destroy

Saudi Arabia had billions to build the future in the desert. He has decided to sacrifice them to destroy Iran

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The cranes have stopped roaring in the Tabuk desert. There where it should rise a colossal artificial lake at 2,600 meters high and a science fiction metropolis valued in billionsToday the priority is to look at the sky looking for the trail of ballistic missiles and kamikaze drones. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) had promised the world a glass and petrodollar utopia called NEOM, a monument to his own ego designed to whitewash the regime’s image. However, the harsh reality of the Middle East has ended up imposing itself on the renders in 3D. A crossroads in the gulf. We are looking at what is now, for all intents and purposes, a Third Gulf War, and Saudi Arabia has reached a historic crossroads. Caught in the war waged by the United States and Israel against Iran, the Saudi monarchy faces an existential dilemma: save its economy and its megalomaniac pharaonic project, or take advantage of the chaos to dismantle, once and for all, the regime in Tehran. And judging by the shadow movements of its leaders, Riyadh seems willing to let its economic utopia bleed if it means it can win this war. Facing the gallery. Behind closed doors, Saudi Arabia’s message is one of absolute containment. In recent communicationsthe Saudi government has insisted that it has “always supported a peaceful resolution” and that its only priority is defending its population and infrastructure from daily attacks. This is what an analysis by Dr. Turki Faisal Al-Rasheed has defined as “strategic patience”: a tactic in which Riyadh avoids direct confrontation to protect its investments, while subtly encouraging the weakening of its regional rival. The reality is more complex. However, the leaks tell a very different story. As revealed The New York TimesBased on sources informed by US officials, MBS has been privately pressuring US President Donald Trump not to stop the war. The crown prince sees the current US-Israeli military campaign as a “historic opportunity” to destroy Iran’s hardline government. The talks have reached the point where MBS would have advocated for ground operations and even the military takeover of Kharg Island, the Iranian oil heart. The diplomatic board is abuzz. Mohamed bin Salmán’s phone does not stop ringing, as he urgently needs to shield his vital infrastructure from attacks and, to do so, he relies on the Western umbrella. As detailed ReutersBritish Prime Minister Keir Starmer personally telephoned MBS to condemn the Iranian offensive and confirm the deployment of more British defensive military equipment. London’s goal is to protect the kingdom and try to ensure that the sea trade route does not completely collapse. But while MBS is piling up shields and secretly pressuring Trump not to relax the blow against Iran, other regional allies are desperately trying to put out the fire before it devastates the entire Gulf. As revealed by the agency AnadoluPakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif contacted the crown prince to underline the “urgent need” for a de-escalation. Islamabad’s move is not a toast to the sun: Pakistan has emerged as the great shadow mediator, to the point of offering to host direct talks between the United States and Iran based on a 15-point American peace plan. The sacrifice of Vision 2030. “It’s the last thing he wanted. He wants stability and order, he doesn’t want missiles or drones flying.” This is how forceful an expert seemed consulted by him Financial Times. The diplomatic “detente” that Saudi Arabia had signed with Iran in 2023 has been shattered. Iranian retaliatory attacks have hit the giant Ras Tanura refinery, the Shaybah field and the Prince Sultan air base. The cost of this war for MBS’s dreams is already incalculable. Formula 1 had to cancel its April races. In the entertainment sector, the CEO of Savvy Games Group recognized that the war escalation It will “cool the perception” of Saudi Arabia as a safe destination for investment of 38 billion in eSports. The biggest collateral victim: NEOM. The artificial lake project Trojenaawarded for $4.7 billion to an Italian construction company, is already facing leaks about delays of between three and four years. The 2029 Winter Games have been postponed indefinitely and the extra costs suffocate an already deficient budget. The war and instability in the Red Sea discourage foreign investment, vital for these science fiction cities to go from render to reality. The reality of the Saudi coffers is critical. As revealed The New York TimesEven before the conflict broke out, the crown prince was already facing serious financial challenges. The 2030 deadline is approaching and the government assumes budget deficit forecasts for the coming years, suffocated by excessive spending on megaprojects and vast investments in artificial intelligence that are straining the country’s resources to the limit. And a prolonged war threatens to blow everything up, since MBS’s success depends on a single factor that is currently non-existent: a safe environment for investors and tourists. Holding the pulse. To withstand the challenge, Saudi Arabia has had to resort to an engineering work born of fear in the 80s. With the Strait of Hormuz strangled by the Iranian threat, Riyadh has activated its logistical “antidote.” State oil company Aramco is pumping against the clock through the East-West Pipeline, a 1,200 kilometer pipeline that crosses the desert to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. The objective is to move up to 7 million barrels a day by land, avoiding Tehran’s missiles. The landscape in Yanbu is like something out of a movie: an “army” of at least 25 supertankers (VLCC) crowds on the coast to evacuate some 50 million barrels. However, there are no magic solutions. The port has a physical funnel (it can only load between 4 and 4.5 million barrels per day) and, in addition, ships must cross the Bab al-Mandab Strait, exposing themselves to the Houthi rebels. Added to this is that the pipeline only moves crude oil, leaving markets such as Europe without their vital supplies of refined products such as diesel, exacerbating the global energy … Read more

destroy the radars that collect the most

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Madrid has a problem with some of its most profitable radars: there are those who destroy them. The situation has become so worrying that the Civil Guard itself is asking for specific surveillance to control the acts of vandalism that, for more than a year, have been repeated in the community. The problem. Cabin radars at key points such as the M-607 or the M-505 are being vandalized more frequently than usual. From using white paint to “blind” them to destroying them with stones or even inserting objects inside them after breaking the glass to cover their cameras. The figures. Some of these radars, such as the fixed one on the M-607 that limits a section of the highway to 80km/h, have been repaired only to be vandalized again the next day. In the case of one of the radars located on the M-505, between Galapagar and El Escorial, it suffered damage before even being fined. A year and a half after its assembly, it has not been able to start fining. “They repaired it and the next day they destroyed it again by putting a traffic signal pole inside.” “AUGC (Unified Association of the Civil Guard)”. Repair the damage of a fixed speedometer ascends about 70,000 euros (67,000 for a fixed radar and 66,000 for a section radar). The very high cost, according to the DGT, is due to the amount of technology they incorporate: character recognition system, synchronization with GPS satellites, laser illumination cameras, etc. The consequences. According to articles 263 to 267 of the Penal Code, those who cause damage to public property can face prison sentences of one to three years. There are already those who have been arrested for breaking a radar and have had to end up asking for donations on Facebook to meet the damages claimed. nothing new. there are those He destroyed three radars in Malagaat the beginning of the year the DGT investigated the vandalization of seven othersand newly installed radars such as the one on the Granada ring road lasted just three months without sabotage. Although the DGT assures that radars are an active safety measure for drivers, at the end of 2025 the collection record was broken, with nearly 540 million euros in penalties for fixed, section, mobile, velolaser and radars captured by Pegasus helicopters, among others. The performance. Given the drama of the destroyed radars, the Civil Guard requests additional surveillance. In this type of situation, the DGT reinforces the number of agents from the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard and those from Citizen Security for surveillance in the most conflictive points. The less formal nuance: it is not so easy to prosecute this type of crime without constant surveillance, and even more so considering that there are nearly 4,000 speed radars installed in Spain. In Xataka | How to know all the official locations of the DGT radars

The US has decided to shoot itself in the foot and destroy one of the best AI companies in the country

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Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, published a few hours ago a statement in which he announced something unusual: the Department of Defense (DoD) has confirmed that “we have been designated as a risk to the national security supply chain” of the United States. This agency thus fulfills the threat it posed a few days ago and automatically turns Anthropic, one of the best AI companies in the country (if not the best) into a pariah company. What implications does that have? Many and all of them huge. I veto Anthropic. This designation prohibits Anthropic from doing business or developing projects for the US military. That is already serious, but it is not just the Pentagon, for example, that will not do it: any company that works with the Pentagon is also prohibited from using Anthropic’s AI services for any government project. We are facing a decision whose collateral effects could be terrible for Anthropic. The loss of revenue could be massive, and if other federal agencies follow the Pentagon’s lead, Anthropic could have a hard time defending its viability against its competitors. That designation is not immediate, and there will be a transition period six months for DoD to migrate to other vendors (like OpenAI). It had never been done with a national company. The ban on Anthropic is absolutely extraordinary, and that designation as a “supply chain risk” was a measure historically reserved for foreign adversaries like Huawei. By applying this label to an American company, the DoD severs its commercial ties and marks the company with a stigma, a kind of “scarlet letter” that could scare away global investors and partners. ethical shock. The core of the conflict is not technical, but moral. Anthropic was born as a spin-off from OpenAI with the aim of avoid existential risks in the development of AI models, and the company has always positioned itself as a great defender of alignment with human values. Its CEO, Dario Amodei, insisted that its AI could not be used for mass surveillance or for the development of lethal autonomous weaponsbut that has collided head-on with the US government and military establishments, which wanted practically total access without restrictions, except those imposed by the US Constitution and laws. to the courts. Amodei has explained in its statement that it will fight the decision in court. His argument, he explains, is that statute 10 USC 3252 It is a tool of protection, not punishment. The defense will need to focus on showing that the Department of Defense did not use the least restrictive means to ensure security. If they succeed, they could invalidate the designation, although the reputational damage has already been done. The dilemma of sovereignty. Can a private company be above the Government? The Pentagon argues that no supplier can slip through the chain of command, and one thing is certain here: for an AI to have usage clauses that limit military operations is to cede national sovereignty to a private algorithm and the terms of service of a board of directors and a CEO who have not been democratically elected. The threat of extreme interventionism. This unusual measure could end up setting a precedent. If the government punishes companies that ask uncomfortable questions or place limits on the use of their technology, AI innovation could change its philosophy. Companies that want to survive would have to do so without questioning the orders out of pure fear of bankruptcy and bankruptcy. Transition period. There is, however, a period of six months granted for the transition and that seems to make it clear that the Pentagon still depends on Anthropic technology for current operations, as demonstrated by the kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro or the current intelligence analysis of the conflict in Iran. It remains to be seen how events will evolve, but the outlook for Anthropic is certainly worrying. And for the rest of the companies too, if indeed justice rules in favor of the Department of Defense. Image | Anthropic | Xataka with Freepik In Xataka | Anthropic has become the Apple of our era and OpenAI our Microsoft: a story of love and hate

Anthropic wanted to secretly scan and then destroy millions of books to train its AI. It hasn’t been so secret

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A language model for AI needs input if it is to be trained to be more accurate and effective. The issue is how the information is obtained and whether there is an ethical way to do it that is profitable for the technology company in power. There is no doubt that the preferred option for companies has been to use all possible physical and digital content without anyone’s permission. There is also evidence. A judicial leak reveals that Anthropic invested tens of millions of dollars in acquiring and digitizing literary works without permission from the authors. According to account Washington Post, the project, internally called “Panama”, was part of a frenetic race among big technology companies to accumulate massive data to train their artificial intelligence models. How it all started. The Panama Project was launched by Anthropic in early 2024. According to internal documents revealed per the Washington Post, the goal was to “destructively scan every book in the world.” Furthermore, these documents also explicitly state that the company did not want anyone to know that they were working on it. In about a year, the company spent tens of millions of dollars buying millions of books, cutting their spines with hydraulic machines and scanning their pages to feed the AI ​​models that power Claudeits star chatbot. According to the media, the books, once digitized, ended up being recycled. Because has come to light. The details of the project have been revealed in a lawsuit for infringement of rights copyright filed by literary authors against Anthropic. Although the company agreed to pay $1.5 billion to close the case in August 2025, a district judge decided to make more than 4,000 pages of internal documents public last week, exposing the entire operation. They are not the only ones. Court documents reveal that other technology companies such as Meta, Google and OpenAI had also participated in this race to obtain massive information to train their models. According to revealed According to the documents, an Anthropic co-founder theorized in January 2023 that training AI models with books could teach them “how to write well” instead of imitating “low-quality internet slang.” On the other hand, an internal Meta email from 2024 described access to a digital library of books as “essential” to be competitive with rivals in the race to dominate AI. However, the documents revealed by the media also show how Meta employees expressed concern on several occasions about the legality of downloading millions of books without permission. An internal email from December 2023 indicates that the practice had been approved after being “escalated to MZ,” apparently referring to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. According to court records to which the media has had access, the companies did not consider it “practical” to obtain direct permission from publishers and authors. Instead, they found ways to mass-acquire books without the writers’ knowledge, including downloading unauthorized copies from third-party sites. Chat logs from April 2024 show an employee asking why they were using servers rented from Amazon to download torrents instead of Facebook’s own. The answer: “Avoid the risk of tracing” the activity back to the company. Data torrent. The documents to which the Washington Post has had access also they test that Ben Mann, co-founder of Anthropic, personally downloaded over 11 days in June 2021 a collection of books from LibGen, a gigantic library of copyrighted content. The outlet further revealed that, a year later, in July 2022, Mann celebrated the launch of the ‘Pirate Library Mirror’ website, which boasts a massive database of books and openly claims to violate copyright laws. “Just in time!!!” Mann wrote to other Anthropic employees, according to the outlet. Anthropic stated in legal documents that it never trained a revenue-generating business model using LibGen data nor did it use Pirate Library Mirror to train any full model. Anthropic’s legal solution. According to point the medium in its article, faced with the legal risk, Anthropic changed its strategy. The company hired Tom Turvey, a Silicon Valley veteran who had helped create the project Google Books two decades earlier. Under his direction, Anthropic considered purchasing books from libraries or secondhand bookstores, including New York’s iconic Strand bookstore. The company ultimately ended up buying millions of books and stacking them in a giant warehouse, often in batches of tens of thousands, according to court filings. The Washington Post assures In addition, the company worked with used book sellers in the United Kingdom. A project proposal mentions that Anthropic sought to “convert between 500,000 and two million books in a six-month period.” What the law says. Most legal cases against AI companies are still ongoing, but the media mention two court rulings that have considered that the use of books to train AI models without permission from the author or publisher may be legal under the “fair use” doctrine of copyright. In June 2025, District Judge William Alsup determined that Anthropic had the right to use books to train AI models because they process them in a “transformative” way. He compared the process to teachers “teaching schoolchildren to write well.” That same month, Judge Vince Chhabria ruled in the Meta case that the authors had not shown that the company’s AI models could harm the sales of their books. In the Anthropic case, the physical book scanning project was considered legal, but the judge determined that the company may have infringed copyright by downloading millions of books without authorization before launching Project Panama. The final agreement. Instead of facing a trial, Anthropic agreed to pay $1.5 billion to publishers and authors without admitting guilt. According to point According to the media, authors whose books were downloaded can claim their share of the settlement, estimated at about $3,000 per title. Cover image | Emil Widlund and Anthropic In Xataka | If AI is going to leave us without jobs, in the United Kingdom they are already seriously discussing the solution: a universal basic income

The plan has always been to destroy the International Space Station in 2030. Someone thinks we can do something else

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The International Space Station this that falls. It has been orbiting the Earth since 1998 and was completed in 2011. The plan was to retire it in 2024, but the accounts did not work out and, in 2021, the NASA administrator set a definitive date: 2030. The question is whether it will last that long because a few months ago we already said that members of NASA expressed concern about the accumulation of problems technicians who were accelerating the decline of a seriously aging facility. air leaks, cracks in different modulesabsence of spare parts for critical systems and lack of budget to propose a solution It would be assumed that the Different agencies have been putting patches on for years. NASA has already commissioned SpaceX the development of a ship that would tow it to the space graveyard of the Pacific, but… is there no other solution for the 450-ton, $150 billion station? The answer is yes. At least, that’s what Greg Vialle, founder of a startup called Lunexus Space that is committed to recycling the International Space Station, thinks. Turning the International Space Station into a mine In the middle of last year, NASA had clear that he Point Nemoa remote location in the Pacific, 2,700 kilometers from the nearest pile of dirt, would be the station’s cemetery. There was only one thing I could avoid the dismantling: that ROSCOSMOS, the Russian space agency, refused to abandon the ship. Russia soon changed its mind by commenting that its cosmonauts were passing more time repairing equipment than conducting experiments. Come on, no matter how much they wanted to “annoy” NASA at a geopolitically unstable point, it didn’t work out for them. Everything was aimed at the disappearance of the current ISS, but there are those who have something to say. Lunexus Space is a startup focused on the development of industrial infrastructure in low orbit that reuse structures and space junk to facilitate the construction of goods directly in the lower atmosphere. The goal is to develop a kind of circular economy in low orbit by taking advantage of the tons of material already in space, eliminating the need to re-launch them from Earth. In Space Newsthe CEO of the company has developed an article in which he explains his plan to “avoid wasteful expenses.” Vialle affirms that the ISS has 430 tons of high-quality aluminum, titanium and other materials valuable for future space missions. He estimates the value of the material at $1.5 billion, which would be lost to the ocean floor if NASA’s plan goes ahead. And it also points out the almost 1 billion that NASA will spend on the vehicle that tows the station to its resting point. “It is a fiscally irresponsible plan that loses a strategic resource and a golden opportunity.” What he proposes is “a common sense alternative”: converting old infrastructure into raw materials for new construction. Their calculations highlight that launching a kilogram of material into space costs $3,500, but if they take materials from the ISS, the costs would drop entirely. And, faced with the 1,000 million dollars of the plan to sink it, Vialle suggests that Its recycling process could be carried out for about 300 million dollars to which an equivalent government loan would have to be added to launch the necessary infrastructure, appealing to significant savings for taxpayers while preserving valuable resources. American leadership, of course “How can we wait prospect, mine, refine and transport in deep space if we cannot extract the many tons of cataloged and space-grade materials that are already beginning to manage low Earth orbit?” Vialle appeals. But of course, there is a B side to this plan: Strengthen America’s Space Leadership. By receiving the ISS, the CEO believes that the seeds of “a new industry in space led by the United States will be sown, ensuring our economic and strategic leadership over competitors like China.” China too He has been planning his own station for years. And he compares the move to American manufacturing policy to prepare for the Second World War, japanese strategy in the 1970s that established the country as a technological miracle or Taiwan’s position with TSMC and chip manufacturing. His idea is for the United States to invest in resource management technologies in space, something that is taking its first steps and that, if it reaches a solid program, will make “the nation dominate the future of commerce and defense in orbit.” It is evident that Vialle has known what sticks to play in a moment as sensitive as the current one and, although in his letter he urges Congress to influence NASA’s decision to ‘deorbit’ the International Space Station, the space agency has already detailed that, after a session to evaluate the possibility of reusing the main components of the station, they did not receive any proposals of interest from the industry. On the other hand, the European Space Agency already pointed out that recycling in orbit was “a real challenge” and it was not clear whether the resources used to capture and process waste in space would be profitable. Either way, time is of the essence. We will see what happens with the ‘Recycle the ISS’ movement, but there are four years left and, as more and more voices point out, something must be decided because the installation is on its last legs. In Xataka | Decathlon has just made its way beyond sport: it will reach space with a prototype spacesuit for the ESA

PLD Space already has a complete Miura 5 rocket ready. to destroy it

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The renders are over. PLD Space has once again demonstrated that it is advancing at a devilish pace by publishing the first photos of the entire Miura 5 rocket. These images are history of the Spanish space industry. With you, the Miura 5. The first complete unit of the Miura 5 is not made to fly, but to suffer. Named QM1 (Qualification Model 1), has been almost completely assembled for integration testing of all subsystems before the final flight model takes off into Earth orbit next year. This is the first orbital launcher from a Spanish company, the same one that successfully launched the Miura 1 suborbital rocket from Huelva in October 2023. It was that milestone that has allowed PLD Space to complete the development of a rocket in record time. No other European company has done it so quickly. Why it is important. At a time when preserving sovereign access to space It has become a geopolitical issueEurope needs to have a strong aerospace industry and cheaper and more versatile rockets than the Ariane 6 and Vega C developed by ESA. The Miura 5 leads the European New Space thanks to its TEPREL-C biokerosene and liquid oxygen engines, more powerful than its competitors and developed internally by PLD Space in its Elche factory. The rocket measures 35.7 meters high, has two stages (the first with five engines, and the second with an engine adapted to the vacuum of space). The next steps. The first stage of the QM1 will perform a full propellant loading test known as “wet dress rehearsal.” They will fill the tanks, pressurize the vehicle as they would before a flight, and replicate all the structural and thermal loads prior to launch, without actually turning on the engines for takeoff. The second stage will be sent to the United States to test the Flight Termination System (FTS). Basically, it will be destroyed to validate that the explosive charges are capable of safely disintegrating the rocket in the event of an in-flight anomaly. PLD Space expects to have the second qualification unit ready in December. The first Miura 5 designed to fly will arrive shortly after. He is scheduled to travel to French Guiana in the first quarter of 2026. Images | PLD Space In Xataka | PLD Space has a detailed plan to become Europe’s rocket factory. And the pieces have started to fit

The dangerous Tiktok fashion that can destroy your smile

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Have perfect teeth with a good aligned and especially completely white It is not easy to get. But given this aesthetic need, there are many products that have been viralized that promise rapid dental whitening, ‘natural’ and under cost that They have been viralized in networksand everyone has in common that they use activated carbon. A product that has flooded the market, but that According to experts Consulted by Infosalud can have a completely contrary effect. Miracle. We all want to have a miraculous solution for our problems, and above all it does not cost us too much effort. In this case, activated carbon tooth pastes seemed ideal to have the perfect smile without having to go through the annoying dental whitening that they can do to us in a specialized clinic. But, as the saying goes, ‘the cheap is expensive’. The product. Activated carbon is a very porous black powder that is obtained from materials such as coconut shell or wood. In a classic way it has been used In the hospital sphere Because of their ability to absorb toxins, so it has been used to treat those who suffered an poisoning produced for example by a drug overdose, as it has surely been seen on some occasion in a film or series to be very appealed. And using this property of ‘entrapment’ is where marketing lies behind that activated carbon can be the perfect bleach. They precisely sell it through the ability to ‘catch’ ‘and eliminate teeth spots, leaving them whiter. Reality. Despite its great popularity, there is no solid scientific evidence that supports what the influencers say. An article published in 2023 entitled “Effectiveness and abrasiveness of activated carbon as a bleaching agent: a systematic review of in vitro studies” wanted to give a little light. After analyzing 208 articles on this matter, they could conclude that dental pastes based on activated carbon have a lower bleaching effect “than other alternatives and can be considered as less safe due to their high abrasive potential.” Also the American Dental Association (ADA) opted for making an article where literature on this subject is analyzed, and saw that abrasive nature is a big problem. The consequences. Having an abrasing effect causes enamel wear irreversibly, since it is not regenerated. And once the enamel is wearing up, the dentin is exposed, an internal yellowing layer, which can cause precisely an opposite effect to the one who wanted to be: perfectly yellow teeth. But ending this protection layer makes the tooth nerve more exposed, which makes an external stimulus such as cold or heat the sensitivity increases much greater. This is something similar to what can be felt after finishing a dental whitening treatment in a clinic. The negative effects do not stay here. The rough texture of coal can irritate the gums, causing inflammation and even gingival recession. And if we also add that many pastes with activated carbon do not have fluoride, we can also find long -term decay. The experts. They have a fairly unanimous opinion regarding the use of this type of products. As Infosalus collects, the president of the Council of Dentists of Spain points to these pasta “do not eliminate spots, or bleach the enamel in a quick and economical way.” But it adds to “the use of activated carbon in the teeth can mean serious oral health problems.” Safe alternatives. In the case of wanting a smile as if Photoshop had been done, it is best to go to a dentist to receive the best tips. In this case, advice on treatments that have been scientifically tested may be received. For example, there are whitening pasta that do have evidence when using polish agents such as carbamide peroxide or hydrogen peroxide in low concentrations that are completely safe and effective for daily use and have the support of health authorities. Images | Tony Litvyak Chris Slupski In Xataka | We are a little closer to fulfilling the dream of the dentists: teeth that grow again

In the E3 of 1995, PlayStation only needed two seconds to destroy Sega. And changed video games forever

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On September 29, 1995, many Spanish buyers were made with a new console, the first of a company known for its camcorders, Walkman, Discman and TVs. 30 years ago, Sony launched the PlayStation In Europe, but before arriving he had already left a victim on the way: Sega with his Saturn. And everything was forged for two seconds in the First E3 in history With one of the oldest trolls of video games: that of “299”. From an audio chip to the PlayStation. Before reaching that point, we go with some context. Sony was not a video game company. In fact, within the Japanese giant, few believed they painted something in that segment. However, there was Ken Kutaragi, PlayStation’s “father”. He was watching his daughter play family, Our neswhen Kutaragi realized the potential of video games. He raised it, but Sony went on the subject. A few years later, Nintendo needed an audio chip for the Supernesand there was Kutaragi, secretly working on the design of the SPC700 which contributed so much to the history of video games and the audio of the Nintendo console. He did not end up fired from Milagro, since his bosses enraged when they found out. But well, little by little they were entering and Kutaragi had to be a heavy championship because he got Sony and Nintendo to collaborate in the development of the CD super nes, or the Nintendo PlayStation that today is a museum piece. Nintendo’s betrayal. The problem? Nintendo did not see with good eyes that a company like Sony won power in the world of video games and, just when the great association was going to make the world known, Nintendo hit a flying: he associated with Philips and gave them five of their franchises to do what they wanted. It was Nintendo’s biggest error. Not only Philips shattered ‘Mario’ and, above all, ‘Zelda’ With tremendously bad games for CD-Ibut it enraged Sony in an unimaginable way. If they were not fully convinced, they were now clear that they should humiliate Nintendo. They got to work and, from that betrayal, the PlayStation was born. Now we had to present it well, and the First E3 in historythat of 1995, was the ideal scenario. … at “299”. Nintendo went with the failure of Virtual Boy under the arm and with rumors of Nintendo 64 (Which had a few years of development), but there was another company that did new: Sega. The other Japanese video game giant would be a stone on the Sony road if things did not do well, and within “doing things well” comes to put an attractive price. It was the first console, I had to work. In fact, both were the ones that had to win the most and lose at the fair because they had already launched in Japan, but the price they would mark for the United States would be key. Sega crossed the puddle with his Saturn and announced that it would cost $ 399 (also 399 pounds in the United Kingdom and 79,990 pesetas in Spain). Sony needed a blow of effect, and that was when this moment happened: THE GREATER TROLLE OF THE VIDEOGUES. What you just saw is well known, but no less shocking 30 years later. After a long speech on the history of the company and about the benefits of both the machine and the CD, a new format at that time, Steve Race, president of Sony América took the stage and, of course, you will imagine that someone like that would rise to give another long monologue. But not. “Two Nine Nine”. 299. And got off the stage. Those two seconds, followed by applause and cheers, were enough for PlayStation to “win” that first E3. Already My partner Rafa Márquez commented in Vidaxtra: The best possible mixture between a troll and a masterful marketing. It was 100 dollars cheaper than Sega Saturn, had the favor of many developers, was a good CD player and there were not only Japanese games, but others very focused on the western public. In addition, it was the fact that everyone was going to highlight, the one who wanted the press and the players. The tip. It was a master play, but although the story has given a good weight when it came to make Sega stumbled, the truth is that Sega itself had made many merits to end as it ended. To start, Saturn was a face, but also very complicated. The 2D games and Arcade conversions were great, but to squeeze the machine you had to develop for the two processors it had. Besides, The launch in stores was disastrous when produced by surprise. It was a complication because the tools are not as simple and accessible as today, but on the other side you had a playstation for which it was much easier to develop, in addition to giving some other advantage in Royalties. And with Saturn, but above all with DreamcastSega lived an internal civil war between the divisions of the United States and Japan. That is, the “299” was a push that accelerated the fall of the company, but that Sega did not need anyone to stagger. History. In the end, the market put each in its place. For less than ten million Sega Saturn, Sony placed more than 100 million of that first playstation. Only ‘Gran Tourism‘He sold more than Saturn herself and, although Nintendo was better with the almost 33 million Nintendo 64 sold, she was late and with cartridges, losing the favor of companies such as Square Enix and many other developers who saw that the CD was a more favorable format. That “speech” of Race is medium history, but also of marketing and one of my favorite moments in these video game presentations. As a curiosity, as we are condemned to repeat history, in 2014 something similar happened with results, again, favorable for Sony. Microsoft announced that its Xbox One It would cost … Read more

destroy a key piece of engineering

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It is a scene that is repeated in homes throughout the country. A persistent headache, a more acute menstrual malaise than normal or muscle pain that does not yield. 400 mg ibuprofenthat usual ally of the first aid kit, does not seem to be enough, and the ‘version’ of 600 mg can only be achieved with a recipe Medical Then arises the idea of ​​leaving a tablet in two and taking 400 mg more than 200 mg that gives 600 mg. But it’s not that good idea. An idea that has had to deny a pharmacist. Through your Tiltok account, @farmaceuticofernandez, responded to a girl’s video which pointed to that an ibuprofen and a half had been taken. Its verdict is quite clear: mathematical logic is not correct. And is that the principle of the active of the medicine andStá mixed with other excipients And this is not equitably distributed in each half of the tablet, so we do not find 200 mg of medicine on each side of the pill. It is in the end a lottery. In addition, it suggests that some of these tablets have a protective film that covers it with the aim of Protect our stomach or to be absorbed in a specific place of our system. If it starts, this protection effect is lost and can generate more problem than benefit. The anatomy of a tablet. The fundamental assumption behind leaving a pill is that the medicine is distributed perfectly uniformly throughout its volume, such as dissolved sugar in coffee. The reality, however, is much more complex and looks more like a cookie with chocolate pepitas. The active substance (Ibuprofen, in this case) are the “Pepitas”, while the rest of the components, called excipients, are the “mass.” When the cookie starts in half, no one can ensure that each piece contains the same amount of chocolate. The science behind each pill. A tablet It is a pharmaceutical engineering work. In addition to the active substance, it contains a variety of excipients that are essential for its function: diluents To give volume, binders To keep it cohesive, disintegrating to dissolve in the body and lubricants such as Magnesium stearate so that the machinery does not stick during the manufacture. The most common manufacturing process, known as Wet granulationit implies mixing the API dust with the excipients and a liquid binder to form small granules. These granules dry and then compress at high pressure to form the final tablet. The ultimate goal is to ensure the uniformity of dosing units. What the box says. With this system, which is guaranteed only that each whole tablet of a lot contains the declared amount of active substance, within a margin of trust. However, this uniformity guarantee applies to tablet as a unit, and the homogeneous distribution of the active substance within each individual tablet is not ensured. And scientifically demonstrated. A study by pharmacy technicians In controlled conditions, 22 different brands of generic medicines fractioned. The results were surprising, since only 32% of the grooved tablets (designed to be games) and a little 27% of the non -grooved tablets met the uniformity criteria of the weight that are acceptable. In this way, if professionals with adequate tools cannot achieve precise division, the probability that a patient will do it at home with a kitchen knife is tiny. The slot is not decorative. If the internal structure of a tablet is a lottery, the presence or absence of a slot on its surface is the signal that indicates whether we can play or not. That small line is not a decorative element or a simple visual guide. It is a legal and scientific statement of the manufacturer that certifies that this tablet It has been designed to be split by that line To have more or less security we take a precise dose. In order for a tablet to carry a slot, the laboratory must demonstrate to the regulatory agencies that the halves meet the same standards of dose and dissolution uniformity as the entire tablet. The prospect is important to read it. This document, which we sometimes hate because once we open it you can no longer bend correctly, it indicates what we can do with the medication. If this report details that a tablet can be divided, it is because it has been demonstrated. For example, in the Paracetamol prospect From 1 gram, “the tablets are grooved, which allows to divide the tablet into equal doses.” But the same does not happen in a 400 mg ibuprofen leaflet of the Cinfa brand that is very common I even had 400 mg ibuprofen at home and I have been able to verify that I did not have any division to leave the pill in two. Something that obviously faces us to be inaccurate. The doctor has the ‘key’ to have 600 mg ibuprofen. The distinction between the 400 mg ibuprofen and the 600 mg is not just a matter of 200 mg more power; It is a regulatory and security border. In Spain, the presentation of 400 mg can be dispensed without a recipe (although often under the pharmaceutical council), while the 600 mg necessarily requires a medical prescription. This decision, taken by the AEMPS, is not arbitrary, but is based on a exhaustive analysis of the balance between benefit and risk. The issue in this case is that after comparing the effect of the 400 mg version with the 600 mg is almost the same. This phenomenon is known as analgesic “roof effect”, where major doses They do not produce additional pain in a significant way in mild cases. But what it does cause is that they increase the Side effects considerably. Something that also corroborates the pharmacist from the beginning. A suggestion effect. The problem we have in this case is the suggestion to which we are exposed. Obviously, a larger amount correlates with a greater analgesic effect according to our own logic. And this … Read more

China has no rival in batteries and solar panels. It is already ready to also destroy Western pharmacists

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China’s quota in the world photovoltaic cell market Broken 80%and for the moment only India seems to have the ability to disturb him in the long term. Its manufacturing capacity is 17 times greater than the rest of the planet togetherwhich has encouraged the Chinese administration to support the manufacture of More than 1,000 GW in N -type cell capacity As the other countries fulfill their net emission commitments. On the other hand, China is also a world leader in The production of lithium batteries. If we stick to electric cars the country led by Xi Jinping Fabrica 57% of batteries that these vehicles use. Catl and Byd are the largest lithium batteries manufacturers on the planet with A market share in 2023 34% and 16% respectively. Its absolute leadership in these two sectors is the result of a strategy that prioritizes investment in R&D and large -scale production to shoot competitiveness. Now Chinese biotechnological companies plan to apply this successful formula to medicines. China has the ability to drastically reduce the cost of medical care “We can reduce the costs of medical care and benefit more people through technological innovation and the improvement of efficiency (…) the recent achievements of China in the field of biotechnology show that it is possible to do it,” says Da Liuthe CR-CP Managing Director Life Science Fund, a risk capital investment group created by the Chinese state and the Thai chain Pokphand Group conglomerate with the purpose of investing in biotechnology companies. “We can reduce medical care costs and benefit more people through technological innovation and efficiency improvement” Chinese pharmaceuticals and biotechnology are living a “Deepseek”. This means simply that the medications they develop are every time most demanded by multinational corporations. What the latter pursue is to obtain the necessary licenses to market, produce or distribute the medications developed in China without elaborating them from scratch. Just three weeks ago the American investment bank Jefferies published a report in which he argues that Chinese companies and assets are extraordinarily competitive thanks to “their efficiency in costs, their small deadlines and the quality of the resulting product.” Interestingly, in seven of the ten main agreements carried out by the global pharmaceutical industry during the first semester of 2025, Chinese licenses were involved, According to the Pharmcube consultant. The success of the Chinese pharmaceutical industry is supported by a strategy very similar to that which has led this Asian country to lead the markets of solar panels and lithium batteries. However, China does not have it as easy as it seems. And it is that the geopolitical tensions that mainly support the countries led by Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are very difficult for Chinese biotechnological companies their international expansion through mergers with foreign companies. According to Liu What they need to transform into great multinational actors in the pharmaceutical industry is to achieve a dominant position in at least one or two fields of biotechnology. Image | Edward Jenner More information | SCMP In Xataka | The comfort of swallowing a pill against the power of an injection: the dilemma that will mark the future of the drugs to lose weight

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