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In case we didn’t have enough of the wedding fever, medieval weddings are coming

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In Yorkshire it smells like wax and fresh bread. Olivia Healy walks slowly down the aisle of a stone church; The golden crown she wears shines in the flickering light of the candles. There are no spotlights or screens, just an iron arch, a few caped guests, and a reverend who smiles before saying, “Welcome to the 12th century.” It is not the filming of a movie, but a wedding inspired by the medieval ceremonies that were celebrated in England eight hundred years ago. There are minstrelsy, a feast of mead and rye bread, and a vow of union that does not mention God, but “the light that unites the paths of the ancients.” According to The New York Timesscenes like this are repeated in half the world: searches for “medieval wedding” on Pinterest have skyrocketed by more than 400%, and castles have become the new fantasy setting for a generation that flees from conventional weddings. A ritual with purpose. What started as an eccentric niche has become a cultural trend. “Couples are looking for a more symbolic type of ceremony, less commercial and more connected to ancient rites,” explains art historian Nancy Thebaut. It is not just an aesthetic—capes, veils, chalices, robes—but a way of understanding love and commitment as something timeless. Some of the most talked about weddings of the year followed that thread. Artist Harley Weir, known for her ethereal portraits, married in a welsh monastery dressed in a tunic inspired by the novices of the 15th century. As well as actress Rainey Qualley opted for a lace corset and hand-embroidered cape in Italian silk, “like a Pre-Raphaelite queen lost in a digital dream.” In all cases, the pattern is the same: ritual, nature, spirituality. Instead of speeches or photocallsthere are processions with incense, sacred music, mystical readings and vows inspired by Celtic or early Christian ceremonies. The phenomenon goes beyond the disguise. This return to the past, according to the New York Timesaddresses an interpretation of “nostalgia for purposeful rituals”: a way of recovering the symbolic in times where the religious has been diluted. For the fashion magazine Vogue, which has documented Gothic and medieval weddings in Irish castles or Welsh monasteries, what is sought is not historical accuracy, but an emotional aesthetic. The medium calls it “epic romanticism”: a cross between the sacred, the theatrical and the intimate. The art historian Harriet Sonne de Torrens remember that in medieval manuscripts The gesture of joining hands represented mutual surrender and divine blessing. Eight centuries later, that same image is redefined: the symbol remains, although its meaning is secular. From historical rigor to pop romanticism. Not to nitpick, but most of these celebrations are not historically accurate—nor do I think they intend to be. “People confuse medieval with Renaissance, Gothic or even Victorian,” explains The New York Times. But that mix is ​​part of its appeal: today’s medieval weddings They are less a recreation of the past than a pop rereading of history. The success of series like game of Thrones either The Witcher, and even the literary rise of authors such as Sarah J. Maas or the anthological The Lord of the Ringshave consolidated a global aesthetic of the medieval-fantastic, which has filtered into fashion, music and, now, marriage. This medieval fever is not alone. In parallel, thematic weddings are growing: ceremonies that recreate entire worlds—from the 1920s to the Tolkien universe—as a form of aesthetic affirmation. According to Bodas.netmore than 30% of young couples in Spain opt for personalized and symbolic rituals, with their own scripts and narrative scenarios. In times of liquid loves, the ritual matters again. In the digital age, couples look for meaning in ancient symbols. Looking to the past has become a way of recovering intention and intimacy—what the New York media has defined as “a nostalgia for purposeful rituals.” And there opens up an interesting connection.. Because this fascination with the sacred is not limited to the symbolic altars of weddings. Religion—or at least its imagery—has once again become a transversal aesthetic language: from fashion to pop. Rosalía is the most notable example. As my colleague explains in Xataka“the artist has swerved towards Catholic iconography. It is not a whim or a marketing maneuver, but rather swimming in a very favorable current at the moment: the modern and youthful vindication of the faith.” This current is not a return to dogma, but a search for transcendence. Both Rosalía and medieval weddings, the sacred becomes aesthetic; the ritual, in performance. Candles, veils or liturgical choirs are gestures of a visual spirituality, more emotional than doctrinal. “Brides are attracted to historical references because they evoke permanence; it is a way of promising eternity in liquid times,” says designer Paula Nadal. My dear Spain. And, as almost always, here we take it to the next level. In Navia (Asturias), a couple got married this summer during the Medieval Days of the municipality, escorted by Knights Templar and bagpipers. In Burgos, several estates and castles—such as Sotopalacios or Belmonte— They already offer “historical ceremonies” with a mead menu, troubadours and photographers who work only with natural light to imitate the painterly texture of the Quattrocento. In networks, the Spanish “medieval core” mixes layers, baroque virgins and processions with a fervor that, according to Telva“can only be understood in a country that turned Holy Week into performative art.” In a way, medieval weddings are the secular reflection of that same religious theatricality that Spain carries in its blood: a liturgy without faith, but with emotion. A ritual in uncertain times? The trend points to the same thing: couples do not flee from the present, but rather look for a symbolic language. What we know is that in 12th century manuscripts, marriage was a sacrament; in the networks of 2025, it is an aesthetic. But the gesture remains the same. Between the digital noise and the contemporary rush, returning to the 12th century is just a way—I hope—to promise the same thing as always: that … Read more

Reddit, nude scenes and an out of control forum. This is how a Dane ended up being convicted in a case that marks a precedent

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We have all seen a clip from a movie circulating online as if it were a loose object, separated from the story to which it belongs. In Denmark, a case has shown that this decontextualization can have very real consequences when what is shared are nude scenes and, in addition, other protected content. A Reddit moderator has been convicted in a case involving both the dissemination of sequences of actresses in Danish films and series taken out of context and the massive exchange of audiovisual works. The forum that triggered the case, “SeDetForPlottet”, was not a marginal space within Reddit: it brought together thousands of users and maintained constant activity around nude scenes taken from Danish productions. There, cut clips were shared and described with the name and surname of the actresses, which generated concern among several professionals in the sector. Your complaints They arrived on a local radio programwhich focused on how these images circulated converted into sexualized content. A case that ends in a criminal conviction. The public exposure of the subreddit led to the Rights Alliance will report the matter in 2023 on behalf of actors, directors, producers and two major Danish networks. The police then opened an investigation that identified the moderator, who was arrested in September 2024 after it was confirmed that he had shared hundreds of edited clips and additional material on a private platform. The accused admitted the facts and, in November 2025, received a sentence of seven months of suspended prison, a figure that avoids entering prison if the imposed conditions are met, in addition to 120 hours of community service. When the problem is not just money. The Danish ruling is based on an unusual concept outside the legal field: the right to respectwhich seeks to protect the integrity of a work and those who participate in it, and which in this case is applied for the first time in a criminal conviction in Denmark. The court understood that extracting the scenes, cutting them and presenting them with a sexualized approach altered their original meaning and harmed performers and creators. Prosecutor Jan Østergaard stressed that the case shows that these violations are taken seriously, while copyright expert Alina Trapova explained to the BBC that the matter is “unusual” for focusing on damage to artistic integrity rather than economic damage. What is protected when a scene is shot. For associations of actors and directors, the failure represents an explicit recognition that the decontextualized use of nude scenes directly affects those who appear in them. In the statement published by Rettighedsalliancenthe director of the Danish Association of Actors, Maria Ventegodt, welcomed that the ruling recognized the violation suffered by its members and reinforced confidence that the authorities will act in these cases. In that same text, the directors’ spokesperson, Søren Balle, highlighted that altering and redistributing these scenes harms both the performers and the integrity of the work. On the Internet we live daily with fragments of films converted into memes, parodies or small clips that serve to comment on a scene. This clip culture has normalized the fact that works travel without context, something that usually goes unnoticed when the objective is to play with the original reference. But the Danish case had a decisive nuance. There, the dynamic was different: users organized the material by specific names, requested specific scenes and received them through links from a pornographic page. A warning for the era of AI and deepfakes. The Danish case is known at a time when artificial intelligence tools allow you to alter videos with increasing ease. In this context, the head of Rights Alliance, Maria Fredenslund, pointed out that the ruling marks a necessary limit on how images of actors and creators are used and warned that this type of protection will be relevant in a scenario with more content generated and manipulated by AI. As we say, the sentence is set in the form of a suspended prison, so the accused will not enter prison as long as he meets the conditions imposed. With that part already resolved, the case moves to civil proceedings, where the rights holders have requested between 15,000 and 30,000 Danish crowns for each clip broadcast (between 2,000 and 4,000 euros). Images | Brett Jordan | Screenshot | appshunter In Xataka | For the EU, our privacy has always been more important than AI. Until he understood that he was left behind

This is how we will have to act in case of breakdown with the new V-16 beacon mandatory in 2026

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January 2026. The Three Wise Men of the East have brought a breakdown to your car. You step aside, leave the vehicle, put on your vest and get to work. First, put the emergency triangles. The second thing, notify the insurance and/or emergency services. The third thing, wait for the Civil Guard agent to confirm that we have done everything wrong. And since January 1, 2026, emergency triangles become prohibited. Instead it will be mandatory to have a light V-16a beacon that will serve to alert other drivers from the roof of our car and notify the DGT that we have had a problem. If we do not act correctly, we expose ourselves to more than one fine. How to act with the new V-16 beacons The first thing to be clear about is that the new V-16 beacons do not only replace the emergency triangles. From now on, using the latter will be prohibited and placing them on the road may be punished with a fine of 80 euroswhich is related to not correctly signaling that there is an obstacle on the road. Therefore, before leaving home we will be obliged with the new year to have one of these new devices. What should we know about them? Here we leave you with the most basic but You can check all the requirements in this link: They must appear as approved in the DGT list (that guarantees that it meets the technical requirements) They must have batteries and an active battery Thinking about the future, they cannot be more than 12 years old (minimum time that the data connection must be guaranteed) unless an extension of this period is indicated on the device of the article itself. Once we are sure that we have the correct V-16 beacon, we must keep it in the glove compartment of the car. This is important because if we keep it in the trunk we will have to get out of the vehicle and that is, exactly, one of the reasons that the DGT alleges to activate these new warning lights. Therefore, if we have a breakdown, we must pull over and turn on the emergency lights. Then, we activate the beacon and putting your hand out the window of the car we place it on the roof. Once this is done, we have two options. If there is space to leave the vehicle and go to a safe place off the road surface, we should go there. Always with reflective vests on. If said space does not exist, from 2023 It is mandatory to wait for assistance from inside the vehicle with seat belts fastened. When we activate light V-16, the beacon should activate connectivity and contact the DGT 3.0 platform sending the coordinates of our position, this way it will be instantly verified that there is an incident on the road. This serves to activate the nearby light panels alerting that there is an incident on the road. In addition, connected vehicles traveling on that same road will receive a message in their browsers using the signal V-27 (a red triangle with an exclamation mark inside and three curved lines on the right side as a reminder of “connectivity”). This does not mean that emergency services are activated automatically. Passengers are responsible for notifying the insurance if the car must be towed and the emergency services, such as the Civil Guard, to alert them of what happened and facilitate the removal of the vehicle. Now we just have to wait. Of course, it must be taken into account that approved beacons guarantee emergency light flashing for a minimum of 30 minutes. From there, we will be left without an element that alerts us to our presence, beyond the vehicle’s emergency lights. An obvious solution is to buy a beacon with batteries and replace them when they stop working, but we must remember to carry this element in our car. Photo | Help Flash In Xataka | The V-16 beacon business: who is making money with the elimination of the DGT triangles

I had a 1TB hard drive collecting dust in a drawer. With a cheap case I have resurrected it for my Chromecast

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I have a Chromecast with Google TV in the salon for three years and I love it, but it has died of success. Among the system updates, the basic streaming apps (Prime Video, Netflix, Crunchyroll…), and many others that I install to customize it and squeeze itthe device lives permanently drowned. This is what has its biggest flaw: a scant 8 GB of storagewhich in practice come to nothing. While cleaning, I found an old 1TB hard drive from an old computer that I dismantled. I decided that before it continued to collect dust, I would have a use for my Chromecast. And yes, it is very easy use external memory to expand your storage. These were my steps to achieve it. Identify the hardware. The first thing was to know what he had on his hands. It was an internal hard drive (HDD) of a desktop PC, so its size was 3.5 inches. When I looked at the connector I found a SATA (not as “relic” as I thought), the interface of the last decade. With this information, I already knew I needed to convert it to an external drive. Two essential components. The Chromecast with Google TV only has one USB-C port that it uses for food. Therefore, it is not enough to buy a case to put the HDD in: a USB-C Hub was necessary. This hub is key and must have at least one port with Power Delivery (PD) to continue powering the Chromecast, and a USB-A to connect the hard drive. I bought a case compatible with my drive (3.5″ SATA) and the assembly was as simple as possible: remove screws, fit the hard drive into the internal port, and close it. Here’s a note: if your old hard drive is from a laptop (2.5″) you will save a cable bothering with this DIY tech. The casing will not need an independent power supply, although it is ideal to avoid problems. Important step: formatting. Here I had two options: connect it to the computer and format it in exFAT or NTFS or to the Chromecast itself. I ruled out FAT32 because of its 4GB per file limit. This would first make it a unit suitable for storing content and thus playing it, but I opted for the second so that my Chromecast could install apps on it. To do this, I connected the entire set (hub, power and hard drive) and turned on the TV. Maximum volume size Maximum file size Chromecast compatible FAT32 8TB 4GB Yeah NTFS 16 EiB (1,845^7 TB) 16 EiB (1.845^7 TB) theoretical In practice the limit is around 256 TB Requires software exFAT 16 EiB (1,845^7 TB) 64 ZiB (6.4^10TB) Yeah Convert hard drive to “internal” storage. As soon as the device booted up, it detected the new disk. As easy as going to “Settings” > “System” > “Storage” and clicking on “Delete and format as device storage” to leave everything almost ready. This process takes a few minutes and is essential: it prepares the HDD so that Google TV understands it as an extension of its own memory. You can even use the hard drive to record live content. The Chromecast has it among its options Result. The change is substantial. I have been able to install heavy apps like kodi with plugins, VLC, and various light games without the repetitive “memory full” warning. The system still uses the internal memory for essential data, but everything “heavy” goes directly to the hard drive. Extras. Although I stopped at this point, a USB hub provides more possibilities to give more power to the Google Chromecast. Have you bought or have one with a Ethernet port? You can use a cable to avoid Wi-Fi signal problems and never see the buffer of a loading video again. Or you can also use a keyboard to browse the web. Cover image | Pepu Ricca for Xataka Android In Xataka | Best streaming devices: the main alternatives of 2025 for your television

The case of mathematics shows that the hype threatens to explode in their faces

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A group of OpenAI researchers claimed to have “found solutions to 10 previously unsolved Erdös problems, and progress has been made on 11 others.” The statement seemed to indicate that GPT-5 had made an important qualitative leap in the field of mathematics, but the reality was very different. In fact, it all turned out to be an exaggeration that may harm OpenAI’s reputation going forward. what has happened. The OpenAI engineers’ claim was promising, but exaggerated. The original message from Mark Selke, one of them, was added to those of other researchers such as Boris Power—who he apologized after realizing that they had screwed up—or Sebastian Bubeck—who also ended up modifying the tweet and acknowledged the error—. The original tweet seemed to make it clear that GPT-5 had managed to solve several of the famous Erdös mathematical problems. I hadn’t really solved them. GPT-5 served to find solutions. The mathematician Thomas Bloom, who is precisely in charge of managing the website where all these open problems are managed, quickly clarified the situation. As explained on X/TwitterOpenAI’s claims were “a dramatically misinterpretation.” When he talks about “open” problems on the website, what he means is that he doesn’t know the solution, not that the problem has not been resolved. The only thing GPT-5 did was find recent research and studies that Bloom had not found. Here we must say that AI has managed to make striking mathematical advances recently: Meta AI, for example, managed to generalize the Lyapunov function. Demis Hassabis and Yann LeCun criticize OpenAI. Demis Hassabis, CEO of DeepMind, indicated in X that this event had been “shameful”, while Yann LeCun, one of the top AI managers at Meta, highlighted how OpenAI had believed its own hype sales message with the message “Hoisted by their own GPTards”, which plays on GPT and “tards” (a suffix derived from “retards”), in reference to the gullible expectations that OpenAI usually sells. Expectations are everything. Although OpenAI researchers and engineers admitted their mistake, what we see here is a dangerous pattern: one in which even the company’s own employees—or the enthusiasts who follow it—can end up falling victim to those expectations. It is very likely that internally the pressure to achieve great advances with their models is enormous, but that can lead to oversights and exaggerations like this that can cost the company’s reputation dearly. GPT-5 didn’t do badly at all. Although the role of GPT-5 in this process was exaggerated, what must be recognized is that this model demonstrated its ability to become a very valuable assistant for researchers. Thus, this AI model can search the Internet and scientific study libraries in a very powerful way, and can “find solutions” already published where academics had not yet seen them when trying to solve related problems. Research assistant. For mathematician Terence Tao, this is precisely a very striking element of these AI models: they may not solve the most complex mathematical problems, but can speed up tedious tasks such as those of the search for academic literature that helps solve them. For this expert, AI can help “industrialize” mathematics and act as a catalyst or “lubricant” for mathematicians’ hypotheses and theories. But this is important. OpenAI is a machine for creating expectations, and its CEO, Sam Altman, does not hesitate to make vague and impossible to verify promises to attract more interest in his generative artificial intelligence models. A year ago promised that the AGI would arrive “in a few thousand days”something that sounds like one of those “Musk’s promises”. risky bet. In recent weeks we have seen how OpenAI has reached unique circular financing agreements with NVIDIA, amd either Broadcom to create data centers, but the reality is that all these projects focus on one promise: that AI will be a fundamental part of our lives sooner rather than later. That can happen, of course, but if it doesn’t, the domino effect can be an absolute catastrophe given the tens of billions of dollars invested in such projects. Image | Vitaly Gariev In Xataka | If the question is whether there is an AI bubble, Sam Altman has just given the answer. One with which he wins

the strange case of the brain tumor that went unnoticed for 30 years

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Imagine being laughing for no reason at all, no a laugh of joy for having heard a joke, but rather a hollow, distressing laugh that you cannot stop. For a 31-year-old woman, this was his reality since he was a baby and for everyone around her this was a simple ‘tic’ or ‘strange’ behavior on her part. But in the end it turned out to be something much more serious: a brain tumor. A clinical case that is undoubtedly exceptional and that has deserved a publication in the journal Epilepsy & Behavior Case Reports. And it is not only rare because of its symptoms, but also because of the evolution it has had, which a priori has been completely benign. Something that until now had not been documented in anyone, being exceptional. The laughter. Since childhood, the patient experienced episodes of brief, joyless laughter. Before each episode, she felt a tightness in her neck and chest, a kind of “feeling of anguish” that was warning her of what was coming. Seconds later, laughter broke out, during which she remained conscious, but distressed because no one likes to do something they don’t know why they are doing. Furthermore, without controlling the social context where it occurs. It all also adds up to a very distressing condition such as having difficulty breathing, red skin, inability to swallow or even ending up crying while laughing. But within all this there was good news: although in the past the attacks were more frequent, reaching up to 6 or 7 attacks a day that even woke her up at night, over time they became milder and briefer, lasting just one or two seconds. This allowed him to hide them on most occasions. A late diagnosis. For years the cause was a mystery. The woman underwent a brain MRI and several electroencephalograms that were reported as normal. He was even prescribed treatments with levetiracetam and lamotriginewhich had no effect and were abandoned. The key came with a second, more detailed MRI. This time, specialists found the culprit: a tiny 5mm abnormality in the hypothalamus, consistent with a hypothalamic hamartoma (HH). A hamartoma is a congenital malformation, similar to a tumor, which in this case was causing the laughter attacks. The final diagnosis was “gelastic crises secondary to a hypothalamic hamartoma”, that is, a very specific type of epilepsy. A unique case. This case is really special, but not because of what was found in the MRI, but because normally the findings are associated with very serious symptoms such as epileptic seizures or cognitive impairment. But in this case none of these problems developed. On the contrary, he led a completely normal life with university studies and a stable job in the local administration that did not cause him any difficulties. And all this without having prescribed medication. So the question in these cases is mandatory: why? The authors are not at all clear about an answer to this question. The most likely explanation is that the size of the hamartoma was exceptionally small. It has been seen in the literature that hamartomas larger than 1 cm in diameter were associated with more severe crises of the “gelastic plus” type. But the small size together with a very specific location probably explains both the mildness of the attacks and the absence of the rest of the serious symptoms. Images | OurWhisky Foundation In Xataka | That a reporter runs after a pig is the best summary of what we want from AI: videos to break the bank

In case Spain did not have enough problems with sun and beach tourism, add a new business: wedding tourism

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There are those who travel to disconnect, to learn about new landscapes, cultures or traditions, to whom he guides his appetite or simply who wants to enjoy relaxing days on a distant beach with a soda in his hand. To all of them is now added a type of tourist difficult to classify and seeks something totally different: marry. Your trips feed the flourishing (and millionaire) Industry of Rinning Weddings And they are already The pillar of some balearic farms. The ‘yes I want’ as a new rising tourist asset. Two words: Rinning Weddings. The concept is not new, but a quick search on Google is enough to verify that little by little gains strength in Spain. The Rinning Weddings or ‘destination weddings’ are neither more nor less than what the term suggests: couples who, instead of getting married in the city in which they live or in which some of the bride and groom are sought, choose to give the ‘yes I want’ far away. In another city or region. It may even that in another country, including destinations as exotic as Las Vegas or some Greek island. The idea is very simple: that the wedding is more than a wedding for boyfriends and guests, that is also a getaway. A juicy business. It is not easy to provide precise (and updated) data on how many Spanish partners travel to other countries to marry and how many foreigners Spain choose as the scenario for their bodies. In any case something is clear: with Spanish tourism Breaking records and approaching the barrier of 100 million Of visitors, it is a juicy business. And clearly on the rise. In February, Future Marketin Sights consultant published A broad study that estimates that The global market The wedding tourism will be around 36,800 million dollars, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.4% throughout the next decade. They are high values, but above all they exceed those who handled only a few years ago. His Calculation for 2022for example, pointed to a business volume of ‘Solo’ 23,000 million. “The Rinning Weddings They are one of the most popular and most dynamic segments in the global wedding industry, in which couples opt for personalized experiences in exotic places around the world, ” The authors collect of the study. “More and more boyfriends choose to exchange their votes in picturesque and culturally rich places, often with a group of friends and family. The market covers a wide variety of services and destinations offers.” How does Spain affect? As Spain sits top of the world ranking of tourist destinations and even dreams of crowning it (something feasible already in 2040according to the estimates of Google and Deloitte), our country is also reinforced on the map of the Rinning Weddings. On the Internet they can be found A good number of websites in English dedicated to Organize weddings In Spain or what They promote the peninsula and the islands as “An ideal destination” so that the bride and groom exchange alliances. The Canary Islands, Malaga, Marbella or Mallorca usually appear on their list, although in reality the market is very wide. A few years ago Ciudad Rodrigo (Salamanca) launched a baptized initiative ‘Ciudad Rodrigo Wedding Friendly’ I was looking for precisely position the town on the map of wedding celebrations. As the main asset he used his rich historical heritage. A quick search in The Wedding Travel Company It shows in any case that couples determined to marry their city have an extensive list of alternatives in Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Portugal or the United States, to quote only some countries on their vast list. “We specialize”. To understand the phenomenon The confidential He has spoken With some representatives of the Mallorca sector, one of the hot points of national tourism. And their data and statements are striking. Finca is Cabàslocated just over 20 kilometers from the urban center of Palma, explains that practically 100% of the weddings they do are tourists. And the director of the farm They are brownlocated not much further from there, it agrees that about 98% of the links that host them also lead. “There is a lot of American, a lot of German, a lot of British,” Confirm Yesssi Morel, Wedding Plannerfor whom, beyond the attractiveness of Spain or the costs, the key of the island pull in the destination wedding market is the approach that the sector has adopted. “I think we put everything very easy to foreigners. We are specializing a lot. Every time weddings are perfected more.” As for costs, statista data Before the pandemic show that Spain is one of the countries where the most expensive weddings are celebrated ($ 23,400 on average in 2019), although in reality the data is not much higher than that of Italy and is below the $ 29,000 that were reached that same year in the US. “They seek to save and in Mallorca they have the same wedding with the same quality they could have in the US, but at a lower cost,” Morel clarifies. And how does Mallorquines affect? That is the other big question. In a market that looks at the foreign client and the American couples with a wide budget, what options do they have left? The topic is interesting because, as remember the Wedding Plannerforeigners who plan to marry their home usually follow certain patterns: they reserve well in advance and have no problem in celebrating their ceremonies any day of the week. That (of course) forces the locals to adapt. “The Mallorcan marries only on Saturday and usually prefer certain months, such as September. If they do not escape, they run out of dates,” Confirm The wedding organizer. “Farm owners believe they have a treasure in their hands. They have seen a reef.” Images | Carlo Buttinoni (UNSPLASH) and Camila Cordeiro (UNSPLASH) Via | The confidential In Xataka | The end of the open bar: how weddings are leaving behind their only ‘collective … Read more

The place where dozens of animal cells are stored in case there is a great disaster

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In a basement from the Biomedical Research Park in Barcelona, ​​between liquid nitrogen clouds, an incalculable value treasure is saved: an ark of Noah of the 21st century. It does not contain couples of animals, but thousands of small tubes at -196 ° C that retain life. It is the Cryozooa pioneer biobanco that stores cell lines of hundreds of species, many of them to the edge of extinction. It is not an achievement, but a warning. At the head of this initiative is the renowned molecular biologist Tomàs Marquès-Bonet, one of the Greater world experts in genomics of great worlds. As the world has collected, This project is not a great achievementbut a last use resource in the event that the main species of our planet are extinguished. This is explained by the researcher himself: Recovering species with these techniques is the failure of society, but it is amazing to be able to do it. The first must be to preserve in your habitat the animals that remain alive. And when everything else has failed, it is better to have these banks than not to have them, like an ace in the manga Of a biopsy to cell immortality. The concept, inspired by the famous San Diego Frozen Zoo, is as elegant as powerful. The Cryozoo team collaborates with about twenty European zoos and aquariums to obtain small tissue samples, often during routine veterinary reviews. In this way, with a millimeter of leather you can create a stock of cell lines and keep them forever. The process is surprisingly pragmatic. Zoos send biopsies in tubes with a conservation medium. A complex cold chain is not always needed; Sometimes, as in the case of a stranded whale in Valencia, a little serum is enough to start. In the laboratory conservation is consumed. Once the fabric reaches the laboratory, Technicians cultivate cellsallowing them to divide and multiply to form a homogeneous population that is called ‘cell line’. Reprogramming to stem cells. The most revolutionary step is reprogramming. They can take a skin cell and, by laboratory techniques, return it to a pluripotent state, turning it into a stem cell of induced pluripotentiality (IPSC). “A stem cell is a pluripotent cell, which means that it can become what you want,” says Marquès-Bonet. And once this is achieved, the last step of cryopreservation of both cell lines and IPSC in liquid nitrogen is reached, where they can remain viable for decades, waiting for the science of the future to need them. A technique similar to that used for human embryo conservationfor example, in fertility processes. Currently, Cryozoo already houses more than 2,000 samples of almost 300 species, which have generated 350 high quality cell lines. Among its “treasures” are Montseny Triton cells (the most threatened amphibian in Europe), the Pyrenean frog, the ORYX DAMMAH (A species already extinct in nature) and even the rhinoceros Pedro, the longest in Europe, deceased in 2023. Quality on quantity. What distinguishes Cryozoo from other initiatives is not its size, but its obsession with quality. And it is that the bank’s goal is not to have the more cell lines the better, but to have the best and most viable. To achieve this, they have implemented a step that they consider crucial and that makes them unique: sequence the complete genome of each cell line they create. In this way, they ensure that the genome of the cultivated cell is a faithful representation to the original animal without genetic aberrations that have occurred in the laboratory. AND the fact of sequencing it It is also a great advance for science, because on many occasions it is the first time that this technique is done in a specific species. Something that will be in a repository that any researcher can consult. They want to avoid using these cells. With the ability to convert skin cells into ovules and sperm, the question is inevitable: is the ultimate goal of ‘de -sextinction’? But researchers have it clear: it is a red line that they never want to pass. Although technology has already allowed to bring functionally extinct species such as the Huron of black legs or the Przewalski horse, the Cryozoo team considers that its function is to be custodians of the genetic material, not to execute reproduction. They would only make their cells available to a project of this caliber if it had the validation of the International Union for Nature Conservation (IUCN) and a global consensus. Cloning is not the step. Although it can be attractive to make ‘photocopies’ of animals in a laboratory, the reality is that today It is a expensive and inefficient process. The real effort of the researchers today lies in preserving ecosystems so that animals live in them and reproduce naturally. Without man having to intervene. A cell bank to save animals … and also humans. The value of Cryozoo does not only reside in that distant possibility of resuscitating species. Its applications are immediate and revolutionary for current research. And it is that diseases can be studied without damaging any living being by infecting cells with a pathogen to see how cells react. But it goes further, being able to create ‘mini organs’ to investigate the biology of some species, test drugs safely or investigate human diseases in the genetics of these animals. A hope for an uncertain future. The changes that succumb to our planet can cause in the future to be a real climatic emergency. That is why we prepare the ‘end of the end of the world‘To collect all the seeds of the world, and now we also collect all animals. A genetic library that, in the best stage, we will only consult for pure scientific curiosity and never for a planetary emergency. Images | Gary Bendig Julia Koblitz In Xataka | Apocalypse diet: science already knows what survivors will eat a nuclear war

The last case of prehistoric cannibalism found in Atapuerca only has a brutal explanation: violence

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There are few prehistoric cultures that we know practiced cannibalism. Already out of ritual, famine or in a context of violent conflict, the consumption of human flesh should not have to be completely uncommon, and now we have found a new example nearby, in Atapuerca. Canibalism in the Neolithic. A study of bone remains found in the cave of El Mirador, one of the deposits of Atapuerca, Burgos, He has found Canibalism tests among the inhabitants of this Burgos cave. The remains have been dated about 5,700 years ago, during the Neolithic. The remains found would have belonged to 11 individuals of different ages: “Including children, adolescents and adults,” explains the team responsible for the study. These data, they explain, point to a “systematic consumption”, probably linked to violence between groups and not to rituals or ceremonial acts. Ethnography and archeology teach us that even in barely stratified societies there are episodes of violence where enemies are also consumption as a form of extreme elimination ”, stood out in a press release Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo, co-author of the study. Incriminatory brands.The remains, in an “exceptional state”, were found in two different sectors of the cave. The taphonomic analysis of the remains (the study of the process that leads to some bone remains to fossilize), allowed to identify in these remains of cutting and fractures that allowed access the marrowas well as cooking tests and footprints left by human teeth during consumption. The team also conducted an isotopic strontium analysis (SR), which studies the relative presence of two isotopes of this element (⁸⁷sr and ⁸⁶sr) that showed that the individuals consumed “were of local origin.” The analysis also showed that its consumption was fast. The radiocarbon analysis, meanwhile, allowed to date the remains, placing them in a time space between 5,700 and 5,570 years before the present. The details of the study were published In an article In the magazine Scientific Reports. Interpret the incomprehensible. Today cannibalism is abominable, to the point of being taboo in life or death contexts. That is why interpreting these past practices is difficult for those who study them. After analyzing the tests found, the team concluded that the case responded to a confrontation between livestock groups in the area. This conflict I would have concluded With the “elimination of a complete family group”, a elimination made if it can be more tangible with the consumption of the group’s meat. “Canibalism is one of the most complex behaviors of interpreting, due to the difficulty that the consumption of human beings by other human beings implies. To this it is added that, in many cases, we do not have all the necessary evidence to link it with a specific behavioral context. Finally, the prejudices of our society tend to always interpret it as an act of barbarism,” pointed in the press release Palmira Saladié, who led the team responsible for the study. Of the Neolithic at the Bronze Age. This would not be an isolated case in the history of the Cave of El Mirador, not even the most recent. The finding is linked to a previous discovery, another case of cannibalism in the same environment, only that this already in the Bronze Age, between 4,600 and 4,100 years ago. “The recurrence of these practices at different times of recent prehistory in the cave of El Mirador makes this deposit a key site to understand prehistoric human cannibalism and their link with death, as well as with a possible ritual or cultural interpretation of the human body within the worldview of those groups,” Saladié added. In Xataka | Cup -shaped skulls, cannibal practices and other things that were done in Malaga 7,000 years ago Image | IPhes-Cerca

His name is Dead Hand and is activated in case of Russian annihilation

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The verbal escalation between Washington and Moscow He intensified After the statements of Dmitri Medvedev, former Russian president and current vice president of the Security Council, by reacting hard to the ultimatum launched by the United States: stop the offensive in Ukraine within ten days or face new sanctions. Medvedev described The threat as “a step towards war”, and then remembered a cold war system. The diplomatic trigger. Yes, because the leader He replied with allusions to the known Russian nuclear system Like Dead Handdesigned to guarantee reprisals even if Kremlin’s leadership was eliminated. Far from softening the tone, Trump replied that the Russian had to “monitor his words”, warning that he entered “a very dangerous territory.” It was in this context that the US president ordered the repositioning of two nuclear submarines In “appropriate regions”, an unusually public gesture that sought to convey firmness against what he described as “incendiary” comments. The nuclear background. The announcement recounted an important symbolic burden, since the movements of American ballistic submarines are rarely made public. Analysts Like James Actonfrom Carnegie Endowment, they recalled that the United States nuclear deterrence already maintains constant capacity in the Atlantic and the Pacific, which suggests that the deployment has more A political character than a real change in military position. The MEDYDEV mention To Dead Hand underlines the growing centrality of Russian nuclear discourse since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine. Far from his image as a reformist leader between 2008 and 2012, Medvedev has embraced a incendiary tone In social networks, repeatedly referring to atomic Arsenal as a letter of intimidation, which raises tension at a time of military and diplomatic stagnation. The origin of an apocalyptic weapon. The idea of a Final Judgment Devicean automatic mechanism that guarantees nuclear retaliation even when a country has been devastated and its eliminated leaders seemed for decades a science fiction fantasy. However, the Soviet Union materialized in 1985 under the name of Perimetr systembetter known in the West as Dead Hand. The principle was simple in its logic and terrifying in its consequence: even if the enemy launched a perfect first attack, annihilating Moscow’s political and military command, a Autonomous system He would ensure the nuclear response, also condemning the aggressor. In other words, it was the incarnation of the insured mutual destructionbrought to an automatic level in which no human decision could stop the sequence once activated. The strategic motivation of Moscow. The development of the system responded to the growing Soviet vulnerability in the 1980s. The improvement in the accuracy of the American missiles launched from submarines reduced the half -hour warning time just three minuteswhich made it impossible to organize a counterattack before destruction. In that scenario, the classical deterrence of the cold war was threatened, because Washington could consider feasible a first disabling blow. To restore balance, Kremlin designed the Perimetrthat when activated in times of tension would remain latent, evaluating with seismic, radiological and atmospheric pressure sensors if the territory had been attacked. Only then, and after verifying the loss of contact with the General Staff, the system granted launch authority to the crew buried in A armored bunkereliminating the need for intact command chains. The mechanism. The system’s core was a unique missile: 15P011not armed with a nuclear head, but with a radio transmitter hardened against radiation. When taking off from a protected silo, this projectile flew over the country issuing launch orders to the ICBM silos, to the strategic submarines and the bombers, replacing the communications infrastructure that was presumed destroyed. This guaranteed mass retaliation against Preprogrammed objectives. The decision chain was reduced to a Sequence of conditional: If an attack was detected, if there was no communication with the high command, and if after a prudential time the signals were not restored, then the revenge was assured. A single operator, locked in Your underground positioncould trigger the complete arsenal of the Soviet Union. Between the secret and the paradox. Paradoxically, the real utility of Perimetr did not reside so much to intimidate the United States with its existence, because for years it remained in the strictest secret, revealed to the world in 1993. Rather it worked like a Psychological insurance For Soviet leaders themselves. Knowing that the system would automatically respond to them not to rush before ambiguous signals and gain time to analyze whether an alleged attack was not, in reality, a radar error or a flock of geese confused with missiles. Instead of accelerating nuclear button, Dead Hand reduced risk of a catastrophic error by excessive reaction, providing a strange respite in a climate marked by permanent fear of Armageddon. Validity. Although the exact details remain classified, It is believed than perimetr Follow operational in current Russia, modernized after the dissolution of the USSR. Its only existence remembers the thin line between strategic stability and global destruction: a device that, in theory, converts nuclear war into a absolute nonsensebut at the same time contains the power to erase civilization without human intervention. The unusual thing is that, far from being the irrational monster by Dr. StrangeloveDead Hand may have been the more rational invention In the logic of terror balance: a mechanism created to calm those who could destroy the world with an impulsive order. In that disturbing paradox, its legacy is supported: the only real device of assured destruction that, by guaranteeing retaliation, reduced temptation of error and, somehow, the nuclear vertigo of the cold war made more habitable. Today, the episode Between Trump and Medvedev It emphasizes once again the fragility of the nuclear balance between both powers: on the one hand, the tacit dissuasion of the United States, whose underwater force Always remain ready No need for ads. On the other, Kremlin’s constant resource to atomic rhetoric as an instrument of psychological pressure. Image | Włodi In Xataka | The good news for Russia is that the earthquake occurred in a remote area. The bad is that he concentrated his nuclear submarines … Read more

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