converted

Someone has taken more than 12,000 Spanish laws and converted them to source code. It is a real gem to search for legislation

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If you have ever prepared for competitive exams and are looking for the legislation that you have to prepare for or need to consult a law for any management, you will have already realized that the Official State Gazette is a pain. (also applies to regional versions) to find out what is current and what has changed: transpositions, various PDFs, annexes and cross references that make you go crazy. You are not alone: ​​sooner or later it has happened to everyone. Until now you only had two alternatives: consult with someone who did know about the subject to clear your doubts or resort to artificial intelligence to then carefully check that nothing is left out. To the computer engineer Enrique Lopez It must have happened to him too and he took action on the matter. The project. Is called Legalize and it is in a few words a digital repository of state and regional legislation available on GitHub, as if it were a computer project. Thus, it has translated more than 12,000 regulations in force in the state (both state and regional), each one into a Markdown file with plain text on which you can search for what interests you. In addition, each of the laws are grouped in folders based on their jurisdiction. In short: one law, one file, one folder, one jurisdiction. The organization follows the standard ELI (European Legislation Identifier). As the project’s GitHub explains, all content comes from the BOE Consolidated Legislation APIthe text of the legislation is public domain. What Legalize-es provides is structure, version control and metadata. What has changed about this law. But the laws have their drafts, consolidated texts and subsequent reforms, so sometimes being clear about what is in force and what is not is an odyssey. So you added each reform as a commit, with the actual publication date. This way, even if you have no idea about laws, you can see what exactly has changed in the regulations: in red is what is deleted and in green is what is added. We see it better with an example, that of Royal Decree-Law 8/2010: Royal Decree-Law 8/2010 Why is it important. Beyond the practicality of access of this format, the true relevance is that anyone can know what has changed in a law without tricks or cardboard. It is true that the BOE is public, but it is far from friendly. On the other hand, when a law is reformed, it is easy to lose sight of previous regulations. With this format it is easy to know what has changed and when. Context. In a state like Spain where the normative production report of the CEOE for 2024 (the last one released) lists 719 regulations, being up to date with regulations that affect matters as important as taxes or retirement is an arduous task. The digitization of current legal regulations is a pending issue that this project addresses as a civic hack: using technology to simplify and clarify what the administration hinders. How it works. The core of legalize-es is the automation of legislative data through a pipeline, that is, with a “robot” that periodically monitors the BOE’s Consolidated Legislation API. The system extracts the text from the official PDF and cleans it of strange formats, leaving it in plain text. Once processed, the law is integrated into a Git version control system where each reform does not overwrite the previous one, but is saved as a new layer to allow access to the history of changes, which allows traceability. In Xataka | The “ChatGPT for lawyers” exists, it was born in Spain and has just reached a milestone: becoming a unicorn Cover | Flickr

thousands of soldiers converted into Tomahawks that the US no longer has

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In recent times, the United States has fought many of its wars without the need to deploy large contingents on the front lines, relying on weapons capable of traveling more than 1,500 kilometers with millimeter precision and being launched from thousands of kilometers away. But there is a detail which can be crucial: replenishing that type of weaponry can take years, not weeks. The Tomahawk countdown. The United States has based the start of the conflict on a key advantage: hit at distance without exposing itself, relying massively on cruise missiles Tomahawk. However, that advantage is evaporating at high speed, with more than 850 missiles launched in just one month, a figure that represents a significant part of the total available arsenal and that has led some commanders to openly speak of “alarmingly low” levels. The problem is not only how much has been spent, but how slowly can be replaced: They are manufactured in limited quantities, they take years to produce and their intensive use in multiple recent conflicts has left a stock much more fragile than the official discourse makes it seem. From remote war to direct risk. Because the Tomahawk is not just another weapon, it is the pillar that allows Washington attack without risk pilots or troops in highly defended environments. From that perspective, its wear and tear completely changes the nature of the conflict, because it forces remote attacks to be replaced. for closer operationswhere planes and soldiers are much more exposed. In fact, the very development of the campaign already points to this turn: after the first long-distance blows, the United States has had to resort to more conventional ammunition and to deeper incursions, accepting a level of risk that at the beginning of the war he had managed to avoid almost completely. The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Bainbridge fires Tomahawk missiles from the deck while underway in the eastern Mediterranean, in support of Operation Epic Fury, March 3, 2026 A scarcity that conditions. It we have counted before. The accelerated consumption of these missiles not only affects the war in Iran, but also opens a much bigger problem: Leaves the Pentagon with less room for other critical scenarios, especially in the Indo-Pacific facing China. Let’s think that Tomahawks are a of the key pieces for any high-intensity conflict against a similar power, and its reduction poses a obvious strategic dilemma: continue spending them in the Middle East or save them for a possible much more demanding confrontation. In fact, the urgency has reached the point of proposing missile transfers from other regions and put pressure on the industry to multiply production, something that, in any case, it will take years to take effect. The arrival of troops. In parallel to this silent attrition, the United States is moving thousands of soldiers to the region, in a buildup that could exceed 17,000 troops ready to operate near Iran. Although officially it is presented as a measure of pressure or preparation for contingencies, the context reveals another reading– As the ability to hit from afar decreases, the need to have options on the ground. Marines, parachutistsspecial forces and logistical support units are being positioned for missions ranging from securing sea routes to capturing strategic objectives or nuclear facilities. Possible missions, real risks. Because the operations that are being considered are not minor or fast, but complex interventions in highly hostile environments: take key islandssecure points in the Strait of Hormuz or even penetrate Iranian territory to neutralize critical assets such as uranium. Each of these scenarios involves facing missiles, drones, naval mines and prepared local forces, with the added risk of operating in tight areas and under constant fire. Unlike missile attacks, there is no safety distance: once on the ground, troops become concentrated and vulnerable targetsrelying on aerial and defensive coverage that is also under pressure. The turn towards a more dangerous war. Inevitably, the result is a profound change in the logic of conflict: what began as a campaign dominated by technology and reach is transforming into a situation where the human factor returns to the center. If you will also, a key idea aims to clearly prevail, one where the war in Iran is approaching a unprecedented scenario for the United States, and where thousands of its soldiers may have to assume the role they previously Tomahawks played. Not by strategic choice, but by necessity, in a context where the shortage of high-precision ammunition coincides with an accumulation growing number of troops ready to intervene in one of the most dangerous environments in the world. Image | US Navy In Xataka | Iran has achieved something unprecedented in the Middle East: that the US has to abandon its military bases In Xataka | While the US bombs Iran, something unusual has happened: drones attacking the nuclear bases in North Dakota

The Bernabéu was facing a financial disaster after the concert fiasco. So he has converted to tennis

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The Bernabéu will convert its retractable grass into clay courts for training at the Mutua Madrid Open 2026. The move is possible thanks to the engineering of the stadium renovation, which has invested more than 1.3 billion euros, and the gap in events left by Real Madrid’s calendar. It is also the latest expression of an ambition that has been colliding with neighbors and noise limits for years. What’s going to happen? From April 23 to 30, the Santiago Bernabéu will stop being a soccer field and become several clay courts. The best tennis players on the circuit (among others, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek) will train at the Real Madrid stadium during the first week of competition of the Mutua Madrid Open 2026, which begins on April 20 at the Caja Mágica. The Bernabéu will be a minute’s drive from the players’ hotel. The information, advanced by The New York Timesmarks the arrival at the stadium of a sport that Florentino Pérez has been fooling around with for years. How to do it. All this is possible thanks to retractable pitch system installed during the remodeling of the stadium, completed at the end of 2023. The field is divided into six trays measuring 107 by 11.67 meters, each weighing approximately 1,500 tons, which are moved by 24 transport carts and stored in the hypogeum: a 30-meter-deep underground greenhouse equipped with growth lamps and air conditioning systems that keep the grass in optimal condition. The entire process takes approximately six hours. Once the grass is stored, the concrete base is free to install any other surface, such as clay for tennis. It is the same mechanism that allowed us to host the first NFL game in Spain last November. 1.1 billion does not pay for itself. The conversion into a multifunctional stadium is not Florentino’s whim, although he tries to sell us that it has always been a personal dream, as we explain below. The renovation of the Bernabéu has cost, after chaining up to three loans, around 1,100 million euros. Football is not enough. Real Madrid plays around twenty home games per season, which leaves the stadium empty more than three hundred days a year. The strategy is to fill those days with events that generate additional income, following the model already practiced by facilities such as SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles or Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. The club surpassed €1.2 billion in annual revenue in 2023-24 in part thanks to this diversification. AND as we counted at the timethe large Spanish stadiums are looking for new sources of income: Athletic is studying options with San Mamés, Betis is working on Villamarín, Barcelona has just invested 1,450 million in the Camp Nou. They all look for the same thing: that the business does not depend on those 19 or 20 game nights a year. Dreaming since 2019. In the general assembly of Real Madrid that yearthe club president explained that injuries had frustrated several attempts to organize an exhibition match between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer at the Bernabéu. Pérez had been thinking about the idea for some time. Federer retired in 2022, Nadal in 2024, and the match never came. But the link with tennis remains intact: Nadal has declared on several occasions his desire to preside over the club one dayand Alcaraz, number one in the world, is a declared Madrid fan. The first team players frequently appear in the boxes of the Caja Mágica during the tournament. That the Bernabéu now hosts the training of the circuit’s great figures is, at least, the modest and executable version of that effort by Florentino Pérez that was never fulfilled. Previous setbacksand how to solve them. The plan to turn the Bernabéu into an events machine has had a serious setback: the concerts. Since the inauguration of the stadium as a music venue in April 2024, the residents of Chamartín complaints about noise levels accumulated which sometimes exceeded 85 decibels, when the municipal ordinance establishes a maximum of 53. The City Council processed sanctions for a total of 2.6 million euros between April and December 2024. In September 2024, Real Madrid suspended the concerts scheduled until early 2025, and the complaint by the Association of People Injured by the Bernabéu is still ongoing. The situation ended up expelling artists like AitanaLola Índigo or Dellafuente from the stadium. On the other hand, tennis training does not generate this problem: a group of tennis players training in a stadium without 80,000 attendees in the surrounding streets is, acoustically, an activity of another category. For the club, it is also a way to demonstrate that diversification is possible without raising eyebrows. In Xataka | Shakira is not convinced by any stadium in Madrid to close her world tour. So he’s going to build his own

The rain in Seville is wonderful and now it is also converted into energy with the new CSIC solar panels

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If there is a renewable energy that has emerged in recent years, it is solar, as can be seen in this graph of the International Energy Agency. However, solar energy still has its limitations: it requires space (hence there are projects in lakes and in the open sea) and of course, it depends on whether there is sun. Yes, putting batteries can cushion that irregular supply (here Spain is a powerhouse), but a research team from the University of Seville with the CSIC has given a twist to classic photovoltaic panels and now can generate electricity with rain. Context. Solar panels lose effectiveness when full sun does not fall on them, either because there are clouds or it rains. Therefore, the ideal scenario is midday on a sunny day, but spoiler: this happens less times than you need to plug something in. Not to mention devices that need continuous and autonomous energy supply, no matter what happens in the electrical grid. The battery option allows us to satisfy the supply on demand and although now They are at their minimum pricestill involves purchasing another component, considering its useful life and its management as waste. The invention. As explains the CSIChave developed a hybrid device that allows capturing energy from both the sun and rain, and also doing so at the same time. As? With a sheet thinner than a human hair (100 nanometers) superimposed on the solar cells. It works on two fronts at the same time: on the one hand as a protective encapsulant for perovskite solar cells, improving their durability in adverse conditions. On the other hand, as a triboelectric nanogenerator: it converts the impact of raindrops into electricity due to friction. Thus, it is capable of producing up to 110 volts, enough to light LEDs or power sensors. Why is it important. Because if this technology is commercialized, it will open the doors for completely autonomous electronic devices to function without batteries or plugs. This is the case of the implementation of IoT outdoors or in remote areas without access to the electrical grid. It serves as an example of use in applications in rural infrastructure or agriculture, such as environmental sensors, weather stations, urban signage or auxiliary lighting. The innovation is not only generating energy from rain, but integrating it all into a single thin layer that solves the main Achilles heel of perovskite: its environmental degradation. In fact, science had already proven with taurine from octopuses. How have they done it. To carry out this device, they used plasma technology to deposit plasma technology in a similar way to that implemented in mobile screens. For the base, perovskite cells, a material with better efficiency and lower cost than traditional silicon, but fragile under conditions such as humidity. The use of triboelectric materials is not new: a research team from the University of Hong Kong a few years ago something similar occurred to him: the generation of electricity by the simple friction of droplets upon impact, such as static electricity generated by rubbing a balloon. Yes, but. Although technically speaking they have generated electricity, the reality is that it is high voltage but low intensity, which in practice is not even useful for charging a mobile phone. And although the perovskite is reinforced with this sheet, in the long term it is still less durable than silicon, so it still has pending issues. Likewise, there remains the great challenge of leaving the laboratory and validating these experiments in real environments. If production can be scaled to an industrial level, another challenge would arise: keeping costs low. In Xataka | Europe produces more clean electricity than fossil electricity for the first time. The hard part starts now In Xataka | Solar panels have an invisible and very brief moment in which they do not work. And solving it is key to your future Cover | Lara John

drones converted into Uber of combat robots

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In Ukraine, the war is transforming at brutal speed due to the massive irruption of drones and robotsmachines and devices that have ceased to be a complement to central part of the fight. Every week they appear new shapes to use them to reconnoitre, attack, evacuate or move supplies without exposing soldiersand that is forcing us to adapt tactics almost in real time. What we did not imagine was to what extent. Cross a line. In Ukraine, this “machine war” has entered a phase as delusional as it is logicalone in which a drone is no longer just a weapon or an eye in the sky, but a means of transportation: Ukrainian soldiers have started using aerial drones as if they were improvised Ubers for combat robots, loading small ground vehicles and dropping them near Russian positions to save time and, above all, blood. The image was described by military commanders to the Insider mediumwhen the soldiers at the front saw with stupefaction and surprise the almost absurd scene (a flying platform carrying another armed platform), but which summarizes better than anything the technological moment of the front: the continuous impossible combinations that are born from a simple and brutal need, to put capabilities on the ground without exposing a human even a second more than is essential. The trick. Here is a company that we have talked before. Ark Roboticswhich supplies autonomous robots to more than 20 brigades, says that this tactic has even surprised its own CEO, Achi, who speaks on Insider under a pseudonym for safety and that when he saw it he reacted with a mixture of disbelief and alarm, before admitting that it made all the sense in the world. A large drone transports a small ground robot forward and “drops” it to deploy it directly where it matters, avoiding the most vulnerable part of the trip, that slow advance over land that exposes the UGV to mines, direct fire, mud, craters and detection. The idea is so simple that it is scary: it is not about inventing a marvel, but about skipping the route that produces casualties, and converting the deployment into something fast and safe for the human operator. Why does it make sense? The reason this madness works is that air and ground combat complement each other in modern warfare: aerial drones are numerous, can cover distances quickly and cross dangerous areas more easily, but they are noisy, visible and need to stay close to observe or attack. Terrestrial robots, on the other hand, they are slow to arrivebut when they are already in position they can do things that cannot be done in the same way from the air: get into trenches, enter shelters, approach without announcing their presence, place explosives, collect intelligence, shoot with more stability and remain hidden next to an enemy point as if they were part of the landscape. That species drone-Uber It precisely solves the bottleneck: it does not improve the robot itself, it improves “how you take it” to the place where it starts to be really dangerous. Ukrainian land robot Crazy innovation… with logic. This type of hybrid shows to what extent the war in Ukraine has become in a laboratory that no longer differentiates between classic categories, because everything is mixed in order to gain seconds and reduce casualties. It’s not just creativity: it’s creativity for survival, squeezing out any tool until you get uses from it that weren’t in the plans. Other manufacturers as Milrem Robotics They have also recognized that the Ukrainians have used their robots in unexpected waysand that pressure from the front is rewriting the design of systems in real time, in cycles of change so rapid that they seem impossible in traditional industry. The cost of speed. The problem for companies like Ark is that this “insane phase” of machine warfare forces them to innovate with a speed that can turn against: If you change too much, you no longer mass produce, and if you produce without changing, you fall behind. Achi describe an almost inhuman pace of iteration, with multiple modifications in weeks, and the permanent risk of following wrong trends that compromise reliability and volume. In practice, war requires them to do two incompatible things at once: experiment as an improvised workshop and manufacture as a real industry. The future that looms. Although hethe terrestrial robots are still a minority in the face of the torrent of aerial drones, the scene with Ark robots makes it clear that it is an expanding sector and that the front is pushing towards a model in which the front line is increasingly supported by machines. The company develops a system called Frontier to coordinate thousands of drones and robots with minimal human intervention, and the idea that floats above everything is as disturbing as it is coherent: if moving people near the front is increasingly absurd, war will tend to move machines, and Ukraine this exploiting that logic in a big way. Image | Ministry of Defense of Ukraine In Xataka | The drone war in Ukraine is scary for a reason: It’s called Sirius-82 and it has turned rivers into modern minefields In Xataka | Ukraine has called in a group of hunters for an unprecedented mission: to prevent Russian missiles from freezing it

Civilian ships that can be converted into missile launchers

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For decades, large freighters have been the most recognizable symbol of globalization, platforms designed to move goods and not much else. In recent years, however, some images are beginning to suggest that this separation between civil transport and military capacity is no longer as clear as it seemed. Photographs are circulating of a merchant ship modified in an unusual way, with containers that do not seem intended for consumer goods. Images come from Weibothe equivalent of X in China. They show a medium-sized freighter that does not respond to a standard configuration, with containers placed in an unusual way and equipment visible on deck. There is no official confirmation about the vessel or the exact time the photographs were taken. The entire analysis is based, therefore, on what can be directly observed in these images. Sensors and defense on deck. On the freighter you can see containers used as supports to install equipment, As Newsweek points out. On the front there is a rotating phased-array radar placed on three containers, and on the opposite side there is a second installation covered by a dome, attributable to communications or another sensor. Also noteworthy is the presence of visible self-defense elements in the bow, such as a point defense system and decoy launchers, which reinforces the idea of ​​a setup designed to operate exposed. Beyond the sensors, the element that completely redefines the ship is the presence of vertical launchers integrated into containers. There are several modules installed in a regular arrangement, five wide by three deep, and each with four launch tubes. On paper, that adds up to a total of 60 vertical cells. How far does what we know go? Beyond what is visible, the practical scope of this configuration is unknown. The robustness of the mounts, the possible coverage limitations due to the ship’s own superstructure and the absence of information on an integrated combat system limit any conclusion. Just because something can be physically installed does not mean that it can be used effectively in an operational environment. Click to see the original publication in X A sign within a broader modernization. These images fit with a context in which China has been expanding and diversifying its military capabilities in multiple ways. In aviation, it has officially incorporated the J-20Sthe two-seat variant of the J-20 with drone control capabilities, and prototypes attributed to the programs have appeared J-36 and J-50. In the naval field, the commission of the Fujian aircraft carrier (Type 003)the advance of the Type 055 destroyers and the appearance of new amphibious classes such as the Type 076 They draw a coherent background. None of this makes the freighter a definitive test of strategy, but it helps to understand why such a solution is not foreign to the general direction that Beijing follows. The unknowns surrounding this freighter remain open and will probably not be resolved in the short term. Regardless of whether it is an experiment, a model or something more advanced, these images put a concrete possibility on the table: that civil platforms can be adapted to concentrate launch capacity and operate with their own sensors. Images | Screenshot Weibo and X In Xataka | Satellite images have revealed that China has gathered its most important aircraft carriers. And that can only mean one thing

that of the towns converted into hubs of organized crime

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TO beginning of 2025the province of Toledo began to appear with unusual frequency in police reports. From then until a few hours ago, the escalation of violence and crime that has been splashed across the country’s newspapers has made one thing crystal clear: the dangerous conversion of many towns in Spain such as hub of criminal gangs. From local clans to industrial cultivation. In March, the National Police dismantled a network of indoor marijuana crops spread across several municipalities (Illescas, El Viso de San Juan, Yeles, Lucillos and Ugena) managed by a family clan with the structure of a criminal group. The investigations began following anomalies detected by an electrical company that warned of illegal connections to the network. Upon entering the homes, the agents they found more than 5,800 plants, 3,600 cuttings, firearms such as assault rifles and cash. The simultaneous records revealed complex logistics and a high level of specialization: germination rooms, differentiated cultivation cycles and distribution to other networks that exported production outside of Spain. The mafia. That operation, framed in the National Plan against cannabis trafficking, confirmed what the authorities they already sensed: Toledo, due to its proximity to Madrid, was establishing itself as a preferred area for marijuana mafias, with warehouses and homes transformed into agricultural laboratories at the service of European drug trafficking. In fact, counted A few weeks later, the newspaper El País reported that the organizations, in a twist, were looking for empty apartments on social networks or even they consulted the obituaries to squat the houses. Fuensalida: the violent mutation. Three months later, the violence moved from the field of cultivation to that of theft and intimidation. In June, the Civil Guard dismantled the Ángel CM gang, a group of criminals that for months spread fear in Fuensalida and other towns in La Sagra. Based in a neighborhood nicknamed “the Bronx,” its leader organized assaults serial attacks on vulnerable people, vehicle thefts, falsification of license plates and thefts from shops and warehouses. Not only that. They acted with brutality: Victims were dragged or hit during the pulling, and some elderly people suffered fractures and serious injuries. The Civil Guard and the Local Police managed to arrest nine people (all residents of Fuensalida) after weeks of surveillance and chases in broad daylight. Toledo as a hub. In one of those chases, an accomplice fled cross-country after stealing a car. The arrest of Ángel and his collaborators brought relief to the area, but it also showed that Toledo was no longer just home to cultivation networks, but also crime groups organized with its own structures and hierarchies, capable of operating between several provinces. The international leap. After the summer, the National Police dismantled in Yuncos, Palomeque and Méntrida an organization that represented a qualitative leap: a drug trafficking network with direct links with the Mexican Sinaloa cartel. Sixteen people were arrested, including a chemist from the cartel itself who had traveled from Mexico to direct production of cocaine and methamphetamine. Clandestine laboratories. The agents located two camouflaged laboratories in rural areas, equipped with industrial materials, chemical reagents and security systems designed to hide the activity. More than 160 kilos of drugs were seized, including cocaine, base, ephedrine and methamphetamine, along with 7,500 liters of precursors and 21,000 euros in cash. Fifteen of those arrested were placed in provisional prison. The operation confirmed that Toledo had ceased to be just a logistical territory: it had become a production and refining enclave of high-value drugs, which implied the arrival of foreign technicians, international financing and a level of sophistication unprecedented in the region. A shooting as a turning point. On November 9, the municipality of El Casar de Escalona (barely two thousand inhabitants) was the scene of a shooting between agents of the Special Operations Group (GEO) and a group of drug traffickers of Dominican origin. The suspects, from Asturias, they planned to kidnap to members of another local network to settle a drug debt. When intercepted by the Police, they opened fire and the geos responded. One of the alleged drug traffickers died on the spot and two others were injured. No officers were hurt, but vehicles were riddled by gunfire. The operation, directed by Udyco, revealed the existence of groups dedicated to violent debt collection between gangs, a phenomenon typical of urban drug trafficking environments transferred to rural Spain. The drift. The shooting also coincided with another armed confrontation in Seville, where a police officer was seriously injured by an assault rifle during a hashish raid. Both episodes led police unions to demand more media and bulletproof vests in the face of the “qualitative leap” in crime, which no longer hesitates to confront with weapons of war. Toledo as a mirror of a phenomenon. The Ministry of the Interior he responded remembering the budget reinforcement and the purchase of new ballistic equipment, while the anti-drug prosecutor of the National Court, Rosa Ana Morán, warned of the risk that Spain would follow the path of Belgium and the Netherlands, where drug trafficking networks have derived in shootings, threats to judges and institutional corruption. If you like, Toledo, converted into marijuana laboratoryenclave methamphetamine and scene of reckoningsymbolizes that dangerous transition: from a quiet province to the epicenter of globalized crime that mixes Latin American drug trafficking, local crime and European infrastructure. A geography that reflects the displacement of organized crime towards the interior of the peninsula and the birth of a new silent frontier in the heart of Castilla-La Mancha. Image | Civil Guard In Xataka | First they kidnap you, then they put you to work in online scams: the drama of thousands of people in Asia In Xataka | The fake sex ads that ruined lives. The Valencian criminal gang of online fraud and extortion falls

House renovations used to be to make them more habitable. Now they can also be converted into Lego sets

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At the beginning of October we count that the lack of space in modern homes or the impossibility of collecting quantities of LEGO due to how much they occupy had led to the creation of a business especially aimed at those who do not want to give up building new sets, but do not need to keep them. Brick Borrow rent LEGO sets…which are then returned. It happens that more and more people are directly renovating their house to make room for it. to these jewels. Domestic brick utopias. I was telling it on the weekend the wall street journal. In recent years, the rise of adult collecting Lego has transformed entire domestic spaces into carefully designed and detailed miniature worlds, urban landscapes, beaches with bathers and functional amusement parks. Of all, the case by Christie Northin Salt Lake City, is especially representative: he has torn down walls, renovated his basement and spent more than $100,000 in building and displaying his Lego city, which he accesses through a fingerprint scanner and which he is considering monitoring with cameras to observe when he travels. The origin. The woman started as a hobby to combat boredom during the pandemic, but became your emotional refugea task where methodical construction and imagination combine into something he describes as “feeding the soul.” In his brick world you can see a mix of technical dedication, nostalgia and the search for a personal space in the face of everyday routines. Adult collecting. The truth is that Lego has been able to cultivate, especially since 2020, a growing base adult amateurmany of whom could not afford the most ambitious sets during their childhood, but today they have income and a sentimental motivation to rebuild what they before it was inaccessible. The problem is not only economic, but also spatial: the largest sets can occupy entire tables or even entire rooms, forcing coexistence decisions, as in the case by Steve Isomwhich has assembled more than 275 sets and has given its dining room, office and shelves to spaceships suspended from the ceiling and monumental models like a titanic shelf or an Eiffel Tower almost meter and a half. His wife tolerates the hobby, but imposes clear limits: The bedroom is left out of the invasion of bricks. This negotiation silent It is repeated in many homes, where the passion for building clashes with shared aesthetics, functionality and the simple space available. Architecture, interior design and adaptation. The transformation of the home into a gallery of Lego pieces has even given rise to a specific demand in interior architecture. He architect Jeff Pelletierhimself a fan, claims to have designed more than twenty houses with rooms dedicated to Lego, mostly for adults. His advice includes Avoid rooms with direct light to avoid discoloring the pieces and use closed display cases to reduce dust. In other cases, it suggests integrate small Lego pieces as discreet decorative accents on shelves, walls or artistic compositions that imitate famous works. These solutions seek balance passion and aestheticspreserving the visual identity of the home without eliminating the collector’s creative space. Even in the real estate market, agents like Niko Cejic they claim that houses with Lego rooms can be more attractive, providing character and differentiation compared to the neutral standardization of so many contemporary interiors. The home as an emotional refuge. Beyond the hobby, these Lego rooms reflect an emotional need profound in a context of increasingly fast-paced lives, demanding jobs and changing family structures. Evan Rubinfor example, finds in his Lego room an oasis of manual repetition and visual calm, a selective return to a childhood reinterpreted. Many homeowners describe these constructions as a way to regain creativity in the face of monotonous routines, and also as a way to build an identity within the home. They told in the Journal that the replacement of more traditional life projects (such as raising children in increasingly smaller and late-term homes) is intertwined with this phenomenon: pets, plants and Lego appear where cribs once appeared. The house is no longer just a place to live, but a stage in which to reconstruct an intimate version of oneself. Tiny “real” worlds. Ultimately, the lego roomshidden in basements, domestic extensions or carefully reserved rooms, aim to be one (another) cultural manifestation of a contemporary desire for belonging, refuge and creative control. If you will, they also represent a silent, patient and manual response to digital speed, constant productivity and the pressure of adulthood. The worlds built with bricks They do not replace the outside world, of course, but they offer continuity between the child who played and the adult who seeks his own space in the midst of obligations, schedules and demands. Ultimately, in those miniature cities There is a simple and universal statement: although life pushes us to grow, there will always be parts of us that need to continue building. Image | Brickset, PXHere In Xataka | The secret to continuing to accumulate LEGO sets is not to keep them. This rental service helps you with that. In Xataka | One thousand euros for the Star Wars Death Star: the most expensive Lego set to date does not make all fans happy

The AI has converted work interviews into a cheat circus. So companies are returning to the face -to -face

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The virtual work interviews They are already normal in job search processes. The problem is that in certain areas, such as software and programmers engineers, candidates usually take advantage of AI tools to cheat. The trend is so worrying that some companies are already returning What always worked: Interviews in person. Google wants to meet you in person. SUCTAR PICHAI, CEO of Google, He explained in June In the Lex Friedman podcast that renewal of the company’s policies at the time of Hire certain profiles. “We are making sure that we introduce at least one round of the candidate for the candidates, just to ensure that the fundamental aspects are fulfilled.” Return to the face -to -face. Pichai’s message is the same as They are adopting other companies such as Apple, goalCisco or the consultant McKinsey, who are among a growing number of companies that are recovering the interviews face to face with the candidates in various stages of the selection process. Mike Kyle, from the Coda Search/Staffing Employment Agency, explained how the quota of companies that have the requirement to make face -to -face interviews has become 30%, when in 2024 it was only 5%. If you want what salary I offer you, I need to meet you. That return to face -to -face interviews usually also focus on the last part of the selection process, but in reality it can occur at any time. If you do not present yourself physically at some point in that process, You won’t know what conditions (Salary included) offers you the company. Cheat programmers. As we said, that is especially true for profiles such as programmers. During some phases of the interviews, real -time sessions usually consider in which candidates must solve a programming problem. In virtual interviews, what has happened is that the interviewees cheat And they use AI to solve the problem, which is not clear whether or not those candidates meet the requirements. AI has become a problem. The resurgence of interviews in person tries to mitigate the problem that AI has raised. Companies that offer jobs have ended up using AI systems for Filter candidateswhich usually flood those offers because they also use AI to generate their CVS adapted to each position and automate the request for various positions quickly. THE ART OF THE TRAPS A few months ago we counted how a student managed to overcome a Amazon technical interview Thanks to the use of AI. That gave him a disturbing idea, because he created a startup called Cluelly to help others do the same or to make exams. One that in fact advertises with an unusual message: “Cheat everything.” The idea seems to have liked, because the investment firm A16z has already injected 15 million dollars In the project. Deepfakes that are interviewed for you. That is a good example of a dangerous trend. It is not that candidates try to deceive companies about their real capacities thanks to AI: there are people who are using these methods much more worrying. The FBI already warned in 2023 of a fraud that involved thousands of North Koreans that simulated being North Americans seeking to work remotely in US companies. His way of doing so was really striking and complex. Be careful with murmuring. Companies that use virtual interviews in their selection processes are also paying special attention to these traps. In fact, some try to detect them by monitoring indications that can aim at fraud: muttering out of the screen or typing and then pauses before answering (waiting to see what the chatgpt tells them on duty to read that answer) It is usually a clue to hunt checkery. Image | RAD MINE In Xataka | Hide the holes in the curriculum of an intermittent work career: the art of not deceiving without telling the whole truth

His name is N8N, he is German and has converted the automation of workflows into something sexy

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For many years Jan Oberhauser worked for special effects (VFX) companies in the film and television industry. In those works he realized that automating certain tasks allowed simplifying his work and that of his colleagues in a remarkable way, and that was when he decided to take a complete turn to his career: he created an automation startup he called which he called N8N and has ended up becoming the last and promising European unicorn. There is nothing. Thus N8N was born. The company founded by Oberhauser He was born in 2019 In Berlin, Germany. Its objective: create a workflow automation platform that stood out for being Open Source – they prefer to use the term “Fair Code“,” Fair code ” -. In addition, you could and can be used in both autohosped mode (anyone can be mounted on its PC/server) and directly through its” key in hand “systems with the traditional SAAS scheme and its Subscription plans. The code is available In Github. What does this platform do. Basically, Automize everything. For this, it makes use of integrations of all kinds in third -party web applications and services, but also internally developed tools and, for some time, AI models that have become one of the star ingredients of those automation. The possibilities are practically unlimited, but to give some examples, N8N allows: That upon receiving an email in Gmail the sender leakes, the attachments are saved in Google Drive and you will notify you in Slack That if any event occurs in an app or service, you are sent an alert in slack, whatsapp or discord Download SDE files a FTP server, convert them to another format, process them and then distribute them by messaging channels A big ifttt. In essence N8N is something like a IFTTT Supervitaminazo: It is possible to chain all kinds of tasks so that “if this happens, you do this another.” However, the goal is to capture not only to end users – in Reddit There is a community Very nourished and enthusiastic of them – but to business users, for whom it raises a clear alternative to very popular automation platforms such as Zapier either Make (In both cases, no autohosped solution). Something that seems boring and cumbersome apparently becomes something fun, almost sexy – as they demonstrate Some YouTube video tutorials-, with N8N. N8N has not stopped growing. In 2020, a few months after being created, he already captured a small investment round of 1.5 million dollars. A year later They raised 12 million dollars more in a new round, and since then they have not stopped growing, but their true explosion has taken advantage of the boom of generative AI. A German Unicorn. Four months ago and after a new financing round of 55 million euros, N8N had a notable assessment of 350 million dollars. But as they indicate In Bloombergthis assessment could now be triggered to the 2.3 billion dollars thanks to a recent additional round in which the Risk Capital firm will lead with an important participation not yet defined.N The French Mistral either The Spanish Freepik. AI agents as a key ingredient. The company already exceeds 40 million dollars of recurrent income (subscriptions), and has benefited from the aforementioned AI and the phenomenon of the AI agentswith the difference that here these agents are really One more piece of those flows Automation. When you define one of those flows, they can “call” any model of AI to perform any task, and from it, that the exit ends up being the entrance of a new stage of the workflow. The power of the system, which was already remarkable, is now multiplied with the help of that option. In Xataka | “Ai Fluency” will be the new “user level office” in employment offers. The problem: you will have to learn on your own

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