would even be a handful of millions of believers in Italy if both Catholic and Protestant Christians are taken into account. How are they distributed throughout the country? A few years ago Reuters produced a map based on the studies of Professor Fenggang Yang, from Purdue University, which shows the dominant confession in the different regions of China. The plan reflects that Buddhism prevails in most of the southern and southwestern regions while other areas such as Xinjiang or Gansu are Muslim. Catholicism and especially Protestantism shine on the eastern flank. Even in Zhejiang areadespite the challenges that believers have encountered there. And what is the evolution? A quick Google search shows there are experts convinced that Christianity will continue to expand strongly in China and even place it among the countries in which the religion is experiencing greater growth, especially if we talk about Protestantism. In 2016 Professor Yang predicted that in 2030 the Asian giant will be “the largest Christian country in the world” despite its enormous Buddhist and Muslim population, among other confessions. “If we use an average annual growth rate of 7%, there will be more than 224 million Protestants in China by 2030,” the expert reflectedwho specifies that they would represent 16% of the population. “If we add Catholics, it would take even less time for China to become the largest Christian nation.” Does everyone have the same opinion? No, not everyone is so optimistic. In 2023 Pew Research published a study which suggests that, although Christianity expanded during the 80s and 90s (between 1982 and 1997 its faithful base went from six to 14 million), in recent years it has shown signs of “stabilizing.” As proof, they are based on official data that reflect that the percentage of Christian adults has barely changed between 2010 and 2018, without the pandemic having altered that picture. Still, Pew Research recognize that, in general, “survey-based estimates of China’s Christian population could be conservative,” as there are believers who choose not to reveal their faith “for fear of negative social or economic consequences,” especially if they belong to an unregistered church. Images | Gary Todd (Flickr) and Visual Capitalist (Pallavi Rao) In Xataka | China faces a bigger problem than the birth rate crisis: its young people are too busy to form couples

In full boom of energy drinks, Coca-Cola has decided to bet on something else: “advanced hydration”

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You just need to enter a power shop and see the refrigerators full of cans of a thousand and one colors to get to the conclusion that if there is any saturated sector in this country that is that of drinks. But Coca-Cola believes that it is not enough. That is why he has just announced that It disembarks in Europe with ‘Bodymarmor Lyte’its commitment to “revolutionize” the segment of advanced hydration; A sub-director who, in the next three years, will grow 24%. And he will start with Spain. And that is perhaps the most interesting question: how have we gone from living in a world hooked to energy drinks to another in which the largest world giant of drinks bet everything to a product To “squeeze life to the fullest and that sometimes experiences moments of exhaustion that prevent you from maintaining your usual rhythm”? What is the ‘advanced hydration’? An almost Marketinian term to call a “hydration approach” that beyond simple water consumption. It incorporates additional components such as electrolytes, vitamins, antioxidants or other ‘technologies’ to enhance “water absorption, retention and nutrient rebalancing.” It is used in several areas, but what interests us today to understand Coca-Cola is its use in the sports field. There, it comes to basically mean the use of water with electrolytes. Water with things. That’s where Bodymor Lyte enters. As explained from the companyit is a non -isotonic drink, low in calories, designed to improve water absorption (thanks to electrolytes) and B6 vitamins. And it is curious because Coca-Cola already has two very popular brands in this range: ‘Aquarius’ (with a composition based on mineral salts) and ‘Powerade’ (especially formulated for “rehydration and resistance” in sport). More than a curiosity … While ‘Aquarius’ is a product of daily, massive and accessible hydration, ‘Powerade’ focuses a lot on the sports field. This is important because with ‘Bodyarmor Lyte’, Coca-Cola is doing something similar to the turn that Apple with the Apple Watch: a turn towards health and the premium. Because? It is true that the great phenomenon of drinks in recent years has been energy. Coca-Cola, in fact, participates with own products (such as Burn) and also with participation in others (such as Monster). However, as the energy segment grows, so does the health sector (that of drinks without caffeine). In fact, it has been the boom of the “coffee” drinks that has driven the contracting of ‘Better-For-You. That’s where Bodymor Lyte wants to settle. A vision too uniform of an increasingly segmented market. In 2004, Malcolm Gladwell He told the story of Howard Moskowitz. Moskowitz was asked to find the perfect spaghetti sauce. The problem is that, after spinning and more turns, he realized that he could not make a sauce that liked everyone. It was then that he proposed to get more from a sauce. As Gadwell explainedfollowing his advice, “Preno introduced the extra thick sauce and, during the next 10 years, they earned 600 million dollars with their line of thick extra sauces.” In 2004, RAGU had 36 varieties of pasta sauce. Something almost unimaginable 20 years before, when there was only one. The world becomes increasingly diverse (or perhaps we see more and more) and that allows them to grow totally opposite phenomena. Who was going to tell us that a drink was going to reveal the difficulty we have to design policies in today’s world? Image | Coca-Cola Company | GKGRAPHIX53 In Xataka | We already know what energy drinks cost your rest. They are bad news for your dream

In the full boom of foreign tourism, Metro de Madrid has had an idea to make its brand profitable: luxury merchandising

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No matter where you go or who you ask. There are certain icons that everyone recognizes worldwide. They are part of a border -proof visual heritage. A clear example are The Olympic ringsthe symbol of peace or the dollarthe arroba or the Celebrate Smilethe smiling yellow face designed decades for Harvey Ball. If we probably did a survey most people would include in that list of universal symbols The subway logo from London. Madrid It seems determined The same thing happens with your suburban. What happened? What Metro de Madrid has surprised with A peculiar proposal. One that has little to do with trains, infrastructure and schedules. Or yes. The institution has just presented an official clock, a submersible Berbier piece, stainless steel and sapphire crystal ‘inspired’ in the capital’s suburban. The images that they have already been seen show the red, blue and white logo of Madrid in the sphere and how the marks of the hours are decorated with The colors of the different lines. One, light blue; two, red; three, yellow; four, brown … in another historical wink at the bottom of the sphere appears The figure “1919”the year in which the First Line Four Caminos-Sol was inaugurated. Click on the image to go to Tweet. Is more known? Yes. Sunday The world slid Some details of the launch. The idea is to create only 50 numbered units that will be sold for 395 euros. Too much money? No problem. In case the Limited Editing Berbier clock is exhausted or the client wants to pay less, Metro plans to market another, cheaper model, which will incorporate a similar sphere with interchangeable silicone straps in four colors. The price in that case will be 120 euros. However, there is much more interesting fact. Not by what he tells us about the clock itself, but of the Metro plans. According to Precise The worldthe new accessory can be bought unocidly in the store that the operator plans to release at the opera station. It will be The third (There is already one at the Sunstation and another in the Plaza de Castilla) and the idea is that not much to open its doors. In January He pointed to the second half of 2025 already early summer It was specified that the space is probably available in the last quarter of the year, which will allow you to take advantage (at least partly) the Christmas campaign. Metro stores? That’s how it is. In itself, stores are not a novelty. As Remember Europa Pressthe history of the Metro store can be traced at least 1984, when it opened its sun sales space. Several decades later, at the end of 2017, added the place of Plaza de Castilla. Today its catalog of items can be consulted (and buy) also in latientademetromadrid.com. In addition to selling merchandising Officer and pieces such as the new Berbier watch, the opera space will serve travelers as office Customer service. But … What do they sell? They don’t sell, better. His articles list It is amazing broad: bolis, bags and backpacks, cushions, sweatshirts, fans, bottles, socks, notebooks, toys, cups and even lames with stations posters such as Santiago Bernabéu or metropolitan state. All related in one way or another to the Madrid suburban. Most show the famous blue, red and white logo or incorporate the colors of the different lines. In the wide metro catalog there is also Bestsellers They have stood out for their commercial success. For example, Some shoes Sports designed in collaboration with Titocustoms to celebrate the company’s 105 years. They launched as a limited series, but given their “great reception” Metro decided to create a new edition. In total more than 1,000 pairs have been sold. Another product with pull is The Christmas sweater. It was released in 2023 and they have already been dispatch More than 3,000 units. Are there more figures? Yes. Not many more, but there is some that helps us understand the scope of the commercial stores of Metro de Madrid and especially its evolution. At the beginning of the year, when the plans to open the opera store were announced, the Europa Press agency wakefulness That in 2023 the volume of sales before taxes reached 127,470 euros, a record that exceeds the box of the previous year, which had been 81,619. That is, the billing shot more than 56% in a year. Most sales were channeled through physical stores (75%), highlighting above all sun, with almost 65,400 euros. Why do you do it? To understand Metro’s commitment you have to know your data, but also (and even more) the context. His decision to open a new opera store coincides with two clear trends. The first is the increase in travelers. In January the company estimated that in 2024 it had reached its “historical user record”, with 715.2 million trips8% more than in 2023. The data of fact improves those registered by the company in the years before the pandemic. The other trend is the increase in tourism. Especially that of foreign origin. Spain is close to passing the historical barrier of the 100 million of international visitors and there are those who believe that in not much time, By 2040will be the great tourist referent of the planet, surpassing France or the US. Much of that flow is directed to destinations of the Mediterranean coast, the Canary Islands or Northern regions, such as Cantabria either Galiciabut Madrid also plays a key role in the national tourist fabric. In 2024 Madrid received More than 11 million of visitors. It is estimated that the international market meant 56% and generated more than 16,000 million euros, 21% more than in 2023, with a key weight of the US, Italy and France, although the Chinese are the ones who have grown the most, 74%. And what is Metro? Everything indicates that taking advantage of that pull of visitors and users. After all, the new store will not open in any place. … Read more

For decades, Spain has been oblivious to the boom of evangelical churches worldwide. Until they arrived in Madrid

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They do not run good times for the Catholic Church, which dealt with a Vocations collapse and one clear loss of practitioners. However, others that are going better. As the Latin American community has gained presence In the Madrid region it has also been done by the Evangelical Church, increasingly present in its streets and with greater influence. Both, in fact, that there are those who calculate that they are opening places of worship to A past speed. Your data are of course amazing. What’s happening? That evangelical faith is extending strongly in Spain. And specially for the Community of Madrid, where he has been experiencing a real boom for years that can easily be traced in two areas: hemeroteca, who have been echoing of the trend; And on the streets (and polygons) of certain districts, which have seen how apartments, commercial bass or even old industrial workshops and ships were reconverted in places of worship. Are there data to try it? Yes. The observatory of religious pluralism in Spain leaves two interesting. The first is that, according to the registration available right now on its website, in the Community of Madrid there are 834 places dedicated to evangelical cult. The second is that, with that figure, the evangelists are (from afar) the minority confession with more presence in the region. They monopolize more than 69% of the totalquite above the Muslim, which barely reaches 12%. The Observatory itself points out that its data starts from a directory of places of worship that was last updated in October 2021. To have a more complete photograph it arrives with a look at the local press. In August The newspaper dedicated A wide report to the expansion of the evangelical temples in Madrid that spoke of the religion also passed the 800 centers of worship, which even exceeds the number of Catholic parishes, 702. How does it expand? At a surprising speed. Especially if we take into account that it coincides with a moment of weakness of the Catholic Church, marked by A serious vocations crisis that has forced him to pull imagination to maintain temples operations located in the rural. According to The data published yesterday by The countryover the last five years the Madrid region has seen how places of evangelist worship opened at a record rate: one every four days. The proliferation of this kind of temples is not in any exclusive case of the capital. The Observatory reveals that there are also hundreds and hundreds distributed throughout the rest of the country, especially in Catalonia, Andalusia and the Valencian Community. The Board of Directors of the Agency He attributes themrespectively, 984 and 731 and 495. In all Spain Newtral calculates 4,653 distributed for just over 800 municipalities. What reveals Madrid? Several things. Especially the force with which the cult expands and where it does. Although the number of temples has grown clearly in the region, it has not done so homogeneously. While the most central district brings together 21 temples, in Carabanchel we find almost 90, which has made some practitioners refer to it as the “evangelical gold mile.” The Observatory Board of religious pluralism shows that confession also has A rather relevant community Distributed by Alcalá de Henares, Móstoles, Fuenlabrada, Parla, Torrejón de Ardoz, Leganés or Getafe. Any of these locations has dozens of points of worship. What is the reason? There is not one. But the phenomenon coincides with another clear trend: the increase in the population of Latin American origin in Madrid. Last year the region lived a historical milestone when overcoming the symbolic barrier of the Million residents born in Spanish -speaking countries. The data is relevant because it confirms the exponential increase that the community has experienced in recent years, after successive migratory waves. As a reference, at the beginning of this century they barely went from 81,500. Beyond its evolution, it imports (and much) the weight that Americans have reached within Madrid’s society, already representing one in seven population. Why is it important? Because although Catholicism still has a key weight in Latin America, Protestantism and more specifically evangelism (and the Pentecostal movement) movement) has gained strength On the other side of the Atlantic. Upon arriving in Spain, immigrants not only retain the faith they professed in their countries, but helps them preserve their identity and establish ties. “They bring practices, leaders and networks already consolidated in origin that are reproduced in neighborhoods and municipalities where they settle, and find in the Pentecostal churches a space to maintain the identity community,” reflects the sociologist Paola García in A study On the phenomenon published in 2010. Religion abounds, allows them to “maintain identity continuity and, at the same time, mitigate the loneliness and vulnerability of the migratory process.” Are they just temples? No. They are anchor points. And its function goes beyond religious celebrations. They also serve as a space for socialization and support, which partly explains how temples They have expandedoccupying low, old workshops and even ships that come to rent by thousands of euros. “It is a form of social reconstruction that explains why Pentecostalism has found in Latin American flows a conducive land to grow,” he abounds. In Spain they live 1.5 million of people who declare themselves evangelists: to represent 0.2% of the population in 98 became 2% in 2018. Is there anything more than religion? Yes. Although the places of worship have a valuable social function and it is not an exclusive problem of evangelism, there are those who question the approach of some congregations from Latin America that are implanted in Europe. “It is difficult to know when we are talking about an evangelical church and when of a sect”, duck Luis Santamaría del Río, Ries expert, in an essay on the matter published in 2023 cited by The country. The researcher remember that in Spain the groups meet the same population as on the other side of the Atlantic, but “with a different purchasing power.” … Read more

The pre-bodas and post-boda boom arrives

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If you have had a wedding recently, you have most likely experienced it in your own meats: marriages are no longer a single day. Or every time they are less. Today is usual that the key moment of ‘yes I want’ is preceded and followed by a series of faustos that include commitment parties, farewells, prebodas and post -bodies, a succession of celebrations that increase the invoice and lead some to talk about ‘Endless Wedding’ either Weddings “Marathon”. The ‘great day’ is increasingly great and less day. A fact: 32%. A few months ago the specialized portal weddings.net did a curious exercise. As part of your Sectorial Report of 2025, in which it describes services, prices and trends related to the world of weddings, inquired how they now last on the celebrations. And his conclusion was surprising. Only 32% It lasts one day. The usual thing is that several days last. To be more precise, the 38% Of the couples celebrate two -day weddings, 28% prolong the event for three days and 2% even spend the four days. It is difficult to assess how that trend has evolved in recent years, but it helps to take a look at the Wedding.net report of 2019. There the platform indicated that it had not yet arrived in Spain “the international trend of weddings that last several days”, and sentenced: “It will take, it requires a cultural change.” Why are weddings lengthened? Good question. Complicated answer. And it is complicated because it does not enter a single factor at stake, but a sum of them. One (fundamental) is the growing visibility we have of the weddings of other countries through networks. And that includes both celebrations of anonymous and Celebritiesincluded Paris Hilton either Jeff Bezosevents marked by luxury and that continued for several days. Another reason (much simpler) is that weddings change because we do it. Every time we get married later (If in 1976 the Middle Ages was 25.8 years today exceed 38) and it is not strange that the bride and groom have spent part of their lives outside their native cities, on another tip of Spain or even abroad. That implies that friends include friends who can arrive from hundreds or thousands of kilometers. Extending weddings is a way to enrich your experience and, above all, reinforce contact. A pre -wedding for example serves that guests who don’t know each other can break the ice before the big day. Two words: ‘Destination Weddings’. The expansion of weddings coincides with another upward phenomenon, ‘Destination Weddings’ (fate weddings), links that are at the same time a tourist getaway. The bride and groom choose to marry the city where they live, in another municipality, community or even abroad, moving the ceremony (and guests) to iconic places such as the Greek islands, the Italian coast, Las Vegas or Ibiza. The objective is to enrich the experience, which is in turn promoting a business with respective growth. A few months ago Future Market Insights consultant published A study which estimates that the market of ‘fate wedding’ will reach this year globally the 36.8 billion dollars, considerably above the 23,000 million which projected in 2022, but still far from the 68,200 million that provides for them to be reached in just a decade. According to its calculations, the business will evolve with an annual compound growth rate (CAGR) from 6.4% to 2035. Of prebodas and post -bodies. In that ‘expansion’ of the celebrations there are two fundamental words, increasingly present in the celebrations: the Prebodas and postbods. The big day is still the same, that of ‘Yes I want’, but it is common for the eve of the bride and groom want to organize a first celebration so that guests can know each other and feel more relaxed the next day. Especially the youngest. That leads them to organize (increasingly) prebodas. “We do it because we feel like gathering our friends, especially those who come from outside, to catch up and thank them for the effort to come,” Comment to Eldiario.es Martín, a 30 -year -old man who will marry in a few months in Mallorca. “I also think it is positive because the wedding day you have to greet a lot of people, and so you take away that part,” Reflect. He is not the only one who thinks like that. In 2021 Aldara and Pablo, a couple who had married that same summer, related to The country How when planning the celebration they realized something: taking into account the number of guests, they would have three minutes to be with each one. Nothing else. Its solution was to expand the wedding, extending it to 48 hours: the first day they organized a ceremony “in its own way.” The second consisted of a “groove”, in his words, with a party in the pool that followed his time through the City Council, where they gave the formal ‘yes’. That the party does not stop. Prebodas triumph. And also the post -bodies, celebrations that follow the big day. I know confirmed a few years ago to S fashion A firm that is dedicated precisely to organize links: “A pre -wedding party has been almost mandatory if there are many guests from outside, but what we are noticing is an increase in post -basket celebrations. Brunch To fire the guests, for example, they are increasingly popular. ” There is nothing written about the post -bodies, but the usual comment From the sector, they consist of a pecking or a family reunion, closer, less formal than the day of the ceremony, and that they do not organize too late. The other figure: 24,618 euros. The celebrations change … and upload their cost. The last wedding yearbook shows something else: weddings continue to take care in our country. According to your calculationsthe average bill of marrying in Spain has risen from 21,056 euros in 2022 to 23,750 in 2023 and 24,618 in 2024. That is, in a couple of … Read more

Serial murderers had their boom in the 80s. Today they are a statistical rarity

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If there is a genre of entertainment that has emerged strongly in recent years, that is certainly True Crime. There are series, podcasts and even documentaries made with AI On real crimes. Many of them deal with the stories of dreaded serial killers; Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy… They all have their series. However, although serial killers have become a cultural phenomenon, the figures show that their activity was concentrated in a very specific period of time and in a special country. Why are there no serial murderers? An American phenomenon Number of serial murderers per country. Source: Radford University He FBI defined the serial killer as the one who has killed more than two people on two different occasions. According to him Annual series murderers report and victims of the University of Radford of 2020, 67.7% of registered cases came from the United States. There are countries that have registered more than a hundred cases such as Japan, India, South Africa, Canada or England with almost 200 cases. However, we talk that the United States has 3,690 documented cases, while the rest of the countries in the combined list reaches 1,168 cases, the difference is abysmal. Because There are more serial murderers in the United States? A reason is that there is More records and statistics that in other countries, so the real percentage could be biased. The media impact and glorification From some of these murderers it would also have been a determining factor for others to act as imitators. In addition, the ease of geographical mobility within the country facilitated that these profiles could act without being detected. Three decades of “fashion” Cases of serial murderers in the United States. Source: Radford University, Graphic of Vox.com The graph represents the moment in which the murderers began to kill and we see how most of the most notorious cases They are concentrated in a period of three decades. Here the crimes of Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, David Alan Gore or Tommy Lynn Sells occurred, to name a few examples. The wave began to rise in the late 50s, when the criminal records were improving, rose radically in the 70s and reached its peak in the 80s. According to IFL Sciencein the 80s there were 254 active serial killers, with its maximum peak in 1987 where there were more than 400 victims. In the 90s the figure dropped to 227 active murderers. The trend was falling pronounced and in the 2010 only 66 cases were recorded. Why there are no serial murderers Researchers blame the decline of serial murderers to several factors, especially related to Advances in criminal investigation. Police records are more exhaustive and communication between the different security forces is better. This allows to find similarities in cases and facilitate the identification of possible serial profiles. Research methods are more sophisticated. The DNA test It began to be used in cases of murders In the mid -80sbut the first techniques were more rudimentary, the analysis took a long time and there was not a wide database to compare. Technological advances are another determining factor. The presence of Security cameras In shops and public places he has helped resolve countless crimes worldwide. For example This study He concluded that the British transport police could increase its crime resolution rate from 23 to 48% thanks to the security cameras material. The Internet searches They have also been decisive in many cases, such as Brian Walshethat when his wife disappeared he looked on Google “how much time passes until a body begins to smell” and “10 ways to get rid of a corpse.” This, together with images of the suspect buying cleaning material and an ax in Home Depot, led to their arrest for murder. But perhaps everyone’s greatest advance has been mobile telephony. In addition to the images of the cameras, the triangulation of the signal of mobile phones It allows to locate both the suspects and the victims, being able to reconstruct their movements. Mobiles are key tools in many investigations and we have seen it in notable cases such as Asunta Basterrahe Urban Guard Crime or that of Diana Quer. The decline of serial killers coincides with a Generalized fall of violence since the 90sbut without a doubt all advances in research and technology have made it easier for today to catch the culprits. In potential serial murderers, in many cases They do not commit a second crime. Cover image | Netflix In Xataka | A person has made Media Spain hook the most horrendous crimes: Clara Tiscar and ‘Criminopathy’

The arcade boom in Madrid and other Spanish cities

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The recreational have come back to stay. The neuralgic center of meeting so many young people from the eighties and the nineties seem to ride the wave of nostalgia, and they are more than a curiosity, or temporary exhibitions to rediscover the classic games. Throughout Spain, and especially in Madrid, they are emerging from arcade theme bars to associations that make their background available to visitors, and that guarantee a nostalgic zambombazo … and discovery. Madrid, Mecca del Arcade. Although they begin to abound throughout Spain, without a doubt the main core of recovery of recreational is in Madrid. The relocation in Vallecas of The Arcade temple (which is also an association in the southern Madrid area dedicated to the dissemination, preservation and restoration of Arcades and Pinballs) has caused this type of premises to speak again, which in most cases are arms of associations of friends of the retroinformatics (for example, NEXTAGEconsecrated to the recovery of dance machines). It also happens in Retro Factory From Alcorcón and Parla, which, like the Arcade Temple, includes in its facilities a video game memorabilia museum. But there are more variants in the capital: in Zoo arcade They are also dedicated to the repair and conservation of old machines, in a business parallel to the premises that allow players to test the recreational. And finally it is Next Levelthe most accessible of all these projects: bars with machines of all kinds that already have two very central stores in Madrid and have just opened an additional one in Barcelona. Retro Spain. Although they abound in Madrid, of course they are not the only places where retro recreational machines can be accessed. Some examples, apart from the new Next Level store: Arcade Planet and Check Point Arcade Bar In Seville, Arcade Levels in Zaragoza or Pixelandgames In Logroño. To all of them are added video game museums that usually include machines to try, such as the Muvi of Cangas, the Vintage Arcade Museum from IBI (Alicante) and the recent Video game museum from Madrid. Do you have change? As for the way of accessing the games, all these proposals work very similarly: in no machine you have to take coins, but the games are open to infinite credits. In some of these stores you have to pay a rate for spending all day (as in the specialized in Japanese machines Arcade Rebirth) or for a limited time (usually one hour, in most cases). And on the other hand there are bars like Next Level, where a consumption is required to play. Disseminating spirit The interesting thing about some of these proposals is the disseminating spirit that leads to riding something that works economically, but also disseminates the culture of arcade. Manuel Vargas, from The Arcade Museum, tells us that “I had been thinking about making an association with several colleagues”, and apart from the aforementioned exhibition, between their walls they have “105 arcades and several old consoles that can also be played. The space is about 600 meters, and we have a conference room for magazine presentations, books and games.” On the other hand, Curro Quevedo, from Zoo Arcade, tells us that they also related to that spirit, made “a chronology of the arcade world from the former like ‘Space Invaders’ to the last dance or augmented reality machines.” He also tells us that in his 42 machines “we have sought that each machine is unique and has different types of hardware and different controls to be able to see their evolution a bit.” Referring to the competition that has emerged in recent times between similar premises, he affirms that, related to that spirit of wanting to spread historical games, “nobody thinks of competitors, since they are not very profitable businesses, it is more about being able to share a passion” How does nostalgia work? By cycles: We return again and again to claim fashions, successes and trends from past decades (or decades as a whole, in fact), and then tired, declare them “burned” and let some time pass before The next generation decides to rescue that point from the past again. The eighties, after the absolute saturation we have lived with products such as ‘Stranger Things’, now go through that Phase of tiredalthough recreational rooms, for what is seen, seem to have dodged that trend. They are more active than ever. Fever for recreational. The recreational machine rooms were in the eighties A unique meeting point for the youngest: Not only the video games that were in them had a visual quality and a spectacularity far superior to the eight -bit consolers and microorder in the houses. They were also sites where relationships were developed and generated their own fauna that then did not translate with any subsequent environment: hence the powerful nostalgia effect they arouse. Games can be recovered through emulation (or even with Own Machines at home), But the atmosphere is not. That is why they sprout as mushrooms, a multitude of bars and recreational premises (removing the neighborhood danger plus that the rooms had a few decades ago, of course). Header | The Arcade temple In Xataka | How one of the most famous Windows saves emerged: the hypnotic 3D pipe network in motion

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