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In the 15th century Mallorca was a great manufacturer of nautical charts. Now that has allowed him to get hold of a treasure

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When almost six centuries ago the cartographer Pere Rossell created a detailed nautical chart of the Mediterranean, its purpose was to help sailors negotiate the winding coasts of North Africa and the Tyrrhenian, Ionian and Black Seas, a vast expanse of water crisscrossed with trade routes. What Rossell probably did not imagine is that in 2025 that Portulan letter full of annotations, lines and the occasional illustration would end up becoming a treasure in itself. One for which the Consell de Mallorca has paid 700,000 euros. The goal: bring him back home. A map, a treasure. That there are maps (and codices) that are worth more than many treasures is nothing new. He reminded us a few years ago an atlas supposedly consulted by Christopher Columbus on his first trip to America that ended up sold for several million euros. And we has remembered again now the Consell de Mallorca, although with a much more modest outlay. The island government has just paid 700,000 euros by a nautical chart prepared in the mid-15th century by one of the most important (and prolific) cartographers on the island at that time: Pere Rossellpart of the Mallorcan cartographic schoolwhich in turn connects with one of the eras of greatest splendor of the region in the preparation of nautical charts. From the workshops of Mallorca came plans so precious that they were in demand from Flanders to Alexandria. The Mediterranean on paper. The Majorcan press assures that the objective of the Consell is to expose the document in the Mallorca Museumbut the truth is that you don’t have to wait that long to enjoy its details, colors and annotations. At least if we don’t mind doing it through a screen. Sotheby’s, the firm in charge of the auction, includes a description and a detailed gallery of images on your websitewhich recalls that the plan was drawn up at the end of the 1440s, is written in Latin and Catalan and shows the Mediterranean and Black Seas in great detail. In the work Rossell reviewed dozens and dozens of place names and multiple navigation routes. As a cherry on top, it included shields, flags and details of nine cities with their fortifications. “Part of our identity”. Sotheby’s also stated that the plan has been valued by between 700,000 and one million of pounds. Mallorca Diary precise that the starting price was 600,000, around 687,000 euros, the amount that the island Government has decided to disburse through a direct purchase. The effort is more than justified for the Consell. Its head of Culture, Antònia Roca, celebrated a few days ago that portulano returns to Mallorca after spending several centuries outside the land where it was made, around the year 1447. “We acquired one of the most important jewels of maritime navigation and our historical heritage and we want to share it with the citizens.” A jewel that comes home. Roca is not the only one who thinks this way. A few weeks ago, prestigious historians such as María Barceló, emeritus professor of Medieval History, they claimed to local institutions to take advantage of the Sotheby’s auction to enrich the island’s heritage with a unique piece. Among other reasons, they alleged that no Majorcan public institution has one of the 15th century letters that came from the island’s School of Cartography. “They are the first who should act, they have the moral obligation to acquire it. We must recover the cultural heritage of this land dispersed throughout the world,” the expert insisted. Days later the Consell seemed to take note. Is it so valuable? Beyond its heritage value, Sotheby’s highlights the peculiarity of the nautical chart within Rossell’s legacy: the work that the Consell has just acquired is “the oldest of the ten navigation maps signed by Rossell”, one of the great exponents of the Mallorcan school. The plan was probably drawn up as a commission from the powerful Florentine Martelli family, in whose archive it was preserved for more than five centuries, until almost the 1970s, when it appears in the book dealer’s catalogue. Kenneth Nebenzahl. In the 80s it passed into the hands of the Pritzker couple and now (after a stop at the Sotheby’s auction house) it returns to Mallorca. Works of art…practical. Pere Rossell’s nautical chart is relevant for another reason. In his day there were ordinary plans in which practical criteria predominated and were basically designed for use on board ships, so they were sparse in decorations and ornaments. Then there were luxury portulans, meticulously decorated objects that usually ended up in palaces. As explains Ramón J. Pujadeshead of research at the Barcelona History Museum, The Worldthe work acquired by the Consell is halfway between both categories. They are premium nautical charts, designed for navigation but that do not give up aesthetics or becoming a status symbol. Images | Shoteby’s and Wikipedia In Xataka | Someone has created abstract works of art with one of the most unique forms of engineering: highway “knots”

one of the most influential films of the 21st century

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It has been almost two decades since the premiere of ‘The Holiday‘, one of the Christmas movies par excellence and feel good movie manual. There are several points that catapult certain stories as a Christmas reference and this work by Nancy Meyers (‘You to London and I to California’, ‘When you least expect it’) meets all the requirements. The story of two women who, when their love relationships implode, decide to take a 180-degree turn in their lives and exchange homes during the Christmas holidays is the starting point to wrap you in all the Christmas syrup required. It is more than natural that you enjoy ‘Home Alone’, ‘Polar Express’ or ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ but the truth is that a rom com It competes like no other genre for the title of Christmas phenomenon and helps you enter the new year with the necessary energy. Story of a “Christmas movie” It is easy to review all the characteristics that have made ‘The Holiday’ a must-see Christmas event and one of the most influential romantic comedies of the 21st century. The main asset and what makes it the icon it is today is its more than successful cast. Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Jack Black… All of them do that thing that is so unpleasant in an actor of “playing themselves”, or at least, how we viewers think they are. Its special touch, which provides fresh air and differentiates it from the rest of rom coms Christmas is its goal character. The continuous mentions of the film industry, the world of scriptwriting, premieres and having cameos from stars such as Dustin Hoffman enriches the traditional journey that the protagonists take in this archetype of films. It is mandatory that a romantic comedy and a Christmas movie be cheesy, there is no other option and that is what we are looking for, but if we want to introduce cheesiness with taste, that is where things get complicated. ‘The Holiday’ achieves the most difficult thing and is the best example of handling tenderness with just the right amount of corniness. It does not only achieve this with its main love stories, but with another essential piece: Arthur. Having in your cast a film figure like the great Eli Wallach (‘The Godfather. Part III’; ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’; ‘The Magnificent Seven’…) and giving him the place he deserves with a twist to his filmography is worthy of admiration. The actor carries the weight of the plot more tender. A love story that endures over the years and loss, which speaks of the physical and mental vulnerability of old age and the importance of surrounding yourself with a circle of support. Here is the great story of ‘The Holiday’, everything that involves the protagonists. And the journey and purpose of the characters goes through their love relationships, but in reality it is not the only thing that defines them. It is at this point that on many occasions, we notice the difference between a good romantic comedy script and just another “afternoon movie.” If we pay attention to the relationship that Iris (Kate Winslet) establishes with Arthur (Eli Wallach) and the bond they create, we get a much more complete portrait of the character and personality of the character and with this, our own connection with the film and the plot increases. We suffer much more with the treatment she receives from her ex-partner, that neglect ends up feeling like her own and the feelings on the surface come with the famous speech about heartbreak that no one but Kate Winslet can make. “What I’m trying to tell you is that I understand what it’s like to feel like the smallest, most insignificant and pathetic being in humanity and what it’s like to feel pain in parts of your body that you didn’t even know you had (…)” – Winslet’s monologue in ‘The Holiday’ So the romantic element does not fade, but the plot of Graham’s daughters (Jude Law), the parallelism with Amanda’s childhood (Cameron Díaz) or that beautiful friendship between Iris and Arthur ends up completely rounding off this Christmas icon. The sweet spot of Christmas fantasy Furthermore, as we have already touched on previously, talking about Christmas movies and what they reveal about you‘The Holiday’ and that particular “Choose your own love story” allows it to reach different types of audiences. While many people pine for Jude Law, the handsome stereotype movie who is also an exemplary father, others decide to opt for the sweetness and kindness of Jack Black. The slow-burning ending of Iris and Miles’ story is its true story. couple goals and perhaps something much more credible than those declarations of love in minute one of Graham and Amanda. One of the biggest challenges that this type of film faces is the fantasy/reality balance. As a general rule, the public wants to immerse themselves in a fantasy that accompanies the seasonal spirit and helps them forget about daily life for at least two hours, but at the same time, they need a certain connection to get involved in a story that, after all, talks about feelings. And here ‘The Holiday’ once again passes with flying colors. We can fantasize and dream about that luxury house in Los Angelesthe cozy English cottage from a story during a Christmas full of love and magic, or if we go very crazy, that Hollywood pays tribute in life to a great screenwriter as happens with Arthur, but at the same time the rawness of heartbreak or disappointments in personal or work relationships connects us with real life and fully links us with the story. Nor can we ignore one of the fundamental elements that give the package to ‘The Holiday’, and that is that music does not only play an important role during the beautiful scene in which Miles creates a piece of music inspired by Iris. To top it all off, the soundtrack is by Hans Zimmer, … Read more

The origin of December 25 is in an obscure third century antipope obsessed with the birth of Christ

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For years, we have repeated that Christmas is an invention. Not only does the Bible not specify that Jesus was born on December 25, it is that It is implausible that it was on that date. The gospels themselves detail that there were shepherds tending flocks outdoors (something unlikely in the Decembers of the time in Bethlehem), but the idea that the Romans were going to take a census on those dates is almost delirious. For this reason, we have repeated over and over again, the most reasonable explanation is that during the 4th century, the Church set the birth of Christ on December 25 to make it coincide (and in the process ‘Christianize’) the pagan festivities of Sol Invictus and Saturnalia. The only problem is that the latest available evidence goes in another direction: that of an obscure third century antipope who, obsessed with making a chronology of the scriptures, arrived at the date of the 25th independently. This is the story of how Hippolytus of Rome invented Christmas. The myth of the Christianization of Roman festivals Hail, Caesar! Io, Saturnalia! by Lawrence Alma-Tadema But let’s start by reviewing the best-known theory and seeing why some authors They have started to doubt them. As is often read on the Internet, this theory tells us that there is nothing coincidental about the December 25 election. On that date there was already a birthday, that of the “Unconquered Sun” (which would be the winter solstice for the Romans) and the Church, which during the 4th century struggled to — and would succeed — to become the official religion of the Empire, would have taken advantage of the pull of the pagan festival to place Christmas there. And the theory makes sense. However, it has a big problem; does not really resolve the question at hand: why 25? As explained Thomas C. Schmidta researcher at Princeton University, indeed the Roman Saturnalia fell on those dates, but not on that date. Certainly, it is difficult to be conclusive when we talk about that historical period, but everything seems to indicate that the strong day of Saturnalia fell closer to the 17th than to the 25th. In fact, if this approximation is true, we could not even say that it is the end of the ‘sigilarias’ (the celebrations – of a week – that followed the birth of the Unconquered Sun). Other festivities such as the Kalends (which were already celebrated in January) or the brumals (the solstice festival) do not fit well with the date in question either. That is to say, the idea that these Roman festivals are the origin of Christmas is, as I say, suggestive; but it still does not provide a convincing explanation as to why the Church chose the 25th. To answer that question we have to dig a little deeper. Since when is Christmas celebrated in “Christmas”? As says Schmidt.the first historical reference to December 25 as the day of the “birth of Christ in Bethlehem of Judea” can be found within the Filócalo Calendarin a document dated 336. It is a curious fact. And, although it is not something that explains the central issue of our question (the reason for December 25), it does give us a time frame: it tells us where to look for that explanation because, for practical purposes, we can assume that during the 4th century the festival was already relatively consolidated. That is, you would have to search a little before. Specifically to 222. In that year it is dated a statue of Hippolytus from Rome found in 1551 near the Via Tiburtina. The interesting thing about the statue is that, among its many inscriptions, it includes a lunar tablet that is kept today in the Vatican Library. Who is Hippolytus of Rome and what does he have to do with all this? Adoration of the Shepherds, by Gerard van Honthorst Hippolytus of Rome is a very multifaceted figure. Considered one of the great theologians and preachers of his time (in fact, Origen can be considered his disciple in some respects), he led a schism in 217 that led him to distance himself from the Church for a decade. He is, at the same time, the first antipope in history and a saint who, according to what is said, died martyred 235: he is, in fact, the only antipope canonized to this day. Well, we know that already in 220 after Christ, Hippolytus (in a commentary on the book of Daniel) defended that “The first coming of our Lord, in Bethlehem, was on Wednesday, December 25.” However, we also know that this text is manipulated. There are several versions with modified dates: among them, some that explain that the birth was in March or April. And the truth is that if Jesus was born in April many of our problems would be solved suddenly. However, looking only at the texts, it is not clear. That’s where the statue comes in. Because in the lunar table of the inscriptions, all past and future Easters appear calculated and, along with them, two key notes for us: the original Good Friday (which fell on March 25) and the “genesis” of the Lord (the year 2 AD) which fell on April 2. In the year 235, in a very ambitious work in which he traced the complete chronology of creation, Hippolytus It advanced that origin to March 25 for the simple (and, seen from today, absurd) reason that that was the date on which, according to their data, the world had been created. The true “genesis” of Christmas Paolo de Matteis But what does all this have to do with December 25? The answer is in the statue although I have overlooked it: specifically, in the word “genesis.” Because what is the “genesis” of a person? His birth or his conception? While it would be better for us if it were his birth (because it would fit with what the Bible says about Christmas), … Read more

A quarter of a century ago a student put together 32 GeForce graphics cards to play Quake III. CUDA came from there

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In the year 2000 Ian Buck wanted to do something that seemed impossible: play Quake III in 8K resolution. Young Buck was studying computer science at Stanford, specializing in computer graphics, and then a crazy idea occurred to him: put together 32 GeForce graphics cards and render Quake III on eight strategically placed projectors. “That,” he explained years later, “was beautiful.” Buck told that story in ‘The Thining Machine’, the essay published by Stephen Witt in 2025 that traces the history of NVIDIA. And of course one of the fundamental parts of that story is the origin of CUDA, the architecture that AI developers have turned into a gem and that has allowed the company to boost and become the most important in the world by market capitalization. And it all started with Quake III. The GPU as a home supercomputer That, of course, was just a fun experiment, but for Buck it was a revelation, because there he discovered that perhaps specialized graphics chips (GPUs) could do more than draw triangles and render Quake frames. In 2006 the GeForce 8800 GTS (and its higher version, the GTX) began the CUDA era. To find out, he delved into the technical aspects of NVIDIA graphics processors and began researching their possibilities as part of his Stanford PhD. He gathered a small group of researchers and, with a grant from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), began working on an open source programming language that he called Brook. That language allowed something amazing: making graphics cards become home supercomputers. Buck demonstrated that GPUs, theoretically dedicated to working with graphics, could solve general-purpose problems, and also do so by taking advantage of the parallelism offered by those chips. Thus, while one part of the chip illuminated triangle A, another was already rasterizing triangle B and another writing triangle C in memory. It wasn’t exactly the same as today’s data parallelism, but it still offered amazing computing power, far superior to any CPU of the time. That specialized language ended up becoming a paper called ‘Brook for GPUs: stream computing on graphics hardware‘. Suddenly parallel computing was available to anyone, and although that project barely received public coverage, it became something that one person knew was important. That person was Jensen Huang. Shortly after publishing that study, the founder of NVIDIA met with Buck and signed him on the spot. He realized that this capacity of graphics processors could and should be exploited, and began to dedicate more and more resources to it. CUDA is born When Silicon Graphics collapsed in 2005 – due to NVIDIA that was intractable in workstations – many of its employees ended up working for the company. 1,200 of them in fact went directly to the R&D division, and one of the big projects of that division was precisely to take forward this capacity of these cards. John Nickolls / Ian Buck. As soon as he arrived at NVIDIA, Ian Buck began working with John Nickolswho before working for the firm had tried—unsuccessfully—to get ahead of the future with his commitment to parallel computing. That attempt failed, but together with Buck and some other engineers he launched a project to which NVIDIA preferred to give a somewhat confusing name. He called it Compute Unified Domain Architecture. CUDA was born. Work on CUDA progressed rapidly and NVIDIA released the first version of this technology in November 2006. That software was free, but it was only compatible with NVIDIA hardware. And as often happens with many revolutions, CUDA took a while to gel. In 2007 the software platform was downloaded 13,000 times: the hundreds of millions of NVIDIA graphics users only wanted them for gaming, and it remained that way for a long time. Programming to take advantage of CUDA was difficult, and Those first times were very difficult for this projectwhich consumed a lot of talent and finances at NVIDIA without seeing any real benefits. In fact, the first uses of CUDA had nothing to do with artificial intelligence because artificial intelligence was barely talked about at the time. Those who took advantage of this technology were scientific departments, and only years later would the revolution that this technology could cause take shape. A late (but deserved) success In fact, Buck himself pointed this out in a 2012 interview with Tom’s Hardware in 2012. When the interviewer asked him what future uses he saw for the GPGPU technology offered by CUDA in the future, he gave some examples. He talked about companies that were using CUDA to design next-generation clothes or cars, but he added something important: “In the future, we will continue to see opportunities in personal media, such as sorting and searching photos based on image content, i.e. faces, location, etc., which is a very computationally intensive operation.” Here Buck knew what he was talking about, although he did not imagine that this would be the beginning of the true CUDA revolution. In 2012 two young doctoral students named Alex Krizhevsky and Ilya Sutskever They developed a project under the guidance of their supervisor, Geoffrey Hinton. The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant (English Edition) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links That project was none other than AlexNetthe software that allowed images to be classified automatically and which until then had been a useless challenge due to the cost of the computing it required. It was then that these academics trained a neural network with NVIDIA graphics cards and CUDA software. Suddenly AI and CUDA were starting to make sense. The rest, as they say, it’s history. In Xataka | We can forget about AI without hallucinations for now. NVIDIA CEO explains why

In 1934 a Russian aristocrat proclaimed himself king of Andorra. He was actually the craziest scammer of the 20th century.

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Boris Skossyreff was a man of longevity. He died in 1989just turned 93 years old, in a nursing home in Boppardin what was then West Germany. However, even that long existence seems to fall short when we remember the many lives that Skossyreff chained: he was born into a rich family in Vilnius, but the Bolshevik Revolution forced him very soon to leave his country and look for a life, trying his fortune as a swindler, spy, forger, gigolo, translator and even contender for the throne of Andorra. Added to this extensive resume is his status as a troublemaker, born drinker, lover of good bad life, seducer, fortune hunter and possessor of an elastic morality that, among other things, allowed him to act as triple spy (they say that he served as such for Germany, Great Britain and the United States) and survive in concentration camps and gulags, even at the cost of collaborating with the Nazis. Anything to survive. His life may not be exemplary, but it is exciting enough to have made him the protagonist of a documentary and a bookboth titled ‘Boris Skossyreff, the swindler who was king’ and signed by Jorge Cebrián. Reconstructing his story did not only require years of interviews and diving into archives and newspaper archives. As confesses the director and authorthe work has had to go beyond the “myths, half-truths and lies” that surround the figure of Boris to discover the authentic character without “simplifying or romanticizing him.” And the Russian Revolution came Skossyreff’s must have been a life of privileges, comforts and income. At least those were the letters he found when he was born, in 1896, in Vilnius, today the capital of Lithuania but at that time part of the Russian dominions. Theirs was a good family, rich and aristocratic. The problem is that those cards turned against him when the Red Revolution of 1917 broke out. Young Boris had no choice but to run away and look for a life outside the country. He ended up in the Royal Navy British, maintaining a more or less comfortable life based on scams, bad checks and a lot of gossip. In addition to its good perch, they say that Skossyreff was a polyglot (he spoke at least Russian, English, French, German, Spanish and Italian, although he raised the list of languages ​​​​that he knew 20), he took such care of his appearance that he even walked around with a monocle in a prison camp and above all he exuded a charisma that opened doors for him. Among other things, he achieved a Nansen passport which allowed him to move around Europe even with the safe conduct already expired. His wanderings through Great Britain did not last long. From there he ended up going to the Netherlands, where he presented himself as a distinguished aristocrat in the service of the queen, and continued his life journey through Spain, Marseille and finally Spain again, where he ended up in Mallorca. His problems with the law haunt him, but he manages to gain the trust of two women: Marie Louise Parata rich divorcee 14 years older than him, whom he ends up marrying; and Florence Marmonex-wife of an automobile industry magnate, with whom he indulges in a life of debauchery. So many that it ends up forcing him to pack his bags and leave Mallorca. Boris I of Andorra After passing through Sitges accompanied by his lover, the Russian hustler decided to launch himself into the biggest and craziest of all his coups: invent an aristocratic lineage that would make him, he argued, the prince of Andorra. He even introduced himself as Boris I. The fact that he noticed just that portion of Pyrenean terrain is not causality. At that time Andorra was governed by the bishop of Seu d’Urgel and the president of France and presented a series of shortcomings (and potentialities) in which Skossyreff saw a huge opportunity. He encouraged the Andorrans to break with their rulersdelve into their independence and undertake a series of projects to modernize following the example of Monaco. In front, of course, he would put himself, something to which his family tree supposedly (supposedly) entitled him. Skossyreff managed to make noise and aroused the interest of the press. It is counted that even The New York Times (among other newspapers) came to give visibility to that extravagant aristocrat who insisted that he was born to occupy the throne of Andorra. The truth is that Boris was not content with moving papers and launching advertisements. In 1934 He even proclaimed himself Boris I, sovereign of Andorra, a daring move that did not last long. Fed up with his adventures, the bishop of La Seu d’Urgell notified the Civil Guard to stop him. His supposed (supposed) reign lasted just nine days. That could have been the final chapter for Boris Skossyreff, but he managed to navigate the turbulent 20th century, moving through Europe with astonishing ease. It does not matter that the civil war caught him in Spain, that France sent him to a republican refugee camp, that after the outbreak of World War II he ended up in a Dachau concentration camp or that, once Hitler fell, the Russians condemned him to more than two decades of forced labor in the icy Siberia. Like the most seasoned cat, he always managed to land on his feet. To achieve this, he had no qualms about dazzling women who sent him money or taking advantage of his linguistic skills to serve as a translator for the Nazis. If there is an anecdote that portrays his ability to survive, it is the one that circulates about his stay in the Dachau camp, where, makes sure In the documentary filmed by Cebrián, “he did not take off his monocle not even to clean the latrines“. Not even Siberia could put an end to it. In the mid-1950s he managed to return to Germany. He first settled with his French wife, then … Read more

Einstein is the biggest rock star of the 20th century

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Every now and then a news story is published where this or that scientist claims to have achieved something surprising: deny or confirm a theory put forward by Albert Einstein more than a hundred years ago. The unusual interest that the physicist arouses today is only the result of a process that already occurred while he was still alive: his status as a “star”, his status as celebrity. How is it possible that a theoretical physicist has achieved such fame and recognition? At Xataka we believe we have the answer: remove Adele and Taylor Swift because, behind Einstein’s casual hair, hides the biggest pop-rock star of the 20th century. Einstein’s story has everything to succeed, a story that could be called “the gravitational physics equation that made Spielberg cry”: that of a young Jewish man, shy, somewhat clumsy and with speech problems who fails his exams and, as he finishes his degree, cannot find a job. in yourshas to get to work in a gray patent office. That young man will take three years to revolutionize the world of physics and, by extension, the world in general. The tours Einstein spent much of the 1920s and 1930s on tour. Precisely, he was outside Germany when the Nazis took power and that, taking into account the desire they had for himsurely saved his life. He visited many places and there are hilarious anecdotes. Of course he was also in Spain. And the media and society at the time went a little crazy. Julio Camba wrote in El Sol that “the public that filled the classroom of the Faculty of Sciences. Mr. Einstein was welcomed with a great round of applause. Undoubtedly, all of us gathered there admired him a lot; but if someone asks us why we admired him, they will put us in quite a serious situation.” Cartoons like this image of Bagaria that we attach below filled the front pages of the newspapers in Madrid, Zaragoza and Barcelona. After all, he was already a Nobel Prize winner (the diamond disk of science). Thanks to that it became popular even among the popular classes, such as says historian Thomas Glickwalking down the street, a chestnut seller recognized him on the street and shouted to him “Long live the inventor of the automobile!“How long live it!” The groupies and the haters There is no rock star without groupies. That’s how it is. Fans sneaking into the singer’s house to steal a souvenir are a classic in the world of music. It also happened to Einstein. In late May or early June 1978, Michel Aron (newly named editor of New Jersey Monthly) approached a 27-year-old editor named Steven Levy and said, “I want you to find Einstein’s brain.” Rumors had been circulating for years about the brain in question. Steven Levy scoured the entire United States to find the coroner who performed the physicist’s autopsy. When he found Thomas S. Harvey He confessed that he had stolen the organ without the family’s permission and had been taking it around the United States for more than 30 years. Undoubtedly, Einstein also took the fan phenomenon to another level. Einstein some strong smear campaigns. It is logical, taking into account that among his detractors were some of the greatest experts on haterism in history. “100 scientists against Einstein“was perhaps the most aggressive campaign. But he resolved it with a phrase: “One hundred? Why so many? If I were wrong, only one would be enough…”. For the rest, the truth is that it must be recognized that he quickly became an endearing, distracted and somewhat crazy being. Einstein for a while They say that at a social gathering, Marilyn Monroe crossed paths with Albert Einstein, they started talking and, at some point, she said to him: “Professor, we should get married and have a child together. Can you imagine a baby with my beauty and intelligence?” Einstein very seriously responded: “Unfortunately I fear that the experiment will go the other way and we will end up with a son with my beauty and intelligence.” The anecdote, which is almost certainly lieshows the social and cultural stature of that Jew from Ulm called Albert Einstein. A carving that has generated countless cultural products. Some tremendously good. Become a symbol of peace, creativity and the use of science to help humanity, any excuse is good to celebrate it publicly. For our part, we just need to finish with what is perhaps the most important quote that Einstein said in his life. “Rest and be relatively good.” In Xataka | Einstein’s first violin had passed unnoticed. Until an auction house put it up for sale. In Xataka | What is a light year and why it is impossible to travel it in less than a year, according to Einstein’s relativity In Xataka | More than 100 years ago Einstein predicted gravitational lensing. Thanks to this we have discovered a “dark matter bridge” Image | Collab Media

Microsoft had the deal of the century on its hands. A break of a year and a half was given to one of his rivals on a platter

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With its early deal with OpenAI, Microsoft was leading the AI ​​race in 2023. A year later it froze its expansion. Now Oracle serves OpenAI models and competitors share what Nadella’s company rejected. Why is it important. This isn’t just about lost data centers. Microsoft has assigned contracts with OpenAI valued at $420 billion to Oracle, equivalent to $150 billion in gross profit over five years. That would have increased its annual profitability by 18%. This means that in addition to losing growth, Microsoft also financed the entry of a rival into the most profitable business of the decade, according to analysis by Semianalysis. The facts. In 2023, Microsoft multiplied its investment in OpenAI tenfold to $10 billion and broke ground on the largest data centers ever built. Represented more than 60% of all infrastructure leases cloud among the greats. In 2024 it stopped everything in its tracks. It canceled 3.5 gigawatts of planned capacity — enough to power 2.5 million homes — and projects in a dozen countries. Its share of contracts fell below 25%. Between the lines. The company has used the argument of financial prudence: it did not want OpenAI to represent 50% of Azure’s revenue with lower margins than the traditional business. But the reality is simpler: he couldn’t keep up: OpenAI demanded a speed that Microsoft couldn’t match. Yes, but. The company has returned to the market with some urgency. The problem is that the options have been running out. Now rents capacity to neoclouds —specialized companies that build infrastructure—to resell it to third parties. It is a business with worse margins. The company that refused to build now pays commissions for having miscalculated. The money trail. Oracle is not the only winner. CoreWeave, Google, Amazon, Nscale and SB Energy have signed large contracts with OpenAI. In 2025, the story of OpenAI has been the story of its diversification away from Microsoft, although it is true that What seemed like a bad divorce ended in a separation of assets with forced smiles. The world’s most valuable AI lab had to fragment its infrastructure across multiple vendors because its original partner couldn’t—or wouldn’t—scale. In applications, Microsoft’s historical dominance with GitHub Copilot is also eroding. There are startups that have built more integrated code editors and scaled beyond Copilot. Microsoft has been forced to add the models of its rival Anthropic on GitHub Copilotwith a brutal cost for their margins. The company that had exclusive access to OpenAI now depends on its competitor to keep its code editor relevant. And now what. Microsoft has until 2032 before its agreement with OpenAI expires. It has Copilot with 100 million users. You have Office 365, Azure, and a business ecosystem that no one else can match. But the “great pause” of 2024 will take years to heal. The company has bet that the future of AI will be enterprise – with security and localization requirements – and not centralized in remote megacenters. You may be right. But 18 months of technology advantage is worth billions. And Microsoft just gave them away to its rivals. In Xataka | OpenAI has to pay debts of $400 billion in 2026. Nobody has the slightest idea how it is going to pay them Featured image | Simon Ray in Unsplash

In 1970, a zoologist released a species of rodent into the Caucasus to repopulate it. A century later the destruction is gigantic

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In the 1970s a story occurred, one of many, where the man tried to modify the ecosystem of an island and it went completely wrong, so much so that It took them half a century to solve it.. However, among the stories with the sending of a “solution” to an enclave as the protagonist, good to annihilate, good for repopulatingfew like the one that occurred 70 years ago in an area of ​​the Caucasus. Unlike the story from Japan, here there is still no way to solve it. Introduction: Soviet ecological ambition. About the 1920s, the Soviet zoologist Nikolai Vereshchagin undertook an ambitious project to “reanimate” and repopulate the fauna of the Caucasus. The idea seemed simple: introduce non-native species. Inspired by the desire to restore ecosystems and provide economic benefits through hunting and the fur trade, Vereshchagin brought animals from different parts of the worldconfident that they would thrive in the mountains and wetlands of Azerbaijan. Apparently, through his investigations and his book “The Mammals of the Caucasus”Vereshchagin documented the constant change in the region and argued in favor of what would become known as “acclimatization”: a species adaptation strategy that sought to enrich local biodiversity, even if over time it proved to have… let’s say, unintended effects. The coypu: from Soviet experiment to invader. And of all Vereshchagin’s most notable experiments, one is written in capital letters with the introduction of the coypualso known as otter or river rat, a species of giant rodent native to South America. Were 213 copies brought to the region, which quickly adapted and thrived in the wetlands of Azerbaijan. Because? Originally, the coypus They were brought for the quality of their skins, used in the making of luxury coats and hats. However, what began as a resource exploitation project soon became an ecological problem. The reason? Coypus demonstrated a high reproductive capacity and adaptability that allowed them to survive and multiply as if there were no tomorrow without the natural predators of their original habitat. This rat is a danger. To give us an idea, currently the coypu is considered one of the 100 most dangerous invasive species worldwide. In Azerbaijan, their populations are ubiquitous in wetlands, causing significant environmental damage by destroying native vegetation and competing with native species for space and resources. Additionally, their presence threatens the habitats of endangered birds, such as the cotton-headed duck and Siberian crane, as both depend on these wetlands for their survival. We are talking about a species whose adults measure approximately 60 cm long and have a 30 cm tail. When fully grown, they weigh as much or more than a Jack Russell terrier. Although they look similar to the capybara (the largest rodent in the world), coypu tend to have fewer “followers.” One fact gives an idea: its most notable feature is its protruding teeth, a pair of long, orange incisors that they never stop growing. Impact on biodiversity. The ecological impact of coypu in Azerbaijan was tremendous over the years, and especially significant due to the natural wealth of the Caucasusa region considered as one of the 25 hotspots of global biodiversity. The creature not only devastated the vegetation in humid areas, but its destructive behavior also affected bird nesting areas. In fact, studies carried out in Italy show that these giant rodents can reach crush nests by resting on themincreasing the risk for local species. Not only that. The species continued to spread to this day, and from the Caucasus it passed to neighboring countries, which has made its management even more complicated. The lack of a detailed study on the size and distribution of their populations in Azerbaijan poses all kinds of additional obstacles for environmentalists, who do not have a solid basis for developing mitigation strategies. Management and reward programs. Today, and in response to the uncontrolled expansion of the species, some experts suggest implementing reward programs for capture, an idea similar to those that have been effective in enclaves of the United States such as Louisiana, where it is offered a payment for each coypu queue delivered. However, others warn that these programs, while temporarily reducing populations, can result in commercial hunts that do not completely eradicate the species. In this regard, the proposal to reestablish a reward system, in force in Soviet times, is viewed favorably by organizations such as WWF Azerbaijan. However, the current system of fees and penalties in the country, which even requires hunters to pay additional payments for “environmental damage,” discourages coypus hunting. Therefore, there is a clear contrast with other countries where the reduction of invasive populations is actively encouraged. Lessons learned and future. Like so many other similar stories with the “hand” of man throughthe story of coypu in Azerbaijan is a reminder of the risks of introducing foreign species without very careful planning and long-term impact assessment. Although no one doubts that the projects of Vereshchagin and his contemporaries were based on good intentions, the collateral effects of their decisions have been tremendous for the region’s biodiversity. Today, environmentalists like Zulfu Farajli told the BBC who advocate for greater public awareness of the impact of coypus on local ecosystems, as well as more effective management policies. Ultimately, the case of this creature in Azerbaijan highlights the importance of developing a conservation approach based on science and sustainability, ensuring that ecosystems can recover and thrive without the threat of invasive species. Hopefully, the solution will never be a giant rat, please. Image | Peter Trimming, Khagani Hasanov1988 In Xataka | Japan sent the wrong creature to eradicate snakes from an island. The disaster was so big that it took half a century to solve it In Xataka | We have just found a surprising remedy against Argentine ant infestations: a dose of caffeine

In Castilla y León, a baby of an eagle that became extinct in the 19th century has been born. What is not clear is that it is good news

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The skies of Castilla y León have left a historical imagesomething that had not been seen for a long time in our country: a native baby eagle flying over the territory. The specimen of this bird of prey was born on Spanish soil a few months ago, early mayand has already taken flight, as has just been said reveal The Confidential. Something like this hadn’t happened in a long time. That a species that was supposed to be extinct in the Iberian Peninsula since the 19th century manages to recover ground is usually positive news, but in the case of the eagle it comes clouded by something else: controversy. There are those who believe that its reintroduction in Spain is a “historical milestone”. And who thinks it is a blunder. First of all, what is the eagle? A bird of prey that stands out for its enormous size. With its wings extended it can reach 2.4m wingspan and usually measures between 80 and 90 cm long. His name appeared in a list published years ago by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO) with extinct species susceptible to be reintroduced. After all, there are those who consider that the eagle, which continues to live in Scandinavian countries, it disappeared from the peninsula among the 19th and 20th centuries due to the degradation of their environment. How did you return to Spain? Thanks to Proyecto Pigargo, a plan released in 2021 with the approval of the Principality of Asturias, the Cantabrian Government and above all the support of MITECO, which invested more than 300,000 euros in the recovery of the species. In August of that same year was announced the arrival of almost a dozen young specimens born in Norway that were introduced in Pimiango, in the municipality of Ribadedeva (Asturias). As time went by, more birds were released until add 25. Of them survived about 17almost all (12) paired. And have they bred yet? Yes. The news I advanced it on September 18 GREFA, the group that has promoted the reintroduction of the species on the peninsula. In a statement The group explains that the calf was born in May in the north of Castilla y León, in an area that had been identified as “optimal for the species”, although GREFA has not specified the exact location “to avoid any disturbance.” “The birth of the first European eagle chick in Spain represents a historic moment for nature conservation in our country,” celebrate the association before highlighting the collaboration of the Junta de Castilla y León and the “technical support” of both MITECO and agents of the autonomous community. Perfect, right? It depends on who you ask. If we listen GREFA is “a historic milestone for biodiversity in Spain and Europe”, the result of a well-studied plan, which accumulates hours of work and has achieved the support of IUCNthe International Union for Conservation of Nature. The group insists that it is the first breeding after “the extinction” of the species in Spain and highlights “the success” of having achieved a chick in a few years with 25 specimens released. “An exciting and motivating result that allows us to hope for more views next season,” celebrate. Don’t everyone think that way? No. The launch of the Pigargo Project may have generated expectations at the time, but it certainly did not achieve something equally or even more important: scientific consensus. Already in 2021 there were voices that warned that releasing copies in Spain meant “a bad idea”. In fact, that was the key message of an article published in The Conversation by three experts from the University of Oviedo in which they pointed out the weak points of the program and questioned whether the eagle is really a native and extinct species. The controversy escalated to such a point that the central government and the autonomies that had initially endorsed the project they decided to back out after just two years. What arguments do they use? GREFA recalls that the releases of eagles that began four years ago in Asturias had the endorsement of the IUCN and the species was included in the list of extinct fauna prepared with the endorsement of the committee of scientists that advises the ministry. Not only that. The group defends that the birth of the first baby in the wild in Castilla y León a few months ago proves the adaptation to the environment of a bird of prey that, argues“contributes to keeping under control” other species that can damage ecosystems, such as carp. “Thanks to its scavenging habits, the European sea eagle plays an important role as a ‘health police’, helping to control the spread of diseases by effectively removing animal corpses from the environment,” they point out from the entity. In fact, GREFA trusts that the birth of the first chick marks a turning point in the program and will allow it to recover the institutional support that it has been losing in recent years. “We hope that this historic event encourages strengthening or resuming support for the project, especially in the case of the Principality of Asturias and the Government of Cantabria, whose initial collaboration was fundamental although they later withdrew it,” Ernesto Álvarez slidesits president. And what do the critics say? They go to the root of the approach and question its most basic premise: that it has really been proven that the eagle is a species native to the peninsula. “To consider a species as extinct, the evidence must be irrefutable. In the case of the eagle that does not happen. The documentation that has been used for its classification as an extinct species is reduced to some reports on archaeological remains, several citations of solitary specimens and dubious signs of breeding,” he points out. the article published in The Conversation. One of them, Germán Orizaola, Ramón y Cajal researcher in Zoology, warned in 2023 in statements to The Country of the risk that the initiative may pose … Read more

More than a century ago they took the Mona Lisa in an accident

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He Louvre Museumthe most visited in the world, was robbery victim in which thieves, in just seven minutes, made off with eight pieces of the imperial collection described as “priceless”. However, it is not the first time it has happened. The Louvre has been a victim of audacious robberies and controversial since the beginning of the last century, which puts on the table, above all, a question that goes beyond some missing jewels: is the security of one of the most important museums deficient? What happened. A group of between three and four hooded individuals, presumably dressed as workers, took advantage of the rehabilitation works on the façade of the museum that overlooks the Seine River. Using a forklift they directly accessed a first floor window. Once in the Apollo Gallery, where the Crown Jewels are displayed, they used heavy tools, such as a chainsaw or a radial saw, to destroy two high-security display cases. Among the eight pieces that were stolen were tiaras, necklaces and brooches of Empress Eugenia de Montijo and Queen María Amelia, as well as other historical pieces of the French Crown. The assailants fled quickly on large motorcycles. One of the pieces, the empress’s crown, was found damaged near the museum, lost in the frantic flight. The robbery, with visitors in the room, generated panic, since the thieves used the same radios to threaten the security guards. Among other measures that failed are those of the alarms that “were not heard by the agents or did not sound in the Gallery“. Previous robberies: La Gioconda (1911). As we say, this is not the first time something like this has happened at the Louvre. The most notorious robbery occurred on August 21, 1911, with ‘The Mona Lisa‘ by Leonardo Da Vinci. This incident did not involve spectacular devicesMission: Impossible‘, but the simple negligence of the security system of the time. The author was Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian worker who had been an employee of the Louvre and had participated in the construction of the painting’s glass display case. Peruggia hid in a closet on Sunday night (partial closure of the museum), came out on Monday morning, took down the portrait from the Salon Carré, and left with the work under his work coat. He said his motivation was patriotic, seeking to return Leonardo da Vinci’s work to Italy, as he mistakenly believed it had been stolen by Napoleon. Security at the Louvre was weak in 1911: the museum, with more than a thousand rooms, was protected by fewer than 150 guards for more than 250,000 objects, which meant that statues and paintings were often damaged without being immediately detected. It was 26 hours before anyone noticed the painting was missing. The news caused a media frenzy, and even the poet Guillaume Apollinaire and Pablo Picasso were briefly arrested as suspects. The painting was recovered two years later, in 1913, when Peruggia tried to sell it to an antique dealer in Florence. Heists previous: Burgundy breastplate and helmet (1983). On May 1, 1983 this took place another robbery: The pieces were a valuable cuirass and a burgundy-type helmet from the 16th century, both with gold and silver inlays. The pieces had been donated to the museum in 1922 by Baroness Salomon Rothschild, and the display case containing the pieces appeared vandalized: the fact that historical military pieces could be stolen from a display case in what was presumed to be a guarded environment revealed that the vulnerabilities went beyond the paintings. The pieces did not reappear for almost forty years, and all thanks to an investigation initiated by an expert in military antiquities in the 2020s, who detected them in a private collection in Bordeaux. Heists previous: Streak of quick robberies in 1995. That year a series of thefts and acts of vandalism revealed the vulnerability of the Louvre. In January, a visitor used a box cutter to cut and damage a painting by Lancelot Théodore Turpin de Crissé, ‘Deer in a Landscape’. Just a week later, a 17-kilogram battle ax belonging to a monument sculpted by Martin Desjardins was stolen. In July, a valuable painting made with Robert de Nanteuil’s pastel technique finally disappeared. This series of incidents made it clear that, although security had been reinforced around the most iconic works, the pieces displayed in large and less traveled areas became easy targets. A vulnerable building. The recent robbery has revealed a series of tactics that reveal different vulnerabilities: taking advantage of areas on site (that is, a blind spot or one with less surveillance), entering the building using a forklift, carrying it out in broad daylight and with visitors inside, and the use of heavy tools without an immediate and effective security response. Although the 1911 robbery already demonstrated that personnel are key to preventing these robberies, in June 2025 there were workers protests over the lack of troops to control the large numbers of visitors. This theft has made it evident that there is a clear vulnerability in the museum, and this has been noted by those responsible for security: the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, has declared that “The issue of the vulnerability of our museums is not new. It has been 40 years since we took care of their security.” The minister has also said that two years ago the then president of the Louvre had asked the Prefect of Police to review and carry out an audit on security. Dati has also commented that “museums must be adapted to the new forms of crime, which are organized, they are professionals who enter calmly, in four minutes take the loot and leave without any violence.” Photo of Thomas Eidsvold in Unsplash In Xataka | We have visited the first Video Game Museum in Madrid: between the tourist attraction and the archaeological spectacle

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