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how to access your Wrapped with your listening statistics from the day you registered

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Let’s tell you what is the new experience Your Years in Party Mode from Spotify, a kind of Wrapped with a summary of your main data since you registered on the platform. This is a special experience created by the streaming service to celebrate its twenty years of existence. Actually, this experience is quite simple, and it only shows you a few pieces of data, much less than what you can obtain with third-party services with which to collect your Spotify statistics. However, it still shows you some curious things like the first song you listened to or your most listened to artist. Therefore, we are going to tell you how can you launch this experience and what are the statistics that you will be able to see with it. In addition, you will also have a special playlist and several slides to share in stories of social networks. How to see your Wrapped with data since you signed up for Spotify To launch the experience of Your Years in Party Mode from Spotify, you have to enter the website spotify.com/20 in the browser of your mobile or your computer. If you do it on your mobile, you can directly open the Spotify app from within, and from your computer you will have a QR to scan with your mobile. Once you start the experience, you will have a kind of long history where your data is displayed. There are not several slides that you can navigate, but a single one where everything is shown little by little, but with buttons that allow you to interact with it. The first thing you will see is the exact date you registered on Spotify with your account. That was your first day. Below you can click on Next giftwhich is a poor translation of the follow to next data button that you will see on each screen. Then you will go to another screen where you are told the total number of songs you have listened to on Spotify from the day you registered. This is a good first piece of information to share and compare with your friends. Then you’ll be able to guess which one it was. the first song you heard between four options, game after which you will be shown the topic that was. And when you do this, then you will be taught What is the artist you have listened to the most? from the day you registered with Spotify, also indicating the number of minutes you have spent listening to it. Then comes one of the most interesting parts, and that is that Spotify gives you a playlist with your most listened to songs ever. Come on, the topics you’ve been listening to the most since the day you registered. When this screen appears, tap Save to library to save the playlist and listen to it whenever you want. Finally, you will go to a screen where 5 slides are shown to choose from, and in each of them you have a button to share it on social networks. You can share slides with your registration date, total songs listened to, most listened to song, your top artist and another with all this data together. In Xataka Basics | Spotify listening statistics: what they are and how to access them to know which artists you have listened to the most each week

His parents built the Chinese economic miracle by working 12 hours a day. Their children have decided not to work almost at all

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Working twelve hours a day, six days a week, was common in Chinese companies, especially in the technology sector. It is what is known as day 996 and fortunately, the government banned it in 2021. They did not expect that that same year a new concept called Tang Ping and it means just the opposite: doing the minimum to survive. Lay down on the couch. Its literal translation is ‘lie flat’, but we like the creative translation better. Tang Ping It is a social phenomenon that arises as a rejection of the culture of overwork and endless days that barely leave time to sleep. A person who follows a lifestyle Tang Ping He works the minimum necessary to survive and does not have great ambitions; He doesn’t want to buy a car or a house, he spends little on food and he doesn’t want to get married or have children. The latter has not been any fun in Beijing. National security concern. We have talked about the birth rate crisis that China is going through and how the government is doing literally everything for get young people married and have children, so this movement goes against everything they are promoting. The government’s discourse on this trend has taken on a more severe tone. Last April, They published an official warning in which they stated that it is an “ideological infiltration” financed by “hostile anti-China forces” with the aim of “eroding the minds of Chinese youth.” They have turned a lifestyle into a political act that must be repressed. The safety net. They count in Baiguan News that, to understand the rise of this trend, two social mechanisms must be understood. The first is that the parents of these young people were born in the 60s and 70s, so their professional career grew along with the economic development of the country and they are currently the richest demographic group in the country. This means that if their children have financial problems, they can provide support. The second factor is deflation, which is making everything cheaper. In China it is possible to eat for just 1 or 2 dollars in exchange, which makes it viable to live while spending very little money. If we add that youth unemployment is at 16.9% and job opportunities are shrinking, it is the perfect breeding ground for lying down. The generational contrast. The parents of these young people grew up in poverty and, if they worked 72 hours a week, it was not out of pleasure, but out of pure necessity and fear of continuing to be poor. That fear was the engine of Chinese economic growth and allowed the next generation to grow in the abundance that their parents built. The difference is that these young people do not feel that raising the country depends on them, nor do they feel the fear that drove their parents, and many have decided to put their well-being before their professional career. Image | HANVIN CHEONGUnsplash In Xataka | We have been talking about “day 996” in Chinese companies for years. The reality is more complex: “day 323”

wants to eliminate the limit of eight-hour days a day

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The working day in much of Europe has been established for more than a century with a maximum limit of eight hours a day. This limit represents the maximum number of hours an employee can work per day. However, Germany is about to change that scale to make it more flexible and eliminate the daily work day as a metric in the work organization to establish the weekly schedule. As and as I advanced the german newspaper Weltthe bill will reach the Bundestag in June 2026. The idea is not that the Germans work more hours in total, but rather making the working day more flexible so that those hours can be distributed differently throughout the week. Count hours by weeks, not days. What the government proposes is seemingly simple: that the legal reference ceases to be the eight hours a day and becomes the 48 hours per week established by its legislation. With this change, it would no longer matter how many hours are worked each day, but rather that the total number of hours worked throughout the week does not exceed the legal maximum allowed. In this way, an employee could work more hours one day in exchange for working less on another, or concentrate all the load on the first days of the week and spare the rest. The government presents it as a measure to make the working day more flexible and facilitate family conciliation, especially for employees with children. Furthermore, this change would give carte blanche to companies to reinforce the hours on those days with more demand, and reduce (or close) their activity when the workload decreases. What German law says about it. In its article 3, the Arbeitszeitgesetz (Working Day Law) establishes that no employee can work more than eight hours a day as a general rule, with an exception of up to ten hours on specific days, as long as the average of the last six months does not exceed eight hours a day. The maximum limit for the weekly working day, including overtime, is 48 hours. However, the law also sets other limits that indirectly condition the daily work day. For example, you establish that between two work days, there must be at least 11 hours of rest and, if more than nine hours are worked in a row, the worker has the right to an additional minimum break of 45 minutes. These rules are not negotiable by collective agreement and apply without exception to all sectors. They are, precisely, the ones that the government wants to touch with the reform. why now. The definitive impetus for this reform came with the sentence of the Court of Justice of the EU of 2019 and is supported by the European Working Time Directive (2003/88/EC) imposed by the EU, which imposes the maximum weekly limit at 48 hours, and obliges all European employers to record the daily working hours of their employees. Germany, which until now did not require such registration in general, has to adapt to this obligation. The Minister of Labor, Bärbel Bas (SPD), has included electronic time registration in your project precisely as a safeguard. Without this control, Bas warns, flexibility can become a mechanism of exploitation in sectors with little union representation, such as last-mile delivery and parcel delivery. It is an implicit recognition that the standard, on its own, is not enough to protect those who work in more vulnerable environments. What unions and experts say. According what was published by the German media Handelsblatt, The German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) has been the first union platform to oppose the reform. Its president, Yasmin Fahimi, declared that “We are seeing attempts to question the eight-hour work day or to undermine social security systems. Don’t touch the eight-hour work day.” The unions assure that, without a daily limit, workers without a strong collective agreement are exposed to increasingly longer hours without any legal barrier to prevent it. For unions, real protection is not in the weekly total but in control of what happens each day. That is where the limitation of eight hours a day had its strength. The labor law experts of the Hans Böckler Foundation have calculated how much could be worked in the most extreme scenario allowed by European regulations: 73.5 hours per week. A theoretical figure, but possible if there is no daily limit to stop it. Several studies on occupational health document that long hours sustained over time are associated with a greater risk of errors, accumulated fatigue and decreased productivity, effects that the reform does not contemplate. In Xataka | Germany tried working four days a week: seven out of 10 companies no longer want to work five days a week Image | Unsplash (Maheshkumar Painam, Spencer Davis)

How much coffee can you drink a day? Science has a very clear limit to avoid its harmful effects

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For many of us, the starter motor in the morning It has a dark color and a roasted aroma that characterize coffee so much. A drink that is one of the most consumed in the world, but with a popularity that has been accompanied by alarmist headlines about how bad it is to ingest it and the effects it can have directly on the organs. But the truth is that there are lights and shadows. There is good news. For those who love coffee, it will undoubtedly be a relief to know that the literature indicates that consumption is not as catastrophic as they want to sell. But, as in everything, excesses of something can always lead to problems, even if it may seem like something super healthy, such as water. And coffee, obviously, is not exempt. The limit. When it comes to establishing a red line for safe consumption, the clinical reference is not in the WHO, but in the FDA and the EFSAwhich are the food safety regulatory agencies in the United States and Europe, respectively. Here both point to the same figure in coffee consumption: 400 milligrams of caffeine per day. A very relevant figure, since for the vast majority of healthy adults, consuming up to 400 mg daily is not associated with harmful health effectshighlighting that this amount can be part of a perfectly healthy diet and lifestyle. How many coffees is this equivalent to? This is where things get complicated since talking about “cups” is an analytical error, because not all coffees are the same. That is why for the FDA a 355 ml cup, which is a standard size, can contain between 113 and 247 mg of caffeine. But all this depends on the type of preparation, the extraction time or the coffee used, because Robusta coffee has more caffeine than Arabica, for example. But generally speaking, that 400 mg is equivalent to about 3 or 4 cups of standard filter coffee per day. Organic damage. It is easy to see different alarming messages warning that coffee can damage our entire interior if a specific dose is exceeded. But the reality is that the WHO does not send this message to society, since it is too alarming and does not correspond at all to reality. What is true is that excessive daily coffee consumption has important effects on our body, but it will not ‘rot’ our internal organs. Among these stand out insomnia, nervousness, irritability, palpitations, muscle tremors, intestinal irritation, headache… This means that, although we talk about coffee not being contradictory for the population, logically, if there is an underlying problem, it may be better not to drink it, and even less so if it is taken in great excess throughout the day. It has benefits. On other occasions we have talked about coffee and its benefits, because it has more than just keeping us awake in the morning. Here different studies have already pointed out to us the cardiovascular benefits it can have or even improves sports performance. But the metabolism of each person is quite involved here, since there is no single metabolism. In this case, there are people who process caffeine very quickly and its effect disappears quickly, but there are other cases where they metabolize it slowly, so its effects remain in the body and they may, for example, have more problems with insomnia, nervousness or palpitations because they are more “sensitive” to caffeine. This is the explanation, for example, that a person can boast of having a coffee at night and being able to sleep perfectly. There are exceptions. Although we talk about a limit of 400 mg of caffeine, there are people who logically cannot reach this limit, such as pregnant women, where a maximum of 200 mg per day is recommended, since excess caffeine can cross the placenta and affect fetal development. But it also influences, for example, the cholesterol level, since here the Mayo Clinic points out that the consumption of unfiltered coffee, such as Turkish coffee, can raise cholesterol levels due to compounds such as cafestol. Images | Dragana_Gordic in Magnific In Xataka | If the question is “how much caffeine is in each cup of coffee or tea,” this graph offers insightful answers.

The day a small dispute over the Tab key ended up revealing the big difference between IBM and Microsoft

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There are companies that have lived so long that their story is no longer told only through big launches, acquisitions or business battles. It is also told in small details, in those seemingly minor scenes that, seen over time, end up explaining an era better than many official statements. Microsoft and IBM belong to that category. Their paths crossed when the personal computer It was still defining many of its rules, and some of those discussions, even the most minute ones, revealed something deeper than a technical difference. The scene has been recovered Raymond Chena veteran Microsoft engineer who has been linked to the evolution of Windows for more than three decades and who for years has gathered in The Old New Thing some of the most curious stories of the Windows and Microsoft ecosystem. Chen does not present the episode as his own experience, but as the memory of a colleague who was assigned to the IBM offices in Boca Raton, Florida, during the collaboration between both companies in OS/2. OS/2 was much more than just another name lost in software history. IBM and Microsoft presented it in 1987 as an operating system designed for the IBM PS/2 line and intended to take the PC beyond the limitations of DOS, with a more modern base and ambitions typical of computing that was beginning to look further afield. The collaboration came from a joint development agreement signed in 1985when the project was not yet called OS/2. In that context, any interface decision could have more weight than it seems today, because many conventions of the modern PC were still being established. Two very similar and also very different companies The problem is that that collaboration brought together two companies at very different times in their lives. Microsoft was still a young company, very attached to software and a more direct way of working, while IBM arrived with decades of history, a huge structure and the weight of a much more established corporate culture. Chen sums it up like a clash of perceptions: from Microsoft, IBM was seen as trapped in a meaningless bureaucracy, and from IBM, Microsoft was seen as undisciplined hackers. Its own nuance is important: there was probably something right in both readings. The specific anecdote begins in Boca Raton, where a colleague of Chen’s worked assigned to the IBM offices. At some point a discussion arose about which key should be used to move from one field to another within the dialog boxes. The Microsoft engineer made a decision that is almost invisible to us today because of how assumed it is: use Tab for that function. IBM was not convinced by the choice and asked that the matter will be escalated to the person responsible from that engineer in Redmond, a reaction that already hinted at the extent to which the discrepancy went beyond the key itself. In Redmond, the petition was not understood as an issue that deserved to be raised much higher. The engineer’s manager responded with a very clear idea: if Microsoft had sent someone to Boca Raton, it was so that they could resolve decisions like that there. Translated into a more institutional tone, the message that came back to IBM was that Microsoft supported the choice of the Tab key. IBM’s reaction was just the opposite. Instead of shutting down the discussion, the company elevated her up its own chain of command to a vice president, several levels above those who were programming. IBM had not only elevated the discussion, it also wanted a response to the same hierarchical height. If its vice president was against using Tab, Microsoft had to find someone equivalent to argue the opposite. Chen’s colleague then responded with a wonderful phrase, translated here into Spanish: “Bill Gates’ mother is not interested in the Tab key“It was a pretty nice way of saying that it wasn’t worth going up the corporate elevator anymore. It wasn’t necessary to go to the heights of Microsoft to decide how to move from one field to another in a dialog box. The phrase worked, at least according to Chen’s account: apparently, after that response, the discussion ended and Tab remained the key chosen to advance between fields. The detail is funny because today almost no one stops to think about it: we simply press Tab and wait for the cursor to jump to the next available space. But there was a time when that convention was not so closed. And what we see in this story is just that: a small interface decision turned into a clash between custom, hierarchy and technical criteria. The exact date, however, does not appear in Chen’s account. We know that the episode belongs to the years of collaboration between Microsoft and IBM around OS/2, whose joint development agreement dates back to 1985 and whose Public arrival occurred in 1987. This allows us to limit the context, but not to set the day or year of the discussion by Tab. There are many decisions behind the products and services we use every day. Some are huge and visible, but others fly under the radar: a key, a gesture, an interface convention that we learn once and repeat for years without wondering where it came from. Surely many have a story behind them, although most never transcend and others would not be particularly interesting. From time to time, however, an anecdote like this appears and allows us to peek into something we almost never see: how things are handled within the companies that build the technology we use. Images | Kaatvrtg (Wikimedia Commons) | In Xataka | In 1993 Microsoft created Encarta to revolutionize knowledge. Twenty years later it would be devastated by a tsunami

How Much Protein You Really Need per Day and What Science Says About Supplements to Reach Your Goals

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In the sports world there is a great debate about how much protein should be consumed daily in order to have a good result in the gym and for the muscles to grow. But the truth is that sometimes the figures you hear about the doses you need to take are very high, and that is why it is best to go to the official source where they tell us the most appropriate doses for each person. We are not all the same. The biggest mistake when talking about protein is thinking that there is a universal figure, since recommendations vary drastically depending on whether you spend the day sitting in front of the computer or if you strength train four days a week. This is why authorities have historically established a minimum protein intake to avoid health problems, and not to optimize performance or body composition. The general population. Here the WHO it’s pretty clear pointing out that the minimum protein that should be taken is 0.75-0.8 grams per kilo of weight per day. But we talk about “minimum” and that means that it is not necessarily optimal, and that is why other guides raise this range to 0.8-1 grams per kilo of weight, emphasizing the need to include a source of protein in each meal. In athletes. Things change in this context, since the International Society of Sports Nutrition point Because, if you exercise, you should take between 1.4 and 2 grams of protein per kilo of weight per day, reaching peaks of 2.5 grams in very intense training phases. The supplementation. Achieving 2 grams of protein per kilo of weight can be a real logistical (and digestive) challenge based on chicken breast, eggs and legumes. But this is where the famous protein supplementation comes in, which should not be used as a magic remedy, but as a practical, safe and highly bioavailable tool for healthy people who They need extra protein. It is investigated. Here studies highlight that proteins derived from milk are the ones that offer the best results, although vegetable options such as those derived from soy are not far behind. The undisputed queen is wheywhose main advantage is its rapid absorption and high bioavailability, something that has been seen in clinical trials where greater development of strength and lean mass after exercise was evident. Another of the great supplements is casein, which is the slow-digesting protein, with an “anti-catabolic” effect that prevents prolonged muscle breakdown. In this way, experts point out that it is ideal to take it before sleeping to ensure a constant drip of amino acids during the night, which are nothing more than the bricks that will form the muscles. Images | Alex Saks In Xataka | When adding protein to everything is no longer a good idea: What science says about aging well

I always thought that a Stream Deck was only for streamers. It turns out to be a gadget that saves you a lot of time every day

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It is not easy to work in front of a computer for many hours a day (whether at home or in the office). You spend the entire day browsing between documents, spreadsheets, files or writing emails and, just moving from one task to another, you already waste a lot of time. I really like the concept of ‘optimize workflow‘so that this does not happen (or happens little), but it is not easy at all. There are many ways to try to do this, although few are as visual as using a Stream Deck. Yes, that little device that many streamers have on their table and that seems to only serve to change scenes or cameras, but nothing could be further from the truth. It is a device that helps improve productivity in many waysand although there are a lot of models, my favorite is this Stream Deck Neo: right now it costs 84.99 euros. Elgato Stream Deck Neo – 8 customizable keys, 2 Touch Points, fly through your tasks and processes – Control Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, Zoom, Spotify, etc. Easy setup – For Mac and PC The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Integrates with almost any software you use on a daily basis The idea of ​​the Stream Deck (of this specific model or any of the others that Elgato has) is the same: to have a panel that, with just the press of a button, simplifies tasks of all kinds. Let’s start with something simple: you can place buttons on a key to open the apps that you use most when working, such as an email manager, the browser or a Slack-type program. Or directly program a single button to open everything at once when you sit in front of the PC. In addition, it is a device that is very easy to install (it is basically plug and play) and configure. The software is also intuitive and allows us to customize the keys to the millimeter. Being compatible with software of all types, we can assign very specific keys to Photoshop, Excel or PowerPoint tools, for example. All, furthermore, with a very high degree of customization. I like this particular model for two things. The first of them is that it is compact and not as big as other models that Elgato has (which have more keys or even other types of buttons). The other is that it has two small touch panels that allow us to switch between the different “pages” of actions that we have configured. All of this means that we have a tool that will help us (a lot) to give a boost to our ‘workflow’. You also have other different Stream Deck models As I said above, there are different models of this gadget. In fact, this same year it released a keyboard in collaboration with Corsair that, directly, integrates a Stream Deck where the numeric keypad usually goes. Next, we leave you said keyboard and some different models of this Elgato gadget. Corsair Galleon 100 SD RGB Wired Mechanical Gaming Keyboard – Spanish QWERTY, Stream Deck Integration, Pre-Lubricated and Interchangeable MLX Pulse Key Switches, SOCD FlashTap, 8000Hz The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Elgato Stream Deck Mini – Control Zoom, Teams, PowerPoint, MS Office etc., increase your productivity with perfect integration with the most used apps, easily create shortcuts, compatible with Mac and PC The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Elgato Stream Deck +, Audio Mixer, Live and Studio Controller for Content Creation, Streaming, Gaming, with Touch Strip, Customizable LCD Dials and Keys, Works with Mac and PC The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Elgato Stream Deck XL – Advanced Studio Controller, 32 Macro Keys, Activates actions in apps and Software such as OBS, Twitch, Youtube and Others, Works on Mac and PC The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Elgato In Xataka | Best iPhones. Which one to buy in 2026 and recommended models based on budget, tastes and quality-price In Xataka | This is the gaming tower that I would buy. The computers with the best quality-price ratio for gaming recommended by Xataka

In three days, Russia celebrates its Victory Day. And Ukraine has a surprise prepared 1,500 kilometers away

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In May 1987, a young 19-year-old German pilot named Mathias Rust He managed to cross a good part of Soviet airspace with a small civilian plane and land next to Red Square. without being stopped. The episode caused enormous humiliation for the USSR because it showed that even the heart of Moscow could be reached in ways that no one expected. Countdown to Putin’s big parade. Russia prepares for May 9, the most symbolic day of its entire political and military calendar, while Ukraine intensifies a campaign of attacks that seems designed precisely to ruin that sense of control and security. The Kremlin has even announced a unilateral truce for the days of the parade, but kyiv has responded by making it clear that it does not intend to coordinate anything with Moscow and remembering that Russia cannot quietly celebrate Victory Day “without the good will of Ukraine.” The situation is especially uncomfortable for Putin because, for the first time in many years, Moscow faces this date with the feeling that even its capital can become a target. Moscow no longer seems like a completely safe place. The recent attack against a skyscraper luxury hotel located a few kilometers from the Kremlin has been much more than a simple symbolic coup. Ukraine has been trying to bother to Moscow ahead of the May 9 parade, but this time the message comes in a different context: Russia has reduced the size of the event, eliminated some of the heavy military deployment and greatly reinforced the defenses around the capital for fear of new drones. Meanwhile, Zelensky has hinted directly that Moscow fears seeing drones flying over Red Square during the parade, something unthinkable just a few years ago and extremely delicate for a celebration designed precisely to project power and control. The big news is the distance. The most important change in this phase of the war is happening far beyond Moscow. Ukraine is managing to attack industrial cities and military bases located more than 1,500 kilometers from the front, reaching regions of the Urals that for decades were considered a safe rear even in Soviet times. Cities like Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk or Perm begin to experience airport closuresinternet restrictions and attacks against refineriesmilitary installations or industrial infrastructures. The psychological impact is enormous because many of these areas experienced the war as something distant until just a few months ago. New missiles and drones are changing the rules. The appearance of the transonic missile F-5 Flamingo reflects the extent to which Ukraine is transforming its deep strike capability. kyiv claims to have used this system to destroy a factory Russian military about 1,500 kilometers away, a facility linked to components for missiles, aviation and naval systems. Beyond the specific damage, what is important is the trend: Ukraine no longer depends solely on improvised drones or isolated attacks, but is beginning to build a sustained capacity to hit strategic infrastructure deep inside Russia. The jam-resistant navigation systems, extreme range and possible integration of Western technology clearly show that kyiv is trying to make Russian territorial depth much less useful than it was at the start of the war. The Soviet rearguard in doubt. Plus: there is a huge historical burden in the places that Ukraine is attacking. During the Second World War, much of the Soviet industry was moved to the Urals precisely because they were considered territories impossible to reach from Europe. Cities like Chelyabinsk became known as “Tankograd” because of the concentration of military factories far from the front. Now, eighty years later, Ukrainian drones and missiles are demonstrating that that strategic depth no longer guarantees security. What once required bombers and huge air campaigns can now be achieved with long-range drones and relatively cheap missiles capable of traversing thousands of kilometers. Avoid vulnerability on its most important day. Because he May 9 parade It is not just any ceremony for Russia. It is the great annual showcase of Russian military power, the event where the Kremlin connects the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany with Putin’s current political legitimacy. That is precisely why it is so sensitive that Ukraine is increasing pressure just before the event. Russia is shooting down hundreds of drones around Moscow and strengthening security of the capital while trying to avoid any image of chaos during a day observed by foreign leaders and broadcast throughout the country. The problem for the Kremlin is that Ukraine has already managed to install a most uncomfortable idea: even more than 1,500 kilometers from the front, there is no longer a complete sense of refuge, and that includes beyond the Urals. Image | Fire Point In Xataka | Today in “the war in Ukraine beyond all comprehension”: drone pilots are training with ‘Grand Theft Auto’ In Xataka | Ukraine has barely captured any North Korean soldiers. The reason is brutally simple: they prefer to immolate themselves

the day the US stole a Soviet nuclear submarine 5,000 meters deep

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In the 1970s, a gigantic American ship sailed slowly through the Pacific while several Soviet ships they watched him a few meters away, taking photos and listening to every conversation. On deck, the sailors talked loudly about rocks on the seabed and collected samples so that everything seemed routine, without anyone suspecting that, right under their feet, one of the most unusual operations of the entire Cold War. An impossible robbery. At the end of the 60s, in the middle of the Cold War, the United States secretly located the Soviet submarine K-129 sunk to more than 5,000 meters deep in the Pacific, a distance that made any recovery attempt practically unfeasible. Even so, the strategic value it was hugesince the submersible carried nuclear missiles, codes and key technology that could tip the balance at a time of nuclear parity between superpowers. With that goal in mind, the CIA launched the Azorian Projectan operation so ambitious that for years only a small circle within the Government knew of its existence. Context. In reality, the mission, which lasted more or less six years, had begun in 1968, when the K-129 loaded with ballistic missiles disappeared without explanation somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. The situation was not entirely strange if we think that, at that time after the Cuban Missile Crisisboth American and Soviet submarines patrolled the high seas with nuclear weapons on board, prepared for possible war. Model of the sunken and deteriorated submarine K-129 The sinking. There are reports indicating that it was due to a mechanical failure, such as the missile’s engine accidentally starting, while the Soviets suspected for a time that the Americans had acted in bad faith. Be that as it may, and after two months, the Soviet Union abandoned the search for the K-129 and the nuclear weapons it carried, but the United States, which had recently used Air Force technology to locate two of its own submarines sunken, located the submarine 2,400 kilometers northwest of Hawaii and 5,030 meters deep. According to the declassified history of the project by the CIA decades later, “no country in the world had managed to recover an object of this size and weight from such depth.” Sherman Wetmore, chief engineer of the Glomar Explorer, looks at an oil painting of the ship refloating the Soviet submarine The great theater of lies. Once Washington found its location and in order to hide the true purpose, one of the more elaborate covers of history: an alleged underwater mining mission led by the eccentric millionaire Howard Hugheswhose reputation made any extravagant project credible. As? The enormous was built Hughes Glomar Explorerpresented to the world as a ship capable of extract manganese nodules from the seabed, while in reality it hid inside a secret system designed to capture the submarine. The operation was so convincing that even influenced markets and universitiesfeeding for years the illusion of a new mining industry that was never actually the objective. Details of the construction plan of the Glomar Explorer (reproduction), from 1971. In the lower central part of the ship, you can see the plans of the so-called “lunar pool”, into which the claw could introduce the submarine The giant claw. The heart of the mission was, possibly, the most exciting part of an already incredible story. It was a device hidden under the boat: a gigantic mechanical “claw” capable of descending kilometers to the ocean floor, hugging the hull of the submarine and raising it through a complex system of pipes and cables. The entire process had to be executed out of sight, using an internal opening in the ship (the called “moon pool”) that allowed working completely hidden, even under the constant surveillance of suspicious Soviet ships, but they couldn’t prove anything. There is no doubt, the operation required extreme precision, withstanding colossal stresses and maintaining the ship’s position in the open sea for days, something that in itself already represented an unprecedented technological challenge. Everything (almost) ready. In the summer of 1974, after years of preparation, the CIA managed to reach the submarine and hooked it with the claw, at which point he began to slowly raise it towards the surface, in an operation that lasted days and kept the entire crew tense. However, halfway through the ascent, the structure gave way and much of K-129 fell back to the ocean floor, leaving only a recovered section. Even so, they managed to rescue remains of the helmet and bodies of several Soviet sailors, who were buried with honors at sea, while the real loot (the missiles and secret codes) was shrouded in uncertainty and absolute secrecy by the United States, since many of the details remain classified today. “We neither confirm nor deny.” The biggest twist in history came when the operation came out in 1975 after leaks and thefts of documents linked to the business cover, forcing the US Government to face a most delicate diplomatic situation. However, instead of admitting or denying the theft of a Soviet nuclear submarine more than 5,000 meters deep, Washington adopted a response that would go down in history: “We neither confirm nor deny”a formula designed to avoid direct tensions with Moscow and which has since become a standard in intelligence matters. That calculated silence It encapsulates the essence of the entire operation: a gigantic mission, almost impossible on paper, visible to everyone in appearance, but whose true purpose and results remain, to a large extent, hidden from the general public. The legacy. Although he Azorian Project did not recover the entire submarine, it left a deep mark on history of espionage and engineeringamong other things because it demonstrated that it was possible to operate at extreme depths and execute missions of a unprecedented complexity. Of course, it also demonstrated the extent to which the Cold War promoted radical technical solutions and operations that bordered on the improbable, in a race for gain strategic advantage at any price between both sides. Decades later, it remains one … Read more

It is the key day if you do not want a tree to ruin the August eclipse

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Can you imagine preparing everything to see the solar eclipse this August 12 and that right at the moment of truth there is a tree that blocks your views? This is more common than it seems, but don’t worry: it can be prevented with a simple drill. This April 30 is the ideal time to do it. a symmetrical orbit. Due to the symmetrical orbit of our planet, the Sun describes exactly the same arc in the sky on two dates of the year with the same separation from the solstice. You could say that they are twin dates when it comes to the location of the Sun in the sky. The date symmetrical to August 12 is April 30. That’s why, from the official website of the Trio of Eclipses They recommend that this Thursday we go to the place we have chosen to see the eclipse and check that we have good visibility of the Sun. We must do it at 8:30 p.m., as that will be when the occultation occurs in August. This way, we will avoid disappointment when push comes to shove. If the place is bad. If at 8:30 p.m. there is an obstacle that makes it difficult for us to see the Sun, we have time to change the location. Just walk around the area and look for that place where you can see the Sun directly, with nothing in the way to prevent it. If you can’t that day: In case you cannot go to the chosen place on April 30, don’t worry. Two days before and after also good results are obtained. Always at the same time, of course. The bad thing is having to travel. Unfortunately, the eclipse will not be seen equally throughout Spain. It will only be observed in its entirety in a strip that goes from the north of Galicia to almost all of the Balearic Islands, passing through Asturias, Cantabria, La Rioja, the north of Castilla y León and the Valencian Community, La Rioja, and a part of the Basque Country, Navarra, Madrid, Aragon, Catalonia and Castilla la Mancha. In the rest of the country it will be a partial eclipse. For this reason, many people will travel far from their homes on August 12, in search of a luckier environment. Some music and art festivals have even been organized around this astronomical phenomenon.. In case you have decided to travel far, it will not be so easy to do a drill. There you will only have to trust that the locals have done it and can give you a hand when the time comes. More eclipses. The one on August 12 will be the first of what is known as Iberian Trio of Eclipses. And in mainland Spain we will enjoy three consecutive years with a solar eclipse. The dates will be August 12, 2026, August 2, 2027 and January 26, 2028. Those in 2026 and 2027 will be total. That of 2028, cancel. Since they will be seen in different parts of the country, almost all of us will have a more or less close point to which we can travel to see it. And, of course, there will always be a symmetrical date on which to carry out the drill. For now, let’s go step by step and start with the rehearsals on April 30. Even the first Spanish woman astronaut, Sara García Alonso, has echoed these advice. If you have the opportunity, be sure to take the test. You will avoid having to run on August 12. Image | POT In Xataka | The trio of eclipses that await Spain on the horizon: an unprecedented and historic chain between 2026 and 2028

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