built

A plant was on the verge of extinction in the Mojave Desert. So they built a solar park on top

by

The Mojave Desert is not only a paradise when it comes to filming movies, setting video games and name operating systems: It is also home to thousands of plant species that are accustomed to an extremely hostile climate. It is estimated that there are about 2,000 species and a very specific one is in danger of extinction. Until they decided to build one of the largest photovoltaic plants in the United States on top of it. The Gemini Solar Project. In short. The journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution revealed a few weeks ago the results of a curious study. The ‘threecorner milkvetch’ plant (which has a name for everything except a plant) went from 12 specimens in the Mojave Desert to 93. This plant was being evaluated for inclusion in the Endangered Species Act in the United States and not only has its number multiplied: the new plants are larger and produce more flowers. And they have “only” had to build one of the largest photovoltaic plants in America on top of it, next to Guanchoi in Chileto achieve it. Threecorner milkvetch. It is a creeping plant that has curious needs: it only grows in sandy soils of the Mojave Desert. However, it is dependent on rainfall because its seed remains dormant in the soil and only germinates and reproduces with favorable rainfall. In dry years, it remains completely unnoticed, waiting for a little rain. And it is so rare that the species remains under evaluation for status as threatened or endangered under U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regulations. In the same desert there is another threatened species: the desert tortoise Gopherus agassizii. The habitat of the two species should be the last one on which it would be decided to build a photovoltaic plant, but there is the Gemini Solar Project. The plant Megaplant. When such an installation is to be carried out in the desert, a technique known as clearing and leveling is used. In essence, all vegetation is removed, the land is leveled and prepared for install the pillars of the solar panels. Not only is a lunar landscape created, but any type of latent seed beneath the surface, such as that of the threecorner milkvetch, is destroyed. However, the Gemini Solar Project’s approach was different. The company wanted the land because it is especially ‘fertile’ within the US to harvest sunlight, but concessions had to be made. One was to minimize the alteration of the habitat of both species to conserve the desert surface with all its biological resources, preserve the topsoil and adapt the facility to the natural relief. On the US Geological Survey website we can see photos of little turtles between the panels. Works. This is part of what we know as ‘ecovoltaics’, with a branch called ‘agrovoltaics’ that we have also talked about and that, although it can be used by companies as a facelift, it serves to unite energy activities with agricultural activities. In the study on the impact of the Gemini Solar Project and the evolution of the plant, researcher Tiffany Pereira discovered what we have mentioned: there were more plants and they were healthier. This showed that the energy company had done its part by not destroying the soil because the seeds had been able to germinate, but they found something else. The plants inside the installation evolved earlier than those outside it and grew not under the panels, but in the strips between the rows. This implies that they still need intense sunlight to mature. The yellow zone is where the Sun shines the most hours. The blue one is the stripe that varies depending on the position of the Sun. The red one is where direct light never shines. Okay, but then… what is the role of the panels in the improved evolution of these plants? The hypothesis used by the researchers is that the panels provide partial shade on the groundslowing down evaporation. We have already said that seeds are dormant until they have the necessary humidity conditions to germinate, and in this context, a more humid microclimate has allowed plants to grow more and produce more seeds. Not all the field is oregano. Now, like almost every scientific study, we look at the other side of the coin. The rainfall in recent years has been favorable and we will have to see what happens with periods of prolonged drought. In a few years we could talk about long-term effects. But, in addition, this absence of plants under the panels could indicate a possible loss of potential habitat in very humid years. In any case, Pereira’s study is not isolated. Other studies point to improvements in both the number of flowering plant species and pollinators in agrovoltaic installations in a state like Minnesota. AND in China there are also indicators that those photovoltaic plants in deserts is contributing to the moisture pocket construction in which plants can thrive more easily. As we said, it remains to be seen the impact of the panels on the creation of a “new” biodiversity in the long term, but for now, what is evident is that it is not necessary to raze land to build a photovoltaic plant. Images | DRI, Tiffany PereiraGemini Solar Project In Xatka | The biggest fiasco of solar energy is in the Nevada desert: it is useless and its promoter blames a Spanish company

Deportivo has built a system to know how much the player they already have is worth

by

A few years ago, the Depor A question was asked that seems obvious but that almost no one in Spanish football had taken seriously: is it possible to gather everything a club knows about its players in one place? Not the goals, not the assists, not what appears on Transfermarkt. All. From the vertical jump that a cadet records on a strength machine to the subjective assessment of a veteran scout after watching a game on a rainy Saturday in Becerreá, province of Lugo. From the history of injuries to the psychological alerts of a 14-year-old boy who has been angry for five training sessions. The answer was to build it themselves. The result is an internal platform without a commercial name. They call it, without much ceremony, “the Dash,” which functions as the club’s digital nervous system. Nacho Louriddirector of Deportivo’s analytical and sports technology department, describes him with an ambition that he does not hide: “I call him, maybe he is a little ambitious, like a ERP sporty”. Perhaps with a play on words. Nacho Lourid. Image: Deportivo de la Coruña. It’s not ambitious. It is exactly what it is. And the interesting thing is not the technology itself, but what it says about the real state of data analysis in professional football: that although clubs have embraced the data culture, the majority continue to work with fragmented information, dispersed between departments that sometimes do not speak to each other, with external tools designed for the scouting but not to understand his own players. What the market did not offer The starting point is a lack. Commercial football data platforms (Opta, Media Coach, Transfermarkt itself…) They are designed mostly for one thing: to help sign. They are tools of scoutingnot internal performance. They provide competition statistics, but they cannot integrate what happens within a club’s facilities: GPS data from training, medical records, anthropometric evaluations, the maturational status of a youth, psychologist reports… Signature of one of the players. Image provided. “What we never find is that these platforms are focused on performance,” explains Lourido. “Why? Because there is data that no external platform can have. It is our data, physical data, medical data, protected by law and collected by devices that we have internally.” What Deportivo wanted to measure was something that sounds simple but that in practice almost no one achieves: the actual performance of a player, decoupled from the result. A team can lose 0-1 and have played the best game of the season. A striker can score a goal and have had an alarmingly poor physical performance. Competition data alone does not distinguish between both scenarios. Everything a club knows, in one place The platform connects all the club’s sports professionals. Everyone: trainers, physical trainers, medical department, nutritionist, psychologist. Each one feeds the database from their plot. The GPS that the players carry during training automatically dumps. The competition data comes from providers such as Opta or Olocip. The scouts’ subjective evaluations are recorded through their own mobile application. The individualized rubrics of the youth coaches are added to the profile of each boy from the time he is a first-year junior. The result is a cumulative profile of each player that is not limited to what he does in games. When a technician or manager accesses the dashboard of a footballer, finds his performance in competition, but also his medical history, his physical evolution, his accumulated GPS data, the assessment of scouts and, in the case of the youth team, his career since the first years of training. “When someone goes to dashboard of a footballer and his performance profile, it is very clear in all areas how that footballer is doing. On a physical level, on a psychological level, on a competition level, his medical history, injuries, everything.“, summarizes Lourid. Detail of injuries of a youth player. Image provided. Image provided. The dashboards adapt to the user profile. The sports management sees a general panorama; the physical trainer, overload alerts; the youth coach, the maturational evolution of his players. It is the same database with many windows. Beyond xG The most striking thing is not the obvious metrics expected by anyone who reads the Brand day in and day out, but also the variables that the team of analysts has been cooking up: Game initiative, which combines circulation rhythm and territorial dominance. Construction efficiency, which measures not only whether the team reaches the rival area but how it arrives. Passes allowed by defensive action: how many touches the opponent gives before you steal the ball. A detail that says a lot: The platform contextualizes the data according to the moment of the partido. “The game plan is until you score the first goal or your rival scores it”, Lourid explains. The metrics distinguish between performance before and after the marker alters the dynamics. It is the type of detail that distinguishes a dashboard as such an Excel that has come to the fore. In the quarry, the platform detects invisible patterns without accumulated data. “We had recorded data on players who are in the first team, who when they were cadets gave data on professional footballers. Efforts above 30 km/h… and perhaps the kid was 15 years old.” The club measures biological versus chronological age to decide promotions. A kid who plays below his maturity level receives a “survivor” profile. And you are not penalized for it, you are simply protected. Image provided. Image provided. Image provided. An example of what Nacho commented in the training phase. A first-year cadet team (14/15 years old) and its players who are divided into four large groups based on their level of maturational development: “survivors”, “sufferers”, “competitors” and “leftovers”. Image provided. What the algorithm does not touch (on purpose) There is a decision that indicates the maturity of the system. The psychological data exists (the first team psychologist eats with the players, travels with them, is on the field…), but they do not feed the … Read more

A century ago Denmark built an island to defend its capital. Now it is full of tourists and is sold for ten million

by

The world has started 2026 slope of an island linked to the Kingdom of Denmark, but Greenland is not the only island dependent on Copenhagen that makes headlines. In it Øresund Strait There is a small Danish island that in recent weeks has also sparked interest due to its history, status and (above all) ownership. His name is Flakfortet and in this case, unlike Greenland, there would be no problem with Donald Trump controlling it. Of course, first you would need to go through the cash register and pay 10 million euros. The reason: Flakfortet is actually an old military fortification built on an artificial island and in private hands that has just gone up for sale. What has happened? that the Danish real estate market has incorporated an unconventional piece: a maritime fort built on an artificial island. That’s what they advertise on their page. Lintrup & Norgarta Danish firm specialized in real estate that for a few weeks advertise the sale of the Flakfortet fortress, located in the Øresund Strait. The property is offered for 74.5 million of Danish crowns, equivalent to about 10 million dollars. “The island has modern facilities and historic structures and is visited by thousands of people each year,” highlights the agency. The announcement has attracted the attention of media outlets such as the German newspaper Bildthe specialized medium Yacht or the Danish public broadcaster TV2which specifies that the complex reaches 30,000 square meters (m2) and there are around 10,000 built. Among its facilities, the island includes a large marina and a heliport. But what is Flakfortet? A vestige of the First World War. And a huge and picturesque reminder of the turbulent start of the 20th century. Flakfortet is a maritime fortress built on Saltholmrevan artificial island built from tons and tons of stone, concrete and sand in the Saltholm Strait. In fact, it is located between saltholm island and Copenhagen. Flakfortet was not the result of a whim or megalomania. It was promoted at the beginning of the 20th century, after the Defense Agreement of 1909 with which an attempt was made to improve the fortifications (land and sea) that protect Copenhagen from enemy attacks. To be more exact, his works were developed between 1910 and 1916. And what was it used for? The idea was to shield neighboring Copenhagen by sea. Hence, Flakfortet was projected as a true fort, capable of hosting around half a thousand soldiers and equipped with powerful cannons. Danmarks Nationalleksikon remember which in its day was equipped with howitzers, half a dozen cannons and anti-aircraft artillery. However, its role during the two great conflagrations of the last century was rather modest. In fact, the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, with the project still uncompleted, frustrated the plans to equip it with modern howitzers. In the 40s it was occupied by the Wehrmacht and in the 50s it returned to Danish hands, although without much success. At the end of that same decade it closed as a naval anti-aircraft fort and during part of the 1960s it hosted the HAWK 541 Squadron of the Danish Air Force. Over time it was rented to the Copenhagen Sailing Union and was converted into a marina in the 1970s. And in recent decades? His military past is behind him. After the Danish army decided to abandon the fort the weapons were dismantled and the casemates abandoned. As the 20th century progressed, the soldiers gave way to sailors who arrived aboard sailboats, tourists and history lovers fascinated by the fortification’s past. The next major chapter of his chronicle was written in 2021, when Denmark sold the island to Malmökranen AB, a Swedish company that acquired it for around 400,000 euros. It may not seem like a lot of money, but the company had to invest significantly more to remodel the facilities and modernize its services, which includes a restaurant, a desalination plant that supplies the island with drinking water, and generators. These improvements, added to a ferry service that connected the island with Copenhagen and the interest aroused by the fort’s military past, explain why Flakfortet attracted up to 50,000 visitors in high season. Good business, right? If we ask Malmökranen right now, the business seems to involve more the sale of the island than its direct management. And it’s not something new. In 2015 the complex already looked for a buyer without much success. More than a decade later, its owners have decided to try again, asking for even more money for facilities that have a port and heliport. The agency in charge of the sale wait that the island will attract the interest of specialized investment firms or millionaires looking for a “secluded and quiet” property. Nor do they rule out that the Danish State itself decides to recover Flakfortet because it considers it “a critical infrastructure” and its location. If it is finally an individual who takes over its reins, they should keep in mind that they cannot do whatever they want with the old fort: since 2002 It is considered a historical monument, so any significant work must have the OK of Heritage. The island must also remain open to the public. Images | Wikipedia and Google Earth In Xataka | China has been dumping tons of sand into the ocean for 12 years. And now we are seeing islands emerging in the middle of nowhere

Mexico has built a true Latin dubbing empire. And now it’s going to protect you from AI by law

by

Mexico produces 65% of the dubbing in Latin America. And until now, no rule prevented an AI from copying the voice of its actors without paying or asking for permission. The government of Claudia Sheinbaum has presented this past February 13, 2026, an initiative to legally recognize the human voice as an artistic tool that cannot be cloned. If it prospers in CongressMexico would become something more than a government that looks after the interests of the actors: it would also be a world pioneer in regulation of voice cloning in a cultural setting. Korea is to blame. The trigger for this reaction was not a native series, but some korean dramas. In May 2024, social media users shared fragments of Korean Prime Video series (‘My Boy is Cupid’, ‘The Beat of My Heart’ and ‘Field to Love’) denouncing an unusual feature: the dubbing into Latin Spanish sounded mechanical, robotic and without nuances. And there was also something very suspicious: there were no credits for voice actors anywhere. Without giving explanations, Amazon removed those dubbed versions and did not confirm the origin of the voices. The straw that broke the camel’s back. It was a turning point: the voice actors guild had been denouncing for months how voice actors from all over the continent were losing jobs in favor of AI tools trained, in addition, with their own voices. Some actors, in fact, denounced the Kafkaesque situation that his voice was the one who had replaced him on a YouTube channel for which he worked. Point of no return. In March 2025, Prime Video announced its AI dubbing pilot program in English and Latin Spanish. According to Amazonare twelve series that would not have been dubbed if it had not been for AI, presenting it as an opportunity for series to be seen that would otherwise remain unpublished. The suspicion of Latin professionals, as we have seen, went in a diametrically opposite direction. To calm things down, Amazon assured that localization professionals would monitor and correct the dubbed episodes with AI. The protest. Mexico produces around 65% of the Latin Spanish dubbing destined for Latin America, according to data from the Mexican Association of Commercial Broadcasters (AMELOC), and has some thirty-five active studios with approximately 1,500 actors working. This human force was manifested last July in Mexico under the slogan “AI does not replace.” Among other requests, it was demanded that the voice be recognized as biometric data, at the level of a fingerprint. The purpose is to prevent its use without consent. The proposal. According to the specialized media CO/AISince the summer of 2025, the National Copyright Institute (INDAUTOR) and the Legal Department of the Presidency have worked with more than 128 organizations to build a legal framework always in touch with the union. The resulting text reforms two existing laws: the Federal Labor Law incorporates dubbing actors and announcers as formal workers in the cultural sector, equating them to singers; and the Federal Copyright Law recognizes the human voice as a “unique and unrepeatable” artistic tool That is, any use of it through AI requires express authorization from the owner, plus financial compensation. None of this prohibits dubbing with AI, it only protects the voices that train or replicate the model with mandatory contracts. Missing. The initiative must pass the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate before becoming law, and it will take a while: the Mexican Congress accumulates proposals since 2020. There are more than sixty initiatives related to AI that have not yet received the corresponding legal response. Of course, this one seems to go faster: in November 2025, the Congress of Mexico City had already approved a similar opinionwhich reformed five federal laws. Mexico, spearhead. This beginning of regulation in Mexico is an advance of what other countries are trying to regulate since 2023. For example, in 2024 in Tennessee, Governor Bill Lee signed the ELVIS Act to explicitly add voice among the attributes protected against unauthorized use with AI, something new in the US. The standard also holds responsible platforms that distribute tools whose main purpose is to generate voice replicas without authorization. California and New York have tried to regulate not the technology, but the contracts signed around these activities. However, the limitations of these laws were soon demonstrated: in July last year, a New York judge did not rule in favor of two voice actors who discovered that their voices had been marketed as AI products. As it had not been made with a fixed recording, but with attributes such as tone, timbre or cadence, the court dismissed the claims. That ruling is the type of thing that the new Mexican legislation will try to avoid, and provide more robust protection to artists. Header | Amin Asbaghipour in Unsplash

China needed space to power millions of homes, so it built a mega solar plant in the open sea

by

That China is building power plants As if there were no secret, it is not a secret. Without going any further, in the last four years it has been able to replicate the power of the United States, the largest electrical grid in the West. And a good part of the blame solar energy has it. In fact, in 2023 it installed more solar panels than the United States in all of history, as reported by Bloomberg. Solar energy requires space, so China is finding the most varied gaps, from the tibetan plateau to the open sea, where from the end of 2025 It is already connected to the electrical network a mega solar plant that breaks records. In China there are solar panels even in the soup. The largest offshore solar plant in the world. We are talking about the solar plant located off the coast of Kenli district in Dongying city, Shandong province. This engineering project is carried out by China Energy Investment Corporation (CHN Energy) and has a nominal capacity of 1 GW. As explains People’s Dailythe official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is China’s first gigawatt-level offshore photovoltaic project and currently the largest offshore solar installation in the world. This is what the Shandong plant looks like. Via: People’s Daily The context: why at sea. Because land space near its large coastal cities is a precious commodity. The Chinese government has a policy of red line to safeguard land used for agriculture and solve the line “Hu Huanyong Line“: while its great solar and wind potential is concentrated in the west, in the Gobi Desert and Inner Mongolia, the megacities and their most powerful industrial fabric are in the east. China is already developing parks of renewables in their deserts, but running Ultra High Voltage lines is very expensive, involves losses along the way and crosses complicated orography. The logical but technically infernal solution is to jump into the water. Until now, floating solar energy was limited to calm waters, such as what Germany is doing with its lakesbut China is another story. The open sea brings salt corrosion, typhoons and waves. Why is it important. Because China’s coastal provinces such as Shandong or Jiangsu constitute large centers of industrial consumption. Generating energy right there avoids those transportation losses of thousands of kilometers from the Gobi desert. If it works within the expected design parameters and the maintenance costs are affordable, it will be a good boost to take advantage of the coasts within the energy transition process from fossil to renewables. The panels are simply colossal. Via: X from People’s Daily A prodigious work of engineering. We are talking about an area of ​​more than 1,200 hectares where 2,934 enormous marine photovoltaic panels are located with standardized dimensions of 60 meters long and 35 meters wide. And they are not drifting panels: it is a large infrastructure designed to withstand extreme conditions ranging from storms to freezing water. In addition, it is hybridized: under the panels the project integrates fish farms, that is, producing electricity above and fish below. This type of combination is not new, as in Guizhou province there is a giant solar plant in whose basement mushrooms are grown. Shandong is aquavoltaic and Guizhou is agrivoltaic. Some numbers that make you dizzy. This installed power of 1 Gigawatt is similar to that of a modern nuclear reactor, so that according to estimates, it will be capable of producing 1,780 million kWh of energy that will be fed into the grid each year and thus supply 2.6 million homes in the region. approximately 60% of your demand. According to the estimates of the engineering company behind it, 1.3 million tons of carbon dioxide will no longer be emitted. In Xataka | Germany has had a crazy idea to solve one of the problems of renewables: covering a lake with solar panels In Xataka | The great myth of solar panels: producing them emits hundreds of times less than coal and gas Cover | People’s Daily

In Mejorada del Campo there is a cathedral built from scratch by a single man. Now it has closed due to lack of permits

by

There are crazy projects and then there is the one undertaken 65 years ago by Justo Gallego on a plot of land in Mejorada del Campo, a town in 25,000 inhabitants of the Community of Madrid. In October 1961 Justo, a farmer and former monk without the slightest experience in architecture, embarked on the titanic task of building a temple from scratch. At first it was going to be a hermitage, but over time the project aimed at something much more ambitious: a Christian cathedral. A cathedral built without formal plans and with more will than means. Against all odds the temple is a reality today. In fact, it has not been the technical or logistical challenges that have complicated the dream of Justo, who died four years ago. Their big problem is municipal permits. The same ones that have now led the Mejorada City Council to close down the building. What has happened? That the one known as ‘Justus Cathedral’ has had to close its doors. The City Council of the municipality in which it is located, Mejorada del Campo, has ordered the cessation of all public use of the building, a veto that will be maintained in theory until its current managers (the Messengers of Peace organization) obtain the permits that it now lacks. What does that imply? The news has advanced it The Worldwhich clarifies that the Madrid City Council has made the decision after verifying that the building was operating without permits. On their website, Messengers of Peace confirm that the cathedral “will remain closed while waiting for the license to be processed.” Until then you will not be able to receive visitors or engage in any other public use, including the distribution of food for vulnerable people. The NGO has already contacted Cáritas to use its Mejorada del Campo facilities and that the municipal veto does not stop the work that was being carried out in the cathedral. Why now? The ‘Justus Cathedral’ is not new, it has been a popular icon for years (in 2005 it appeared in an Aquarius spot) and Messages of Peace took over the premises five years ago. So… Why is it closing now? The explanation must be sought in municipal offices. A few weeks ago a foundation consulted the City Council about the necessary permits to organize an artistic exhibition in the temple. By doing so, he launched the administrative machinery that ended up leading to the closure order. And what is the reason? That in reality the temple does not have the necessary permits. “Urbanism confirmed that the cathedral lacks licenses and that there was no processing in progress, which prevented the activity and led to the opening of a file that concluded with the closure order,” they explain from the Town Hall The World. The decision was transferred a few days ago to Messengers. In reality, the NGO had already moved to regulate the situation of the building, but did not present a key document: an architectural project endorsed by the Official College of Architects of Madrid. The Europa Press agency clarify Once this administrative requirement is met, the City Council will review the closure. The NGO already anticipates that it will deliver “as many documents as are required.” Why is it news? That a temple ceases its activity due to lack of municipal permits is curious, but it would not have made it past the pages of the local Madrid press. If the closure of the ‘Justus Cathedral’ has awakened so much interest It is because it is not just any cathedral. In fact it is not a ‘cathedral’ as such. Last September the NGO itself I remembered that in reality the building houses a “social center” that does not have official recognition by the Catholic Church as a cathedral. It has not even been consecrated as a temple. “It is a community space that welcomes social, cultural and spiritual initiatives,” needed then Messengers of Peace. The clarification was not free. It arrived shortly after skip the controversy for the opening of a mosque in the building. The decision generated such a stir that the NGO founded by the media Father Angel had to clarify that it is a “inter-religious prayer space” located in an annex at the request of the Muslim community. Are there more reasons? Yes. Beyond its religious status or uses, the Mejorada temple generates interest for his story. After all, it is not every day that you see a cathedral building built basically by the efforts of a single man, a farmer with no experience in masonry who in 1961 began building it to fulfill a religious promise. Without plans. With more will than means. In the 90s the temple was already so advanced that it began to arouse curiosity beyond Madrid: in 2004 Justo received an invitation to participate in an exhibition in New York, in 2005 he starred in an Aquarius campaign and in 2017 it reached the pages of The New York Times. The former monk died in 2021 and the property was passed to Messengers of Peace for completion. Images | Messengers of Peace, Wikipedia and M. Peinado (Flickr) In Xataka | It has been difficult but he has achieved it: the Sagrada Familia has just become the roof of Christianity in the world

There is a Spain built on urbanizations. And this INE map reflects it graphically

by

The graphics are just that, graphics, but there are some that reflect reality better than the most polished of mirrors. The INE has just demonstrated it with an infographic which summarizes the key ideas of his last gazetteerits detailed catalog of “towns”, a broad and diverse label that includes both municipalities (from capitals to towns) and smaller and more isolated nuclei. It may seem like a simple statistical curiosity, but it reveals questions about the history, demographics, and the social and economic challenges of each community. One country, a thousand strays. If you walk around your municipality and pay attention to the license plates that identify each neighborhood, you will see that there are certain words that are repeated over and over again: road, place, valley, cove, path… If you take the car and go to the other side of the country, it is likely that this list of terms will change completely. The reason? A cocktail of linguistic, demographic, social and historical factors. The topic is so interesting that the INE dedicates it a whole section. The Spain of urbanizations. What does it show the database from the INE? That there is a part of Spain in which the most used word is not ‘vega’, nor ‘valley’, nor ‘source’, nor ‘cove’, but a term that has more to do with the hand of man than with geographical features: ‘urbanization’. To be more precise, what the INE analyzes is the most repeated word in the names of the singular entities of each autonomous community. That is, all that “habitable area” of a municipal area that is clearly differentiated from its surroundings. So to speak, it is the most basic unit, formed by nuclei and which are then grouped to make up parishes, councils and towns. Going down to detail. When analyzing each region, INE technicians verified that the most repeated term to designate these nuclei varies greatly from one point to another in the country. For example, in Galicia it is ‘outeiro’in Asturias ‘riba’, in Castilla y León ‘vega’, in Extremadura ‘vera’, in the Balearic Islands ‘cala’, in the Canary Islands ‘lomo’ and in Andalusia ‘fuente’. If we look at Catalonia the most frequent word is ‘can’ (house of), in the Basque Country ‘elexalde’ (a reference to the antechurches) and in the Community of Madrid the most used term is ‘valley’. The surprise comes when we look at Murcia, Castilla-La Mancha, Aragón and the Valencian Community. In these four regions, the most frequent name does not refer to geographical features or natural enclaves, such as ‘sources’. No. The majority word is ‘urbanization’, which tells us about its nomenclature, but also about development at an urban, historical and socioeconomic level. Does it show anything else? Yes. The INE graphs reflect that the population is not distributed equally throughout the Spanish territory. What’s more, there are profound differences between one region and another. The clearest case is made by the comparison of Galicia and Castilla y León. Although the latter is the largest community in the country, with about 94,244 km2‘only’ 6,181 unique population entities are distributed throughout its territory. They may seem like many, but they pale when compared to the 30,518 in Galicia, which does not reach 29,600 km2. The data is interesting because it gives us a clue about the territorial structure of each region and its level of fragmentation. After all, and in the words of the INE itselfa singular entity is a “clearly differentiated” inhabited area within a municipality, to such an extent that it has its own specific name. After Galicia, the region with the highest number of settlements of this type is the Principality of Asturias (6,983), Castilla y León (6,181) and Catalonia (3,910). Despite its size, Castilla-La Mancha has ‘only’ 1,708 and Aragón does not reach 1,600. More than just curiosity. The data is striking, but if the INE calculates it it is not out of statistical curiosity. Their tables demonstrate that singular entities tell us a lot about the population structure of a territory… and its aging, with all the challenges that this implies. The smaller the settlement, the older its neighborhood appears to be on average. For example, in singular entities with less than 50 residents the average age is 54.4 years, but the figure drops to 46.6 if we talk about entities where between 500 and 1,000 people live. If we go to those of more than 10,000, the average age drops to 44.1 years. Although in Spain there are thousands and thousands of unique entities made up of only a few dozen people, their weight at the population level is very low: they host only 1.2% of Spaniards. Images | Google Earth and INE In Xataka | In Burgos they have had an idea so that emptied Spain does not devour it: take care of food for the elderly

Madrid and Barcelona have built an entire social and business life with the AVE. They are finding out what happens when it fails

by

The Madrid-Barcelona high-speed line has collapsed. The trains do not arrive on time and no one pays their compensation, Adif has asked the companies to withdraw last-minute services, airlift prices have skyrocketed and there are companies working at half throttle because the goods do not arrive. A social and economic backbone of the country has been fractured. A Russian roulette. Taking a high-speed train between Madrid and Barcelona is, right now, Russian roulette if what you want is to arrive on time for an appointment. The link between the two most important cities in Spain has been broken via train and a round trip in the day is almost impossible. It is the result of a hasty revision of the train tracks, a direct consequence of the fateful Adamuz train accident (Córdoba) and the continuous warnings of the train drivers. Actions that have diluted the “high speed” concept between Madrid and Barcelona. What has happened? Since last January 18 An Iryo train derailed near Adamuz (Córdoba) and collided with another Renfe train that was traveling in the opposite direction, leaving 45 dead, Adif has been facing criticism about the track maintenance. In the case of Madrid-Barcelona, ​​the consequences were soon seen: speed limitations. Between confusing messages, Adif ended up imposing temporary speed restrictions at numerous points on the line, especially between Madrid and Zaragoza. Later, 300 km/h returned. But it didn’t last long because speed was reduced once again. The role of machinists. Since then, travelers between Madrid and Barcelona have been reporting severe delays, with trains taking more than four hours to reach their destination. As they explained to us Xataka From the SEMAF union, train drivers have the power to reduce speed if they consider it essential for the safety and comfort of travelers. They must notify the line controllers and put it in writing in a report. In addition, on each journey a document is filled out specifying the problems that have been found on the line. A train driver, who preferred to remain anonymous, corroborated this version to Xataka and made it clear that for months they have been traveling at a speed lower than the maximum speed allowed on the line and, especially, between Madrid and Zaragoza. Likewise, he pointed out that they have been complaining for months about the vibrations suffered by the trains but that they had not received a response until now. Adif’s role. Although unions and drivers claim to have been complaining about this situation for months, it was not until January when Adif appears to have taken more far-reaching measures. The road manager is doing an exhaustive review of the roads based on the continuous complaints from workers. These inspection and repair works, when necessary, are delaying travel times. The company has asked Renfe, Iryo and Ouigo to assume that trips will be extended to three hours (and they just pointed out that these travel times will extend until December) but has also asked them to eliminate the last services of the day to have more time for their performances. Collapsed by land and air. The result is a collapsed train line. The trains are not arriving on time nor in the three hours indicated by Adif (instead of the usual 150 minutes). And the problem for those passengers, who throw in the towel with punctuality, is that The companies are not responsible for compensation either. for delays, pointing out that they are the result of a problem beyond their control and that, therefore, they do not fall within the refund policies. At the same time, demand on flights has skyrocketed. Without the possibility of getting there and back within the day by train or for fear of doubling the usual travel time, travelers have turned to airlines. And the result is full flights and skyrocketing prices. After some bills will reach 300 euros, Iberia has reached its Air Bridge at 99 euros per trip. Vueling has also increased its frequencies. And the road alternative did not improve the situation either. Only in BlaBlaCar has an increase in demand of 130% been recorded, in data provided to The Newspapercompared to the previous year. Car rental companies do not seem to have been left behind either, since The Ombudsman has asked the CNMC to analyze whether illegalities have been incurred by skyrocketing prices for car rentals and plane tickets. And problems for companies. Companies in both cities have not only had to see meetings canceled or postponed these days. Some of them are having problems having their raw materials. In The Vanguard They include the case of some of them. Inovyn, in Martorell (Barcelona) had to send its 300 employees home earlier this week because they did not have the basic materials to produce plastic. “In normal situations we receive one train a day loaded with dichloromethane, a material with which we manufacture many of our compounds, but in the last ten days we have received only one train,” they explain to the newspaper. They explain that 18% of the goods that arrive at the port of Barcelona are sent to their destination by train. Those that use international gauges are stopped due to works in the Rubí tunnel and those that use the Iberian gauge circulate at night and in dribs and drabs. and in The Country They explain that the city’s port is becoming isolated, with an 80% drop in products coming from Germany, France or Poland by train. The road alternative is not working either. The AP-7 already there is enormous congestion since road tolls were lifted but, furthermore, there are not enough trucks to be a complete alternative given the volume of goods that move along the railways. Added to this are problems derived from the latest storms and the increase in traffic derived from a Rodalies service that has not been back to normal for more than ten days. Photo | Phil Richards In Xataka | Spain wants its AVE trains to travel at 350 … Read more

China urgently needed a train station, so it was built in nine hours with 1,500 workers and 23 excavators.

by

Anyone who has done a work at home will have already experienced firsthand that they know when it starts but not when it ends, something that happens in domestic works and that we also see from time to time with public works. And large infrastructures take time, although we have seen real records such as this 10-story building in just 29 hours. Of course, in China. Precisely there, in the city of Longyan in the southeast of the country, is where they have made a train station overnight. Literal. And although the work is a milestone in 2026, the reality is that this reform in record time took place in January 2018 and that left Elon Musk with his mouth openwhich had no qualms in stating that “China’s progress in advanced infrastructure is more than 100 times faster than that of the United States.” As China Central Television narratedat 6:05 p.m. the station closed and only 17 minutes later the remodeling kicked off in an action that more than a construction seems like a synchronized swimming number until 3:30 in the morning, the time of the end. A kind of “open heart operation” in public works Only nine hours for a project that, although it is true that it was not a new station from scratch, was not exactly small: it consisted of a remodeling and connection of roads between a new high-speed line between Longyan and Nanping and three existing railway lines. Furthermore, they decided to do it at night so as not to interrupt daily rail traffic. Because at 6:22 p.m., 1,500 workers grouped in seven units were executing seven different simultaneous tasks, such as Zhan Daosong tolddeputy manager of China Tiesiju Civil Engineering Group, China’s leading railway construction company. To carry it out, they relied on seven trains and 23 excavators. Thus, while one group installed monitoring and signage equipment, another paved the land. The millimeter precision and rapport is such that Reminiscent of open heart surgery but transferred to public works: with workers distributed over a range of 1.5 kilometers in their assigned places and 23 coordination teams to ensure compliance with deadlines and processes. Something like this is not done overnight, but before the day of truth They did six large-scale drills to prepare. The decision to do it at night has an explanation: not to interrupt the day’s rail traffic because in fact, at 1:56 in the morning they already had the first test train accessing the new station. Because they had also estimated a verification period of three and a half hours in which three other trains accessed the facilities. At 5:53 in the morning the rehearsals were over: K297, a normal passenger train, arrived at the station. As impressive as the speed of the project, which involves enormous planning work and prior studies, was the achievement achieved: reducing the travel time between both cities from seven hours to just an hour and a half thanks to the high-speed train that travels along the track at 200 km/h. In Xataka | 100% autonomous factories where it is not necessary to turn on the light: China is already considering manufacturing cars only with robots in 2030 In Xataka | Tesla’s dwarfs continue to grow: the Model 3 is no longer the premium electric that sells the most in China Cover | CGNT

In 1976 Boston built its most amazing skyscraper. Until its windows became lethal guillotines

by

The John Hancock Tower It was conceived in the late 1960s as the great coup of authority of modern Boston: a minimalist, elegant and almost “invisible” skyscraper, designed to reflect the sky with enormous panels of lightly tinted blue glass, with reduced mullions to a minimum and without elements that would break its purity, topped by a plant that visually sharpened the corners and a vertical slit that further stylized the mass. But there was a mistake fat. The modernist dream of a glass needle. The skyscraper was the type of building I wanted seem inevitableas if it had always been there, and at the same time had to demonstrate that “corporate architecture” could be a piece of urban art. In other words, a clear aesthetic ambition was sought, but it implied an enormous risk: betting everything on glass and geometric precision, where any failure ceases to be a defect and becomes a dangerous spectacle. The first shock of reality. From the beginning, the project lived under the spotlight because it in the Back Bay neighborhood and very close of Trinity Churcha historical milestone that already had a symbolic and emotional weight in the city, and that threatened to be dominated by the shadow and presence of the new colossus. Was protests and design adjustmentsbut the real conflict soon arrived below ground: the excavation and temporary retaining walls were deformed and gave way before the mud and clay fills characteristic of the area, damaging sidewalks, services and even nearby buildings. Trinity Church ended up claiming and won a million-dollar compensationand the skyscraper, before it even existed, was already seen as a work that was too ambitious for the terrain that supported it. The glass scandal. The episode that turned the tower into a black legend of architecture occurred when it was still unfinished: with the Boston winds, the panels began to crack and fall awayand the glass fragments began to fall to the street like some kind of lethal rain. The authorities even cordoned off areas and closed streets when the wind rose, and the image of the “brilliant” building was replaced by another. much more humiliating: windows covered with plywood sheetsa partially bandaged tower in the center, which earned nicknames like “Plywood Palace” and jokes like “the tallest wooden building in the world.” In a skyscraper that was intended to represent absolute control, the failure was not only technical: it was a reputational blow direct, one where the symbol of its modernity (glass) had become a meme and a threat… Why it failed. At first you knowsuspected the wind as the main actor, of the suction and channeling effect around the building, and tests were reviewed in wind tunnels with models of the environment, but the core of the problem was in the window itself. Apparently the system it was too rigid: the reflective layer and its connection to the metal frame did not allow bending, and in a structure subjected to vibrations, oscillations and continuous thermal cycles, this lack of “play” became the breaking mechanism. The stresses were transmitted to the glass instead of being absorbed, the cracks propagated, and the result was inevitable: enormous and very heavy panels, weighing hundreds of kilos, failing repeatedly until the unthinkable was assumed in a newborn corporate icon: it was necessary to replace them all. The tower at the time the windows that had fallen out were replaced with plywood The expensive remedy. The solution It was shocking.: remove and replace the entire glazing with a more robust, tempered and heat-treated glass, in an operation that cost several million and that prolonged the ordeal for years. The project, announced with grandeur and reasonable budgets, ended up becoming a spiral of delays: the inauguration was postponed, the numbers skyrocketed and the tower went from promise to public embarrassment. Even so, mass glass replacement was the only way outbecause it was not about fixing a few defective pieces, but about correcting a façade idea that had been born with a structural fragility incompatible with the climate and real loads of Boston. The building today The final twist. And when it seemed like the worst had already happened, came the most disturbing blow: Later calculations suggested that, under certain wind patterns, the building could have a stability problem more serious than assumed, with unforeseen twists and dangerous behavior on its narrower sides. The tower also moved enough to cause dizziness to occupants in tall plants. The city discovered that the beauty of minimalism had a physical price. The answer it was double: on the one hand, install a huge damping system with tuned masses, two gigantic weights mounted with springs and shock absorbers to oppose the swaying and “return” the building to its center. On the other hand, reinforce with tons of bracing steel diagonal. It was, in essence, reengineer an icon already built so that it would continue standing with the dignity that had been promised from the first render. The paradox: from shame to object of desire. The most fascinating thing is that, after such a disastrous start, the tower ended up establishing itself as an admired piece and recognized, until receiving prestigious awards and becoming an inseparable element of the Boston skyline. As they counted then architectural experts, it was the kind of redemption that only happens when a building survives to his own crisis: the public ends up remembering its silhouette and its reflection, not the panic of the closed streets or the wooden planks covering the absent glass. The Hancock went from being a historical lesson for modern architecture (a reminder that aesthetics does not negotiate with physics) to be, precisely because it has overcome this technical hell, a work with a certain aura of resistance, almost a monument to the obsession with fixing the irreparable. One more thing. Over time, the tower maintained its place as the tallest skyscraper of New England, but its story continued to move in the practical terrain of money, tenants and identity: … Read more

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

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

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

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