build

build a second airport for the city

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Madrid is the only capital in Europe with a single airport. And, of course, it stays small. That, at least, is what the promoters of Air City Madrid Surthe project that has been trying to carry out a new airport for the city for almost a decade. After years without progress, ambitions have been lowered. But they have an ace up their sleeve: low-cost companies. What is happening? Air City Madrid Sur is a project that has been known for almost a decade. Its promoters want to convert the Casarrubios aerodrome, which currently mainly relies on private flights and aerial formations, into a commercial airport that offers an alternative to the current Madrid-Barajas. According to their accountsMadrid’s only airport serves almost 10 million people if we take into account the metropolitan area of ​​Madrid and the potential users who arrive attracted from nearby areas because either they do not have an airport nearby or those commercial routes are not offered. The intention is to offer this second airport as a relief space for commercial and freight aviation, taking advantage of a situation that they consider key: barely 30 kilometers from Madrid but with a clear exit to the southern area. Pulling Ryanair. The project to convert this aerodrome into an airport has once again hit the media this week because Eddie Wilson, CEO of Ryanair, dedicated a few words to it during the Madrid New Economy Forum. And Javier Ruedas, CEO of the company promoting the expansion, took advantage of the moment to ask Wilson about the project. He confirmed that he did not have much knowledge about it but that they were always in favor of competing with Aena to reduce airport taxes. And the latter is what the promoters of the project use to move it forward. Decrease to grow. When the project was first presented, the ambitions were very high. Specifically, they wanted to convert Casarrubios into an airport with the capacity to move ten million passengers. However, with this proposal blocked for years, Air City Madrid Sur has sought this alternative route. This path is explained from Five Days, It means getting smaller. Specifically, they want the now airfield to be able to move up to one million passengers a year. This may seem like a step backwards but it allows them to look for an alternative manager to Aena (airports with greater capacity must necessarily operate with the public company). What they would achieve with this is to attract low-cost airlines that want to operate in Madrid at a lower price. Hence, Wilson, although he acknowledged not having much knowledge on the subject, did support the initiative. The changes. Right now, the airport has 400,000 square meters of land right on the border between Madrid and Toledo. Of them, 30,000 square meters are occupied by hangars. The only runway now measures 1,000 meters. What is wanted with the project is to expand said runway to 1,800 meters and build a second runway of 3,200 meters that will allow larger flights to operate. Likewise, they want to build a terminal for commercial flight passengers and two other terminals for private flight users. What does it have going for it? What the development company defends is that traffic in Madrid-Barajas is constantly increasing and that by 2032 the maximum capacity of the airport will have been reached. The expansion expected at this airport “it will only last for one or two years,” they say in words collected by The Talavera Tribune. In addition, the now aerodrome has a very good exit to the A-5, a road on which traffic moves to the southwest of the Peninsula. This is excellent news for the transport of goods since you would not have to cross Madrid to take this route. But, in addition, the situation 30 kilometers from Madrid seems especially good for low-cost companies. It is common for these companies to operate in airports somewhat far from the city where they can offer cheaper flights. Not being managed by Aena, as is the case in Lleida or Andorra–La Seu d’Urgell, can be seen by some companies as a strength. What does it have against it? The connection with Madrid for commercial flights is really bad. There is no nearby train that connects to the city center quickly and that makes it much less attractive for tourism. In addition, Aena has repeatedly defended that Madrid does not need a second airport, so the ambitions to grow are more complicated considering that a large part of the project is based on the decisions to be made by the ministries involved. Of course, the Community of Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha have always been favorable to the project. Photo | Air City Madrid Sur and Artur Tumasjan In Xataka | Ryanair seemed to have condemned Santiago airport with its departure. Solution: flights to New York

Poland has 500 kilometers of train to build and 32 billion euros saved. And Spain wants to take over them

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Spain is a railway power. It is because we are the second country in the world in high-speed roads. But also because our companies are among the most sought after when it comes to carrying out a new project. We have examples of all kinds that point to all the processes necessary to start a train on the track. That is why Poland has trusted Spain for an investment that should completely change its infrastructure. 32.2 billion euros. This is what Poland will invest to move forward Port Polskathe project that wants to completely change the image of the country to turn it into a key axis in central European mobility. With the intention of completely renewing the way its citizens move, Poland has launched a series of investments that include road improvements but, above all, an intermodal center a few kilometers from Warsaw. This space will house a new airport for travelers that also wants to offer itself as a strategic place for the transport of goods and serve the military forces of the European Union and NATO. But, above all, it will be the nerve center of a new high-speed train network. Polish trains. The project includes building 480 kilometers of high-speed roads that will connect four of the five most populated cities in the country. From Port Polska you can travel to Warsaw, obviously, but also to Lodz, Poznań and Wroclaw (Wrocław). The network will have the capacity for trains to reach 350 km/h but they will move at a maximum of 320 km/h. In this way, an infrastructure is developed that is considered key to the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T)the same one that is committed to the development of Madrid-Lisbon high speed. The first section, between Warsaw and Łódź, is expected to be operational in 2032 and the line to be fully operational in 2035. And Spain? One of the countries most involved with the project is ours. In fact, Óscar Puente (Minister of Transport) met a few days ago with Dariusz Klimczak (Minister of Infrastructure) in relation to the investments that Spanish companies have there. This meeting has been accompanied by a second one in which Adif, Renfe, Acciona, Aldesa, CAF, Elecnor, Idom, Indra, Lantania and Talgo have met. And all of them are seeking entry into this 32.2 billion euro project, either in terms of the construction of the necessary infrastructure, its management or the contribution of the trains that must pass through the tracks. Among the latest major advances, Adif renewed its agreements underwriting the company’s work in “the design, construction and maintenance of railway infrastructure, the transfer of knowledge and skills, as well as the development of “local content”, in order that the greatest possible part of the technical knowledge and the benefits of the investments made remain in Poland”, They explained from the Polish embassy. Waiting for news. At the moment, ACS, Acciona and Ferrovial each lead one of the six consortia that aspire to take the first batch of investments to build the Polish high-speed train, they explain in Expansion. In addition, Ayesa will supervise the 17-kilometer stretch from Lodz to Wrocław. Ineco and Adif collaborate, as we said, in the design of the high speed and Idom is immersed in the airport’s ICT services. They are not the only ones. In addition to the development of this new high-speed rail infrastructure, Renfe also operates in Poland. And with the help of Leo Express, the Czech company of which Renfe has been the majority shareholder since 2021, the Spanish company offers its services between Warsaw and Krakow. Besides, In February they announced that they were increasing cross-border services and that they would put more trains on the route between Prague and Krakow given the good results. Photo | Port Polska In Xataka | César Franco, engineer: “If we spend hundreds of millions to circulate three AVEs a day, we are making a mistake”

remove 300,000 m3 of earth and build a tunnel under the M-40

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Line 10 of the Madrid Metro is one of the most important lines in the entire network. According to data from 2024the last available, in this line there were almost 84 million users. Only Lines 1 and 6 surpassed the fastest connection between the southern part of the city and the north or its financial area. Although aesthetically it seems one of the most modern lines of the capital, the truth is that its origin dates back to the 60s when it was even managed by a private company called Carabanchel Suburban Railway. At that time, the route was a mix of what is known today as Line 5 and 10. In the 80s, however, the Metro network absorbed the company and it was then that part of the route was renamed with the current numbering, when the connection between Plaza de España (where the original line ended) and Alonso Martínez (then last stop on line 10) was confirmed. The next 20 years were a revolution for transport in the south of Madrid. First with the connection with line 6 in Príncipe Pío, recovering the old North Station to turn it into one of the great nerve centers of the south. And, later, with the arrival of MetroSur and the connection with line 10. And in the 90s, the section between Casa de Campo and Aluche began to connect with line 5. As a result, Colonia Jardín became the head of the renovated line 10 awaiting its connection with the south. went to early 2000s when Line 12 was completely open. A circular route that crosses Alcorcón, Móstoles, Fuenlabrada, Getafe and Leganés and that connects in the first of them with Line 10. Since then it has remained one of the major daily mobility flows within the city. An increase in passenger capacity that forces the Metro to look for solutions. And he found them removing 300,000 cubic meters of earth. One of the great challenges of the Madrid Metro With the projection of converting line 10 into one of the great axes of Madrid’s mobility, the Metro had to face such important projects as building the tracks and raising auxiliary facilities. Of these, the Cuatro Vientos garages stand out, a project that was carried out in 2002. For manage train flow and renewal of the same (in those years the current 7000 and 8000 were used), Metro de Madrid planned a maintenance and storage space for its trains. The problem is that these depots had to be close enough to the head of the line (Puerta del Sur, already in Alcorcón) but at the same time they had to be built in an extremely complicated space. And between Cuatro Vientos and Alcorcón, the M-40 (the largest ring road in the city), the A-5 highway (the exit to the southwest of the country) and the Cuatro Vientos highway, usually used by the armed forces, were planned. Entrance to the Metro garages in Cuatro Vientos Railway beach in Cuatro Vientos This complicated management of technical elements was solved by designing surface garages that, however, go underground as soon as they pass the track yard. The tunnels, They explain on the Metro page itselfwere built using the system cut and cover. That is, a false tunnel is dug and then covered to recreate it. A useful solution when working very close to the surface. The initial intention, they point out, was to build the tunnel in the mine. That is, digging a tunnel in the traditional way. However, the little space left between the M-40 (where more than 120,000 cars pass through daily) and the train tracks changed plans, finally opting to use the previous technique. And the thing is that between the road and the train tracks there was barely a width of four meters in some points. That is to say, between the passage of the trains and that of the cars there was barely more than a floor of difference. The result allowed the connection between line 10, which runs under the connection of the M-40 and the A-5and the new subway garages, for which they had to be removed 300,000 cubic meters of sand. It is a huge space of 395,441 square meters to house up to 30 trains of those that pass daily on line 10. In that space alone there are more than five kilometers of tracks. Of those almost 400,000 m2, the most important part corresponds to the garages but there is also a second auxiliary building that includes a simulation room so that future drivers can do their first tests. Photos | Madrid Metro In Xataka | 400 cameras and an ambitious goal: the first metro driven 100% autonomously in the Community of Madrid

The argument of job creation has been the great asset to build data centers. It would be nice if it were true

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data centers they consume a lot of electricitymaking raise the electricity bill, they pollute the air and sometimes water too. There are more and more arguments against them, while the arguments in favor for those who live near one of these mastodons are basically reduced to one: they generate many jobs. Sure? What is happening. The United States concentrates a third of all data centers in the world. They count in Futurism that there are states competing to attract big technology companies, offering resources and tax exemptions in exchange for them generating jobs and helping to develop their communities. However, it is increasingly clear that the creation of stable and lasting employment is an unfulfilled promise. Billions for a handful of jobs. In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, there are two projects underway for two data centers from QTS and Google respectively. As reflected in the Cedar Rapids Economic Development Centerto encourage the construction of these infrastructures, the city has offered them a 70% exemption from property taxes for 20 years, in addition to returning 75% of electricity rates (a municipal surcharge that is applied to the bill). Google and QTS are going to spend 1.3 billion on their data centers, but it is estimated that they will save more than 580 million on taxes and municipal fees. And you will say how many jobs are they going to create? Under the contract, they are only required to create 61 permanent jobs. Why is it important. Data centers have become the engine of the American economy, but one thing is the wild investment of big tech to build them and the impact on local employment is quite another. They are enormous infrastructures, which cost a lot of money, but once launched they operate practically on autopilot. The tasks that really need human intervention are very few compared to their magnitude. In Aragon too. This situation is not exclusive to the United States, the same thing is also happening in Aragon. We recently learned the employment figures that Amazon will generate in Villanueva del Gállegowhere they are building six data centers. The company had spoken of up to 29,900 full-time positions linked to the project, but they were counting indirect and induced employment, such as suppliers and associated services. The reality is that between six data centers, they are going to hire only 180 permanent people who will work in shifts so that they can operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Once again, the narrative of mass employment is leaking everywhere. Employment yes, but temporary. To build data centers of that magnitude, many companies from different sectors must move, which indirectly does generate a lot of employment. In the case of Cedar Rapids, the city boasts that the projects will create “thousands of construction and trades jobs,” the problem is what will happen to all of them when the data center comes online. According to a recent report by Turner & Townsend echoed in Futurism, the urgency to build new data centers has caused prices to rise in other projects such as housing construction, in addition to monopolizing specialized labor in construction areas. Image | Xataka with Magnific In Xataka | While most oppose AI data centers, there is one group enthusiastic about them: merchandise thieves

We believed that laboratories and millions were needed to build a GPU. A maker is setting one up at home

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For years we have assumed that build a GPU It was a field reserved for companies with advanced factories, engineering teams and million-dollar budgets. It wasn’t an absurd idea: just look at the complexity of any modern graphics card to understand why it seemed out of reach for a person. But what he has done Matthias Balwierzknown as Bitluni, forces us to qualify that certainty. It has not replicated a GeForce nor does it intend to compete with NVIDIA, but it does is building from home a graphics machine with thousands of RISC-V microcontrollers. The first phase brings together 8,192 of those microcontrollers, each linked directly to an RGB LED. This decision makes the montage difficult to fit into the usual categories: the design brings together in the same structure the graphic processing and the surface on which the result must appear. In technical terms, it is designed to act as both a graphics card and a screen, without depending on a separate monitor. Of course, the project remains a partial prototype, still far from the scale and capabilities planned for the complete system. A GPU made pixel by pixel That architecture was not defined from the beginning. The maker began thinking about building some type of screen, but when studying the cost and difficulty of the project he ruled out resorting to components Addressable RGBwhich would have made the whole set too expensive. The alternative was more direct: solder an LED to each microcontroller and turn each chip into a visible graphics unit on its own. The decision contained part of the budget, although it multiplied the design, assembly and programming work necessary to coordinate thousands of elements. The scale becomes clearer when we look at the complete objective. A resolution of 1920×1080 would have required more than two million microcontrollers, shooting the cost and complexity far beyond what Bitluni had set itself. The maker then lowered the ambition to 320×200 pixels, a resolution associated with video games of the DOS era, but which still requires 64,000 chips. The components installed so far represent just a first stage of a machine that would multiply its size almost eightfold if it is completed. To organize such a large amount of hardware, Bitluni divided the system into 16×32 “pixel” boards, conceived as independent modules within the set. These are distributed in a circular arrangement that reminds of Cray-1the historic supercomputer of the seventies, although the reference is mainly visual. Internal coordination is also hierarchical: each group of 32 microcontrollers is under the control of a more powerful CH32V unit, in charge of organizing the operation of that section and serving as an intermediate level within the machine. The choice of the QingKe CH570 explains part of the economic logic of the project. It is a microcontroller with a 32-bit RISC-V CPU, a limited instruction set and a frequency of up to 100 MHz. It also integrates a USB controller, a 2.4 GHz transceiver and support for Bluetooth 5.0 LE. Bitluni was able to buy each unit for about $0.13, but the advantage is diluted when multiplied by the entire planned matrix: only the chips necessary to reach 320×200 pixels would exceed $8,000. The problem grows when projecting the power supply of the complete system. It speaks of an estimate of 2,161 W, equivalent to about 655 amps at 3.3Vfor the final planned configuration. The media points out that each microcontroller consumes around 10 mA, although it does not offer a breakdown that allows us to separate the expense of the chips, LEDs and auxiliary electronics. To support such a load, Bitluni has turned to a source Corsair WS3000 and own converters capable of transforming the 12 V output into the required 3.3 V. A big part of the project is also making the infrastructure that allows everything else to work. Bitluni designed the PCBs, power circuits, interface boards and breadboards, tackling a six-layer board for the first time. The complexity of the design ended up pushing him to the limits of the manufacturing service he used. In parallel, he studied an immersion cooling solution and came to the size of the acrylic container he would have needed, although he left that option on hold for economic and environmental reasons. Programming posed another problem of scale: it was not enough to manufacture the boards, the code also had to be loaded into each microcontroller. To avoid doing it by hand, Bitluni 3D printed a small tool with three contacts and attached it to the carriage. a 3D printer. A Python script sent G-code commands to move it to the exact position of each chip and complete the process in a repeatable manner. The printer thus stopped manufacturing parts to become an automated programming machine. This machine does not compete in performance, efficiency or size with a modern graphics card, nor has it yet reached the scale that Bitluni projected. Its value lies in exposing, through separate components, tasks that a commercial solution concentrates or distributes among specialized chips and circuits: calculation, control, power, coordination and visualization. By rebuilding them with low-cost microcontrollers, the maker has turned an unusual idea into a system that can be designed, tested and expanded in stages. It is not a conventional home GPU, but an engineering experiment taken to unusual limits. Images | Bitluni In Xataka | Huawei’s He Tingbo: “This is the first time China has proposed a new principle for the chip industry.” Not everyone is convinced

Two 5,000-year-old tombs in Jabal al-Tayr reveal how Egypt learned to build the great pyramids

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The pyramids of Ancient Egypt remain a mystery thousands of years later: we are not even sure how they were made (there are theories that point to ramps and master logistics to hydraulic systems) nor how they reached such a level of knowledge and skill working with stone. Because between a pantheon carved in rock and a colossal pyramid like that of Giza there is a whole world of evolution. Well, at the site of Jabal al-Tayr (Minya) a team of archeology professionals has just found that middle ground. The discovery. The Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt has found a funerary complex that brings together two tombs from the Early Dynastic Period and burials from the Predynastic and the Late Period. The first tomb has a particular geometry: the thickness of its walls becomes thinner as it ascends. The second Mohamed Abdel Badie, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector, account for Daily News Egypt that this solution could be the engineering antechamber that made the stepped pyramid and smooth-sided pyramids possible. In short, it may be a clue to how the Egyptians began to understand how to support large masses of stone. Why is it important. Because having burials from different periods in the same space makes it easier to analyze the evolution of funerary architecture in the centuries prior to the construction of the great pyramids. These preliminary studies indicate striking similarities between the design of these newly discovered tombs and the famous tomb of King Den at Abydos. According to El-Leithy, this resemblance reinforces the archaeological importance of Jabal Al-Tayr as a necropolis, both architecturally and for the Egyptian civilization itself: it was used continuously from the Predynastic Period to the Late Period. Context. The evolution of Egyptian funerary architecture began with the mastabas of the first dynasties: a rectangular structure with a flat roof, built of adobe or stone, with a vertical well that went down to the burial chamber. From the mastabas they went to the stepped pyramids. In fact, Djoser’s tomb at Saqqara It started as a mastaba and expanded until it became a step pyramid, the first large stone structure in Egypt. The tombs of Jabal al-Tayr belong to the Early Dynastic Period, that is, to the time before Djoser, when the constructive solution that would make the pyramid possible was still being sought. In detail. Mohamed Abdel Badie explains They probably used the first tomb to extract the stone for reuse, but the preserved sections still contain important details about how it was built at the time, such as cut marks and remains of large pieces of wood that reinforced the walls. The second tomb has almost the same shape but is much better preserved because it was not looted. At the site they also found older burials where there were bodies in a fetal position wrapped in plant fiber mats and accompanied by ceramics from the Naqada II and Naqada III periods, prior to the formation of the Egyptian state. Yes, but. This finding does not clearly demonstrate that the tombs are direct ancestors of the pyramids; at the moment it is a hypothesis based on the design and its resemblance to the tomb of Pharaoh Den in Abydos. The archeology team has yet to determine the exact date of the tombs, who lies there and what relationship they have to the known sites of Abydos and Saqqara. In Xataka | If the question is how the Egyptian pyramids were made, science has an idea: hydraulic systems In Xataka | China’s first pipeline network is 4,000 years old and something revolutionary: it was built without the need for kings or nobles Cover | Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and Alex Azabache

Some millionaires wanted to build a city in the middle of a desert that did not convince anyone. They have had another idea: a shipyard

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Residents of Solano County, northwest of the San Francisco Bay Area, realized that someone had been secretly shopping a large amount of farmland. In fact, even the army He asked who had been purchasing all the land around one of his military bases located in that county. After much investigation, it was learned that behind these purchases there was a group of Silicon Valley billionaires with a plan as utopian as it is controversial: build an entire city from scratch, in the middle of dry fields. A secret land purchase. It all started in 2018, when a company called Flannery Associates was acquiringlittle by little, agricultural plots throughout the county. The owners received figures well above the market value, but no one knew who was behind the purchase. The county itself detected that a single company was purchasing large amounts of land and asked for an explanation. It wasn’t until 2023 when it came to light that Flannery was actually the real estate arm of California Foreverand that investors had been secretly buying land in Solano since 2018, until finally announcing their true purpose: to build there a new city. By then they already had some 24,281 hectares and between 800 and 900 million dollars invested. Who puts the money. The name that shows the face is Jan Srameka former Goldman Sachs trader of Czech origin. But behind the project there are Silicon Valley investors like Steve Jobs’ widow, Laurene Powell JobsLinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, as well as Michael Moritz, former partner at Sequoia Capital. His initial idea was to build a walkable city in the style of New York’s West Village, designed to attract high-net-worth employees driven by housing shortage in Silicon Valley. The plan stood on paper, but I needed something to only county voters of Solano could grant: change the law Solano County’s “Orderly Growth Initiative” of 1984, known as Measure A, which protects agricultural soil. Without that permission from the citizens there was no city possible. Water, the great obstacle. That’s where the problems started. Solano It is not an area with water leftover, and the neighbors immediately saw the risk of shortage to build a new city and increase consumption. Congressman John Garamendi, one of the most critical voices of the project, assured that “From the beginning, I have maintained that the proposed project was just a pipe dream, not a real plan. Accelerating the process without a comprehensive environmental and community review would have been disastrous for the current residents of Solano County”, criticizing that the project did not take into account that it was a site without water, without sanitation and without roads. The company tried to promote a campaign to win the vote of the citizens in 2024, which became one of the most expensive in the history of the county, and even then it was not enough. The vote was withdrawn and the project was, for the moment, frozen. The turn towards the shipyard. After that blow to the continuity of the project, California Forever changed its arguments. Instead of first selling a city in the middle of nowhere, he now sells a plan of industrialization with connections to the military: a shipyard in which to build ships equipped with the latest technology in naval defense, and close to the Travis military base. The new plan pivots on two axes. On the one hand, the Solano Foundryan industrial park of about 850 hectares located just over an hour from San Francisco that aims to become the factory for robotics projects and materialize all the R&D of Silicon Valley. On the other hand, the Solano Shipyarda complex of about 3,035 hectares designed to house several shipyards dedicated to military and civil naval construction. The idea with this turn is clearly to first attract the industrial fabric and employment, and then cover the housing needs of its workers by building the city that had been projected from the beginning. Unions, Trump and what remains to be decided. To win over Solano this time, California Forever has played another card: unions. The company signed with the construction union council and the carpenters union a labor agreement for the next 40 years on the 28,328 hectares of land it owns, in which it undertakes to hire your affiliates in the construction of that city. The speech is also supported by national politics and from California Forever they defend that building shipyards on the west coast is necessary to stand up to Chinaand has sought to fit the project into the SHIPS Actthe law that Trump has promoted to reindustrialize the US naval industry. A report Commissioned by the Bay Area Council, it estimates some $215 billion in private investment and the generation of 530,000 jobs in this industrialization plan for the area. However, the shipyard remains without a permit from the county, and the chosen land is next to the Suisun Marsh protected areaone of the largest brackish water wetlands on the West Coast. Water, again, will decide if this project remains a promise or becomes something real. In Xataka | The other war between the US and China is in the shipyards Image | Unsplash (Daniel J. Schwarz, Charlie Huston)

2,000 years ago they wanted to build a temple to the goddess Minerva in Cuenca. They ended up doing it in the most unlikely place

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In a quarry one expects to basically find workers, machinery and stacked blocks. It is like this today and it was probably like this (with obvious differences) in times of the Roman Empire, when the stonemasons of Hispania dug in the mountains and caves of the peninsula in search of deposits. In a quarry exploited between the 1st and 4th centuries AD in Cuenca, archaeologists have however found Anything else: a temple of 2,000 years dedicated to Minerva. From a simple quarry to a temple. What has happened? that archaeologists have found a fascinating find in Carrascosa del Campo, in the municipality of Campos del Paraíso (Cuenca): a temple dedicated to the goddess Minerva. The discovery is interesting because of the value of the carving itself, but what makes it really special is its context. The aedicula It was not erected in the center of a city, the courtyard of a wealthy villa or on the walls of a sanctuary. The votive piece was carved into the rock of a quarry. Its creators carved it in front of the site, a place where it was surely easier to meet stonemasons than priests. What is the sanctuary like? The temple is located in a place known as Peña de la Saceda and experts estimate that it was carved between mid-2nd century and early 3rd century AD The complex is made up of pilasters, capitals, a triangular pediment and a carved entablature, which imitates a small sanctuary. Although the representation of the goddess Minerva has been greatly deteriorated over the centuries, experts have identified her traditional attributes (helmet, spear and peplum) and an owl, an icon used as a symbol of the goddess. Do we know anything else? “There is barely a glimpse of the goddess Minerva. What can be clearly seen is an owl, which is the totemic bird that represents Minera,” explains in the SER Juan Carlos Guisado di Monti, one of the archaeologists who signed the article from the magazine Mantva in which the discovery was revealed. The relief is accompanied by a brief inscription at the bottom of the aedicula, in which can be read: “Minervae dominae Ploti vs cun svo comitato”, that is to say: “To Minerva Domina, (dedicated) Plotius Vigor with his retinue.” And where did they find it? That’s the key. The temple, 0.7 m wide by 0.5 m high, was conceived as “a small facade carved directly into one of the stone fronts of the quarry.” Its authors carved the complex out of sandstone rock, and they did so in the quarry itself, not in a remote space. This is not a minor detail, since it tells us about a connection between the profane and the sacred, how a quarry, an a priori functional space focused on work, could also acquire a sacred meaning with a sanctuary dedicated to the goddess of wisdom, arts, strategy and craftsmanship. Is it something unique? “There are other temples dedicated to gods in other quarries, but in Spain until now none dedicated to Minerva had been discovered. This is the most important and surprising discovery, because it suggests that the quarry workers made their ‘votes’ to the goddess, for the work they were doing,” details in elDiario Dionisio Urbina, who has directed the excavations at the Roman site for more than a decade. Equally relevant is the brief inscription located at the bottom of the temple and which includes the formula “cum suo comitato”which suggests to archaeologists that the offering was not individual, but rather came from a group. What were the quarries? The temple was located just 15 km from Segóbrigaan important deposit that includes a theater inaugurated in the time of Emperor Vespasian, in the 1st century AD. As the authors of the study recall, the area was also known for the mines of lapis specularisa selenite gypsum stone highly appreciated in Rome for the manufacture of windows and whose exploitation generated wealth in the region. Now the temple discovered in Carrascosa del Campo reveals something else to us: the veneration of Minerva. “The rock sanctuary of Minerva constitutes a find of special value. The old quarry, transformed into a place of devotion, shows how the Roman religion was not only expressed in the large urban or peri-urban sanctuaries, but also in rural and productive enclaves where the community, the workers or their promoters sought protection and left both their veneration of the goddess and the memory of their vow inscribed in the rock,” they conclude the researchers. The discovery, yes, has come accompanied by some controversy. After the news circulated in recent days in general media, the director of the Cerro de la Muela excavation recalled that the work is still “in progress” and regretted what he considers an “unauthorized dissemination” of the results. Images | Government of Castilla-La Mancha and Wikipedia In Xataka | In 1778 Mozart attempted to teach composition to a French noblewoman. It didn’t go well at all, but thanks to her we now have unpublished works

build the tallest statue of Jesus in the world

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If by chance you travel to Zovunia village in Kotayk, Armenia, you are likely to get one of those surprises that make you wonder if you are really in the middle of a dream. On the outskirts of the town, behind a metal fence, stands a huge figure of Christ of furious white. Although to be more precise, it is correct to say that what stands is only the trunk of the statue. Its other two sections are distributed throughout the same neighborhood, like pieces on a board. The picture is so strange that the aerial photos of the area seem generated by AI. However, it is about something else: the dream of an Armenian megalomaniac determined to raise the statue of Jesus Christ largest on the planet. One name: Gagik Tsarukyan. There are many ways to pass on to posterity. The Armenian Gagik Tsarukyan (69 years old) has it guaranteed by his status as a former athlete (he was world arm wrestling champion in the 90s), wealthy businessman and politician. However, he has decided that he wants to be remembered for another achievement: having erected the largest statue of Jesus in Armenia… and on the planet. What Tsarukyan has in mind is neither more nor less than erecting a huge sculpture of Jesus of 77.5 meters on top of Mount Hatis, in Kotayk. If the pedestal is added, the monument will total around 101 meters high. A new icon. Beyond its dimensions, the project draws attention for its symbolism and pretensions. Tsarukyan not only wants to erect a statue of Christ that surpasses the famous one in height ‘Christ the Redeemer’ from Rio de Janeiro (38 m) or the ‘Christ the King’ of Poland, which in 2010 was awarded the title of “tallest statue of Jesus Christ” by Guinness World Records. The Armenian magnate has proposed erecting his sculpture in a special place: in Hatis, on top of a 2,500 m mountain overlooking Yerevan and protected for its biodiversity and heritage. More than just an idea. The interesting thing about the project is that it is not just a more or less ambitious idea captured on paper or a handful of renders. As anyone who visits Zovuni can see, the sculpture is already well underway. Its authors have made of aluminum and divided into three sections to facilitate its assembly on the enormous pedestal that will rise in Hatis. Does a few months Reporters from Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty (RFE) visited the area and saw how the work on the base was progressing on the mountain while the three sections of the metal statue, already completed and awaiting assembly, appear behind the fence of a Zovuni workshop. The image is so surreal that it attracts curious people and some local guides have included it in their itinerary for tourists. How will those segments be moved to the top of Hatis? Some sources speak of a helicopter. Others point out that the final solution will be more orthodox and the pieces will be loaded in a truck. The oligarch Gagik Tsarukyan. With controversy included. That the work is advanced is explained by a very simple reason: the project is not exactly new. Tsarukyan announced it in 2022 and, at least initially, it seemed to convince the authorities, who saw in it a private initiative that could attract visitors to the country. In the summer of that same year (2022) the tycoon celebrated a ceremony of laying the first stone in Hatis, an event attended by the Minister of Economy. Shortly after, the project was marred, however, by the “irreversible damage” which, supposedly, caused to an ancient fortress in the area. Goal: 2027. That episode brought cold water to Tsarukyan’s plans, as he saw his project paralyzed for months. To save it, the magnate agreed to relocate the pedestal and move it several hundred meters. Thanks to this change, he once again received the green light from the Armenian authorities and continued with the foundation of the base, which was reactivated in September 2025. Photos taken on site by RFE/RL in March confirm that work is progressing with the goal of the monument being completed as early as 2027. The three sections of the statue wait while outdoors, in Zovuni. @armenianexplorer Armenian businessman Gagik Tsarukyan has funded the construction of what will be the world’s tallest statue of Jesus, standing at 33 meters on a 44-meter pedestal. This impressive structure will be installed atop Mount Hatis, at an elevation of 2,528 meters. The statue is already completed, with the architectural design crafted by Armen Samvelyan. ——— #Armenia #ArmenianExplorer #JesusStatue ♬ original sound – Armenian Explorer “He does not consider it acceptable”. Tsarukyan’s project does not quite convince the environmentalists and the Monument Watch organization has raised his voice also to warn of “the destruction” of Mount Hatis that “is carried out with the approval and permission of the Armenian authorities.” There is another institution that also has shown his suspicionalthough for different reasons: the Church. Although supporters of the mega sculpture hope it will attract visitors to Armenia and activate religious tourism, the Armenian Apostolic Church warns that the monument does not quite fit with the religious and architectural heritage of the country. In fact, he made his position very clear in a statement launched shortly after the project was presented, in 2022: “The Church does not consider it acceptable.” This is not a simple aesthetic objection. Armenian tradition reject the statues of Jesus Christ because they are considered idols. His faith is expressed above all through other figures: the Khachkarcarved stone crosses. RFERL remember that the few statues of Christ in the country have ended up vandalized. Matter what… and who. The truth is that Tsarukyan is just as (or even more) striking than his project. Armwrestling champion, boxing fan and rich man, Tsarukyan has also tried his luck in politics. without much luck. In the last elections his party, Prosperous Armenia, nationalist and pro-Russian, did not obtain … Read more

Mistral CEO warns Europe that time is running out to build its own AI infrastructure

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When the United States Claude Mythos blocks people from outside the USsends a clear message: it is a cutting-edge export technology subject to control, like chips are. And in that scenario, Europe is practically an observer: the old continent is a pioneer in legislating AIbut its infrastructure, business ecosystem around it, and LLM models are behind what the United States or China have. Simply put, Europe depends on third parties for the best AI. But that can change. A little less than a month ago, Arthur Mensch appeared in May 2026 before the French National Assembly with another very clear message: if Europe wants to stop being an observer and descend into the mud, it has to do it now. Time is running against them. The deadline given by the co-founder and CEO of the main European artificial intelligence company is short: two years. The warning from the CEO of Mistral AI. In his exhibition, Arthur Mensch gave a warning macroeconomic with concrete figures: Europe has approximately two years to build its own AI infrastructure, or it will be structurally subordinated to American technology companies. If it does not arrive in time, Europe will become “a vassal state.” The future if we don’t achieve this is dark: “Once the supply is monopolized by American companies, we will suddenly run out of supply and will no longer be able to transform electrons into tokens.” His argument is technical but with a political background: whoever controls the calculation controls the economy. AI is not just another digital service: it is the infrastructure on which everything else will work. Like electricity or roads, but privatized and in foreign hands. Why is it important. Because under this approach, being dependent on third-party AI is not only a mere technical issue, which is no small thing considering its use in critical sectors such as defense or banking, it is also a serious problem of productive sovereignty and balance of payments. The CEO of Mistral refers to AI as a strategic asset, in the same way that gas is. Europe had a hard time understanding the cost of its energy dependence on Russia and Mensch’s argument is that the old continent is making the same mistake. In statements to CNBCdelved into the impact on the macroeconomy: “You cannot afford a trade deficit of one trillion if you really want to remain competitive in the race” because every euro that Europe pays to US companies for AI services is financing the competitor’s R&D. And that money is not coming back. Furthermore, we have already seen that using AI will be increasingly expensive, so much so that There are companies like Uber or Microsoft cutting licenses. Imagine if what depends on AI is your safety. Context. The game board shows that Europe does not exactly start with a good hand: according to data from Epoch AI, collected both by the US Federal Reserve as by RAND Europethe United States controls 74% of global high-level computing for AI, China 14% and the EU just 4.8%. He Draghi report of September 2024 has already identified that much of the blame for Europe’s productivity gap with respect to the US lies in the technology sector, or rather, the absence of it. One year later, Draghi himself was pessimistic: barely had been fulfilled 11.2% of almost 400 recommendations. In detail. Europe has already started with the plan action plan called “AI Continent” which is committed to tripling the capacity of data centers and deploying up to five gigafactories, but the question is whether it will be enough and if it will arrive on time. Without going any further, the 500,000 chips in these gigafactories planned are very far from what there is in the US: by the end of 2025, OpenAI I had already planned exceed one million chips. Mensch did not stop at warnings, but made concrete proposals. The first of them: use public procurement as a lever. Given that 50% of European GDP is generated through public spending, it is clear that it is a magnificent instrument to catalyze this development. On the other hand, Mistral is exploring the development of its own chips and has already announced a new data center in France. Yes, but. The main argument against Mensch’s words is obvious: he is one of the major stakeholders in the policies he proposes. Mistral has 1,000 employees, a valuation of 12 billion euros, a target of 1 billion euros in revenue by the end of 2026, this year it has invested 1 billion in R&D and approximately 75% of its sales are in Europe. On the other hand and for the moment, not having your own servers does not mean not being able to use AI, of course, being clear that it is a third party who dictates the conditions, prices and limits of that access. In Xataka | Europe wanted to set an example to the world with its AI Law. What you are achieving is becoming evident In Xataka | To become technologically “independent” from the US, the European Union already has a plan: four desperate measures Cover | Flickr and Wikimedia Commons / ALEXANDRE LALLEMAND | Igor Omilaev | Markus Spiske

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