I have calculated how much I will spend on gasoline this Easter. I’m already looking for an electric car

Tomorrow, March 28, will mark one month since the United States and Israel attacked Iran in an offensive that appears to be stalling. Four weeks since the Strait of Hormuz was effectively closed, since the price of oil skyrocketed and gasoline prices skyrocketed. Four weeks paying more for our deposits. Four weeks looking at electric cars with different eyes. Tied to fuel. The price of gasoline and diesel has fallen significantly since the Government applied the discount on VAT on hydrocarbons. The market, which was beginning to reach two euros/liter, has relaxed in the case of gasoline (1,562 euros/liter on average), according to dieselgasolina.combut it is still very high in the case of diesel, which remains at 1,773 euros/liter. This gap between diesel and gasoline is making let’s live an unprecedented situation. Already with the war in Ukraine we saw the price of diesel skyrocket. Now, with Russia already out of the market (at least the legal one) and with a new tension in the supply chain, Europe is witnessing an increase in diesel prices for having gotten rid of its refineries over the years. A considerable saving. Taking prices in Spain as a reference, the savings in the cost of using an electric car were already high in recent years. But this has skyrocketed in the last month. Spain continues to be dependent on diesel for an aging fleet where diesel is used by 57.1% of the total volume of cars, according to Anfac. although new cars sold with this technology are very few. And in Europe the x-ray is very similar. This has made many look at the electric car with different eyes. How we tell you our calculator and the professionals themselves explainthe more kilometers traveled with an electric car, the cheaper its cost of use. Or, simply, the greater the gap that exists with gasoline. Let’s give an example, with diesel at 1.773 euros/liter, traveling 100 kilometers with a car that consumes five liters of fuel costs 8.86 euros. In the case of gasoline, if the car consumes seven liters on average, the cost to travel 100 kilometers is 10.93 euros refueling at 1.562 euros/liter. With an electric car that consumes 20 kWh/100 km on the road, the cost is the following: Domestic rate (10 cents/kWh): 2 euros/100 km Direct current recharging up to 50 kW (20 cents/kWh): 4 euros/100 km Direct current recharging up to 150 kW (30-45 cents/kWh): 6-9/100 km Direct current recharging above 150 kW (60 cents/kWh): 12 euros/100 km Winner? Yes, especially the slower we reload. And the comparisons between a combustion car and an electric one are somewhat complicated since the consumption of the car on the road (quite variable between electric cars) and the price of the chargers come into play. Below we will leave a practical example but first we will make some details clear: The consumption of an electric car on the road has important differences. A Tesla Model 3, perhaps the most efficient car at the moment, consumes about 16 kWh/100 km at sustained rates of 120 km/h. A “gastón” car can go at 24 kWh/100 km. That, with high rates, means recharges of up to four euros more per 100 kilometers The real savings of an electric car are in slow recharges, especially domestic ones. Here, rates vary greatly. There are flat rates of 15 cents/kWh but those who have license plates and a favorable environment can charge at 0 cents/kWh for a good part of the year. In our case, we are going to assume 10 cents/kWh. On a trip like Easter, it is very likely that we will stop to sightsee in a city or to eat. At these stops, slow or direct current charging can be done but at low power, below 50 kW. Just as service stations have loyalty cards and programs, electric car users can also take advantage of subscription rates to save money. We will leave them aside because the possibilities in both cases are very wide. Our example. To understand whether or not we save money, let’s assume that this Easter we add a trip of 2,000 kilometers. In it, we will leave with a full battery, as a typical electric car user would. Our electric car has a range of 400 kilometers. The round trip will take us 1,200 kilometers and we will do another 800 kilometers moving from one place to another, getting to know new places. Let’s assume that the car’s consumption is 20 kWh/100 kilometers and that the battery has a size of 80 kWh. Thus, we are going to assume the following recharges: We leave home with 100% (80 kWh and 400 km) and we stop when we have 10% battery left (8 kWh and 40 km) We fill the battery with a high-power charger up to 80% (we have recharged 56 kWh and have 320 km available) and we arrive at the destination with 80 km left in the battery (20%) At the destination we charge the battery to 100% to move with a 50 kWh charger. We have a second recharge at destination. We are going to do 800 kilometers of tourism, that is two full batteries which is equivalent to the first full recharge already mentioned and a second to have another 400 kilometers ready. On our return we will repeat the move: we will charge in our holiday area (third recharge at destination) with a 50 kW charger up to 100%, we will repeat the fast charging on the road at more than 150 kW and we will fill the battery at home to 100% to check the real cost. Here we will arrive with 20% battery. The expense. Taking all this data, we have the following results: First recharge on the way up to 80% (56 kWh at 0.60 euros/kWh): 33.60 euros First recharge at destination up to 100% (72 kWh at 0.20 euros/kWh): 14.40 euros Second recharge at destination up to 100% (80 kWh at 0.20 euros/kWh): … Read more

Science has calculated the real impact of reading books on your brain. And it has a very simple recipe: 30 minutes a day

It is well known that a sedentary lifestyle It is one of the great enemies of public healthespecially at advanced ages where muscle loss is a great danger. However, there are sedentary activities that are really beneficial and that we sometimes stop, such as reading books. Its benefit is such that science has shown that immersing yourself in the pages of a good book It not only feeds the intellect, but also lengthens life. The demonstration. One of the most important studies who wanted to focus on the benefits of reading, beyond the cognitive benefits or the richness of vocabulary for everyday life, analyzed a group of 3,635 nationally representative participants in the United States over 12 years. And as a result, they saw that the longer the time spent reading books, lower risk of mortality. The results. To understand the magnitude of the discovery, the researchers followed all the patients until 20% of them died and only 80% remained. There they put the cut and began to draw conclusions. The first is that non-readers reached this point at 85 months, while book readers reached this same threshold at 108 months. This is something that translates into a 23-month survival advantage for those who had the habit of reading books, or in other words, readers reduced the risk of mortality by 20% throughout the 12 years of follow-up. Furthermore, this protection was maintained regardless of a person’s gender, wealth, education, or health status. The format matters. Although you may think that any type of reading is appropriate, even the back of a shampoo, the reality is quite different. In this case, the study explicitly compared the impact of reading books versus reading the newspaper or a magazine. The findings here demonstrated that reading books contributes to a significantly greater survival advantage than that seen with newspapers or magazines. While magazines offer short articles that we often skim, books require a higher level of concentration. Something that is enhanced above all because the authors constantly present themes, characters and topics and that is essential to be able to follow the thread of the story that is being presented to us. Because? Here science is quite clear that the key is in the brain, since the “cognitive score” functioned as a complete mediator of this survival advantage. This means that reading books improves cognition and it is this cognitive improvement that prolongs life. Here reading books activates different specific neural processes that create this advantage. Among the most notable points, we find that active reading of books improves skills such as reasoning, concentration, critical thinking and vocabulary. But it also promotes social perception, empathy and emotional intelligence, which can lead to better health behaviors and stress reduction. Fundamental things when we talk about extending life. It’s backed up. In addition to the original study published in 2016, science has wanted to continue investigating the benefits of reading with a study published in 2024 where the complexity of reading in older adults pointed to less cognitive decline. But it has also been decided to analyze even the cultural level of the citizens, where it has been seen that low literacy increases mortalityonce again making the act of reading books stimulate our brain and protect our cognitive reserve. Although it is not necessary to be reading all day to guarantee having a better brain, studies specifically point out that with about 30 minutes a day It is enough to start reaping these advantages and obtain more years of life in which to continue reading. Images | Blaz Photo In Xataka | The problem is not that we are reading fewer books: it is that the books we read are much simpler and easier

This is how rest days are calculated

The workplace is regulated by a series of laws and regulations that put in black and white the bases of the employment relationship between companies and workers. He Workers Statute It is the place that answers many of the questions that, at one time or another arise to the workers. Knowing how many vacation days you are entitled to by law is one of the most common. He calculation of vacation days It varies from one company to another depending on the sector, whether there is a collective agreement that regulates it, the type of working day and even seniority in the company. To clear up any doubts, we will tell you how many days of work rest you are entitled to by law and how to calculate them. How many vacations correspond per month worked: what the law says He article 38 of the Workers’ Statute is in charge of drawing the master lines for the right to rest. This article establishes the right to a minimum period of 30 calendar days of paid annual leave, not replaceable by financial compensationexcept as provided in the agreement or end of the employment relationship. That is, all workers have the right to rest for a minimum of 30 calendar days included in their salary. These days, under no circumstances, can be compensated for additional remuneration and can only be compensated for other days of rest on a different date. This is the legal minimum per calendar year of work and each year generates its own paid holiday entitlement. The Workers’ Statute establishes that they must be enjoyed in an agreed manner within the corresponding annual period, except for agreed or justified exceptions. In addition to agree jointly between the company and employees, workers have the right to know the vacation dates that correspond to them, at least two months before the start date of the rest. This way the employee can plan your vacation. How vacation days are calculated The Workers’ Statute clearly establishes that workers They have 30 working days a year. But how are your vacation days calculated if you have only been working at that company for a few months? The most commonly used practical rule to obtain the proportional part when the entire year has not been worked is to start from 30 calendar days and prorate them by months worked. Don’t panic because they exist vacation day calculators. In any case, its calculation is not complicated. The usual thing in companies is to use the value of calendar days, so it is enough to divide the number of calendar days by the twelve months of the year and multiply it by the months worked. The result returns the number of calendar days of work rest. On the other hand, if they are specified as working days, the calculation must be made by replacing the 30 days indicated in the Workers’ Statute with 22 working days. Difference between business days and calendar days The difference between a working day or a calendar day is important for the calculation and choice of vacation days. Calendar days: all calendar days are taken into account, including Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. That is, when calculating vacation days, all days of the chosen period are taken into account. This makes it more favorable for the worker to start the vacation on a Monday and end it on a Friday, since in this way neither the previous nor the following weekend are counted as vacations. Working days: as their name indicates, they are those days on which you would usually work, these being usually Monday to Friday, excluding weekends (Saturday and Sunday) and national holidays. This makes it irrelevant whether the first day of vacation is a Monday or Wednesday, since any weekends or holidays in between will not be counted.Besides, at a legal levelthere is a subtle difference between business days and business days. In both cases, Sundays and holidays are excluded, but in some cases, Saturdays may be considered working days, but are not considered business days. Is it 22 or 23 business days? As we have pointed out, the Workers’ Statute only establishes a legal minimum of 30 calendar days of work rest, but does not specify its equivalent in working days. If the company uses the workdays metric instead of calendar days, the calculation of the number of vacation days per month will also change. The most common conversion is to 22 working days, that is, days in which you would usually have to work. But It is not a universal figure for all companiesbut an average that can change from one company to another. The collective bargaining of some industrial sectors or the collective agreements of each company can include improvements to these conditions by increasing the number of vacation days and increasing those 22 working days to 23 days or even more. Therefore, it will be necessary to consult with the company or review the collective agreement that applies to know if the scale of calendar or working days is used to calculate vacation days. A practical example Nothing better to understand How does the calculation of vacation days work? We have to see it with a practical example. Imagine that you have started working in a company on March 1 and you want to take a few days of vacation the first week of September. How many days of vacation would you get? In that case, and taking into account the formula that we have indicated before, the calendar days of vacation would be calculated as follows: 30 (calendar days by law) / 12 (months) = 2.5 days of vacation per month worked 2.5 calendar days of vacation generated per month x 6 months of work = 15 calendar days of vacation If we apply the metric of working days, and assuming that the agreement (or the company) establishes that there are 22 working days, we would have: 22 (working days) / 12 (months) = … Read more

The Star Destroyer is the terror of Star Wars. But as one fan has calculated, building it in real life wouldn’t be cheap.

‘Star Wars’ is full of iconic ships. From the Millennium Falcon and its Kessel Corridor in just 12 parsecs to silhouettes identifiable at a glance such as the X-Wing or the TIE Fighter. We associate ‘Star Wars‘ with frenetic combats in space, but we also have iconic mastodons, authentic galactic monsters like the unmistakable Imperial Star Destroyer. Well: now we not only know how much it impresses us, but also how much it would cost us. What is a Star Destroyer. This 1.6 kilometer long, wedge-shaped beauty exhibits measurements and characteristics that make it a mini space station of considerable power. Let’s see: Approximate mass: 40 million metric tons Engines: Three KDY Destroyer-I ion engines and Cygnus Spaceworks Gemnon-4 units Maximum speed in atmosphere: 975 km/h Hyperlight Capability: Yes, with a class 2 impeller Heavy and medium turbolasers located in batteries throughout the ship Ion cannons to disable enemy systems 30 torpedo launchers or missile slots Ability to deploy 72 TIE fighters, as well as AT-AT and AT-ST ground vehicles Estimated total crew: between 37,000 and 60,000 people It functions as a small floating city, with areas for operations, daily life, maintenance and storage So the money what. Although less monumental than the Death Star, Star Destroyers require immense resources to construct. Estimates based on scientific analysis and data from the saga and collected on the website Gamestar They suggest that building, maintaining, and even disposing of when the time comes for a single Star Destroyer could cost a fortune. Used as a basis for comparison the price it costs to build a real aircraft carrier: between 13,000 and 17,000 million dollars each. And that’s just the beginning. We’re not just talking about construction itself. Resources and construction time skyrocket when considering mass production, as the Empire deploys dozens of destroyers to maintain its dominance. In addition, training and supplying personnel generate recurring costs. And maintenance, of course: refueling, repairing war damage, technological updates and replacing parts, which requires the construction of strategic space bases. We are going in parts, breaking down this authentic black hole of pasta. The initial transport. Transporting 40 million tons of construction material to space is logistically complex and expensive. With an extremely optimistic price of 10,000 euros per ton, the initial cost would be around 400 billion euros. In the long term, the cost could be reduced to about 200 euros per kilo, equivalent to about 8 billion euros. If we talk about current technologies (that is, no teleportation or similar), the realistic cost for this volume would be around 40 billion euros. What the material costs. The construction of the Star Destroyer would likely use high-strength, low-alloy steels, the cost of which is estimated at around €90 billion. More advanced systems such as propulsion, weapons and other high-performance components would require more expensive special alloys, adding at least an additional 110 billion euros. Altogether, conservative estimated costs for materials would be around €200 billion in total. To ride. The Star Destroyer is significantly more expensive to manufacture than mere materials, as labor and countless tests can cost five to fifteen times as much. The construction cost is estimated at around 2 billion euros. Furthermore, adding the costs of research, testing, infrastructure and development, especially in new energy and propulsion systems, could conservatively add another 5 billion euros to the total budget. The invoice. In short, these gentlemen will have to go and digest: the total expense to build and maintain the imperial Star Destroyer is estimated at around 15.2 billion euros, assuming transportation costs. Without including development expenses, the cost would be around 14 billion euros. But we can go up: if additional elements such as technical reserves, energy systems, lifetime maintenance and scrapping are considered, the joke can approach 40 billion euros. To put it in perspective, the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier cost around 12 billion euros, so a Star Destroyer would cost almost four thousand times that amount.​ In Xataka | Adam Driver launched a Star Wars movie project about Kylo Ren. Disney rejected it because they didn’t understand it.

Someone has calculated which EU countries lose more money due to the falsification of wines and spirits. Bad news, Spain

Spain is Wine landsparkling, beers, ciderliquors … and falsifications. This is revealed at least The last balance of the EU Intellectual Property Office (Euipo), which has launched a notice to navigators: fraudulent copies are hitting the alcohol industry, subtracting billions of euros in sales, destroying thousands of jobs and depriving public coffers of large income via taxes. And the one who is spending it worse is Spain. Here the wineries and companies that lose more money are located. The bottle, the most affected. When we talk about falsifications, the mind usually goes to luxury articlesgarments, wallets and bags of large brands, watches or exclusive jewels. The shadow of pirate copies is however elongated and extends to many other merchandise, including food. Moreover, the Euipo assures that in 2020 the falsifications of food were among the most common found at the EU borders. And by “food” not only refers to Iberian sausages. In the list there are also cookies, pasta, potatoes or sweets. If there is a sector that is suffering alarmingly the mazazo of the copies is nevertheless that of wine and spirits. “It was one of the most affected during the 2013-2017 period”, Clarifies the organism Before sliding a couple of figures. “It is estimated that 2,289 million euros were lost in sales and almost 5,700 jobs were destroyed a year in the EU due to falsifications in this sector.” In tax only 2,068 million euros vanished. Spain, in the focus. The sector does not happen as evil throughout the EU. Euipo estimates for example that the Portuguese industry falsified some 33 million of euros in sales and just over 200 jobs every year. In Austria, illicit copies subtract the winemakers and other professionals in the sector near 28 million of euros and in Greece that invoice amounts to 49 million. The blow is more severe in Germany, with losses of 279 million of euros, Italy (302 millionor France, where that hole amounts to 316 million of euros. They are high figures, but not as much as those suffered by Spain, one of the world’s great wine powers with Italy or France. He warns Euipo clearly, which launches a warning: “Spain is the first EU country in direct economic loss in this sector, with 380 million in sales not made by falsifications.” The Spanish sector is also one of the ones that loses the most for that cause: more than 1,100 positions per year, a fact that only exceeds France. Old problem, new challenges. The falsifications of wines and spirits are no novelty, but the authorities continue to encounter new challenges. The EUIPO notes that the rise of online trade “has opened new roads” for the sale of copies and makes customers “increasingly difficult” when distinguishing between an authentic and a falsified article, a problem that does not only affect the industry of alcoholic beverages. “Criminal networks manipulate labels, containers and even alter the manufacturing processes, focusing on value products,” duck The organism. In the specific case of alcohol, what experts do perceive is that counterfeiters are resorting to “sophisticated methods” to mock controls, which includes from the reuse of original bottles to the impression of false labels. Two countries: China and Türkiye. Community authorities have not only detected the most punished nations (at an economic and employment level) for falsifications. The report From Euipo does something else: pointing out the countries of origin that are most frequently related to food and drink falsifications. And there are two that stand out if we focus on the pirate copies that were seized between 2019 and 2020 on the EU borders: China and Türkiye. As a conclusion, the text slides another equally important idea. Falses are not a problem just because of the damage they cause to the sector or their ability to destroy employment. The Euipo adds another more important handicap: public health. “Recent reports alert about the risks of these consumer health products,” warns Before remembering that food and drink has been detected with “dangerous substances”, such as methanol, mercury or pesticides. Images | Kelsey Chance (UNSPLASH) and Zachariah Hagy (UNSPLASH) In Xataka | If the question is what is the future of wine, more and more Bordeaux wineries are clear: the without alcohol

Some researchers have calculated mathematically which are the most tourist cities in the world. Bad news, Barcelona

Each summer Barcelona usually Be news in the foreign press for its attractiveness as a tourist destination. After all, its mixture of Mediterranean climate, beach, culture, architecture and gastronomy attract every year to hundreds of thousands of travelers from other parts of the world. However in July 2024 The Ciudad Condal monopolized holders in the media of the entire planet for a rather different reason: fed up with saturation, a group of neighbors dedicated himself to shooting visitors with water guns next to posters in which messages such as “Tourists Go Home” were read. That was a sample (The nth) The impact of the sector in the Catalan capital, a phenomenon that has now been black on white in A study which identifies Barcelona as the city most pressured by tourism. Tourist density. That is the parameter that has analyzed Nomad Esim in A report published a few days ago, a study in which he is dedicated to examining how Overurism It is affecting some of the most popular destinations in the world. To do this, it has basically valued two parameters: the size of the cities and the number of foreign visitors who receive each year, which allows it to calculate their “density” of travelers. With the results it has elaborated A 40 -cities ranking Headed by Porto, Cancun and Barcelona, ​​which leads the list. Why’s that? Nomad technicians have estimated that Barcelona receives about 20.37 million tourists who are forced to be distributed by an urban area of 101 square kilometerswith what the concentration of visitors per km2 amounts to 201.722. There is no other city on the list that approaches him. The second in the ranking, Cancun, has 147,887 tourists per km2 and in Porto do not even reach 144,000. The fourth place is occupied by New York, with 137,712, which Dubrovnik (112,500), Florence (107,843), Kyoto (98,651) and Lisbon (88,000). Mallorca occupies the 37th position, with 5,137, and Paris the 29th (16,820). Issue of density and size. That data does not mean that Barcelona is the one that receives the most tourists. Not much less. New York, Kyoto, Los Angeles, Paris, Las Vegas or London (to quote only some examples) receive more visitors than the city, according to the information that Nomad Esim manages, but its largest urban extension explains that the tourist massification is not so high. The data of the report They must also be taken as what they are: a report, with their biases and limitations. His estimate of tourists does not coincide for example with the global data that the city handled in the late 2024 (15.5 million). In 2023 the observatori of tourism spoke of 15.6 million of visitors, balance that rose to 25.9 million if the region was taken into account, not just the city. The report It is interesting in any case because it provides clues about other destinations and connects with a feeling that has been breathed for years in Barcelona: The discomfort from the neighbors for the tourist. The pressure on residents. In his report, Nomad has done something else: calculating the “pressure” that tourism exerts on the local population of each of the destinations. To do this he crossed the flow of tourists from each city and its census. The most bulky data is taken in that case Orlando, with 241 tourists for each resident. They are followed by Santorini (220), Queenstow (116), Mykonos (105) and Cozumel (94). Barcelona occupies the 24th place of the international list, with an average of 13 visitors per local, a result slightly lower than that of Mallorca (20). If both metrics are mixed, the surface, total register of neighbors and influx of tourists, the first in the list is Cancun, followed by Orlando, Dubrovnik, Kyoto, Florence and witches. Barcelona is in tenth place and Mallorca in the 32nd. Of the imforms to the streets. The study is interesting because it gives a measure of the pressure that great destinations support, including Barcelona or Mallorca, a phenomenon that has caused resident mobilizations that claim a more sustainable tourist model. The Protest with guns Water was surely the most media, but not the only one: in Barcelona (as in other locations) the neighbors have taken to the streets to show their rejection of massification or demand a greater access to housing, a market conditioned for tourist pressure. The risk: die of success. Saturation supposes something else: a threat to the quality and future of its own destination. The “No List 2025” of Fodor´s, one of the most solera guides among the Anglo -Saxon travelers already has proposed To their readers who “reconside” spend their vacation in three emblematic destinations in Spain that face the risk of dying of success or are directly saturated. Which is it? Canary Islands, Mallorca … and Barcelona, ​​who share a list with international destinations such as Bali, Venice, Lisbon, Koh Samui (Thailand) or Agrigento (Sicily). It is not that they have asked for charm, but about the consequences that tourist success is having in the functioning of cities. Image | Sung Shin In Xataka | The tourism paradox in Spain: if you have not reserved your vacation in the Canary Islands, it is possible that the same thing costs to go to the Caribbean

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