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The real deal about festivals isn’t the music, it’s that you can’t bring your own food in. But that’s over

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The sentence of Valencia Court against Madrid Salvaje It’s not just about snacks. It is an assault won by consumers in a larger war: that of maintaining cultural experiences without every moment being designed for the purchase and sale of services. A ray of hope in the battle between “leisure as a business” as opposed to “leisure as a social right” that defines our era in an increasingly clear way. The battle for free entertainment. The judgmentwhich comes after the lawsuit from FACUA-Consumers in Action, is the first judicial resolution in Spain which establishes the abusive nature of these prohibitions at music festivals. But its importance transcends the anecdotal, since what is at stake is not only the right to bring a sandwich to a concert, but something more structural: the battle to maintain cultural spaces that are not completely immersed in transactional dynamics. A chronology of victories. A series of rulings can be traced that serve as a preamble to this latest judicial decision and that have paved the way to reach this point. For example, in 2001the María Cristina multiplexes in Toledo lost a lawsuit that certified that prohibiting entry with external products was an “irrational restriction on the consumer’s ability to choose.” There was already talk of “tied sales”: indirectly imposing services that the client had not requested. In 2022 another milestone arrived: the law was enacted that requires all hospitality establishments to offer free tap water. Although the official justification was environmental (reducing single-use packaging), it also served as a basis for this issue of forced consumption. Since then, the fines have increased: Yelmo Cines, for example, was fined 30,001 euros by the Basque Consumer Institute for prohibiting food from abroad. Spanish legal doctrine already makes it clear: if the main activity is showing films or scheduling concerts, hospitality is accessory. Beyond the sandwich. What happens at festivals is a symptom of a deeper mutation: leisure is being colonized by logic that transforms the cultural experience into a financial asset. It is understood if we look at the case of Live Nation, owners of Ticketmaster. In 2024, US Attorney General Merrick Garland defined like this the business model: “Live Nation uses illegal anti-competitive conduct to exert monopolistic control over the live events industry at the expense of fans, artists, small promoters and venue operators.” That is: you control the 70% of the ticketing market in the United States60% of concert promotion, and exclusive contracts with 75% of the large venues (the numbers are comparable in other countries of the world). In this way, each business segment feeds and reinforces the others. Ticket revenue is used to tie artists into exclusive promotional contracts, allowing for long-term ticketing exclusives, with more commission income… and perpetuating itself ad infinitum. By controlling the entire distribution and business chain you earn more money. Parallel trends. This transformation of leisure does not come from nowhere. It is intertwined with a couple of trends that redefine current leisure. On the one hand, the shrinkflation cultural (untranslatable, but here it goes: shrinking inflation), reduce the size of the product while maintaining or even increasing the price. General admission prices to American festivals they rose 55% between 2014 and 2024. And it’s not just that it costs more: it’s that you receive less. What was once included (being able to bring your own food, access to free drinking water, reasonable personal space) is now sold as a “privilege” or outright prohibited. Furthermore, in 2006, Spirit Airlines introduced the “unbundling” model: a cheap ticket that only includes one seat. Luggage, seat selection and priority boarding became extras that, as in 2024 had generated billions of dollars in baggage and seat selection fees. In other words: the unbundling did not reduce the cost of flying, but rather fragmented the final price into multiple hidden charges. Because ultra-low-cost airlines operate with very tight margins in base notes, recovering profitability through peaks that represent up to 47% of income. Festivals follow the same recipe: tickets that barely cover fixed expenses, while the real margins come from drinks and food. And since now live performances are essential for the survival of the music industryit makes sense that all efforts are focused on making it profitable. A crucial moment. After decades of unstoppable advance in the commodification of every aspect of entertainment (from cinema to sports stadiums, passing through theme parks), this judicial ruling indicates that perhaps the pendulum is beginning to swing in the opposite direction, at least in certain details. Consumers may not have completely lost the battle for “leisure as leisure” to the relentless “leisure as business” model that has been theorized for decades (Joseph Pine and James Gilmore spoke in 1998 of“the experience economy” and, even further back, the German sociologists Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer once defined visionary “colonization of free time) Extirpating leisure from capitalism. In 1944, the political economist Karl Polanyi published ‘The Great Transformation’where he argued that land, work and money are essential elements of life that They should never have become commodities. When the market attempts to subordinate “the very substance of society to the laws of the market,” society reacts spontaneously to protect itself from its own disintegration. So this judicial resolution is about being able to enter the next MadCool with a sandwich, but also about something more. Header | James Jeremy Beckers in Unsplash

It is now legal to bring your own food and drink into festivals

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It is a battle for consumer rights that is receiving very notable attention, and there is nothing strange about it: it affects some of the most widespread forms of leisure, cinema and concerts, and at stake is the right of customers to bring drinks and food into the venues. FACUA has been filing complaints against cinemas and event organizers for years and today we have a resolution that could set a precedent that changes everything. What has happened? The Court of First Instance number 4 of Valencia has issued the first ruling in Spain declaring null and void the clauses of a festival that prohibited access to the venue with food and drinks purchased abroad. The judicial resolution affects the Madrid Salvaje festival, and considers these restrictions as abusive practices that violate consumer rights as reported by FACUAthe association that filed the lawsuit. The ruling also annuls the charge of three euros as “management expenses” that the organization applied to attendees who wanted to recover the unconsumed balance on the bracelets. cashless. The court expressly prohibits the promoter to reiterate these practices in future events and thus establishes a precedent that could affect future editions of festivals in Spain. Because. The sentence justify your decision in the impossibility of attendees doing without food during the long days that the festivals last. The magistrate emphasizes that requiring users to leave the premises to eat would mean missing part of the scheduled concerts, in addition to generating unnecessary inconvenience. The resolution concludes that this prohibition constitutes in practice a forced imposition of hospitality services that consumers have not requested. That is, preventing entry with food from outside is equivalent to forcing the audience to purchase products exclusively in the festival’s internal establishments, which represents an “unjustified contractual imbalance.” The ruling emphasizes that the fundamental purpose of these events is to offer musical entertainment, with the restoration being a merely accessory element that should not condition the enjoyment of the main show. Repeat offenders. This is not the first time that Madrid Salvaje AIE has faced sanctions for its trade policies. The Community of Madrid has already imposed a fine of 96,000 euros for irregularities committed during the 2023 edition of the Brava Madrid festival. That sanction responded to the imposition of the system cashless as the only form of payment within the premises, without the possibility of paying in cash. In addition, the organization established a period of only seven days to claim outstanding balances. FACUA maintains active complaints against the 2024 and 2025 editions of Brava Madrid. Legal precedents: cinemas. The judicial argument of the case does not arise from nowhere, but is based on precedents established around the film sector. The Superior Court of Justice of Castilla-La Mancha established in a previous resolution that prohibiting the consumption of products according to their origin constitutes an irrational restriction of the consumer’s ability to choose. That ruling introduced the concept of “tied sales”, identifying how establishments use their dominant position to indirectly force the purchase of complementary services. The report prepared in 2016 by the then Spanish Agency for Consumer Affairs, Food Safety and Nutrition (Aecosan, today Aesan) was especially forceful when analyzing these prohibitions in movie theaters, concluding that the viewer was unjustifiably deprived of the main service they had paid for (watching the movie) when they were unilaterally imposed on them to use accessory services that they never requested, with the sale of food and drink being a secondary activity, not the essence of the movie business. The fines. These rulings regarding cinemas led to specific financial sanctions. The Basque Consumer Institute fined Yelmo Cines with 30,001 euros after a complaint from FACUA Euskadi for preventing access with external food. FACUA Galicia filed similar complaints against Cinesa in the Marineda City shopping center in A Coruña, while the Andalusian federation denounced five Yelmo establishments for repeating this policy after having been previously warned by the Junta de Andalucía in 2019. Implications. This court ruling sets a precedent of enormous relevance for the music festival industry in Spain, being the first resolution that specifically addresses these practices in events of this type. The ruling opens the door to possible retrospective claims by attendees who were affected by similar policies in past editions of Madrid Salvaje or other festivals that have maintained similar restrictions. It is an unequivocal warning about the illegality of such measures. The court decision significantly strengthens the position of consumer organizations, which have been fighting these trade policies for years. The court’s express order prohibiting Madrid Salvaje AIE from reiterating any of these clauses in future events also establishes a control mechanism that could be applied to other promoters. The cases pending resolution in courts regarding analogous situations—both in festivals and in other leisure spaces—now have a solid jurisprudential reference that will predictably influence the rulings. From now on, consumers have the right to freely choose where to purchase their food, which takes precedence over the commercial interests of the organizing companies, which redefines the relationship that existed to date between promoters and the public. Header | Colin Lloyd in Unsplash

a years-long plan to bring Steam to all devices

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Valve is executing one of the most ambitious strategies in recent software history. While Microsoft tries to convince the world that Windows on ARM is ready and Qualcomm promises raw powerGabe Newell’s company has taken a shortcut: Instead of waiting for developers to port its games, it’s funding the technology that makes that unnecessary. You want your Steam library to work on any device without anyone having to lift a finger. The precedent: Proton. To understand the magnitude of the movement, we must look back. A decade ago, playing on Linux was almost utopian. Few developers ported their titles to the Penguin OS, Microsoft has been cornering the PC gaming market for a long time. However, Valve changed this forever from the software side. It was thanks to Proton, a compatibility layer derived from the old Wine that translates Windows instructions so that Linux understands them. This was the cornerstone of the success of the Steam Deck– Proved that you don’t need Windows to run titles of all types, including many AAA. Now, Valve wants to repeat the move, but changing the objective: from desktop PCs to mobile chips. The architect in the shadows. It was Pierre-Loup Griffais, leader of SteamOS, who confirmed to The Verge in an interview that Valve has been “secretly” financing several projects since 2016. The most important currently is «FEX-Emu». What is it? FEX is an emulator which translates the instructions of the x86 processor (the language of traditional Intel and AMD chips for PCs) to ARM64 (that of current mobile phones). The combination: Valve is integrating it into a specific version of Proton for ARM. The goal, according to Steam’s Linux OS boss, is to “remove barriers so users don’t have to worry about which games work.” Obsession with efficiency. Obviously, these investments are not philanthropy, but pure industrial necessity. The company prepares hardware that needs this technology to exist, such as the future Steam Frame viewer. But there’s more: Griffais explains that ARM chips are superior in efficiency for low-power devices, something that has opened the door to speculations of all kinds. An ultraportable with Steam smaller than the Deck? Who knows. Without the compatibility layer of FEX and Proton, these devices would be born without a catalog. With it, they could run thousands of PC games from day one, also adding Android games through another protagonist of recent days: “Lepton”. Yes, multiplayer titles with anti-cheats deep, like ‘Fortnite’. The democratization of gaming. The revolutionary thing about these emulators is that, as they are open source tools, the benefit is universal. It already allows run recent games like ‘Hollow Knight: Silksong’ on an Android mobile without an official version existing. Even manufacturers like Xiaomi have gone ahead with initiatives like “WinPlay” that allows Play Steam titles on your HyperOS devices. Valve is paving the way so that any powerful device, whether tablet, mobile phone or ARM laptop, can be a potential Steam Machine. This contrasts with the efforts of companies like Microsoft, whose emulation layer, Prism on Windowscontinues fighting with the game compatibility. The master plan. It is none other than running SteamOS everywhere. Valve wants SteamOS to be the default operating system for gaming, regardless of the silicon underneath. We have already seen the first steps with the arrival of SteamOS to third-party consoles and the announcement of the Steam Machine desktop By eliminating the barrier of chip architecture (x86 vs ARM) and operating system (Windows vs Linux/Android), the firm ensures that its store is the only constant in a fragmented hardware future. And that only implies one thing: that users spend money on it. A win-win in every rule. Cover image | Valve In Xataka | The video game industry seems to be clear about where its next boom is: in games “for couples”

Russia has found an old ally from other wars to bring down Ukraine’s most impenetrable defense: snowfall

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Winter has once again established itself as a decisive actor in the Ukrainian war. To the mud and fog A new enemy has been added to the Ukrainian defenses. Heavy snowfall and freezing rain are degrading the tool that has allowed kyiv to make up for its numerical inferiority for two years: the swarms of light, agile and deadly FPV drones that form the backbone of their “death zones” defensive. Winter as a weapon. The meteorology, which in other winters had shaped the strategy, this year is dismantling a defensive system which Ukraine had perfected into a nearly impenetrable barrier. Russia understood this before anyone else and launched large scale assaults taking advantage of the climate vulnerability of drones, opening gaps around Kharkiv, Huliaipole and especially Pokrovsk. For the first time in months, Moscow is advancing not because it has decisively improved its military, but because nature has given it a window that it is exploiting. with brutal determination. The unexpected weakness. It turns out that FPV drones, so effective in summer, are extremely fragile in winter. Their lack of inertia makes them victims of the wind, which pushes them and makes their trajectory falter with each gust, humidity and ice fog the cameras, snow reduces contrasts, fog blurs the depth of the visual field and the lenses become covered with drops that distort the image at the most critical moment. The pilot, who needs perfect vision to hit with surgical precision, encounters a blurry screenwithout references, unable to distinguish trenches, obstacles or even the final objective. The slightest loss of clarity turns an attack in a crash against the terrain or in an erratic missile. The result is devastating for the Ukrainian defensive strategy: when the drones do not fly, the death zones they cease to existRussian columns can advance under dark clouds and motorcycles and pickup trucks carrying troops take advantage of the fog to infiltrate towns like Pokrovsk, where urban fighting is already fierce. A dangerous opportunity. The adverse weather has created for Russia an opportunity that it has not enjoyed since the beginning of the war. With Ukrainian drones forced to remain on the ground, Russian forces have managed to maneuver with greater freedom of movement, something that drone warfare had made nearly impossible for months. They have crossed rivers in fog, entered towns with light vehicles without being detected and pushed through Ukrainian lines while the defense was reorganized while waiting for the weather to improve. Moscow’s advance, although limited in territorial terms, is having an impact psychological and tactical significant: it exposes the fragility of the Ukrainian defensive model when it is left without its star tool and shows that Moscow has learned to detect weather patterns to time attacks precisely. The November Fog already allowed its troops to deepen positions in Pokrovsk, a critical point whose control has become a symbol both for the Kremlin (which seeks to show progress to Washington) and for Kyiv, which is struggling to resist on a front where pressure is constant. Innovation against the clock. But the climate does not act in a unidirectional way. Just as quickly as drones became inoperable, atmospheric improvements allowed Ukraine to recover part of their kill zones and launch counterattacks with your FPV. The brigades, such as the 28th Mechanized, have taken advantage of the clear weather to hit Russian units newly deployed in Kostiantynivka, trapping them in exposed positions. This dynamic confirms that Ukraine is not defeated: is forced to adapt faster. Its industry, extremely flexible since 2022, is already developing a new generation of drones with more wind-resistant fuselages, low-light cameras, simplified thermal systems and control algorithms capable of stabilizing flight in adverse conditions. The arrival of these drones, scheduled for the coming months, will be key to reverse the advantage temporary that Russia has obtained. If Ukraine manages to deploy a winter-hardy FPV force, the balance on the front could tip again. The other winter war. While the drones fight in the white sky ahead, winter hits the cities otherwise: with blackouts of up to 16 hours, failed heating, stopped elevators and parents who go to the shelter with their children in their arms between explosions. The BBC told cases like that of Oksana, in her apartment in kyiv, who lives with a 2,000 euro battery that only extends normality by a few hours. Her daughter plays by candlelight and her husband works in the dark when bombing cuts off supplies. Millions of Ukrainians are preparing for what the authorities describe how “the worst winter in our history.” Moscow has intensified its attacks against transmission networks, not only to leave the population without electricity and heat, but to close bakeries, paralyze factories, stop transportation and suffocate the economy until causing social discouragement. According to the Ukrainian government itself, the Russian objective is not only to defeat the country militarily, but to destroy its internal cohesion. human wear and tear. After almost four years of war, fatigue has become widespread. He insomnia affects three times as many Ukrainians as people in countries at peace, and the nights are marked by sirens, Shahed drones and waves of missiles that have reached record numbers. Moral fatigue is mixed with the physical: the front is far away, but the war is in every hallway, in every staircase, in every unlit light bulb. And yet, surprisingly, the surveys show a rebound in optimism: more than half of Ukrainians believe in a better future, even if it is a fragile, oscillating one that depends on the evolution of blocked negotiations, the arrival of foreign aid or the result of a Russian offensive that is still far from a decisive victory. Frozen diplomacy. Plus: international negotiations are going through their most uncertain moment. A possible Trump-Putin summit is on pause. The EU is still discussing how to use 180,000 million on frozen Russian assets, and kyiv sees with concern how Washington sends mixed signals and how some European governments could change with elections less … Read more

This year the Three Wise Men bring something very special to children: children’s cosmetics

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There’s barely a month left until Christmas and the first catalogs are already in hands of thousands of families. But this year, among dolls, constructions and car tracks, something unexpected has appeared: construction kits. skin care aimed at girls. unicorn masks, jade rollers “to play spa” and even “children’s” serums. On TikTok, creators like Mommy of three and Alottameg They accumulate thousands of views criticizing the fact that these products are promoted as toys. The alarm has gone off: what is facial care being part of the letter to the Three Wise Men? A global phenomenon that reaches children’s catalogs. What the Christmas brochures show is not an anecdote: it is part of an international trend. According to The New York Timesactress Shay Mitchell launched Rini, a brand of masks aimed at girls as young as 4 years old, whose promotional images caused massive rejection on networks and among dermatologists. And the data increases the tension. A Nielsen IQ study has pointed out that American households are spending more than $2.5 billion annually on beauty products for girls between 7 and 12 years old. In Spain, in addition to the boom on TikTok, stores already include children’s spa kits in their toy sections. More and more girls are asking for jade rollers, creams and creams on their Christmas lists. glowmasks peel off or antioxidant serums. dand the Sephora kids to the toy aisle. According to Yale Medicinemany children and preteens are “obsessed” with creating skin routines copied from TikTok and Instagram: scrubs, serums, masks, night creams… Even without having acne or any dermatological problem. Dermatologist Kathleen Suozzi explains that: “Our study shows that 20% of tweens and teens spend more than $50 a month on products they don’t need, sometimes layering five or more products.” The phenomenon has a name in digital culture: Sephora kids. The academic study of Rachel Wetstone and Jane Grant-Kels details that Girls between 8 and 12 years old show routines of between 6 and 12 products on social networks, many of them designed for adult skin. In these videos, exfoliating acids, retinoids, concentrated vitamin C and steps that imitate a 10-step adult routine are repeated. Beyond the skin risks, the authors warn of the ethical effects: premature aesthetic pressure, misinformation and economic exploitation of an extremely impressionable public. When skin care becomes a feminine role. In parallel, children’s advertising has been pushing girls towards the field of aesthetics for years. The Women’s Institute analyzed toy advertising in the Christmas campaign and found that: In 38.5% of advertisements aimed at girls, archetypes linked to beauty or the role of caregiver/mother/wife appear. The color pink dominates in almost a quarter of toys for girls, while boys appear linked to vehicles, action, professions such as pilot, police or military. 11% of advertisements sexualize girls, while no examples of sexualization of boys were detected. In that context, that sets of skin care As a toy “for girls” it is not an anomaly, but one more piece of a puzzle: that of a female childhood associated with aesthetics, beauty and body care from a very young age. As we already explained in Xatakathe Alpha generation (born after 2010) is growing up under an “early ritual” of aesthetic care, driven by algorithms that serve them videos of perfect skin, filters and routines, often before they have reached puberty. Dermatological risks. There is broad medical consensus here. According to KidsHealthmost children and teens only need three things: a mild soap, a fragrance-free moisturizer, and sunscreen. For their part, acne-prone adolescents can use versions oil-free of moisturizer and photoprotector, but always with medical advice. In addition, they emphasize that anti-aging products (anti-wrinkle, blemishes, firmness…) are not necessary and can cause just the opposite: acne, irritation, burns or eczema. However, between different sources The ingredients that most worry about trends in preteens are: Retinoids and retinol, which can cause severe irritation, peeling, and photosensitivity. AHA/BHA acids such as glycolic or salicylic acids, associated with redness and chemical burns in children’s skin. Fragrances, one of the main triggers of allergic dermatitis in children Drying alcohols, which damage the skin barrier Chemical sunscreens, more irritating than mineral ones Comedogenic oils such as coconut, cocoa or lanolin, which clog pores and can aggravate cosmetic acne. There is a psychological impact. From Yale Medicine describe how some children They begin to feel a real compulsion to maintain long routines, to the point of affecting sleep, social time, or even school performance. The Wetstone and Grant-Kels clinical study points to growing anxietyconstant comparisons, and teenagers who feel “insufficient” if they don’t replicate the routines they see on TikTok. For their part, the case of girls between 10 and 12 years old who speak openly of fear to “get old”, a meaningless concept at his age. And some come to think that “without products they are not worth enough”, a symptom of what several experts They are already beginning to identify it as infantile cosmeticorexia. It is not the first controversial toy. But the first with real assets. For example, children’s makeup cases have existed for decades: barely pigmented shadows, almost transparent lipsticks, peelable nail polishes. They were toys. However, the current difference is twofold: on the one hand, the products imitate real cosmetics, with active ingredients (although in low concentration) and claims typical for adults: illuminates, blurs pores, anti-aging, repairs barrier. On the other hand, they are not sold only as a game, but as a routine, as a habit of care and self-care. That is, as something that is not used from time to time, but every day. As The Guardian detailsdermatologists already treat 10-year-old girls who use vitamin C, retinol and exfoliants “because they saw it on TikTok.” This is not a mask with friends: it is the idea that they should “take care of themselves” to avoid non-existent wrinkles. Is this really a toy? Christmas catalogs raise an uncomfortable question: at what point did a face mask become a normalized children’s gift? It is not … Read more

The three -day work week will bring us

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Artificial intelligence advances so fast that its arrival at the labor market has caught many with changed foot And he is already assuming The basic tasks that before carrying out fellows and recent graduates that began Your professional career. Far from seeing it as a negative factor for the labor market, some executive directors such as Jensen Huang de Nvidia, Eric Yuan de Zoom, Jamie Dimon de Jpmorgan or Bill Gates, see the arrival of AI as a complement that It will trigger productivity of employees. According to them, the work week It will not cut four days: It will be enough with a three -day work week. Bill Gates and the three -day week. Bill Gates was one of the first important names in technology to be convinced that The productivity would improve and would make the weekly days of five days unnecessary, being able to reduce them three days of work. He did it in an interview in the podcast “What now?” of Trevor Noahwhere he said “If we finally reach a society where we only have to work three days a week or something, there will probably be no problem if the machines can produce all the food and the other products and we do not have to work so much”, and add Bill Gates, “in the short term, the increase in productivity that the AI ​​provides is very interesting. Eliminating part of the heaviest work.” AI is already a reality. For his part, Jensen Huang, at the head of Nvidia, held in a Interview with Fox Business that we are “at the beginning of the AI ​​revolution” and pointed out that a broad adoption of artificial intelligence would make the passage to four days. Huang gave as an example the transition of the seven -day work week of the Industrial Revolution to the current one, and pointed out as an evolution the passage to a reduction from working hours to less than five days. Even so, he warns that we could be “more busy in the future than now“ Jamie Dimon, executive director of JPMorgan Chase, Provides a similar vision For the financial sector, one of the most demanding As for your workday. As Dimon acknowledged in An interview for Bloomberg TV“Literally they will probably work 3 and a half days per week” in the next generation, thanks to technology. Zoom CEO also aspires to work less. The last senior executive in positioning the side of the weekly day reduction to three days has been Eric Yuan, the general director of Zoom, who in An interview for The New York Times He assured that “I feel that, if AI can make our lives better, why do we need to work five days a week?”, Adventoring that this trend will free time by unnecessary endless working days. The impact of AI and the displacement of employment. The data on the impact of AI on the workplace does not paint a near future as optimistic as technological and CEOS millionaires predicted. The report ‘The Future of Jobs 2025’ The World Economic Forum indicates that about 92 million jobs will be destroyed by trends such as automation and the use of AI. However, at the same timethe study estimates the creation of 170 million New jobs Related to the technological development of that automation and AI, which would leave a positive net balance of 78 million jobs. In that same plot line, some of the main gurus of the current AI moves, such as Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, that I assured that many entry posts – especially in office work – are among the most vulnerable to total automation in the next five years. For his part, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, warns that half of the jobs They will suffer deep changes “In less than one generation” and that reconfiguration will be so fast that many of the current works will be deeply transformed or substitutable In a few years. Less days or more productivity. That the labor market will suffer A deep transformation It seems clear. What does not seem to be so much is whether that Improvement in productivity which supposedly contributes AI will be used to improve living conditions of workers as was done in previous industrial revolutions. For example, software engineers, one of the sectors most affected by AI automation, the evolution has been towards the Depreciation of the value of your workdemanding more intense days and worse remuneratedinstead of getting a shorter work week. In Xataka | Microsoft gets serious with the use of github co -ilot: its employees used it little, but that is about to change Image | Nvidia, Flickr (World Bank Photo Collection), Zoom

The only way to confirm the signs of life on Mars is to bring the rock to the earth: there are three great volunteers

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NASA’s Rover Perseverance has given us one of the most exciting news of recent years. In an old river bed in the Jezero crater, he has found a rock that could contain, In the words of NASA directorone of the “clearest signs of life we ​​have seen on Mars.” Baptized as Cheyava Falls, the rock has dark deposits whose chemical, mineral and textural characteristics, on earth, are associated with microbial life. But scientists cannot be safe from here. Unless… Mars Sample Return. Perseverance did his job: in July of last year he identified a place of very high scientific interest, analyzed the rock with its instruments and, most importantly, pierced a core of the rock and kept it in a sealed sampling tube. This little treasure, along with 29 other sampling tubes, waits patiently on the Martian surface. The problem is that, however advanced the instruments of the rover are, they have their limits. To confirm if those possible “biofirmas” are the product of old microorganisms or geochemical processes without biological intervention, there is only one solution: bringing samples to the earth to analyze them in our laboratories. And this is where The plans collide with a hard reality. The plan to collect these samples, the ambitious Mars Sample Return mission, has been de facto canceled waiting for a cheaper and faster solution. Truncated due to lack of budget. NASA’s original plan to collect the 30 samples of the Perseverance Rover was to send a ship to the surface of Mars, that a small rocket would take off with the samples (delivered by Rover itself or by a drone) and that an orbiter (in this case, contributed by the European Space Agency) to bring them back home. The project ended up becoming a bottomless well. According to an external audit, the budget shot up to 11,000 million dollars with an estimated date for 2040. The situation reached such an extent that the US administration He proposed to cancel Mars Sample Return for his excessive budgetprioritizing other programs such as Artemis to return to the moon. NASA was forced to put the project in pause and look for faster and more cheap alternatives. A career to counterreloj. Time runs against NASA. Not only for the potential historical value of these samples, but because China plans to launch its own sampling mission in 2028. Tianwen-3 is a simpler mission, which would not bring selected rocks but from the ground where the probe landed, but that would return to Earth in 2031. It would be a Sorpasso symbolic in full rule, advancing the United States in a milestone that had at hand. Before the collapse of its official plan and the probable symbolic defeat, NASA did what has been best given in recent years: to look at the private sector. The agency Explore two paths simultaneously: one based on public technology already tested, such as the “Sky Crane” landing system of Curiosity and Perseverance, and another open to “new commercial capabilities.” Voluntary companies. They haven’t taken to appear. Lockheed Martin has put on the table a groundbreaking proposal: executing the mission For less than 3,000 million dollars and under a fixed price contract, which means that it would assume any extra cost. Your plan is based on reusing and adapting technology already tested in missions such as Insight and Osiris-Rexwith a simpler and more light architecture than the original Mars Sample Return. Another of the great candidates is Rocket Lab, a company that, despite its youth, also has experience on the red planet: its components travel aboard Perseverance and other missions. Your proposal is to send a probe to collect the samples and send them to the Martian orbit and a second probe to bring them to the earth, with a third probe called Telecommunications Orbiter for Mars (MTO) that not only would support the mission, but would serve as a basis for future manned missions, establishing a robust communications network between Mars and the land that Rocket Lab could exploit commercially for decades. And Spacex? NASA It does not rule out using starship as a vehicle to bring to the Martian surface all the necessary equipment. If Elon Musk fulfills its ambitious deadlines, Starship could offer an unprecedented load capacity to an unbeatable cost. The final decision on which path is expected for the second half of 2026. What is clear is that NASA is at a crossroads. The samples collected by Perseverance have the potential to confirm that on Mars there was extraterrestrial life. But to find the answer, you must first bring them home. And the solution may not be in a public program, but in companies that have offered to do the job for less than half. Image | Rocket Lab In Xataka | Perseverance has found what, according to NASA’s director, is “the clearest indication of life we ​​have seen on Mars”

The Spanish Galeon San José was sunk transporting 20,000 million dollars. Mexico and Colombia are going to bring that treasure to light

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The history of San José Galeon It is very particular. The ship left the shipyards of Guipúzcoa in 1706 to the sea of ​​the Caribem, and there it was loaded to the flag with gold, gems and jewels from Peruvian, Bolivian and Mexican mines. It was a Awesome boat With 40 meters of length, 64 cannons and a crew of 600 people, but was sunk after an attack of British privateers in 1708, leaving only 10 survivors and that juicy treasure in the depths of the sea off the coast of Cartagena. It is one of the More than 1,500 Spanish Spanish ships Through the world and Mexico and Colombia are collaborating to ‘rescue’ those treasures that have been in the back of the ocean for more than 300 years. It has a value My dear of 20,000 million dollars and is the protagonist of an authentic soap opera. A soap opera. The history of San José did not end when the ship touched background. In fact, I may only start. In 1981, the Search Armed Exploration Company claimed to have located the Spanish wreck and delivered the coordinates Not Spain, but Colombia. The treatment? Supposedly, access to half of the treasure. However, in 2015, the Colombian government said they found the remains in a place different from that indicated above. That enraged the company Cazatesoros, who claimed that it was a strategy so that Colombia did not have to share the treasure. Neither short nor lazy, former president Juan Manuel Santos proudly said it was one of the most important treasures in Colombiaand everything pointed out that Search Armada would not see a cent. Meanwhile, Spain was not with crossed arms and appealed to his sovereignty about Galeon. Investigating. In 2024, with the wreck even in dispute, the Commission for the Investigation and Accusation of the House of Representatives of Colombia opened an investigation against former president Santos. The reason? “Intrusion and looting” of the Spanish Galeon. “It’s not a treasure”. The current Colombian government has another point of view and, in May last year, declared as the protected archaeological area the pungent area. The Minister of Cultures of Colombia, Juan David Correa, said that it was “the first time that an archaeological heritage area submerged at such depth is declared, it is historical for Latin America. We already have a special plan of underwater archaeological management.” Protection. The objective, then, is to guarantee the protection and conservation of the Galeon, as Alhena Caicedo, director of the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History, and said history, and The doors were not closed to treat the wreck as shared heritage. The objective now is to see what the ship was transporting and catalog it. It seems that it is not a treasure rescue mission, such as Correa itself: “It is not an extraction mission for economic value. What we want is to leave Colombia the possibility of a scientific-cultural mission that will have several stages and that starts today.” Mosaic rebuilt from photogrammetry files Mexico + Colombia. And that is where the National Institute of Anthropology and History -INAH- of Mexico comes into play. In an initiative called “Towards the heart of the San José Galeon”, Colombian and Mexican researchers are collaborating to be able to carry out this ‘recovery’ process. Mexico has a great experience when making archaeological expeditions (with recent examples such as the entire Mayan train networkthe application of New techniques to explore the interior of pyramids and the Underground stay mapping). A underwater expedition is different, but there they also have something to say. Colombian researchers asked INAH members about their experience in the project of Our Lady of Juncala ship that shipwrecked in 1613 in the Gulf of Mexico and with which there are parallels in the case of the San José expedition. In addition, between Colombia and Mexico there are archaeologists support programs that are formed in a cross way in both countries, as if it were an Erasmus of archeology. Digitize everything. Therefore, Mexico is advising Colombia, but it is these who, using submarine robots, are exploring San José and its surroundings in a program consisting of four phases: First phase (it began in May 2024): an underwater research ship comes into play with dynamic and acoustic positioning technologies, as well as a remote operating vehicle with sensors that has the mission of reaching the site. Second phase: generation of images of the site with which to prepare a record of the archaeological evidence for the classification of materials and their origin. THIRD PHASE: prediagnosis of conservation to establish starting points on the level of deterioration of the elements. Fourth phase: Digital documenting the archaeological context through photogrammetry techniques for informative purposes. It seems that Colombia’s plans are clear and, according to the details of the different phases, it does not seem that the goal is to get everything they find out of the water, but to catalog it so that we can see the state of the ship and its shipment 300 years later (in addition to the wealth it carried when it was sunk). Next steps. These last weeks, however, There have been important findings. The ICANH confirmed new “areas of interest” on the site, with Chinese porcelain, ingots, weapons and currencies that allow us to know more about the context of the sunken galleon. In addition, both INAH and the Ministry of Culture of Colombia have set October 2025 and the date on which they will detail the next steps of the mission. The idea is to profile that strategy of ‘towards the heart of the Galeon’ in order to exhibit tangible results before the end of the current presidential mandate in 2026. And, surely, it will be then when the controversy between Spain, Colombia, the indigenous community Qhara Qhara that demands Rights on the Treasury and the company that claims to have discovered the wreck to a new level. Images INAH, Wikipedia, ICANH In Xataka | Sunk ships … Read more

Now they have decided to kill her and bring her closer to Netflix

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The face washing that Mediaset has given to its streaming platform, until now known as mitele, and what is called Mediaset Infinityit has been spectacular. A considerable reformulation in the visual, technical streaming With their same weapons. The new Mediaset Infinity. Announced at the end of May, this change equals the Mediaset Spain website with that of the Italian matrix of the group. Among the web sections are both live and letter emissions, with exclusive content derived from linear programs and even in the style of what Atresmedia does, original productions for this digital environment. Access to all contents becomes completely free, something that was limited in Mitele. There will also be a premium part, heiress of Mitele Plus in which there will be no advertising interruptions and there will be the possibility of starting a direct from its beginning and downloading content. A family air. It is inevitable to think of a clear inspiration for this redesign: Netflix and the rest of the platforms of streaming that have gone in their shadow (at least the netflix prior to last and much discussed redesign, openly thought to imitate the style of social networks as Tiktok). In Mediaset Infinity we have categories that follow each other horizontally and extend vertically, with visual and very recognizable icons, and organization for seasons and chapters within each program. The influence is even evident in the highlights of the Homeand it is not a bad idea: any spectator has already become accustomed to the use of these menus and organization almost intuitively. Technical improvement. The guts of this new Mitele incarnation have also improved, with an optimized search system, a better organized user area and, above all, an important leap in terms of speed and accessibility. A year and a half of joint work between Mediaset Spain and Mediaset Italy that has set in a remarkable jump for the platform: now the content search is much faster and, above all, moving through the platform is as effective as in any other streaming platform, without the need for unnecessary waiting for seeking programs or hidden chapters. The reorganization of the page works perfectly. Blur and new account. Since its creation in 2011, Mitele has experienced abundant problems, especially technical type: access difficulties that demanded to resalrate the application, Poor performance even with good connections, limited compatibility with Many devices (especially with certain Smart TV models), reproduction errors and availability … a series of problems that were the reflection of an app that had been outdated and that had not been able to evolve at the same rate as the connections and user devices. All the same. It is not an exclusive problem, yes, by Mitele: traditional television have always had problems adapting to Smart TV and consumption on demand. The motives have been varied, from technical and hardware limitations (by compatibility of new televisions with apps) to changes in the business model (to traditional chains, accustomed to a linear model, they have a hard time facing a model that requires flexibility, investment in technology and new forms of monetization, apart from negotiating new emission rights and adapting content), passing through a fierce competition of the streaming platforms, which they They have an advantage because they are native. Inherit users. What Infinity is going to be found are Mitele users: 3.7 million unique users in January, A growth of 16% With respect to the previous year, in addition to almost 2 million viewers on average a day on the platform. Undoubtedly, this growth has played in favor of encouraging Mediaset to make the leap towards the transformation into the new platform, no matter how and a half of development a relevant investment may have needed. A push for Telecinco. Thanks to the huge impulse that the latest edition of ‘The Island of Temptations’ is giving to all platform programsto ‘late’ seems to work Better without his alma mater since, on the other hand, the 1 does not seem to settle completely or in its disastrous afternoons nor in the Competition with ‘El Hormiguero‘, Tele5 has found a break. Vespertine bets such as ‘Jorge’s newspaper’ are consolidating themselves as some of the most value for Telecinco, which he needed from the output of ‘Save Me’ from his grill programs that provided him with solidity. This new platform is another step in a proposal of greater modernity for the group, as well as more ease of access to its programs. Something that undoubtedly their spectators will appreciate, knowing how the contents of both spaces are contaminated. Header | Mediaset In Xataka | The last edition of ‘The island of temptations’ has not only been a viral phenomenon: it has saved the month of Telecinco

Something weird is happening with the clouds of the planet. Something that will bring not very pleasant consequences

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Where are the clouds born? The answer to that question can become much more complex than it seems. Because yes, the clouds are formed in the sky, or in the atmosphere, but the layer of gases that surrounds our planet is vast and in it intermingle predictable factors with chaos. Complex and changing. Trying to answer this question, some scientists have encountered an additional problem: the place where the clouds are born It is changing. The area of ​​the earth’s surface in which these clusters arise has moved and has shrunk what has important implications in the climate and weather of the planet. They are the results of two studies published in recent years, The first In August 2024 in the magazine Climate Dynamicsand The second In May of this year in Geophysical Research Letters. Three cloud stripes. The first of the studies observed how the cloud areas located on the oceans of both hemispheres have moved and contracted throughout the last 35 years. The study focused on three zones: one, called Interopical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) located near Ecuador Earth; and the other two located in average latitudes, approximately between parallel and 60 north and south. Through observations of instruments such as the modis (Moderate Resolution Imptotroadiometer) On board the Aqua satellite, the team was able to map the areas of greatest cloudiness as well as their evolution over time. Interpreting the data. According to The US Space Agency explainsNASA, the tormentous clouds that run through our planet are usually forming in the vertices of large -scale atmospheric circulation areas, such as hagley cells, polar and hard -latter cells or average latitude cells. More specifically in the areas where the currents associated with these cells converge and make warm and humid air ascend. In contrast, the convergence areas where currents carry cold and dry air from upper layers of the atmosphere to lower altitudes correspond to the areas where the heavens tend to be more clear. Change in the trend. The study of the clouds gives us clues about the dynamics of these torments of the planet. The responsible team calculated for example that the area contracted between 1.5% and 3% per decade In recent years. As NASA details, the ITCZ ​​narrowed and the tormented areas in average latitudes moved to their respective poles at the same time that they also contracted. In contrast, the subtopics clear areas expanded. More than a matter of color. The most recent of the studies addresses the climatic implications of change in the cloud patterns of the planet. And it is that the climate our “blue marble” depends a lot on the clouds that overshadow the atmosphere and dye it occasionally in white since this layer of clouds depends on the amount of solar energy that reaches us due to the albedo. The clouds reflect the light and therefore the solar energy that reaches the surface of the Earth, so less clouds implies more energy and more heat. According to study estimates, change implies that oceans absorb 0.37 watts per square meter more per decade due to these changes. And climate change? We could fall into the error of assuming that this change explains the tendency towards global warming that we associate with anthropogenic climate change but the truth is that climatic models already incorporate these changes into them. In fact, a previous estimate made by the instruments of Ceres (Clouds and The Earth’s Radiant Energy System) estimated at 0.47 watts per square meter and for decade the increase in solar radiation that the planet receives as a whole. These changes contribute to the “energy imbalance” that implies heating, but they do not explain it for themselves. “These new findings suggest that the loss of oceanic tormented clouds is a key factor in the imbalance,” He explained George Tseliudis to NASAmember of the team responsible for the studies. According to the expert, these changes could also Help explain The anomalo oceanic warming seen a couple of years ago and that caused the North Atlantic to beat numerous temperature records. In Xataka | The clouds are each time a more scarce resource. And some countries are already “to war” for them Image | Michala Garrison, Modis Atmosphere Science Team / Tseliudis et al (2024), Dscovr Epic

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