decades

In 1994, a programmer created a “temporary” interface for Windows. Three decades later he is still with us

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Windows is one step away from turning 40 years old. The first version of the operating system appeared in November 1985and since then it has not stopped evolving. However, Microsoft tends to take a long time to update some components of its products. With Windows 10, for example, it released a renewed user interface, but it was not until years after its launch that it began to get rid of some icons from the Windows 95 era. Now, in Windows 11is renewing programs like paint and Notepad. Regardless of how modern Windows 11 may feel, and all the new features that come with its updates, the system still retains some elements that we could classify as historical. Among them we find the utility to format disks. WINDOWS 10: 9 VERY USEFUL and LITTLE KNOWN TRICKS Currently, if you wanted to format a storage drive from Windows 11 you would find a pop-up window practically identical to the one you could find decades ago. In fact, we know exactly who created it. The format drives dialog in Windows 10 A former Microsoft programmer named Dave Plummer recently shared an some interesting facts about this part of the operating system. The now entrepreneur says he created the Format dialog box one rainy morning from the end of 1994. He says that they were migrating millions of lines of user interface code from Windows 95 to Windows NT, and that the formatting section was very different between systems, so it was necessary to create a new user interface. And Plummer took on this task. The programmer did not think of doing a definitive job, but of providing a temporary solution with the help of a sheet, a pen, Visual C++ 2.0 and the Resource Editor. “It wasn’t elegant, but it would do until the elegant user interface arrived,” he says in the message. Plummer also set the 32GB limit for the format of FAT volumes that morning. It is curious, because FAT is capable of working with larger volumes, although to create volumes with this capacity it is necessary to use the command line. The disk formatting utility interface appeared in Windows NT-based operating systems, such as Windows 2000 and Windows XPand it has been with us ever since. Throughout this time it has basically been a temporary solution created in 1994. Images | Windows | Genbeta In Xataka | Intel is hunting and capturing new customers. His next goal: convince Elon Musk and make chips for Tesla

The Tax Agency has not made the income tax return manual accessible for decades. A Valencian man did it in three hours

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“Javier, has the program PADRE come out yet?” Every year, at the end of March, my father—not to be confused with my FATHER—asked me the same question, because I was like an AI alerting him that he could finally get down to it. the income tax return every year. For him that was not just an obligation. I would say it was a hobby. Almost a passion. Something to which he dedicated hours and hours in his office armed with his pens, his tight handwriting, his calculator and of course with the Nobel package next to it. He is no longer here, but if I have not inherited something from him, it is that passion for filing income tax returns. In fact, I have never done it, perhaps because as I saw that he dedicated so many hours and effort to making it perfect, that caused me some trauma. “Ugh, this costs too much,” I told myself then and I continue to tell myself now. And here I am, with a reverential fear of completing that task, which I end up entrusting to a manager because time, they say, is money. And yet, it is a small outstanding debt that I have. Last year I tried to try it, and this year I told myself that maybe with the help of some local AI model (because of privacy) I should try it again. But while I was thinking about it, these days the practical manual of Income 2025and one person decided to do something very interesting with that information: he turned it into something useful. This is how the LaRenta.es Open Source project emerged This manual, no matter how complete and detailed it may be, has a problem: it is very inaccessible. The information is there, but neither the wording nor the structure or its organization make it a particularly useful document for most users. That’s where it came into action. Paul March (@paumrch), a public administration worker who lives in Valencia and who, at 31 years old, has a profile completely aligned with the so-called civic technology. Although his training is not technical, he is a very restless self-taught person who has been “tinkering” with all kinds of personal technological projects for more than 15 years. And the latter has become especially popular. We have had the opportunity to speak with Pau and he told us that by working in public administration and being interested in the application of technology to his field, “I have always been interested in the issue of digitalization of the administration because I know it and I know the room for improvement there is and I am convinced that citizens need that improvement.” When the Income 2025 practical manual appeared, he realized that he could try to do something with it. With the experience of previous projects and the new AI tools that he had been using for months, he got the ball rolling. In just three hours, he confesses, he created LaRenta.esa web service that allows any user Know what state and regional deductions you can take advantage of in this statement. The first question of the questionnaire is important: where we pay personal income tax. The deductions to which we may be entitled depend on this parameter. To do this, it has created a very simple system in which, from a small questionnaire that takes two minutes to complete, we can obtain information about these deductions. The process is reduced to going through seven stages of this questionnaire with a few questions, from which it is possible to obtain a final summary with deductions to which we may end up being entitled. And in each of them, we will have an indicator to know what percentage of the total of each deduction we may be entitled to, as well as detailed information about each particular deduction. In these details, the information present in the 2025 income manual is used more clearly and directly, but although the language is still somewhat harsh, at least in this project only that which is directly related to that deduction is shown in a more readable format. We are therefore faced with a project that is not intended at all to prepare your income tax return, but rather to at least provide the information that exists is more accessible and easier to understand. And as March says, it is far from being a perfect project, but it certainly shows that all that information offered by the public administration can be converted into something even more useful in a relatively simple way. From idea to application in three hours These days this entrepreneur explained the process of creating this webapp in an article posted on his Twitter account (X), and as I said there, the cycle was surprisingly simple. AI was his companion throughout the project, and he took advantage of his experience with previous projects to then take advantage of several tools: The interface design was carried out with the help of GoogleStitch The programming was done with the plugin Claude Code in Visual Studio Code. He used Opus 4.6 to plan the entire project, and Sonnet 4.6 to program it, although for some basic tasks he indicates that he also used Anthropic’s basic model, Haiku. He did it all on March 19, right during the Cremá, the big day of the Fallas in his city, Valencia. The project absorbed him so much that he didn’t even enjoy the party and he spent that afternoon and part of the night polishing the errors he was detecting. The result, as can be seen on LaRenta.es, is a fully functional, fast, clear and practical web application. Not only that: it is totally private. Pau explains that no data is saved except for the email if a user wants the summary PDF report to be sent to them. The potential of civic technology When the project was finished, Pau decided post a message to share it through your Twitter … Read more

Spain has been ignoring dozens of products that it sells daily in its supermarkets for decades. But that just ended

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You may have read or heard it somewhere: “goodbye to turkey ham and stuffed olives.” And what a joke, can you imagine a world without anchovy-flavored olives? Having to live only on ham or chicken breast? Luckily, you don’t have to imagine it. They don’t disappear. What the Royal Decree does has unleashed All this controversy is something a little more complicated: putting in order the enormous food mess that has been growing for decades in Spanish pantries. What food mess? On February 27 Royal Decree 142/2026 was published that seeks to modify (or repeal) more than a dozen food quality provisions. It seems somewhat minor, but some of which (such as the cookie regulations) are more than 40 years old. The interesting thing, however, is that this new legislation removes from legal limbo numerous products that have not been ‘thought of’ at a regulatory level for many years. In that sense, the decree affects dozens of daily consumer products, but it does not affect them in the sense that ‘they are going to change’: it affects them in the sense that now the rules are going to be clearer. The case of turkey ham and stuffed olives are paradigmatic: the former now has a clear definition and the latter will have the obligation to specify the characteristics of the filling. But what is interesting is not what is important. The important thing, clearly, is the inclusion of gluten-free bread in the bread quality standard. Not only is it a historic demand of the celiac community, but it closes a very tough debate at a regulatory and fiscal level. Until now, at a technical level, the standard did not contemplate that bread made with gluten-free flour could be called bread. This ‘nonsense’ made celiacs They will pay more VAT than they would pay on normal breadbut it’s already over. Something similar happened with horchata without added sugar, the clarification of cider, the types of sangria or the acidity of vinegars. What does disappear. The bologna mortadellawhich until now was a category and which will now have to be called something else to avoid confusion with the designation of origin of the true Bologna mortadella. The central issue is that the agri-food industry has changed a lot. And as usual, the legislation has been dragging its feet, generating piecemeal regulations and creating completely inexplicable holes. So yes, we have taken a step forward. And without having to give up even the turkey ham and stuffed olives. Image | Xavi Cabrera In Xataka | This is how ultra-processed foods have been invading our diet: the evolution of three decades in a single graph

the result of decades of veto by the US and Japan

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China has just become the first country in the world to mass produce T1200 grade carbon fiber, the strongest synthetic material ever manufactured on an industrial scale. The milestone is led by the state group China National Building Material Group (CNBM), which presented it on March 11 at JEC World, the most important composite materials fair in the sector, held in Paris. We tell you all the details. What exactly is the T1200. In the world of advanced materials, the number that accompanies the T is a tensile strength rating. The higher the number, the stronger the fiber. T1200 has a resistance greater than 8 gigapascals (GPa), ten times more than conventional steel, and yet its diameter is ten times smaller than that of a human hair. Chinese media CCTV exposed the example that a rope less than two millimeters thick, made from 120,000 twisted T1200 filaments, is capable of towing a bus with 54 adults on board. And it weighs a quarter as much as steel. dhe laboratory to the factory. Zhou Yuxian, president of CNBM, counted that it has taken the country about 20 years to move from its research and development to mass production. The plant has a projected capacity of about 100 tons per year. Compared to that of Toray Industries, the Japanese company that leads the global market with 29,100 tons per year, it is laughable. But be careful, Toray announced in 2023 that it had developed its own T1200, also with 8 GPa resistance, but to date they have not offered details about a supposed mass production. China has beaten them to it. Mbeyond engineering. Industrial carbon fiber is a material that can be used for endless applications: from civil (aeronautics, electric vehicles, hydrogen storage, drones, medical devices, elite sports equipment) to military (fighter aircraft, missiles, satellites, fuselage structures). Precisely for this reason, Japan and the United States They have been strictly controlling their exports for decades through mechanisms such as the Wassenaar Agreement. China, which for years has depended on imports or has been forced to obtain the material through alternative means, just remove that dependency. The same has happened with semiconductors, since the foreign blockade has served to amplify their technological self-sufficiency. How China has accelerated in just a few years. Toray launched the T300 in 1971 and took 43 years to introduce the T1100. China didn’t have its own T300 until 2008. However, in just over a decade it has climbed from the T300 to the T1200, a cadence that the entire industry is watching closely. The key has been a model that China has already demonstrated with previous grades of this material: combining state capital, university research and industrial capacity in the same ecosystem, with continuous improvement cycles until reaching mass production. Who else competes in this race. The global carbon fiber market is an oligopoly with few relevant players. Mitsubishi Chemical (Japan) advertisement in December that it plans to double its production capacity in Japan and the United States between now and 2027 for sectors such as aeronautics and supercars. The South Korean Hyosung Advanced Materials aims to reach 24,000 tons per year in 2028. On the other side of the globe, Hexcel, an American composite materials company, defines itself as the world’s largest producer of aerospace carbon fiber and the main supplier for United States military programs. But the geographical trend has already changed. And according to the report Future Markets’ Global Carbon Fiber Market published in February, Asia-Pacific has surpassed North America and Europe as the world’s largest consuming region. Cover image | CCTV In Xataka | Japan has a rare earth megadeposit: 700 years of consumption to challenge China

Iceland, Norway and Switzerland have been boasting independence from the EU for decades. Global chaos is about to change everything

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The war between the United States, Israel and Iran is shaking the foundations of the historic independence of the nations that make up the European Free Trade Association (EFTA or EFTA). Faced with an increasingly volatile geopolitical panorama, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland find themselves at a crossroads and look, each at their own pace, towards the European Union in search of refuge. The question that now haunts European parliaments is no longer just political, but purely industrial: are they willing to sacrifice parts of their sovereignty in exchange for the protection and stability that Brussels offers? As explained to the newspaper Five Days Sophie Altermatt, economist at Julius Baer, ​​these countries face external pressures from increasingly interventionist superpowers. The United States has become a much less predictable ally on trade and security, while China’s growing ambitions endanger European industrial competitiveness and create vulnerabilities in supply chains. The rhetoric of US President Donald Trump, who has even suggested his intention to annex Greenland, has acted as a powerful catalyst for this change in mentality. As the magazine warns The Spectatorquoting a maxim from Mark Carney: “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.” The return of hard power politics is forcing middle powers to reevaluate their place in the world. From the European side, the door is open. As detailed by the Icelandic public broadcaster RÚVEU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos has stressed that the current geopolitical context is fundamentally different from the past and that EU membership offers “an anchor in a bloc based on values, prosperity and security.” Are we facing a real approach? Moving towards greater integration implies sitting at the table where decisions are made, but also assuming a clash of sovereignties. Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide, leader of the Norwegian Conservative Party, acknowledged in a parliamentary debate collected by Five Days that remaining outside the Union generates enormous vulnerabilities, since their country remains “on the margins of everything we want to enter into.” However, the price of admission is high. Political analyst Thomas Vermes explains in the Norwegian middle ABC Nyheter that the EU is transforming towards a federation where supranational organizations assume more and more authority. Entering means submitting to decisions by qualified majority – where large countries have more demographic weight – and growing pressure to eliminate the right to veto on key issues. In addition, it would imply assuming joint economic burdens, such as the common debt of 90 billion euros contracted to help Ukraine. In fact, the possible entry of Ukraine would radically transform the bloc’s economy. According to the same Norwegian mediathe incorporation of the 41 million hectares of Ukrainian agricultural land would flood the markets and force rural aid to be restructured. Three countries, three different rhythms The answer to this dilemma varies drastically depending on the resources each nation brings to the table. Iceland: The direct path and the referendum in sight The Icelandic government has stepped on the accelerator and passed a resolution to hold a referendum on August 29, 2026 on resuming EU membership, a measure supported by 57% of the population. Iceland would provide the EU with a vital logistics position in the emerging Arctic trade routes and strategic supply: already is the fourth largest supplier of aluminum of the block, material that accounts for more than half of its exports to Europe. Nevertheless, as reported RÚVthe Minister of Foreign Affairs, Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir, has drawn a non-negotiable red line: she will not sign any agreement that involves ceding control over the island’s precious natural resources to the EU. Norway: The fractured debate Although the country rejected joining the EU in 1972 and 1994, the debate has been resurrected. According to The Spectatorthe conservative party (Høyre), now led by the determinedly pro-European Ine Eriksen Søreide, is “clearly a yes party.” Polls show an increase in support for accession, rising from 27% in 2023 to 41% in 2025. However, the current Labor government of Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre is strongly opposed. Despite not being a member, Norway is Europe’s absolute energy guarantor after the invasion of Ukraine: it supplies 51.8% of the pipeline gas and 14.6% of the crude oil consumed by the EU. Precisely for this, the internal opposition is fierce. Columnist Hans Christian Hansen warns in the financial journal Finansavisen that the EU is losing technological ground to the US and Asia. According to Hansen, while the US uses energy to attract industry, the EU uses it to “self-regulate with increasing rigor” and promote projects of uncertain profitability such as offshore wind. The question he asks his compatriots is brutal: “Do we want to link our energy policy, our industry and our future to a team that is already losing?” Switzerland: The pragmatic path and bilateral agreements Unlike the Nordics, Switzerland does not contemplate full accession so as not to compromise its historical neutrality, but it is making progress in its economic and technological integration. President Ursula von der Leyen and Swiss President Guy Parmelin They signed the “Bilateral III” package. This framework modernizes agreements on transport and free movement, and adds crucial pacts on health, food security and Swiss participation in the European space agency and the Horizon Europe and Erasmus+ programmes. In addition, it will allow it to fully enter the internal electricity market in the EU. The objective of the Federal Council is “stabilize and future-proof the proven bilateral track“. The Federal Council approved the sending of this package to the Parliamentor, proposing to subject it to an optional referendum to guarantee its democratic legitimacy on sensitive issues such as salary protection. Switzerland’s weight is undeniable: in 2023, bilateral trade in services reached €245 billion, representing almost 9% of the EU’s total services trade. Forecasts in sight? The geopolitical board will continue to move. If Iceland eventually joins the EU, the pressure on Norway will be immense. As conservative leader Søreide arguesNorway would be in a “completely different situation” if its EFTA partner makes the leap. For its part, Switzerland … Read more

The metro has been splitting Rivas in two for decades. The city council has a plan to cover it up and has already presented it to Madrid

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The Rivas Vaciamadrid City Council has registered before the General Directorate of Infrastructure of the Community of Madrid its project to cover 2.5 kilometers of Metro Line 9B. This is a project that aims to transform part of the town’s urban layout, and the deadline for issuing its technical report has already opened. We tell you all the details. What exactly is this about? Just like they count From the town hall itself, the project consists of burying or covering the section of road that runs above ground through Rivas Vaciamadrid between the Cerro del Telégrafo Sports Center and the Rivas Futura station. They are 2.5 kilometers long and 30 meters wide which, if covered, would stop acting as a physical barrier that divides the municipality in two. On the surface, it is planned to extend the Linear Park, creating a corridor with green spaces for public use. The project also includes the construction of a fourth Metro station in Rivas, located on José Saramago street. Deadlines. The City Council had a technical meeting on February 27 with the General Directorate of Infrastructure, where it presented the solution. A week later, on March 4, it was officially registered, and now the Community of Madrid has three months to decide whether to move forward at a technical level. According to collect El Diario, the council has expressly requested “agility” from the regional administration. Tpolitical background. The fourth season brings them. And it is that according to Diario de Rivas, the Community of Madrid has already pointed out on more than one occasion that this infrastructure “is not justified on a technical level.” The City Council, for its part, insists that the project “is the result of months of rigorous and reliable technical work and that it meets the necessary requirements to move forward towards its execution.” The General Directorate of Infrastructure, for now, has limited itself to confirming that there was a meeting. What the data say. The City Council supports its position to move forward with the project through a survey in which they say that 78% of Rivas residents recognize the importance of this project. The organization frames it within its Rivas 2030 Urban Agenda, where it appears as one of its most notable projects to reconfigure its urban model. What happens now? The ball is in the court of the Community of Madrid. Before the end of June, the technical response from the General Directorate of Infrastructure should arrive. This report will determine if the project can move forward as planned, if it needs modifications or if the proposal (especially the new station) encounters obstacles from the regional administration. The Town Hall has expressed his confidence that the Community “facilitates the progress of an action long awaited by the citizens of Rivas”, but it seems that we will have to wait to find out if it finally materializes as the city council wants. Cover image | Google Maps In Xataka | BYD is already studying entering Formula 1, according to Bloomberg. And it is not a whim, it is a necessary step

We have not understood for decades why chronic pain punishes women more. Finally we have the answer

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Historically, medicine has grappled with an undeniable gender gap in which women Women suffer chronic pain more frequently than men, and on top of that their pain flares for much longer. This is something that many doctors have considered ‘normal’ and has been dismissed with psychological biases. But now science has seen that an explanation should not be sought in the mind, but in the immune system. Against pain. This is the objective that medicine has right now, since it is undoubtedly a situation that for many people can be unbearable. That is why the magazine Science Immunology publish now a new study that offers a paradigm shift in our understanding of the biology of pain. The result of this is that he has managed to find the key to some types of white blood cells called monocytes and in its direct relationship with testosterone. What’s happening? When an injury is suffered, such as a blow, the body tries to defend itself with an inflammatory response. One of its components is pain, which is a necessary alarm signal to warn that something is wrong, but once the tissue begins to heal, it is logical that this alarm goes off. But this is where the body’s defense cells come in, monocytes, which act as ‘firefighters’ by releasing proteins called interleukin-10. Here the research team has been able to see that this interleukin-10, abbreviated as IL-10, acts directly on sensory neurons to “turn off” hypersensitivity and therefore pain. The problem, and here lies the importance between sexes, is that men resolve this inflammatory pain much faster because they produce a greater amount of this protein. The reason. Testosterone. This male sex hormone stimulates monocytes to produce higher levels of IL-10 after injury, and therefore pain can be better reduced. But in women this level of testosterone is much lower, and therefore the production of this natural ‘painkiller’ is lower, which causes the sensory neurons to take much longer to stop giving the signal that generates pain. Your demonstration. Beyond doing so in animal models, the research team has been able to validate the experiments with human data from the AURORA studiowhich is a project that evaluates patients who have suffered traffic accidents and severe trauma. Here the clinical data confirmed the laboratory’s suspicions, since they saw that the elimination or reduction of IL-10 activity in monocytes significantly delays the resolution of pain in both sexes, validating that this hormone-mediated immunological difference is exactly the same in humans. In the future. This discovery is not just another biological curiosity to close a historical debate, but it has important therapeutic implications. And right now the severe pain crisis has to be treated with opiates on many occasions, which have a long list of side effects. But upon discovering this cellular mechanism, the researchers tried administering Resolvin D1a compound that promotes the resolution of inflammation. Here it was clearly seen how pain was reduced equally in both sexes. This is why we are at the gateway to a new generation of non-opioid therapies that specifically modulate the immune system. But what is most important about this study is that it highlights the need to leave behind the “one size fits all” model in medicine to move towards more personalized medicine. Images | Redd Francisco In Xataka | Medicine has been using opioids to relieve pain for centuries. Science finally has an alternative

Iran has spent decades excavating its “missile cities.” Satellite images have just revealed that they are a death trap

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For years, Iran has shown the world tunnel videos endless tunnels dug under mountains, with military trucks circulating between missiles lined up as if they were cars in an underground subway. It was understood that many of these facilities extend kilometers underground and are part of one of the military fortification programs. most ambitious in the Middle East. What almost no one knew until now is to what extent this gigantic hidden labyrinth could become a key piece of the current conflict. The cities, but with missiles. Yes, for decades, Iran has excavated an extensive underground base network known as “missile cities”, complexes hidden under mountains and hills intended to protect its enormous ballistic arsenal against air attacks and guarantee the regime’s retaliation capacity even in the event of open war. There are numerous videos Officials released in recent years where we could see long tunnels illuminated by artificial lights, windowless corridors and convoys of trucks loaded with missiles ready to move to the surface, an entire military architecture designed to hide thousands of short and medium range projectiles away from spy satellites and enemy bombers. Some installations even incorporate silos dug into the rock or mechanical systems on rails to move missiles within underground galleries, a perfectly assembled choreography reflecting a strategic project conceived to ensure arsenal survival Iranian in a protracted conflict. The images that reveal the paradox. However, the war has begun to show the unexpected reverse of that strategy. Recent images from space have revealed Smoldering remains of destroyed launchers and missiles near the entrances to several underground complexes, a sign that systems hidden underground are becoming extremely vulnerable at the moment when they must go outside to shoot. It makes sense. American and Israeli surveillance planes, armed drones and fighters They patrol constantly over the areas where these facilities are located, observing the entrances to the tunnels and attacking the launchers as soon as they appear on nearby roads or canyons. In other words, what for years was a system designed to hide mobile weapons It thus becomes a relatively predictable pattern: tunnel entrances, exit roads and deployment areas that can be monitored from the air and destroyed as soon as activity is detected. From strategic refuge to death trap. They remembered in the wall street journal A few hours ago this change has revealed a structural problem in the very concept of missile cities. Underground complexes are very difficult to destroy from the air, but they are also fixed installations whose location is known by Western intelligence services. In practice, this means that much of the arsenal remains stored in specific places while enemy planes continually fly over the airspace, waiting for the moment when the launchers come out to act. Many military analysts summarize the dilemma in a simple way: What was previously a mobile and difficult to locate system is now concentrated in fixed points, which facilitates its surveillance and reduces its capacity for surprise. Commercial satellite images themselves show destroyed launchers As soon as they left the mouths of the tunnels, fires were caused by leaked fuel and access to facilities bombed with heavy ammunition. Missile base north of Tabriz in Iran. The image on the left belongs to February 23, the one on the right from March 1 after the first attacks The air offensive against underground infrastructure. As the first week of war approaches, the military campaign has begun to focus increasingly on these infrastructures. They told Reuters that the first phase of the attacks focused on destroying visible launchers and surface systems capable of firing at Israel or US bases in the region, while the second stage aims straight to the bunkers and buried warehouses where missiles and equipment are stored. Israeli aviation, with American support, has attacked hundreds of positions and has managed to drastically reduce the number of launches, while an almost constant air offensive that hits targets continues. both in Iran and Lebanon during the same missions. The stated objective is to progressively degrade Iran’s ability to launch ballistic missiles and drones until it is completely neutralized. Missile base north of Kermanshah in Iran. The image on the left belongs to February 28, on the right it belongs to March 3 A gigantic arsenal underground. The actual scope of these facilities remains difficult to determine. There are military estimates that place the Iranian arsenal before the war between about 2,500 and up to 6,000 missilesstored in different facilities throughout the country, many of them excavated under mountains or in remote areas of the territory. Despite the attacks, Iran has managed to launch more than 500 missiles against Israel, US bases and targets in the Gulf since the start of the conflict, although many have been intercepted and the pace of salvos has decreased rapidly. That drop suggests that attacks on launchers and storage centers are beginning to erode the country’s ability to respond. The strategic dilemma. The result is a strategic paradox that is just beginning to become visible. Missile cities were designed to protect the core of Iranian military power and ensure its ability to retaliate, but in a scenario where the enemy dominate the air and watch constantly the entrances to these complexes can become choke points for the arsenal itself. Iran has spent decades excavating these underground bases with the intention of making its missiles invisible. But satellite images of the war are showing something very different: that this labyrinth of tunnels, designed as a shelter, can become one of its greatest vulnerabilities when the launchers are forced to surface under the look constant flow of planes, drones and satellites. Image | X, Planet Labs In Xataka | We had seen everything in Ukraine, but this is new: neither drones nor missiles, bulldozers have reached the front In Xataka | You’ve probably never heard of urea. The missiles in Iran are destroying their production, and that will affect your food

Two decades ago, dogs flooded Spain with souped-up motorcycles. Today, they sell them for a fortune

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If you know what a Yamaha Joga Aerox or one Piaggio ZipI’m very sorry: you are already old. Between the 90s and 2000s, young Spaniards could obtain their moped license from the age of 14, and the 49cc scooter became an object of worship… and souped-up. With the tightening of European regulations, this type of motorcycle has practically stopped being sold. But there are those who are making a killing on second-hand platforms. The fall of the 49cc. The moped market has completely changed. At the end of the 2000s, nearly 200,000 units were sold per year. Two decades later, sales fell more than 90%. Currently, mopeds represent a minimal part of the market: in Spain there are barely more than 20,000 registrations per year, while 125 cc motorcycles dominate sales thanks to the fact that they can be driven with a car license. The fall of the 49cc coincided with key factors such as: The 49cc fever. The thunderous and (for many) unpleasant hum of this type of motorcycle was no coincidence. Preparations were the order of the day: exhaust, cylinder, variator… Mopeds with a tiny engine surpassed many of the current 125cc scooters in performance. In fact, the homologation regulations on paper prevented these mopeds from exceeding 45km/h. The reality? Even the slowest one could double this figure straight out of the factory. It was enough to remove some stops in a matter of minutes, and if we dared to carry out a simple preparation, it was easy to make them touch (or exceed) 100km/h. The pasta. A classic like the Yamaha Jog cost just over 2,000 euros in 2005. 20 years later, it is easy to find units in good condition on Wallapop from 1,200 euros to more than 2,500. Of course, prepared to the brim. In fact, it is practically impossible to find a moped of this style that is not souped up. A safer time. Between the 90s and 2000s, it was common to see minors driving this type of motorcycle. The accident rate per kilometer was very high, and the risk multiplied compared to adults on motorcycles with larger displacements. Today the panorama is very different. The 50 cc has been relegated to a niche, the 125 cc dominates the urban market and electric scooters are beginning to gain ground. But for an entire generation, the metallic sound of a Jog or an Aerox remains the soundtrack of adolescence. In Xataka | I was about to buy the best-selling Chinese motorcycle in Spain. Until I read the fine print

We have been wondering for decades if being vegetarian prevents cancer. We already have a very clear answer

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There is a endless diets in different parts of the world, conditioned largely by local society and culture, such as in Spain, where the Mediterranean dietwhich is varied. But the focus of the debate is on what is the best diet to maintain good health in the long term. And here the vegetarian diet has a lot to say. Giving answers. For years, we have known that reducing our consumption of processed meat is beneficial for our health, but a new macro study led by the University of Oxford has put compelling data on the table about how dietary choice directly impacts the risk of developing different types of cancer. The work published in the magazine British Journal of Cancer is consolidated as the further analysis performed to date on this topic. And it is no wonder, since researchers have been able to analyze the histories of 1.8 million women and men who participated in nine prospective studies across three continents. A shield. Until now, previous studies they were already pointing that vegetarians had a lower oncological risk, but there was not the necessary statistical power to refine the data and make this categorical statement. But this study has come to change this, since researchers reveal that vegetarians have a significantly lower risk of suffering from five types of cancer compared to people who eat meat regularly. Results. Obviously, there are many other factors that influence this matter such as weight or lifestyle, but even adjusting the data, a clear result has been seen, which is summarized in the following risk reductions: 31% lower risk of suffering from multiple myeloma. 28% lower risk of kidney cancer. 21% lower risk of pancreatic cancer. 12% lower risk of pancreatic cancer. 9% lower risk of breast cancer. But the curious thing about these data is that for ten other types of cancer studied, such as lung cancer in non-smokers, science has not found a significant difference. And this opens the door to seeing why this diet is so specific for specific cancers. The small print. Not everything is so positive with this diet, since the study has shown that vegetarians have almost double the risk of developing esophageal cancer compared to people who eat meat in their diet. Because? According to researchers, the benefits of a vegetarian diet in cancer are explained by the greater intake of fruits, vegetables, fiber and the absence of processed meats. But the fact that they have a higher risk of having esophageal cancer is related to the nutritional deficiencies that vegetarians may have. And the lack of certain exclusive or more present nutrients in foods of animal origin could be weakening the natural defenses of this tissue. The rest of the diets. In addition to the war that may exist between meat and vegetables, researchers wanted to go further to look at the rest of the diet. In this case, the pescetarianswho do not consume meat, but do consume fish and seafood, had a lower risk of developing breast, kidney and colon cancer. But when we talk about vegansis where there are certain important nuances, since it has been seen that they have a higher risk of suffering from colorectal cancer. However, the researchers themselves point out that there are still not enough statistical cases to accurately evaluate the impact of veganism on rarer cancers. The recommendations. Given this study, everything that had been done in oncology is maintained, since the norm is to prioritize whole grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables in the diet, limiting the consumption of red and processed meats. Although logically always ensuring that all nutritional needs are met and following medical advice. Images | amin ramezani In Xataka | Having a beer or a wine at 65 seems like a harmless indulgence. We have more and more evidence to the contrary.

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