control

Spain has started its most ambitious defense program. It is not a tank or a drone, it is the brain to control Europe’s troops

by

Spain built its land defense looking outward, integrating into foreign programs and adapting doctrines from when the tank symbolized power, deterrence and industrial sovereignty. From joining NATO in 1982 to the missions in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army was accumulating operational experience, but always with one constant: the key technology came from outside. Today, the debate no longer revolves around how many vehicles you have, but rather What role do you want to play? now that the war changes again. From cannon to code. The Ukrainian experience has finished burying the idea of ​​the battle tank as an isolated and self-sufficient platform, pushing Spain to rethink its land doctrine from the roots. Instead of investing in more armor and weight, the Ministry of Defense has opted for a conceptual leap: prioritizing information, connectivity and speed of decision as key factors of survival in a “transparent” battlefield, saturated with sensors, drones and smart munitions. In that context PAMOV is bornnot as a new tank or a combat drone, but as the nervous system that must govern all those that come after. PAMOV, the brain. The Superior Ground Combat System program, awarded to Indraseeks to define the digital architecture of the future Spanish armored combat beyond 2040. We are talking about an initial investment around the 45 million euros and a strong R&D component, one whose objective is not yet to manufacture platforms, but design and mature subsystems that will allow the integration of manned and unmanned vehicles, sensors, weapons and command and control into a single cooperative tactical network. The tank, therefore, stops being the physical center of combat and becomes just another node within a distributed “system of systems.” INDRA The tactical cloud. One of the pillars of PAMOV is the creation of a combat tactical cloud capable of fusing in real time information from on-board sensors, aerial and ground drones and external sources. As? Through artificial intelligencethe system detects, classifies and prioritizes threats, reducing crew cognitive overload and accelerating decision-making in high-pressure environments. The 360 degree visionsupported by AI and augmented reality, allows you to “see through” the armor and regain freedom of maneuver against the proliferation of drones and loitering munitions. Less tons, more platforms. Plus: the lessons of Ukraine have highlighted the limits of the continued growth in weight of battle tanks, some already close to 80 tons, with enormous logistics costs and restrictions of mobility. In this sense, Indra’s approach is committed to distribute capabilities between multiple lighter platforms, many of them unmanned, that operate in tandem with the main tank. Here are names that are common today in the Ukrainian war, such as UGVs and UASwho would advance ahead “taking on the most exposed missions and acting as extenders of ISTAR capability“, in addition to (obviously) reducing human risks. Modularity and weapons of tomorrow. The PAMOV is conceived as an open architecturemodular and scalable, one capable of being integrated into different present and future vehicles. This allows on paper to progressively incorporate new technologies, from advanced active protection systems to directed energy weapons and, in more distant phases, even future hypersonic systems without having to redesign the entire platform. Hence, it is emphasized that the key is not in the specific weapon, but in the system being able to govern, coordinate and exploit it within the tactical network at the right time. Technological sovereignty. The concept is going to be repeated more and more in the old continent. In the case of Spain, with a 95% of national developments and the participation of SMEs, startups, universities and technology centers spread across several autonomous communities, PAMOV is presented as a strategic commitment for the country. As we remembered yesterday, the nation seeks to stop being just a simple buyer or late integrator to become technology provider criticism in European programs like MARS and, in the long term, the MGCSseeking to be on par with France and Germany. The final objective is that the Spanish contribution to the European car of the future is not only steel, but intelligence that governs it. Another way to fight. Finally, and if you will, beyond technology, the impact of PAMOV points above all to doctrinal. For the Army it means moving from individual platforms to cooperative networkschange the way we command, train and operate, and prepare for high-intensity scenarios with fewer personnel and greater dependence on software. From that perspective, the future Spanish battle tank will not be defined by its caliber or its weight, but by its capacity. to connect systemsdominate the information and decide faster than the opponent. Image | Rheinmetall Defense, Oscar in the middleIndra In Xataka | Spain has been a weapons exporting power for decades. Now he has made a decision: keep them In Xataka | Ukraine has found what it needed in an unexpected ally. Spain had the missing piece against the shahed drones

Silver is completely out of control, so the solar panel industry has decided something: go independent

by

Solar energy, promised as the cheapest and most abundant source of electricity in history, has hit a geological and financial roadblock of critical proportions. The photovoltaic industry is suffering what the Financial Times has baptized like a Silver Squeeze (silver strangulation), a suffocating pressure derived from the dizzying rise in the price of this metal. Manufacturers, who have been fighting for years against slim margins, are now “feeling the heat” of a raw material that has become unaffordable, forcing them into a frenetic technological race to eliminate it from their products. This is not a simple market rally. What we are witnessing is a “perfect storm” where real physical scarcity threatens to slow down the energy transition. According to Bloombergthe rise in silver has hit some solar panel manufacturers that were already burdened by losses after years of brutal competition. After five consecutive years of deficit, silver is no longer just a safe haven asset to become the bottleneck of the green economy. The figures are dizzying. According to the Financial Timesthe price of silver has risen 300% in the last year, breaking the psychological barrier of $100 and currently standing at $112 per ounce. This increase is fueled by three fires: geopolitical fear of possible US military intervention, the voracity of the industry and the massive entry of retail investors, for whom silver is “the poor man’s gold.” This speculative appetite has skyrocketed prices by 60% since the beginning of 2026 alone. The magnitude of the increase in prices is such that from investment portals such as Investing News have reported record prices of $93.77 in mid-January, but market reality has exceeded forecasts in just weeks. But there are geopolitical actors pulling the strings behind this scenario. China, the largest global refiner, has imposed strict controls to export by 2026-2027, shielding its strategic resources for its own renewable energy and Artificial Intelligence industry. Added to this is that India and Russia are aggressively buying physical silver, draining inventories in London and Asia and causing real shortages in Western markets. Financial drain and existential threat The impact on the cost structure of a solar panel has been devastating. According to data from BloombergNEFsilver has gone from representing 3.4% of the cost of a module in 2023, to 14% last year, to an unsustainable 29% today. Silver has dethroned polysilicon and become the most expensive component in manufacturing. For the giants of the sector, this is raining in the wet. Titans like JinkoSolar, Longi and Trina Solar They are posting quarterly losses consecutive in the midst of a “vicious price war.” Factories operate at just 50% of their capacity and, in many cases, sell modules below production cost. Jenny Chase analyst cited by Financial Timessummarizes the situation without hot towels: “It is very painful for solar module manufacturers, who are already having a terrible time and are expected to report losses by 2025.” The problem is that companies have their hands tied in passing on these costs. As explained in PV Magazinedue to excess capacity and weak demand, it is “almost impossible” to pass on the entire increase in the price of silver to the end customer. Although Chinese manufacturers have recently tried to raise prices between 1.4% and 3.8%, these increases are minuscule compared to the 180% or 300% increase in raw material prices. The long-term consequence is what experts call “demand destruction.” If prices remain at these levels, silver use in the PV industry could fall by 20% this year, not only due to efficiency, but because the industry simply cannot afford it. The great substitution Faced with financial asphyxiation, the industry has accelerated what they call “thrifting”, a race against time to replace silver with cheaper metals. The favorite candidate is copper. According to Investing Newscopper is trading 22,000% cheaper than silver and is much more abundant, making it the great hope for saving profit margins. Faced with suffocation, the industry has accelerated the thrifting (material savings) to replace silver with copper, which is 22,000% cheaper. The large Chinese manufacturers already they have made a move. Longi Green Energy will begin mass production of cells using base metals (such as copper and aluminum) in the second quarter of this year. Trina Solar is developing copper contacts to reduce its dependence, and Aiko Solar has already begun producing completely silver-free cells. The Chinese industry, which is more intensive in the use of silver than the European one, lead this forced transition. However, the change is not easy. As they warn in PV Magazine warns that not all solar technologies are equally suited: while heterojunction (HJT) and back contact (BC) cells facilitate the use of copper, the current dominant technology (TOPCon) requires high temperature processes that make copper vulnerable to oxidation. Here lies the greatest risk of this flight forward. Copper oxidizes and degrades faster than silver. Bloomberg alert about danger of launching copper panels on the market without sufficient longevity tests. Customers demand 20-year warranties; If new panels fail within 10 years due to copper corrosion, manufacturers could face massive liabilities that would put them out of business. As one precious metals expert points out: “Going too far too fast can be risky.” A future of scarcity and recycling The pressure on silver doesn’t just come from the sun. At this point we introduce in the equation Artificial Intelligence. The data centers necessary for AI consume enormous amounts of energy, which triggers demand for solar installations and, therefore, money. It is a vicious circle where technology devours physical resources. Furthermore, the electric vehicle (EV) enters like another big predator: An electric car consumes up to 50 grams of silver, almost twice as much as a combustion car. It is estimated that demand from the automotive sector could triple by 2030. In this context of shortages, some companies are taking desperate measures. He Financial Times reveals that Samsung Construction and Trading has skipped the middlemen and signed a two-year direct agreement with a mining company to secure its supply. … Read more

that of a world without nuclear weapons control

by

During the sixties, at the height of the cold warthe United States and the Soviet Union accumulated nuclear weapons without clear limits, trapped in a logic of absolute distrust marked by crises such as that of the missiles in Cuba and by the certainty that a miscalculation could trigger a global catastrophe. It was in that atmosphere of fear when they began to assume that continuing to add warheads did not make the world safer, thus laying the foundations for the first major nuclear control agreement. Today we are four days away from ending to that pact. The end of nuclear control. Yes, because on Thursday of this week New START expiresthe last treaty that legally limited the deployed nuclear arsenals of the United States and Russia, ending more than fifty years of agreements, inspections and transparency mechanisms that had drastically reduced the number of nuclear warheads since the peak of the Cold War. The agreement, signed in 2010 and extended in 2021, established a cap of 1,550 warheads strategic by country and allowed for data exchanges and on-site inspections designed to avoid dangerous misunderstandings. Its disappearance not only eliminates formal limits, but also the verification system that gave true value to the treaty, in a context marked by the war in Ukraine, unilateral suspension Russian inspections and a climate of mistrust that has not been seen for decades. Indifference and risks. The most striking thing about the end of New START is the little political reaction in Washington, where debate has been minimal even as the world enters an era no nuclear restrictions for the first time since the sixties. The Trump administration has let the treaty die without a clear position, while pressure grows within the security apparatus to increase the number of nuclear weapons rather than reduce them. This emptiness contrasts with the warnings of experts and with the symbolism of the Doomsday Clocknews the last few days because has approached more than ever at midnight, a true reflection of the fear of an uncontrolled arms race that could involve not only Russia and the United States, but also the third party “in contention”: China. Russia, China and a dilemma. If we do a futurology exercise and everything follows the expected course, starting on Thursday and without the treaty, the United States, for example, could return to “load” multiple warheads on missiles that today carry only one, a practice abandoned to comply with New START, while Russia retains the capability to do it quickly because it never stopped deploying missiles with multiple warheads. At this point, many analysts warn that Moscow could react faster than Washington in an escalation scenario, while Beijing continues expanding your arsenal at a pace not seen since the Cold War, although still far from the figures of the two superpowers that started it all. The combination of mistrust, new weapons not covered by previous agreements and emerging systems such as underwater nuclear drones or exotic missiles aggravates the feeling of entering unknown strategic terrain. An opportunity that closes. Despite everything, there is still a small window to avoid the worst scenario, since Russia has hinted that could continue to voluntarily respect the limits and former negotiators defend that accepting a temporary extension with restored inspections would be a pragmatic and cheap gesture to save time. Beyond the technique, the collapse by New START It symbolizes something deeper: the erosion of the idea that nuclear stability is better managed by rules, communication and transparency than by arms accumulation. Whether this moment marks just a blip or the beginning of a new normal will depend on immediate political decisionsalthough the consensus among experts is crystal clear: without some type of control, the world enters a more dangerous, more disturbing, more opaque phase and, of course, with less room for error. Image | Steve Jurvetson In Xataka | The countries with the most nuclear bombs in 2025, gathered in this graph with two protagonists: China and India In Xataka | In 1950 two scientists wondered if a 10 gigaton nuclear bomb was possible. Your results are hidden under lock and key

In 1901, a Spanish man had one of the ideas of the century: invent the remote control before television

by

Televisions change, technologies change, but there are interactions that last despite the passage of years, decades and even centuries. An example of this is the remote controller, which has historically allowed us to interact with devices from a distance, although what we currently know is very different from the first concept of remote control. Although televisions did not become more common in the last decades of the 20th century, the concept of the remote controller appeared much earlier. Specifically, in 1901. And a fact that you may not know is that one of the pioneers of the remote control was a Spaniard, the engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo. The controller anticipated the televisions The history of the remote control dates back, as we said, to the first years of the last century. In 1903, the inventor, mathematician and engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo (1852-1936) conceived, built and patented the first remote control in history. He called it Telekino, and as one might thinkIt is far from the controls for televisionsand other devices we see now. Miniaturization was not a reality until much later and the Telekino took up an entire table. Telekino in Abra. Image: Torresquevedo.org Of course, the Telekino was not created with the idea of ​​controlling televisions remotely, which in reality did not become a reality almost until the incorporation of the cathode ray tube (withthe pushfrom Telefunken and other manufacturers). The idea was to control airships without anyone being in danger in the tests, but finally he tried it with boats as they recalled in the written edition ofThe Countryin 2007, when the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) recognized the invention by including it in its official list of milestones in the history of engineering. It was the first time that a Spanish creation became part of this list, in which we find inventions by Benjamin Franklin, Alessandro Volta and Guglielmo Marconi among others. Telekino, as you may have deduced, comes fromTV(from ancient Greek, “far”, meaning “at a distance”, “remotely”) andkinein(also from the Greek, “movement”), by the way. IEEE Recognition Plaque. Image: YouTube We already talked about Telekino inXatakaprecisely because of this historical recognition, also to remember that at the time it was not highly praised. In fact, Torres Quevedo himself would abandon the project as he did not receive sufficient support. The valuable legacy of Torres Quevedo One of the prototypes of the Telekino is located in the Torres-Quevedo Museum, in the Higher Technical School of Civil, Canal and Port Engineers of the Polytechnic University of Madrid. And thanks to a short (virtual) visit to that museum for the centenary of one of the Spanish engineer’s inventions we can discover more of them, also very relevant. Torres Quevedo is credited with nothing more and nothing less than the first Spanish airship, as well as the first ferry suitable for transporting people (or in other words, an open cable car for people). The invention was patented in 1887, and it would not be until 30 years later when it materialized, being launched on Mount Ulía in San Sebastián in 1907. Compensation also came in the form of international export, since the system reached neither more nor less thanto Niagara Falls. Thus, the callSpanish AerocarIt continues to operate today in the well-known region and celebrated its centenary in 2016, having completed more than 10 million transports without recording incidents. Torres Quevedo was also a precursor of modern computing with his Ajedrecista, considered the first chess computer game, and the electromechanical arithmometer, a calculator accompanied by a typewriter, a precursor to digital calculators. In Xataka | In 1925, procrastination was already a problem and someone found the definitive solution: the isolation helmet. In Xataka | We have been fascinated for years by the geniuses who come up with revolutionary innovations out of thin air. It’s always been smoke (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news In 1901, a Spanish man had one of the ideas of the century: invent the remote control before television was originally published in Xataka by Anna Marti .

Sanderson finally signs the Cosmere adaptations after years of fighting, and Apple gives him more control than George RR Martin has

by

Brandon Sanderson has closed an unprecedented agreement with Apple TV to adapt the literary universe of Cosmere. The platform will develop films based on the ‘Mistborn’ saga and a series of ‘The Storm File’, the author’s two main franchises. The pact gives Sanderson a level of creative control higher than even that enjoyed by JK Rowling or George RR Martin with their respective adaptations: he will be the architect of the universe, he will produce, he will be consulted and he will have the power of approval over creative decisions. Several attempts. The announcement comes after years of deals that did not come together. In 2016, DMG Entertainment acquired the rights to the Cosmere for $270 million for three films, but the project never moved forward. own Sanderson recognized in December 2024, in your annual updatebeing “back at square one” after the collapse of negotiations for a film adaptation of ‘Mistborn’ that had reached very advanced stages of development. The project had taken five years of work, had a finished script and linked actors whose identities he could not reveal. Sanderson later detailed on Reddit that the plan contemplated a hybrid model: a first big-budget film followed by a television season covering the period between books one and two of the original trilogy. A second film would adapt the second book, followed by another transitional season. The main actors would have signed contracts for both film and television. An unusual success. The new agreement with Apple represents the culmination of the publishing phenomenon led by Sanderson: his books have sold more than 50 million copies worldwide, a figure that includes both his solo works and his contributions to ‘The Wheel of Time’ by Robert Jordan, which he completed after his death in 2007. In 2022 he established the record for Most successful literary Kickstarter in history by raising 41.7 million to self-publish four secret novels written during the pandemic. But what is the Cosmere? The Cosmere is a shared universe that interconnects multiple fantasy sagas through a common cosmology and interlocking systems of magic. The model resembles Isaac Asimov’s approach with his universe of robots and foundations, although Sanderson planned the connections from the beginning to avoid the need to reconcile items later. The Cosmere encompasses different planets with distinct civilizations, histories and magical systems but based on a shared mythology: the being Adonalsium, whose power fragmented into sixteen shards distributed throughout the cosmos. The agreement. Apple closed the deal after a competitive process in which Sanderson met with most of the top studio executives in Hollywood. In this way, the company is left with a fictional universe that has similarities with another franchise it also owns, ‘Foundation’ (and, in part, with ‘Silo’), which allows it to compete in the field of fantasy and science fiction adaptations with Amazon (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, The Wheel of Time), HBO (Game of Thrones) and Netflix (The Witcher). It is not the first time that Apple has reached agreements with prestigious creators, such as Alfonso Cuarón (‘Disclaimer’) or Martin Scorsese (‘The Moon Killers’), but none had been given as much creative control as Sanderson. The challenges of the Cosmere. The technical and narrative complexity of the Cosmere poses notable obstacles. For example, magic systems: Allomancy in ‘Mistborn’ allows users to “burn” ingested metals to obtain supernatural abilities differentiated according to each metal. Sanderson expressed on Reddit his concern about a possible oversimplification that denaturalizes these systems, designed with coherent internal rules that structure entire plots. The length of the works is another problem: the books often easily exceed a thousand pages. For example, the five Stormlight Archive books add up to nearly two and a half million words, and Sanderson plans ten volumes in total. The expectation. The announcement made by the author on Reddit generated thousands of comments analyzing the implications of the level of creative control guaranteed to the author. The closest precedent to this model could be Peter Jackson with ‘The Lord of the Rings’, although in that case the author of the original work was absent. Meanwhile, Sanderson asks for patience: film development requires years of prior work, usually between two and three, before reaching the production phase. What is clear is that although Sanderson’s presence provides guarantees and Apple is potentially a great option for adaptation, the process is not going to be easy. In Xataka | Brandon Sanderson eviscerates the Cosmere, his narrative technique, which includes an Excel sheet, and the moment that made him a writer

The fundamental trick to perfectly control the car’s temperature is a (not) forgotten button on the dashboard

by

Although with the fury of bringing screens to cars There are fewer and fewer buttons, we still find a lot of old-fashioned controls scattered around the steering wheel and the dashboard of the car. However, there is usually a small element (sometimes shaped like a circular knob, which may or may not protrude) that usually looks like a button that goes unnoticed due to its location: it is far enough away that it cannot be easily operated. Spoiler: if you touch it nothing happens. And nothing happens simply because it is a solar sensor or solar load sensor (if we get more technical, a phototransistor), a piece little known to the general public but of great importance as it is the element that the automatic air conditioning uses to regulate the temperature correctly. It is essential to control the temperature of the car More specifically, is located at the bottom of the dashboard and in the central area, attached to the front window. It usually has the speaker grille or the air outlet grille nearby to defog the window. Hence it neither looks good nor is it comfortable to touch. That position makes all the sense in the world: it is one of the best areas inside the cabin to capture sunlight from outside. Precisely the reason for the sensor, since the sunlight that enters a car can reach represent up to 60% heat load that the air conditioning system has to overcome in the search for comfort. A good everyday example: the temperature difference between parking in the same place on a summer day when the sun is shining overhead or doing so at night or when it is cloudy. This solar load sensor It is actually a photodiode which measures the intensity of solar radiation in order to be able adjust climate controlwhich includes the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. On that hot day in the example, the air conditioning will have to work as hard as possible to cool the cabin as soon as possible. But if it’s night or cloudy, you won’t need to blow as hard. At a technical level, its mechanism is simple: the photodiode moves in an operating range between 0 and 5 Volts, offering more resistance as the light intensity increases, so that the sensor signal decreases as the solar load increases. This signal is what then reaches the control, which gives orders to the system to adjust the speed and intensity. The solar load sensor is not the only one responsible of the operation of the air conditioning, since the vehicle integrates more sensors such as the sensor to measure the interior temperature. And they also have other sensors to turn the lights on or off or configure the mode of the screens and dashboard depending on the exterior lighting. By the way, in some cars there is not only one solar charge sensor, but there are two, one on each side of the dashboard and in that same area adjacent to the front window: they are models that have dual zone air conditioning. In Xataka | The triangles on the plane window are not for decoration: they are a quick way to check that the flight is going well In Xataka | Few people know what the red balls on high-tension cables are for: they are a simple way to save lives Images | Skoda, Opel and SEAT

whoever controls the fuel will control the AI

by

In the deep mines of Kazakhstan and the data centers of Northern Virginia, two worlds that should never have touched are colliding. The digital speed of Artificial Intelligence faces the heavy inertia of nuclear physics. We have discovered, the hard way, that AI does not live in “the cloud” but on the ground. It has a ravenous hunger of a material that the world ignored for decades: uranium. The end of the myth of efficiency. For years, the official Silicon Valley narrative was that chip efficiency would offset energy consumption. However, cHow an OilPrice analysis explainsthis idea has died because of the “Jevons paradox“Basically, the more efficient we make a chip, the more units we deploy and the more complex the models become. AI not only consumes data, but incinerates energy to create them. This reality has forced a paradigm shift. According to a global survey to more than 600 investors, 63% already consider that AI electricity demand is a structural change in nuclear planning. It is not a temporary peak, it is the foundation on which the economy of the 21st century will be built. The gap between the code and the steel. The fundamental problem is that software is moving at the speed of light, while the uranium supply remains “stuck in the mud” of 20th century industrial timelines. This temporary disconnection reveals an uncomfortable reality: the world has run out of room to maneuver. For two decades, humanity survived thanks to secondary supplies —reusing old Cold War warheads and surplus inventories—, but these strategic warehouses are practically exhausted today. This shortage is a deep structural deficit. Uranium.io data reflect an alarming gap where the uranium coming out of the mines will cover less than 75% of what the reactors will need in the short term. This is what Sprott Asset Management define as a market that lives at “two speeds”: a superficial volatility that hides a deficit that widens like a canyon. “AND“The silence of the electric companies”. On the Sprott Radio podcastexpert John Ciampaglia explains that, although 2025 seemed like a stagnant year for the price of physical uranium—anchored between $77 and $80—mining stocks rose 40%. This disconnection reveals that, while investors are already betting heavily on what is to come, electricity companies (utilities) are at a “stalemate”. They are delaying signing new contracts and burning down their last reserves in the hope that prices don’t skyrocket, but the pressure from AI is such that sooner or later someone will have to blink first. Uranium as a strategic asset. If the semiconductors were the battlefield of the last decade, nuclear fuel is that of the next. Whoever controls the uranium will control the computing capacity. On the one hand, how the analyst describes for Oilpricewhen a tech giant signs a 20-year power agreement (PPA) with a nuclear plant, it is “locking up” the best clean electrons for private profit. The risk is the socialization of the cost, the companies take the clean energy, but the citizen pays to update the electrical network. On the other hand, “Atoms for Algorithms”. The Director General of the IAEA describe this union as a “structural alliance”. AI doesn’t just need nuclear; The nuclear industry needs AI for the predictive maintenance of reactors, the design of new materials and the improvement of safety. The strategy of the giants. The hyperscalers (Google, Microsoft, Amazon) have understood that to dominate AI they must secure the atoms before the competition. Vertical Integration: Google took a turn of the rudder by acquiring Intersect Power for $4.75 billion. The objective is to control the availability and cost of supply near your data centers, without depending on the public network. Modular Reactors (SMR): The International Atomic Energy Agency bet on SMRsmall reactors that allow a technology company to add nuclear power as it adds servers. It is literally bringing scalability from software to power. Sovereign AI: Companies like VivoPower they are redirecting capital towards markets such as Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates. There, where the electrical grid is a bottleneck, the solution is to create computing infrastructures with its own energy generated “behind the meter.” China: the provisional winner. While the West debates, China pours concrete. The Asian giant build reactors at a rate that no one else reaches, between ten and eleven per year. In fact, half of all the reactors being built in the world are in Chinese territory. According to the CNEAthe country will surpass France in nuclear capacity in 2026 and the United States in 2030. Beijing not only seeks firm energy to sustain its renewables, but also total technological independence. It already produces 100% of its nuclear equipment and leads the fourth generation with high-temperature modular reactors. They are even “fishing” uranium from the sea with new absorption technologies to ensure centuries of autonomy. China has understood that nuclear energy is both a tool of decarbonization and energy diplomacy. The wall of reality. In the software world, problems are solved by injecting capital or code; In the world of atoms, money cannot buy time. There are three physical obstacles that Silicon Valley capital will not be able to solve immediately: The bottleneck of enrichment. There is no point in extracting the mineral if you cannot convert it into fuel, and that industrial capacity in the West is at its limit. As they warn in the podcastmuch of this vital process remains tied to Russian state interests, making AI power a national security issue. The talent crisis. For an entire generation, the global message was that nuclear power was a dead technology. The result it’s a shortage criticism from engineers and specialists; There are simply no qualified “hands” to operate the new mines or manage the reactors. We have lost the know-how industrial while we were distracted with the digital world. The “asking price.” Although uranium aims for the range of $100-120/lb by 2026, the figure of $135 is the one that it really marks desperation of the sector. That … Read more

This console that no one knows about and is full of strange games with motion control has sold more than Xbox

by

The toy that no one saw coming ended up becoming the unexpected phenomenon of Black Friday 2025. At the end of November and facing the Christmas campaign, a practically unknown console surpassed Xbox in sales and was positioned as the third best-selling hardware in the country, only behind PlayStation 5 and nintendo switch 2. What is it. Is called Nex Playgrounda motion-controlled gaming console made by a Silicon Valley startup that, until recently, was developing artificial intelligence applications to extract basketball scoring statistics. The product didn’t even appear on the industry’s radars until the data analysis firm Circana revealedafter studying console sales figures in recent weeks, which had accumulated 14% of total hardware sales during the most competitive period of the American commercial year. How it works. Its interior houses an 8-core ARM processor, 64 GB of storage and a wide-angle camera that constitutes the heart of the system. The tracking technology detects 18 points on the human body in real time using artificial intelligence algorithms that They process everything locallywithout sending data to the cloud. Some critics they have praised its design and motion tracking capabilities, but questioned the limited library of games and the subscription pricing scheme under which it operates. How much does it cost. Its entry price is $249, and includes five pre-installed games, such as ‘Fruit Ninja’. He full access to the catalog requires purchasing the Play Pass, at $89 annually or $49 quarterly. Still, the total cost of $338 would still be significantly below traditional consoles. The console deliberately aims at an audience other than the gamer traditional: families with young children looking for physical activity disguised as digital entertainment. The sales curve. PlayStation 5 led the market last Black Friday and surrounding dates, with a 47% market share. Switch 2 scored 24%, relegating Xbox to fourth position with less than 14% remaining, according to official data from Circana Retail Tracking Service. Nex’s sales trajectory draws a curve that defies any algorithmic prediction: in 2022, the company barely shipped 5,000 units of its console. The following year, that figure multiplied by thirty to reach 150,000 units. By 2024, the projection points to 600,000 systems sold. The evolution of Nex. The most radical transformation of Nex, the company behind Nex Playground, was not only technological, but also identity-based. The company was born in 2017, founded by a group of former Apple, Google and Facebook engineers led by David Lee. Its first app, ‘HomeCourt’, from July 2018, featured cutting-edge technology applied to a very specific market: basketball players, amateur or not, who wanted to analyze performance metrics. In July 2019 they signed a shareholding with NBA and they started to grow receive recognition. The pandemic and the closure of gyms revealed a fact that had gone unnoticed: people I downloaded the app to access minigames They were practically hidden. In 2021, Nex launched ‘Active Arcade’, a free app with 13 body movement mini-games, and they got more downloads in their first month than ‘HomeCourt’ in its entire history. In December 2023, they launched this Nex Playground, which physically materialized everything they had learned up to that point, seeking a family audience more than expert athletes. Agreements have been signed with brands such as Bluey, Peppa Pig, Barbie and the Ninja Turtles, and project more than $150 million in sales this year. In Xataka | Microsoft is killing Xbox for Excel

Torrejón de Ardoz has a plan to control his geese, parrots, rabbits and pigeons. One of 150,000 euros

by

With bird flu and the african swine fever grabbing headlines, the Torrejón de Ardoz City Council wants to protect itself against “possible health risks”. The City Council is looking for a company to help it “control” the populations of certain wild species that live in the municipality. Specifically, it has focused on four: parrots, Nile geesepigeons and rabbits, although the list can be expanded. It offers interested firms a three-year contract (extendable) with a budget of up to 150,000 euros. Its mission: quantify, control and capture. What has happened? That Torrejón de Ardoz (Community of Madrid) wants to control the wildlife that populates its fields and parks, especially parrots, Nile geese, rabbits and pigeons. “It is necessary to maintain the population and avoid possible risks to health, public safety, maintain environmental health and the ecosystem,” the Consistory states in your ad to attract companies interested in providing the service for three years. The deadline for submitting offers ended in November. Now the Contracting Platform reports that it is in the “evaluation” phase. The budget: a maximum of 150,000 eurosVAT included. But what exactly do you want to do? “Control and manage” the populations of certain species and anticipate possible “unhealth risks” or damage to ecosystems. Hence the focus is on three types of animals that stand out precisely for their ability to expand: “invasive exotic birds” (a category in which the City Council includes the Argentine parrot, Kramer parrot and Nile goose), pigeons and turtledoves and the European rabbit. “This includes any other wild animal that could cause a risk to health, safety and/or ecosystem,” they require from the Consistorywhich leaves pest control, disinfestation and deratization tasks outside the contract. The objective is for the company to carry out an annual “diagnosis” on the situation of these species and carry out health controls. If necessary, it will undertake sampling, analysis and veterinary tests to detect diseases. Just that? No. The documentation of the contest clarifies that, if circumstances demand it, the company will have to carry out work to control wildlife populations, which includes removing nests, controlling eggs, work with compressed air rifles and cages or capturing specimens. In the case of rabbits, the contract states that the company may control them with the help of ferrets and capillos, as long as it meets certain conditions. Captured healthy rabbits will be moved to preserves. When this is not possible, the contract contemplates euthanasia (in compliance with the animal welfare law), just as occurs with geese. One of the conditions placed on companies is that they have agreements with captive breeding and recovery centers. But… Is it so urgent? This is considered by the Madrid City Council, which recalls, for example, that parrots and Nile geese are “exotic species that can become invasive if control is not carried out” on the population. “Therefore, it is necessary to develop this service to reduce its distribution area, reduce the number of specimens or stop its spread,” prevents. About the rabbits, technicians remember that it is a wild species “capable of colonizing urban ecosystems” and that is already causing “damage” in green areas of the city, especially in groves, bushes, meadows and even in irrigation systems and land. “That is why it is necessary to control the population to prevent the increase and severity of damage. In addition, they can pose a risk to public safety and health,” duck. As for pigeons, the City Council recognizes that they are “adapted” to urban life, but their proliferation can cause annoyance and health problems. Images | Wikipedia 1 and 2 In Xataka | Torrejón de Ardoz thought it had found a golden opportunity by hosting the Madrid macro festivals. Now he’s canceling them.

When you bought a car you were supposed to control it 100%. The industry has managed to make us lose our desire

by

An owner of a Hyundai Ioniq 5 N recently discovered that he couldn’t perform one of the most basic maintenance tasks on his electric car: changing the brake pads. The reason has nothing to do with how complex or not the task was mechanically, but rather with Hyundai’s proprietary software and the professional-level credentials necessary to access it. The episode has reopened the debate on the repairability of electrified vehiclesin an era in which we increasingly need professionals specialized in software and electronics in workshops, and carrying out maintenance on our own is increasingly more complicated. The underlying problem. Brake pads are wear components that any car needs replacing periodically, although in electric vehicles they last longer thanks to the regenerative braking. On most cars, this job can be done at home with more or less basic tools and moderate mechanical experience. However, the Ioniq 5 N incorporates an electronic parking brake that must be fully retracted by a computer to allow changing pads, and then recalibrated to adjust to the thickness of the new parts. What it cost the owner. According to shared user SoultronicPear on Reddit, no conventional diagnostic scanner worked on his 2025 Ioniq 5 N. After trying several options, he purchased a subscription to Hyundai’s J2534 software (costing $60 per week) and an approved adapter (about $2,000). Still, the system didn’t work. After contacting the software developers, he discovered that the Windows version was not updated for the 2025 models, while official dealers use a completely different program based on Android. a barrier. When I finally received the updated version of the software, a new obstacle appeared: the system requested credentials NASTF (National Automotive Service Task Force), a US organization that validates professional mechanics and regulates access to sensitive vehicle functions in the country. According to TheDriveHyundai’s technical documentation states in red that “access to two-way tests and special functions requires NASTF Diagnostic Professional or Vehicle Safety Professional credentials.” Therefore, the owner could not access this adjustment firsthand. Hyundai’s position. The middle consulted to the firm, which defended its procedure arguing reasons of security and functionality. “The official repair procedure requires placing the rear calipers into service mode using our Global Diagnostic System or the J2534 app. This ensures proper functionality and customer safety,” a spokesperson explained. The company he added that it is exploring ways to make routine maintenance easier by “balancing convenience with security,” and that its official tool is available for anyone to purchase, although it is worth mentioning that its price is around $6,000. Beyond legality. Technically, Hyundai does not violate the laws of law to repair because it offers access through systems compatible with the J2534 standard, not only through proprietary equipment. However, what has always been a task accessible to individuals with moderate mechanical knowledge who wanted to do it on their own, has been relegated exclusively to professional workshops, at least in this case. A growing problem. Although the case focuses on Hyundai, the Korean brand is not the only one that makes repairs on modern vehicles difficult. The electrification and digitalization of automobiles is creating new barriers for owners and even independent workshops, who also cannot access these functions. For many enthusiasts, this takes away autonomy over their own vehicles and creates confusion, especially for something that should be as accessible as routine car maintenance. Cover image | Tekton In Xataka | In 2001, Renault launched a car ahead of its time: it was a miserable failure that now has another chance

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

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

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

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