death

In 1987 a death was filmed so savage that people had to cover themselves. The trick to achieve it turned RoboCop into a cult work

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In 1987, the film director Paul Verhoeven gave a twist to action science fiction with RoboCop. In reality, that was a cocktail very much to the director’s liking where there was satire, cyberpunk and police thriller. The difference was that he did not limit himself to telling the fall and rebirth of a hero: he decided to win over the viewer with emotional hammer blows, with a death. so cruel and excessive that it was impossible to look at without feeling uncomfortable. The scene that changed everything. Alex Murphy, the protagonist, appears up to that point as a good cop thrown into a corrupt world, but the film doesn’t have time to build him up calmly, so it does it by the most brutal way: literally, it tear apart in front of the viewer so that, when he returns converted into a machine, he understands that what has been lost is not only flesh, but humanity. Verhoeven explained it with an almost religious and at the same time tremendously cynical idea: “if you want to resurrect Murphy as an all-powerful RoboCop, first you have to crucify him.” And that crucifixion, instead of being symbolic or elegant, is filmed like a physical nightmaredirty and painful, one designed so that the viewer cannot avoid the impact. The slaughter as a narrative. The sequence It is constructed like a public execution, with the criminals laughing in the background, and that is possibly the key to its violence: it is not just that it unlockis that along the way they humiliate him, turn him into a broken toy, and torture him as if the gang were enjoying the show. The scene is escalating until it seems impossiblewith the protagonist trying to understand what is happening to him while his body stops obeying him, and the band acting like real madmen. There is the moral trick of the director of RoboCop: The villains were absolutely grotesque, yes, but the film removes any sympathetic veneer from them and turns them into a total social menace. Thus, when the final shot arrives that puts an end to the execution, the viewer is no longer watching the typical “80s action” film, he is seeing the point of no return that makes the entire film, from that minute on, a story. of loss and revenge. The old school of effects. It is impossible to talk about this classic without mentioning what makes it unique. The how was filmed: no less than under the orders of the legendary Rob Bottin with an artisanal obsession that today seems unthinkable based on meticulously designed prostheses, molds, fake parts and physical tricks. In order for the mutilation to work without putting the actor at risk, a a fake hand From a real mold, it was reconstructed in fiberglass and divided into sections so that it could be “popped” with compressed air and stage blood without the need for explosives near the face. It wasn’t just an effect, it was a device home engineering: internal blood tubes, pressure control, parts that could be assembled and disassembled, and a repeatable explosion pattern to always nail the same result. “Death” was also filmed with a staging designed to hide the real and sell the fakewith raised floors, holes through which to put the real arm under the stage, and a member of the team moving from below a false arm attached with Velcro as if it were a living limb. The underground trick. Plus: Murphy’s death is supported by a secret choreography that the viewer never saw: operators out of shot, hidden mechanisms and an absurd number of hands working to make a second of screen seem like an organic nightmare. Not only that: a foam arm in disguise with a police uniform, a metal structure to hold it, hinges at the “elbow” and even a support anchored to the false floor so that everything could resist the violence of the effect. While the actor was dying and staggering above, below there was a team of professionals pumping blood by hand and adjusting compressed air. Even the shots that “break up” the armor were reinforced with simple but brilliant physical details, such as small charges of talcum powder to simulate fragmentation, a very cheap solution that, in camera, added texture and turned the scene into something tactile, with dust, impacts and material that seems to fall off the body. The Peter Weller doll. Another stroke of genius came with the moment of the auction: for a final shot that in the released version lasts a sigh, a Murphy’s full torsoa sophisticated doll with a latex face made from a mold of the actor, an internal fiberglass skull and mechanisms to move the neck, jaw and body. It was not a static mannequin, it was a creature manipulated by cablescapable of opening his mouth in a silent scream, leaning, trembling and reacting to the shot as if there was still life inside. The execution was designed so that the back of the head “jumped out” with a controlled explosionwith pieces pre-cut to break in a specific way and with the interior prepared with blood and soft fragments, so that the horror felt mechanical but compelling. In addition, the “sweat” detail was added with water sprayas if the doll was breathing for the last time, and a motor with vibration so that the body seems to tremble with fear, an almost obscene trick due to its human nature that returns to artifice. Censorship as an enemy. The most incredible thing is that, even so, what was seen in the rooms was a cropped version. RoboCop’s violence clashed head-on with the rating system of the time, and the film was given an X rating several times, forcing reedit, cut and sacrifice material until a commercially viable qualification is achieved. Paradoxically, the cut that helped save it was one that its own creators considered “shabby” or too obvious, the moment in which Murphy’s arm flies off pulled by a … Read more

the “death bloom” of Ceylon palm trees

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There are plants that are born and die in a year, but every rule there is an exception, with species that spend decades in silence, accumulating energy for a single, spectacular final act. This is the case of Corypha umbraculiferabetter known like Ceylon Palmwhich has flourished again in the Palmetum from Santa Cruz de Tenerife. An event that is historical because it occurs once every 30 or 60 years and that, on the European continent, can only be witnessed here. A special variant. The Corypha umbraculifera It’s not just any palm treesince it has the largest inflorescence in the world, with a branched structure that sprouts at the top and can reach between 5 and 7 meters in height. To give us an idea, only “the flower” is as tall as a two-story house. This specimen of the Palmetum, planted in 1997, began its reproductive process in October 2025 and after months of preparation, now in January 2026, the spectacle is fully visible from the so-called “Red Route” from the Tenerife botanical garden. A unique phenomenon. This is a species that has ‘monocarpy’, a scientific term to define the botanical suicide that this palm tree faces. In this way, the plant dedicates all its energy accumulated over decades to producing millions of flowers and, later, fruits. Once its reserves are exhausted, it dies. And it is something unique, since the Palmetum of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the only garden on the continent that has managed to see this species bloom on two occasions (the previous one was a different specimen years ago). And its origin is not in the Canary Islands, but comes from Southeast Asia, where its leaves were historically used as paper for religious manuscripts. Why so much? The fact of having to wait 30 or 60 years to flower is something that responds to an evolutionary strategy of the species. In this way, by flowering only once in such an explosive way, it produces such a quantity of fruits that local predators such as rodents are unable to eat them all. Thus, the palm tree ensures that, even if it dies, thousands of its descendants manage to germinate. The process we are seeing now in Tenerife is the final phase of its life. According to the official records of the Palmetum and local media as Notice Diarythe process is slow, but unstoppable, since during the next few months, the flowers will give way to fruits and, gradually, the structure of the palm tree will wither until its final collapse. The Palmetum. This event is not just an aesthetic curiosity; It is a triumph for the Palmetum of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. This space, which is technically a botanical garden built on an old landfill, has established itself as the best collection of palm trees in the world in an urban environment and the truth is that it has managed to grow anything. For botany and photography enthusiasts, this is an opportunity that is unlikely to be repeated on European soil for decades. The “wonderful death”, as some local media already call it, is a reminder that nature has its own times, sometimes slow, but always relentless. Images | Wikipedia In Xataka | Finding a partner for the “loneliest plant in the world” has been one of the great challenges of botany. Now AI wants to solve it

a footprint in the snow is a death sentence

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Ukraine is experiencing one of those winters that are not only remembered for the temperature, but for what the war does with her: constant below zero, snow, fog and entire cities forced to survive as if the 21st century had suddenly turned off. In this scenario, the cold is not a backdrop, but rather a damage multiplier. Winter as a weapon. Yes, winter in Ukraine worsens wounds, makes any displacement a punishment and, above all, turns civil infrastructure (heating, electricity, water) into the cruelest targetbecause it is not just about destroying military capacity, but about making everyday life physically unfeasible. Total thermal terror. Russia has intensified a campaign that aims directly at the thermal heart of the cities, seeking to make winter the dirty work: Drones and missiles hit substations, distribution networks and plants that support both electricity and district heating, not as collateral damage, but as a method. In kyiv, with millions of inhabitants, this translates in unheated buildingsentire days without supplies and a qualitative leap in anguish: breathing inside the house seeing your own fog, sleeping dressed in a coat, improvising heat with emergency solutions and assuming that, if you have a small child, courage is no longer measured in holding on, but in fleeing in time. The goal is not just to shut down the city, but to push it towards the psychological limit where people begin to consider concessions, internal fractures and political fatigue. kyiv, vulnerable from the air. The capital continues to be a symbol and that is why it is being punished insistently: Russia cannot take it with ground forces, but it can can make it uninhabitable with repeated attacks from a distance, and cadence matters as much as power. The blows come in waves that seek to cut theto city of the general network and, when the teams try to repair, hit again right where work is being done, with a direct human cost in injured or dead energy technicians. Thus, anti-aircraft defense becomes a race of attrition that consumes ammunition, and the local administration is forced to prioritize the minimum so that the city does not collapse (subway, water or critical services) while the rest falls into a domestic gloom where the cold rules. Towards war thermal. On the contact line, winter not only freezes bodies: also visibility. Russia has tried take advantage of the fog thick as a natural curtain to move units and attack when enemy drones see worse, but the advantage lasts as long as it takes the rival to adapt. Ukraine has responded with logical evolution: more equipped drones with thermal cameras capable of “seeing” through fog because they do not look for shapes or colors, but rather heat and infrared contrast. From there, the battlefield stops being a landscape of visual camouflage and becomes a physical map where what gives away is no longer what is seen, but what it emits. The disappearance of the tank. Russia, sensing the opportunity provided by the extreme cold, has begun to “delete” their armored vehicles of the thermal spectrum with camouflage like the Nakidkaa type of coating designed to break up the vehicle’s infrared signature and make it difficult for a sensor to pick it out from the icy environment. In a winter where the bottom is pure cold, any source of heat becomes a beacon, so the survival of heavy material depends less and less on its armor and more and more on his ability not to give himself away. This also reflects a changing era: protection is no longer just steel and mobility, it is signature management, discipline and deception against sensors that never blink. The new eye on the front. The war has moved from the visual plane to thermal with a crudeness that redefines even the idea of ​​“being hidden”: a drone with thermal scope It can remain over an area for a long time, feeding a chain of objectives where any human presence, equipment, battery or generator ends up giving itself away. The most punished is not fast movement, but stationary life: observation posts, command centers, rest areas, drone teams, shelters with stoves and generators, places where you live more than fight. First it is detected, then it is observed, confirmed and activity is collected, and only then comes the hit with FPV, heavy drones “Baba Yaga” type or artillery, often at night, when the darkness protects less than ever and the thermal contrast is maximum. Footprints reveal more than anything else The heat trap. They remembered in a report from the Financial Times that the most repeated mistake with the arrival of winter is to think about appearance and not physics: the entrance to the shelter is camouflaged, the outline of the trench is covered, a net is placed, and still the position shines in the infrared. They don’t have to see you, they just have to see the constant anomaly, the repetition of a hot spot day after day, which is what attracts the attention of aerial reconnaissance. Often, soldiers do not even betray the secondary signs: heated floor, a smoking fireplace, the breath from a generator, heat leaking through an intake, electronics on, or even engine exhaust. Traces as a sentence. An analyst said this week that, in the Ukrainian winter, walking can be leave a written signature on the ground. The freshly fallen snow, extremely reflective, turns into a “dark” surface for thermal cameras, and recent prints appear as a lighter trace, not because they are actually hotter, but because of an apparent contrast created by physical changes. Thus, the boot compacts the snow, alters its emissivity and generates a difference infrared detectable during hours when the cold is intense. In conditions like this, the landscape not only shows where someone is, but where they were, and that is the most terrifying idea: in the absolute white of the Ukrainian winter, the steps can be a coordinate and the trail a invitation to an explosive drone who no longer needs … Read more

Europe is months away from registering a demographic milestone that has not occurred since the Black Death: it is literally shrinking

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In June the latest Eurostat data putting the EU median age at 44.7 years (and growing). The reading then seemed more or less clear. Europe’s demographic collapse was bringing it closer to an invisible threshold that was once unthinkable: the Middle Ages. 50 years old. Half a year later, the data has not improved. Historical contraction. Yes, Europe is heading towards a demographic turning point unprecedented since the black plague from the 14th century. After decades of sustained decline in birth rates, the population of the European Union will reach its maximum next year and it will start after a prolonged fallthe first of its kind in centuries. This is not a temporary adjustment, but rather a deep structural change that threatens to redefine the economy, the welfare state and the social balance of the continent. The alarm does not arise only from the total number of inhabitants, but from the aging speed and the thinning of the working-age population, on which the pension, health and care systems built over generations rest. Political panic and a race. counted the Washington Post that, given this panorama, governments of all ideological stripes have entered into a race against time to see if a combination of economic incentives, public policies and cultural messages can reverse (or at least stop) the decline in birth rates. In the Nordic countries, for decades exhibited as a model of conciliation and well-being, commissions of experts have been created to understand why their systems did not prevent the collapse of fertility. In France, the discourse has acquired a almost military tonewith calls for “demographic rearmament” after a drop of 18% in births in just ten years. In the east and south of the continent, especially in countries governed by nationalist forces, the response has been more direct: money, tax advantages and an explicit exaltation of the traditional family as a pillar of the nation. Incentives and results. Italy offers bonuses to working mothers with two or more children. Poland has increased notably the monthly transfers per child and has expanded tax breaks for large families. On paper, these policies seem compelling, even enviable from countries like the United States, where the cost of raising children is systematically cited as the main brake to birth. However, the European experience shows a repeated pattern: even the most ambitious programs barely succeed in slowing the decline, don’t invest it. The problem is not the lack of public effort, but the magnitude of the phenomenon they face. Hungary, the laboratory. No country better embodies the ambitions and limits of this strategy than Hungary. For more than a decade, the government has deployed a support system of a generosity comparable to that of Scandinavia, allocating around 5% of its GDP to family policies, a higher proportion than the United States dedicates to defense. The range of measures it’s wide: leave for grandparents, subsidized mortgages for young married couples, loans of up to $30,000 that become subsidies if the family has three or more children, and lifetime tax exemptions for women with three children, extended to mothers of two children under 40 starting next year. The message is clear: having children is not only desirable, it is a matter of national survival. Initial successes. They remembered in the post that for a time, the data seemed to prove this bet right. Hungary’s fertility rate went from one of the lowest levels in Europe to figures that suggested a sustained recovery. But the relief was short-lived. In recent years, the trend has been reversed and the country has practically returned to the European average. For some demographers, the program did not generate new births, but rather advanced decisions by those who were already planning to have children. Others point out that, although the impact on fertility is limited, the policies have coincided with an increase in marriage, a reduction in child poverty and greater female labor participation. The key question is whether these collateral benefits justify the enormous public spending. State limits. Beyond the checks and exemptions prosecutors, the decision to have children remains deeply personal and increasingly complex. The rise in housing prices, persistent inflation and job insecurity they weigh as much or more than any incentive. Added to this is a factor that is rarely recognized in the political debate: many of the drivers of the decline in birth rates are social advances that no one wants to reverse. Widespread access to contraception, decline in teen pregnancy, and increased education and career opportunities for women have transformed motherhood and fatherhood in a late choice, carefully calculated and, for many, expendable. Modernity as a trap. The fertility drop has spread so widely that many experts interpret it as a consequence inherent to modernity. Parenthood is delayed until one’s thirties, when one has achieved job and economic stability that comes later and later. Social media idealizes a life focused on the individual, travel, and personal freedom. dating apps multiply apparent options, but they make lasting commitment difficult. And a generation raised in small families has less daily contact with babies and children, fueling overly negative perceptions about the sacrifice involved in raising children. A politicized debate. Not everyone considers the population decline to be a tragedy. Some defend assuming it as a gradual transition towards more sustainable societies, questioning apocalyptic visions who talk about “demographic collapse.” In the long term, even in the most pessimistic scenarios, Europe would still have hundreds of millions of inhabitants. But these global figures hide a much more immediate structural problem: the imbalance between workers and retirees. In just a few decades, the ratio of people of working age to each elderly person will increase. will have drastically reducedputting under strain systems designed for a demographic pyramid that no longer exists. The fragility of immigration. For years, immigration has been presented as Europe’s demographic lifeline. However, this option is becomes more uncertain as fertility falls across almost the entire planet. Even countries that until now were large demographic reserves … Read more

The creative death of Marvel’s MCU left a huge hole. One that in my case is filling WWE on Netflix

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Twice a week I like to live a cathartic experience, and it is something that I strictly adhere to since the beginning of 2025. WWE and Netflix they started a million-dollar collaboration (a decade at a rate of 500 million dollars a year) so that their star shows could be seen around the world. Gone are those weekend mornings in Four with La Bomba Batista, Rey Mysterio or Randy Orton who starred in the childhood of an entire generation, but thanks to the platform of streaming, nostalgia hits harder than ever by allowing us to experience nothing less than the farewell tour of the greatest of all time: John Cena. But beyond the trip to childhood, my religious weekly ‘Raw’ and ‘Smackdown’ have helped me realize that with a ring and a handful of wrestlers they are scratching the same part of the brain as I expected the MCU to activate during these last years. The interrelation of the character arcsinvincible enemies, unexpected turns of a hero and alliances on the horn is something that Marvel has lost since ‘Avengers Endgame’ and that I find almost every week in wrestling. All that is needed is a suspension of credulity that is generated by the cathartic nature of the slaps (choreographed, not fake) and by how dedicated the public is to an event that also has the added bonus of being held live. Perhaps it sounds ridiculous for those who have not known about this world for 20 years, or for those who have barely entered it, but once you are part of the wheel, it is difficult not to get hooked by multiple aspects: combats measured to the millimeter with a physical preparation from another planet, soap opera stories between the stars where the distance between reality and fiction is separated by a bad fall or a word out of the script, or demonstrations of aura with entrances like those of Penta either Roman Reigns. But everything has its dark side and, as often happens, being a woman places me (even more frequently) in a dilemma. 7 TRICKS to get the MOST out of NETFLIX Triple H is not spared either The eternal “separating work and author” that does not prevent the bitter taste in the mouth produced by wanting to see the new Woody Allen or Roman Polanski movie or refusing to continue reading to JK Rowling. And the WWE is an almost inexhaustible source of controversies that makes it very difficult to draw the line and be able to simply enjoy a high-quality show and wrestlers who give their all in vibrant fights. The WWE has suffered under the previous management of Vince McMahon and their continuous scandalsbut with the arrival in 2022 of Paul Levesque (known as Triple H for wrestling lovers, and also McMahon’s son-in-law) as the new content director, they wanted to sell a new post-Vince era, establishing a gender equality policy on the roster and moving away from wrestlers with whom racial stereotypes were promoted. Since the replacement took place, there is no doubt that the female presence has increased in WWE, and continues to do so year after year; In its annual report we can see that of its superstars a 40% are womenin front of the 35% from previous year. And not only does it increase in number, but in quality; offering us stories and combats that are often infinitely superior to those perpetrated by male stars on the roster. Names like Rhea Ripley either Becky Lynch They are the female reference and those who lead the way for new recruits. The combination of global streaming thanks to Netflix and the growing number of female talentshas been the key factor that has managed to boost the increase of this audience. And, already in the documentary ‘WWE: Unreal’, the creative director that high percentage stood out: “WWE women have become an integral part of what we do. 40% of our audience is female. So, when you start down the road to ‘WrestleMania,’ you try to approach it with them the same way you do with the guys, you approach the narrative in the same way. “However, at the same time, this reality is continually clouded by putting its stars against the ropes beyond the ring itself. And the figure of Triple H is not exempt from controversy either. It is not only that he has visited the oval office alongside Trump this summer to join the Presidential Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, reminding us once again of the US president’s relationship with the world of WWE and, inevitably, being a reminder of what political side the company joins. Not in vain, when the worst of the pandemic forced bodies to pile up in refrigerated trucks, even in New York, the WWE was one of the first sports practices to resume thanks to an exemption from Republican Florida. But the bulk of the excesses during his mandate are directed at the female public. Wrestlers and female audience against the ropes The WWE, through a agreement with Saudi Arabia which began in 2018 with the celebration of one of its events in the Middle Eastern country, was added to the list of sports that participate in the sportswashing strategic to whiten the image of the regime. This agreement, reprehensible for all that it implies on a political and social level, becomes even more flagrant and uncomfortable if we highlight what it means directly for the women of the company. In those first three events since 2018, the participation of the women’s section was totally prohibitedneither could they compete nor, of course, were female audiences allowed. It seems that, therefore, with that agreement of 100 million dollars annually Triple H easily forgets about that high percentage of female spectators that he brags about. It was not until 2019 when the Saudi authorities, in a display of modernity, allowed female wrestlers to compete, as long as they wore wrestling clothing that completely covered their bodies. … Read more

The drone war in Ukraine is advancing at the speed of light: what was useful two weeks ago is a death trap today

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Since the first months of the Russian invasion, Ukraine has converted the use of drones in one of the central pillars of its defense, and has done so to the point of transforming a conventional conflict into a permanent laboratory unmanned combat. In this environment of constant adaptation, drones have not only redefined the way we fight on the front, but have imposed an unprecedented pace of technological change that forces armies, industries and training centers to update almost in real time to avoid becoming obsolete. Classrooms at war. The Ukrainian drone schools have become one of the most extreme laboratories of military learning in the world, forced to rewrite their training programs at a dizzying pace that in some cases reaches the two weeks. In a conflict where drones have become the main instrument of attack, reconnaissance and attrition, the distance between an obsolete lesson and a lethal decision can be measured in days. For these centers, adapting is not an academic question, but rather a direct line between survival and death on the front, in an environment where technology, countermeasures and tactics change constantly and rapidly. In Xataka We had seen everything in Ukraine, but this is new: drones are disguising themselves as Russian soldiers, and it is working Synergy. To stay relevant, instructors are not limited to manuals or simulators. They regularly visit the battle lines, maintain permanent contact with alumni deployed and testing new technologies before incorporating them into their courses. In schools like Dronarium, with offices in kyiv and Lviv, its R&D manager, the veteran known as “Ruda”, explains that technological evolution on the front is so rapid that it requires almost immediate adaptability. There is no two equal classes: Each lesson incorporates small adjustments resulting from what happened days before in real combat. More than 16,000 students have passed through this center, and their experiences are directly integrated into the curriculum, turning training into a living system that feeds back on the war. Two-way learning. One of the pillars of this model is communication direct and permanent with the combatants. Messaging groups connect deployed instructors and operators, allowing soldiers to share new enemy tactics, technical problems or improvised solutions, while receiving advice in near real time from the rear. In centers like Karlsson, Karas & Associates or Kruk Drones, this relationship does not end at the end of the course: it is maintained throughout the operator’s operational life. The instruction is clear: nothing is taught that is not strictly necessary in combat, and what is no longer useful is unceremoniously discarded, no matter how recent it may be. A war that reinvents itself. The central weight of drones on the battlefield explains this urgency. The majority of frontline impacts and casualties already depend on unmanned systems, requiring continuous modification of both platforms and employment tactics. New models appear, others are neutralized by countermeasures, and the rules of the game are constantly rewritten. This speed has set off alarm bells in the West: military officials such as British Minister Luke Pollard warn that NATO forces run the risk of becoming obsolete, trapped in acquisition cycles that last years in the face of a war that repeats every two or three weeks. {“videoId”:”x8j6422″,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”Declassified video of the clash between Russian fighters and the American drone”, “tag”:”united states”, “duration”:”42″} The industry learns from Ukraine. The schools they are not alone in this race. Defense companies that observe the conflict have begun to copy this model of direct interaction with the front, shortening your cycles developmental. Manufacturers of anti-drone systems and UAV platforms visit the battlefield, chat with operators and fine-tune designs in a matter of weeks, not years. Some executives recognize that the ways in which Ukrainians use technology have surprised them, forcing them to rethink basic assumptions. At the same time, the soldiers themselves benefit from this exchange, providing constant feedback and receiving improvements, spare parts and solutions adapted to their real needs. In Genbeta According to psychology, those who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s developed mental strengths that are being lost today Schools under fire. There is no doubt, this permanent adaptation has a cost. Drone schools are not only competing against the technological clock, they are operating under the direct threat from Russian attacks and with limited financial resources, often depending on donations to continue functioning. In this context, their fight is not only to stay updated, but to survive. Even so, their role has become central in modern warfare: they are the link that connects innovation, industry and real combat, and the best example of how Ukraine has turned the urgency of conflict into a flexible and brutally efficient national military learning system. Image | Heute, RawPixel In Xataka | The new episode of terror in Ukraine does not involve missiles or drones: it involves leaving a city without cell phones In Xataka | Europe faces a question it can no longer avoid: how to respond to a war that is rarely declared (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 The drone war in Ukraine is advancing at the speed of light: what was useful two weeks ago is a death trap today was originally published in Xataka by Miguel Jorge .

The Black Death continued to hide an enigma almost seven centuries later. The answer was in some trees in the Pyrenees

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There are few episodes in the history of humanity more famous, studied and debated than that of the Black Deaththe epidemic that spread death across Europe between 1347 and 1353. However, there remained an enigma to solve, one as basic as it was relevant: Why the hell did the epidemic break out when, where and how did it do so? Why did this wave of death break out in the 14th century and not before or after? Solving a puzzle. This mystery is what Martin Bauch and Ulf Büntgen, from the GWZO and the University of Cambridge respectively, have wanted to solve in a study just published in Communications Earth & Environment. With it they not only want to shed light on one of the darkest episodes in Europe. They also show that, almost seven centuries later, the “black death” continues to be one of the chapters that most fascinates the world. Nothing surprising if one bears in mind that between 1347 and 1353 it took millions of lives in Europe, reaching mortality rates that in some regions they touched 60%. Searching in the Pyrenees. Perhaps the most curious thing about Bauch and Büntgen’s study is that it does not start in historical archives. Or that wasn’t at least his main place of work. The key to his research is in the Spanish Pyrenees, more specifically in the secular pines that they found there. When studying the interior of their trunks in search of clues about the medieval climate of Europe, they found something unexpected: a succession of “blue rings”. For most, that detail would go unnoticed, but Bauch and Büntgen saw something in it: evidence of a chain of colder, wetter summers than usual. “Unusual summers”. When the tempera falls, the trees cannot properly lignify their cells, which in turn leaves a bluish mark in the ring register of the trunk. In the Pyrenean pines, researchers found such marks that suggest that much of southern Europe must have experienced “unusually cold and wet summers” in 1345, 1346 and 1347. What’s more, when digging through libraries and written sources they found clues that point in exactly the same direction: a period marked by “unusual cloudiness and dark lunar eclipses.” The next question is… What caused this change in climate? And why is it important? The power of an eruption. Regarding the first question, researchers have few doubts. In his opinion, the drop in temperatures in summer was caused by a volcanic eruption (or even a chain of them) recorded around the year 1345 and which triggered a fatal domino effect: a considerable expulsion of ash and volcanic gases that generated a layer and caused a drop in temperatures, just as happened in other episodes throughout history. Climate, agriculture… Hunger. For the next question, why is it important that a volcano began releasing gases and ash almost seven centuries ago, the answer is simple: agriculture. The changes in climate not only left their mark on the centuries-old trunks of the central Pyrenees, they also punished the fields of the Mediterranean region, reducing crops and generating losses that threatened to lead to famine… and social instability. Against this backdrop, the powerful maritime republics of Italy did the most logical thing: chartered ships to import grain from the east, from the Black Sea area, more specifically from the Golden Hordein the Sea of ​​Azov region. It didn’t matter that Genoa and Venice were at war with the Mongols. Hunger was pressing, the threat of riots loomed and European diplomacy did its job. Already late in 1347, ships with grain began to arrive in Europe, unloading their precious merchandise in Mediterranean ports. More than grain. The problem is that in the holds of the ships mobilized by Venice and Genoa, the same ones that were supposed to prevent Europe from being besieged by famine, there were not only tons of grain. On board they brought fleas infected with Yersinia pestisthe bacillus responsible for the bubonic plague. “The exact origin of this deadly bacteria is still unknown, but ancient DNA suggests that a natural reservoir may have existed in wild gerbils somewhere in central Asia,” they explain from the University of Cambridge. The result: grain ships suddenly became vectors of a fatal disease, the bacteria jumped from rodents to humans, and the Black Death soon spread across Europe, with something much worse than famine. The ships of the black death. The rest is known history. Between 1347 and 1353 the disease killed millions of people. It is often said that the plague took the lives of 60% of the European population, a percentage that some raise to 65%, although in recent years some studies They have warned that the calculation is overstated and there were regions in which the registry was maintained. “Evidence of the Black Death can be found in many European cities almost 800 years later,” Büntgen and Bauch explain. “We were also able to show that many Italian cities, such as Milan or Rome, were probably not affected, because they did not need to import grain after 1345.” Why is it important? The study is interesting for several reasons. The main one, because it sheds new light on an aspect as basic as until now enigmatic about the Black Death. We knew about the role of Yersinia pestisabout the ships, about the role played by rodents, we knew the tragic death toll, its impact on the society, culture and economy of Europe… But we did not know why the epidemic broke out just when it did and not before or after. The succession of factors is so fascinating that researchers speak of a “perfect storm” in which climatic, agricultural, social and economic factors were added. A cocktail that, they insist, does not only speak to us about the Middle Ages. “Although this coincidence seems unusual, the probability of zoonotic diseases emerging due to climate change and resulting in pandemics is likely to grow in a globalized world,” Buntgen adds.. “It is … Read more

The largest glacier in Spain is in its final death throes, and this marks a before and after in the Pyrenees

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Although it may be a bit unknown, in Spain we have a glacier: the Aneto glacier, which is located in the Pyrenees. but there is bad news regarding its continuitysince although we knew that it was doomed to disappear, the reality is that the speed at which it is doing so is faster than we expected. And the latest data that has been known is clear: it has been definitively fragmented. It’s a reality. Although it may be an appreciation of veteran mountaineers who are already tired of seeing it, the reality is very different. The conclusion has been drawn after decades of LiDAR data, photogrammetry with drones and analysis of satellite images from 1981 to 2022 which confirm that the Pyrenean colossus has entered a phase of irreversible collapse. In this way, what was once a continuous mass of ice that flowed down the mountain is today an archipelago of fossil ice fractures that is doomed to disappear. Catastrophic data. Thanks to all the technological means that have been used to monitor this glacier, it has been possible to make a chronology of everything that has happened. And in a single year, the ice masses of the Pyrenees They have lost an average thickness of more than one meter. In specific points, the loss of ice reached four meters, which is equivalent to one and a half floors of a building. But the important thing is that this large amount of ice has disappeared in months. The most worrying thing is that this has occurred in a year that was not especially bad in terms of levels nor did it have the extreme heat waves of 2022. It is simply that the system could no longer take it. An evolution. If we look back, in 2022 the Aneto glacier lost a large lower area. But now the body has split in two so the Aneto is three disconnected masses of ice. And this has consequences even in the name, since the smallest part, under the Collado de Coronas, now stops being a glacier and becomes a glacier. If we continue looking back, there are figures that justify this thaw, since since the final of the little Ice Age in the mid-19th century and until 2017 the temperature of the area increased 1.14ºC. However, the turning point is clearly detected in the 1980s, with a dramatic acceleration of the decline starting in 2000. The technology behind. What differentiates this monitoring from observations made in the last century is its precision. The Cryopyr team It is not limited to driving stakes into the snow and seeing its level. It has been decided to use LiDAR technology and programmed drone flights to create digital models of the terrain. These studies, supported by publications in The Cryosphere and Naturehave made it possible to map not only the surface, but also the basal topography. Thanks to this, we know what is under the ice before it melts. And the most shocking thing is that the ice no longer flows. This is very important because a glacier is defined by its movement; When the thickness decreases so much, gravity stops pushing it down the slope. It stagnates. It turns into fossil ice obscured by dust, which absorbs more solar radiation (lower albedo) and melts even faster. And this is what has already ended up condemning it to its disappearance without anything being able to be done to reverse it. The case of Ossoue. If the Aneto is the symbol, the Ossoue glacier which is located on the border of Spain and France, is undoubtedly the sign that anticipated what was going to happen. This is because it has been the most affected of the season with average losses of 3.5 meters thick. And here history gives us a striking visual reference. In 1882, Earl Henry Russell ordered caves to be excavated on the rock at ice level to celebrate parties. Today, these caves are inaccessible holes hanging tens of meters high above the current ice. The future. What will be left when the ice is gone? This is the mandatory question after seeing this piece of ice melt in the coming years. The answer is that we will see lakes that will appear in the high mountains. And we already have a preview of what we will see what the Innominatea lake with turquoise waters that was formed in 2015 at 3,150 meters above sea level and is considered the highest in the Pyrenees. Despite being beautiful, we must not forget that it is the liquid “corpse” of what was once an ice giant. When will it arrive? There is no exact date on which this disappearance will end. What is known from the most recent reports is that if temperature and precipitation trends continue along the same path, all the Pyrenean glaciers will disappear within 10 years. Images | Pablo J Danis Joan Brebo In Xataka | The Arctic was one of the few corners safe from invasive species thanks to the cold. Until climate change came

A Ukrainian system has accelerated the death of kamikaze drones. It’s called Delta, and it does in 120 seconds what took days

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The war in Ukraine has turned the drone into the central weapon of the battlefield, but it has also made evident an insurmountable limit: the kamikaze modelswhich dominated the early years of the conflict, are beginning to die due to sheer unsustainability. The almost thousand kilometer front requires a continuous supply of platforms capable of surveillance, harassment, destruction and survival. And Ukraine has realized this. The sunset of a drone. Russia can no longer guarantee that supply with the cheap, single-use drones it previously launched by the thousands. The western sanctions have strangled Moscow’s access to advanced sensors and critical processors. Furthermore, the Ukrainian attacks to assembly plants They have broken production chains, and the cost of losing increasingly sophisticated systems against denser Ukrainian defenses has made the model unviable. of “launch and forget”. For the first time, Moscow recognizes that it cannot replace what it destroys with the same speed. The Russian bet. Faced with this scenario, Russia is reconfiguring its fleet towards reusable drones that combine precision, electronic resistance and multiple attack capacity. Platforms like the Night Witch (capable of carrying twenty kilos, operating for forty minutes, launching up to four munitions and returning to base) mark the shift towards designs that survive the mission. The Bulldog-13 follows the same logic: modular, resistant to interference and with advanced sensors that would be too expensive for a disposable platform. This evolution not only affects offensive drones: russian interceptorspreviously designed to collide and destroy each other along with their objectives, begin to incorporate methods that allow recovery. From improvised loads like food cans thrown over FPV ukrainians up to electrified rods capable of incapacitating several drones in a single flight, the pattern is clear: if the platform is increasingly complex and more expensive, it cannot be lost on each mission. Russia is, out of obligation rather than choice, migrating toward a fleet that looks more like onepersistent unmanned flight than to an infinite store of cheap projectiles. The Russian limit. The operational advantage of these advanced systems it is evident: interference-immune navigation, thermal optics with digital zoom, long-range links and semi-autonomous capabilities allow for more precise and adaptable attacks. However, Russia pays an operational price: every drone that must return to its base sees its time available in the combat zone. reduced by half. The flight cycle shortens, the attack window narrows, and exposure to Ukrainian defenses widens. It’s the paradox of the reusable drone: more valuable, more capable and more vulnerable to logistical wear and tear. But Moscow has no alternative. Without mass replenishment, drone survival becomes a strategic resource. Ukraine breaks the cycle. And while Russia tries to extend the life of its drones to survive the technological blockade, Ukraine is blowing up the very logic of the war of attrition with a digital tool that turns every sensor on the front into a potential trigger. Previously, locating a Russian target, verifying it, transmitting it, and assigning it to a unit could take up to seventy-two hours, enough time for any vehicle, artillery piece, or tank to move or camouflage. Now, with Delta (the system battle management created and iterated over two years of real war) that cycle is reduced to two minutes under optimal conditions. Delta integrates satellite imagery, radar, reconnaissance drones, frontline observers and data from multiple branches into an interactive map that instantly shows where own and enemy forces are. Operating with NATO standardshosted in the cloud and already used by 90% of Ukrainian units, Delta turns warfare into a digitalized and almost automatic process: see, mark, assign and shoot. Drones that “live” too long. The consequence is devastating for Moscow. Their reusable dronesmore complex and expensive, survive by not wasting themselves on suicide attacks, but at the same time they face a battlefield where every exposure, every takeoff and every return can be detected, processed and attacked in a matter of seconds. The old Russian shelter (moving positions from one day to the next) ceases to exist when a Ukrainian FPV can take off, travel kilometers and hit in less than three minutesor a 155mm battery can open fire minutes after receiving verified coordinates. Even long-range systems, which require planning and preparation, now benefit from a flow of intelligence that never sleeps: latency is no longer strategic, only technical. The kamikaze in extinction. The joint result of both transformations (the Russian transition to drones that must survive and the Ukrainian transition to a system that kills in minutes) alters the nature of drone warfare. The russian kamikazes They do not disappear due to lack of usefulness, but because lack of replacement. And the drones that survive must now contend with an environment where survival depends less on their robustness and more on escaping a detection cycle operating at digital speed. What was once a war of saturation is now a war of instant precision. And in that equation, a new paradox arises: each Russian reusable drone is worth more… just when Ukraine can destroy everything it can see faster than ever. Image | Telegram, Dmytro Smolienko/Ukrinform, RawPixel In Xataka | The new peace plan in Ukraine has been reduced to 19 aspects. The problem is that the key point measures 900 km In Xataka | Ukraine’s latest tactic begins with a song. It is the prelude to an unknown trick: “sending” Russian missiles to Peru

There are eight million Airbnbs, but only one where the disconnection is so extreme that there is fine print: risk of death

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At the beginning of the year, the figure by Bryant Gingerich began to circulate in many media. In a secluded corner of the Ohio wilderness, Gingerich, a 34-year-old engineer, seemed to have found an opportunity to transform his professional life by converting a simple cave in a successful vacation rental business. However, if we talk about places far away from the world, none like the one in this story. Stay at the extreme. I told the story a few days ago BBC. In the Kulusuk Fjords of eastern Greenland, the Floating Glacier Hut It has established itself as one of the most remote accommodations, if not the most, in the world. The cabin, installed on a floating hexagonal platform and anchored to the surrounding rocks, it is located in an area where the distances between settlements are enormous and the human presence is minimal. Access is made only by boat and the infrastructure responds to the idea of ​​offering a space completely removed from any urban dynamics, in a territory dominated by glaciers, icebergs and an unpredictable climate. This approach fits with the rise of the so-called as “quietcations” and hyper-remote destinations, which seek to satisfy the growing need for total disconnection that many travelers express in the face of the accelerated pace of daily life. Disconnect without technology. The cabin dispenses with the internet and reduces outside communication to a satellite phone, which forces us to live real isolation throughout the stay. The Finnish-made module is thermally insulated and has a glass roof that allows you to observe the polar sky and phenomena such as the northern lights without leaving the interior. The equipment it’s basic: a small stove, a toilet, a minimal kitchen area and a double bed. The lack of a shower is part of the design, and some visitors resort to quick dips in the frozen sea to clean themselves. This austerity is proposed as a central feature of the experience, focused on the observation of the environment and sensory immersion without digital interference. Views from the accommodation Caution and logistics. Extreme isolation coexists with reasonable vigilance against the risks inherent to the Arctic. According to the local guide Nicco Segretoresponsible for the project, the cabin acts as an effective refuge from potentially deadly fauna like polar bears (there is a sign that warns you before entering), as long as you stay inside. However, the operator warns that weather conditions may prevent the arrival of the boat in charge of transporting guests, an element that is part of the operational reality in the region. The landscape offers opportunities for activities such as glacier hiking, exploring ice caves formed by subglacial rivers, and ice fishing through a small hole prepared in the structure. These excursions show the dynamics of ice and the visible effects of melting, reinforcing the educational value of the trip. A tourist project. Secret discovered a decade ago a glacial cave that today is part of the activity offerand that discovery was the origin of his initiative to develop low-footprint tourism in the area. In addition to generating employment in the Tasiilaq community, the project aims to attract travelers interested in geology, the behavior of ice and the magnitude of the polar landscape. The Floating Glacier Hut It is the initial phase of a broader plan that includes a future retirement of greater capacity, Vision Lodgeaimed at structured stays of several days. The accelerated retreat of the glaciers, visible even year after year, becomes a central component of the experience, which allows us to observe climate changes on a human scale. An exclusive model. The stay, designed for two people, has an approximate cost from 1,000 to 1,200 dollars per night and includes private boat transfers, dinner prepared by the guide himself, and breakfast. Despite the price, remembered the BBC that the accommodation It has received very positive reviews for the combination of isolation, landscape and silence, elements that guests point out as difficult to find in other destinations. Thus, the general perception is that it is an experience designed for those who seek to completely disconnect (from humanity and devices), observe the environment without filters and face a slower pace, where nature is the central axis of the room and the passage of time seems to acquire another scale. Image | Vision Lodge In Xataka | An engineer left his job to transform a cave into a vacation rental. He’s making a fortune a year without Airbnb In Xataka | Italy vetoes one of the great symbols of mass tourism: the use of key boxes for self-check-in is prohibited

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