disappear

now many disappear before reaching their destination

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When we think about the theft of a Lamborghini or a Rolls-Roycethe usual thing is to imagine a physical scene: a forced lock, a broken-in garage or, in the most cinematic version, an interception in the middle of the road. That image is still very present because for years it was the most visible form of this type of crime. However, In the last two years, a different and much less obvious fraud has spread. Some of these cars do not disappear on the street, but at a previous and almost invisible point: the digital process that organizes their transportation from one city to another. Imagine this scene: someone buys a luxury vehicle in one city and organizes its transfer to another through a common service in the sector. The car is loaded onto a closed trailer in front of the owner, the documentation appears correct and the delivery schedule fits what is expected in an operation of this type. Everything responds to a logistical routine that, in theory, should be resolved in a few days without any problems. However, in some cases this outcome never occurs and the vehicle ceases to exist within the planned route. When theft sneaks into logistics To understand where the problem really begins, we have to look at a piece that is little visible outside the sector: the so-called “load boards”. These are digital markets where dealers, manufacturers or owners publish the transfer of a vehicle between two pointsindicating origin, destination, dates and price, so that carriers or intermediaries accept the order. This system has gained weight because it streamlines operations that previously depended on phone calls and personal relationships. For example, the platform Central Dispatch It is one of the best known in the sector in the United States. The gateway to that system does not require forcing anything physical, but rather taking advantage of known weaknesses in the digital environment. One of the most used methods consists of emails phishing that appear to come from the transport platforms themselves. When a broker or carrier enters their credentials on a fake page, the attacker gains real access to their account and can operate as if they were the legitimate company. From there, you can modify contact information and start accepting high-value vehicle orders by taking advantage of that compromised digital identity. Phishing is not the only way in. The complaints also point to another less technical and more structural crack: the possibility of appear legitimate within the US regulatory system itself. To operate in these digital markets it is necessary to have a number from the United States Department of Transportation, known as USDOTwhich identifies commercial transportation companies. However, it is not particularly complex to create shell companies and obtain that identification, which allows you to present yourself to the platforms as an apparently authorized operator. With that access and that appearance of legitimacy, fraud takes its decisive step within the logistics chain itself. This, precisely, is where “double-brokering” comes into play, which consists of claiming a transport order and republishing it from another account so that it can be accepted by a driver completely unaware of the deception. This professional picks up the vehicle believing that he is performing an ordinary service and follows the delivery instructions he receives during the process, without indications that he is part of a fraudulent maneuver. The result is that the car ends up at a destination other than the one intended without, at that moment, there being an obvious sign of theft for whoever sent it. The most disconcerting thing about this scheme is that it does not require violence, not even visible action on the vehicle. Everything happens within a process that, from the outside, continues to appear legitimate: the car is collected correctly, the transfer continues and communications flow through channels that appear normal. By the time the owner detects that something doesn’t fit, the vehicle has already been delivered at a point other than planned and has left the circuit that allowed its route to be traced. This lack of immediate signals is precisely what makes fraud so difficult to anticipate. The last link in the scheme is rapid monetization. Diverted vehicles may end up resold in the United States with new papers or loaded into containers for shipping to overseas buyers. In some cases, when the owner discovers that the car has not arrived at its destination, it has already been sold or has even left the country. The impact is enough to show an underlying tension: the sector’s jump to these online markets has advanced faster than the mechanisms capable of protecting them against this type of fraud. Images | Dhiva Krishna | Dhruv Sharma In Xataka | Entering Discord showing your ID is just the beginning: there is a great battle on the internet against anonymity

The owner of Mercadona believes that in a few years kitchens will disappear from homes. The consumption of precooked foods proves him right

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The forecast sounded so far-fetched, it clashed to such an extent with the gastronomic tradition of Spain, that it generated a considerable stir. Just a year ago, during the presentation of Mercadona’s accounts, Juan Roig surprised by predicting death (almost) imminent of domestic kitchens. “I said it and I maintain it: in the middle of the 21st century there will be no kitchens,” cried the businessman. In the future imagined by Roig we go from making our own food in the vitro at home to taking it already prepared from supermarkets, which have become an absolute reference for food. The sector data They confirm that, no matter how dystopian Roig’s prophecy sounds, it seems to be coming true. A percentage: 3.8%. Spain is a benchmark for the Mediterranean diet. But also, and increasingly, a country of families who are no longer willing to spend hours and hours in the kitchen. That’s what it suggests at least. the last balance of the Spanish Association of Prepared Meal Manufacturers (Asefapre). According to the data of the sector, in 2025, ready-made foods “reinforced their weight in the shopping basket”, with an increase in consumption of 3.8%. In total, 715,052 tons of prepared meals were sold, “a new record,” recalls Asefapre, which consolidates the trend of the last decade. Translated into hard and fast euros, sales rose to 4,309 million, with an annual increase of 5%. A figure: 18 kilos a year. To give us an idea of ​​what this growth means, Asefapre calculates that last year each Spaniard ate on average about 18 kilos of prepared dishes. As a reference it is almost the same amount of fish products that we Spaniards consume in our homes (another thing is the restaurants) throughout 2024. The difference between precooked and fish is that the demand for the latter takes time to increase. low hours (both fresh and frozen) while the former grows at a good pace. The latest balance sheet of the employers’ association reflects an annual increase of 4.7% in the consumption of prepared foods, a growth rate that comfortably exceeds that of food as a whole (0.6%). What do we eat? Asefapre segregate your data of sales, which offers us an interesting vision of what exactly we Spaniards consume. The cake goes to “refrigerated” products, with a sales volume of 330,602 t shipped in 2025, 5% more than the previous year. In second place are “frozen products”, with sales that amounted to 297,023 t (+2.5%). The “dishes prepared at room temperature”, very common in some supermarket chains, are quite far behind, with 87,426 tons sold, but they leave an interesting fact: their demand grew by 4.1%. From pizza to potatoes and pasta. If we go down to detail we see that what we Spaniards like most (at least it is what we demand most) are pizzas, the leading producer in the sector with a sales volume that amounted to 131,600 tons. They are followed by frozen potatoes, with 98,056 t, and pasta-based dishes, which totaled 72,405 t. The three categories grew, with sales increases ranging between 2.6 and 7.2%. Beyond the Spanish market, one fifth (21.4%) of the industry’s production ends up being exported. More than just strategy. At this point the question is obvious: Why do we buy more and more pre-cooked foods? What leads us to feed ourselves with prepared dishes, whether frozen, refrigerated or food sold at room temperature ready for consumption, like what Mercadona offers in its supermarkets? The answer is complex. On the one hand there is the sector’s strategy, which has increased and perfected its range of products, adding foreign dishes that aim in part at the growing population immigrant living in Spain. Beyond the efforts of the industry, the increase in consumption of prepared dishes also responds to profound changes at a social and cultural level. They increase the single-person householdsit gets complicated conciliation between professional and family life and even change the kitchen structure in the houses. Also our way of thinking, as Asefapre herself remembers: today it no longer ‘squeaks’ at us that they serve us a pre-cooked dish on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve or that in families there are no longer people willing to lock themselves between the stoves. Of new grandmothers and homes. “Grandmas are not like they used to be and prefer to go walking with friends, do pilates or travel,” he reflected during the presentation of the balance sheet the president of Asefapre, David Aldea. It is not the only cultural change he cited. Added to this are others, such as the fact that it is increasingly easier to find “homes with fewer members” or homes in which the space dedicated to cooking has been reduced to a minimum. The trend seems to confirm Roig’s prediction, which a year ago I already confirmed the good progress of Mercadona’s business line for ready-to-eat dishes, launched in 2018. “It is profitable and continues to grow.” Images | Andalusian Government (Flickr), Mercadona and Asefapre In Xataka | Mercadona has grown so much in Spain that for the US it is no longer just a supermarket chain: it is a “cultural phenomenon”

We believed that polar bears were doomed to disappear. In Norway they are getting fatter and healthier

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For decades, the polar bear has become in the indisputable symbol of the climate crisis that we are living. The equation seemed quite simple and devastating: if there is less sea ice, they will be able to hunt less and, therefore, the bears will be more malnourished and may disappear. But what we are seeing has broken this logic, at least in one specific region of the Arctic. The paradigm shift. Against all odds, the polar bears of the Savalbard Archipelago, Norwayhave presented a better body condition than 25 years agoeven though their habitat is melting at a fast pace. And this has generated many questions. In order to answer this, the study led by Jon Aars of the Norwegian Polar Institutehas provided conclusive data after decades of monitoring these animals. all this thanks to 770 polar bears that have been in the focus of the study during the years 1995 and 2019 in the Barents region. They are getting fat. After analyzing all the measurement results, it was found that an ecological paradox existed: although the ice-free season in the area has lengthened significantly, these bears are increasing their weight significantly since 2005. The big question here is… How possible? The answer. The key to this unexpected resilience seems to lie in the unique biological productivity of the Barents Sea and in the adaptation capacity of these predators. According to the study, several simultaneous factors have occurred, such as prey density. This means that the loss of ice has concentrated these bears’ prey in smaller, coastal areas, paradoxically making them more accessible at certain times. But it does not stop there, since an increase in the number of seals has also been seen, and especially in bearded seals which is a much larger prey and rich in fat. A change of diet. This is where the flexibility of the predator comes in, since Svalbard’s eyes have begun to supplement their diet with terrestrial resources, including reindeer and bird eggstaking advantage of what the land offers when the sea fails. In short, Svalbard’s bears live in a “bubble” of ecological abundance that has cushioned, for now, the physical impact of ice loss due to global warming. There is no need to celebrate it. It is easy to fall into the temptation of using this study to minimize the impact of climate change because the fact that ice is becoming less and less has not affected the species. But the authors of the study point out that this is an anomaly that occurs in this specific area of ​​the Arctic but is not a global trend. In this way, while the bears of Svalbard enjoy this temporary respite, their relatives in Hudson Bay (Canada) and other regions of the Arctic show severe signs of malnutrition and above all a decrease in the number of animals. And the difference is that not all Arctic ecosystems are as rich as the Barents Sea. A mirage. This is what the study warns that we may have in front of us, since now the bear has been able to adapt to the situation, but the sea ice continues to retreat, we do not know what will happen. What is expected is that a tipping point may be reached where not even the richness of prey or reindeer eggs will be enough to sustain the current population, starting a new ecological crisis here. Images | Hans-Jurgen Mager In Xataka | They’re not kissing, they’re scanning: the complex science behind nose-to-nose contact in the animal kingdom

Yes, the Strait of Gibraltar is “about” to disappear. Within 50 million years, specifically

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In recent days, we have been able to see some voices that pointed to an almost apocalyptic event in our country: the Strait of Gibraltar this “about to disappear“, making two continents come together. The image in this case is quite powerful: the Mediterranean turning into a salt lake or completely disappearing before our eyes because its water intake would be cut off. However, when geologists say ‘soon’, they don’t mean next week. The reality. This new wave of fear over this fact arises as a result of a publication in the magazine Geology which is undoubtedly fascinating. In this case, geologists have used the capacity of supercomputers and 3D geodynamic models to see that under Gibraltar there is a subduction zone that right now she is ‘asleep’ and could wake up at any moment. The study, led by João C. Duarte together with researchers from the University of Mainz, addresses one of the great debates in plate tectonics: is the Gibraltar subduction zone dead? The discovery. For years science has pointed out that the sinking of the oceanic lithosphere under the Gibraltar Arc had stopped. However, the authors have applied new computer simulation techniques with the 3D ‘gravity-driven’ model to be able to reproduce the evolution that the western Mediterranean will follow where this strait is located. This is something fundamental, since the ancient models had us quite limited, but with technology you can see the processes over millions of years. The result of what was seen is quite clear: subduction is not dead, but is in a period of ‘rest’ or ‘silence’. Although the model believes that at some point this is something that will be activated or unblocked again. The future of the Atlantic. Something that must be clear is that the oceans are not static, but rather follow what is known as the Wilson Cycle. According to this model, the Atlantic is a young ocean that is expanding right now. But like everything in this life, it is doomed to die, just as happened in the past with the Tethys ocean, which is the ancestor of the Mediterranean Sea. However, for this to occur, subduction zones need to be activated where the tectonic plate sinks under another. breaking plates. The problem is that breaking a tectonic plate to start this subduction process is mechanically very difficult. The solution proposed by this team is that this area already exists in the Mediterranean, and its effect will spread to the west, crossing the Strait and invading the Atlantic. This is something that would give something called the ‘Atlantic Ring of Fire’, analogous to the famous Pacific beltcharacterized by volcanoes and earthquakes. When will this occur? This is where the important nuance comes in that must be taken into account when we talk about something in geology happening ‘soon’. According to this simulation, the current phase of inactivity will last for some time yet. But not a few days, but the propagation of subduction towards the Atlantic will gain traction in 20 million years and the development of the new subduction system can be delayed up to 50 million years. Saying that the Strait is “about to disappear” based on this study is like saying that the Sun is about to go out because it has “only” fuel left. 5 billion years. It is true on the scale of the universe, but irrelevant to our daily lives. Why it is important. Beyond the time it will take for this to occur, this model demonstrates how subduction zones can migrate from dying oceans like the Mediterranean to expanding oceans like the Atlantic, helping us understand how the Earth has been shaped throughout its history. Images | Malcolm Ketteridge In Xataka | Cádiz has decided to prepare for something that has happened five times in 7,000 years: its destructive potential justifies it

the main gay dating apps disappear from the App Store

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China has a relentless censorship machinery. The one known as the ‘Great Firewall of China’ has been preventing its citizens from accessing certain services and websites for years. Its tentacles also reach the application stores, including Apple’s, which has just seen two apps disappear from its offering. And not just any two apps. What has happened? Blued and Finka are two dating apps aimed at the LGBTQ+ public and have just disappeared from the App Store in China, where they were the two most popular apps. According to Apple, the order came directly from the China Internet Network Information Center, also known as the Cyberspace Administration. This is Apple’s response to Wired: “We comply with the laws of the countries in which we operate. Pursuant to an order from the Cyberspace Administration of China, we have removed these two applications from the Chinese store” It’s not the first time. There have been other cases in which Apple has had to remove apps by order of the Chinese government, such as last year when removed WhatsApp, Telegram and others from his store “for reasons of national security.” The reasons they argued were the same: they have to comply with the laws of the countries in which they operate. They are not just any apps. The case of Blued and Finka is especially sensitive and it is not the first time that they have blocked applications used by the LGTBQ+ community. In 2022, the well-known app Grindr was also removed from the App Store in China. It happened during the Winter Olympic Games, although in this case it was the Grindr developer herself who removed the app at the request of the authorities. Homosexuality in China. Until 1997, being homosexual in China was a crime and until 2001 it was considered a mental disorder. Today it is not penalized, but the weather is anything but favorable for the community: same-sex marriage is not recognizednor can they adopt, conversion therapies remain legal and there are no laws against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Censorship. Homosexuality is considered prohibited content by regulators, who have edited numerous films to eliminate any reference to sexual diversity. The case of ‘Lightyear’ and the scene in which two women kiss It was one of the most popular, but it was not the only one. In September of this same year, They used AI to turn a gay couple into heterosexuals in the movie ‘Together’. Image | Wikipedia In Xataka | There is an underground movement of Chinese women reading homosexual erotic literature. And China is cracking down on it.

50,000 people paid 120,000 euros to live on a paradisiacal crypto island. Now it is about to disappear under the Pacific

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A group of cryptocurrency investors imagined living in a cryptostate in which everything was based on blockchain technology and, of course, 100% tax free. The project it was so serious that they even found a private island in the middle of the Pacific and named the place Satoshi Island in honor of the bitcoin creator. In it, crypto investors could move in and acquire their citizenship in exchange for a modest 120,000 euros. Eight years later, the Satoshi Islandnot only has it not become the tropical crypto paradise promised of bitcoin and NFT, but is at risk of disappearing under the waters of the Pacific. The origin of the initiative. As and how I collected FortuneIn 2017 and with the support of more than 50,000 investors, the “Satoshi Island” project was launched with the development of a new crypto nation on the private island in the South Pacific previously known as Lataro Islandin the Vanuatu archipelago, east of Australia and halfway between the Solomon Islands and New Caledonia. The small 32 km2 island was leased to the local government of Vanuatu for 75 years by British real estate entrepreneur Anthony Welch who, according to France 24had been living there for more than a decade. In 2021, the transformation to “Satoshi Island”, named in honor of Satoshi Nakamoto, was presented. with the promise to become a crypto city-state, without taxes and based exclusively on blockchain and NFT. The vision included digital citizenship, “crypto-friendly” modular housing, and an economy untethered from traditional fiat. Real estate promises and realities. The plan was articulated under several axes: issuing citizenship and ownership NFTs, building modular homes on 21,000 available plots, adopting renewable energy, decentralized governance and attracting a global community of crypto investors. It sounds like a complicated formula to attract new neighbors to the island and, in the process, “rent” them part of the 90% of the island that was uninhabited. “We are trying to build a community. We are not looking to develop for profit,” assured Welch to Guardian in a satellite interview with the island, given that the island does not have electricity or internet. Bad omen for an economy based on digital transactions. The wall of territorial sovereignty. According what was published through the specialized portal Decryptin 2022 the Vanuatu government, with then Prime Minister Bob Loughman, supported the initiative after ensuring that they had received thousands of applications, which gave more visibility to the project. Obviously, for all the NFTs of Satoshi Island citizenship, the reality is that investors who wanted to live on the island had to obtain Vanuatu citizenship, which “Golden Visa” mode It was awarded in exchange for a generous donation of 120,000 euros. According to data of the International Monetary Fund, around 40% of its income comes from the “Golden Visa”, so the Satoshi Island project was an excellent attraction to attract new residents and obtain large income. The blow of reality. Shortly after, the first alarm signals began to emerge: absence of infrastructure, significant delays in the implementation of the habitability project and the legal complexity of transforming NFTs into property titles. recognized by the state (the real one, that of Vanuatu). Little by little the project has been deflating until, in July 2025, a publication in the project X profile It marked the end of the cryptotropical dream. Furthermore, the project’s demise is not just figurative, as the Vanuatu archipelago is highly vulnerable to sea level rise, coastal erosion and extreme weather events resulting from climate change, a forecast that already is coming true in its neighboring archipelago of Tuvalu, which has already begun its migration for climatic reasons. In Xataka | A Venezuelan invented a lawless city in the middle of an island. Now the millionaires who followed him don’t know how to escape Image | Vladi

allows you to see how your city will disappear underwater

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Climate change has a consequence that is undoubtedly greatly feared by everyone: the sea ​​level rise. Far from being a distant threat, its effects are already are feeling all over the world and future projections force us to prepare for a scenario where our coasts are going to be altered, even having to prepare simulations to find out which buildings will be submerged under the seabed. A simulator. To understand the magnitude of this challenge and precisely visualize which areas will be submerged, there are tools such as ‘Sea Level Rise Viewer‘, a 3D map that allows us to peer into an uncertain future. A map created by developer Akihiko Kusanagi and consisting of an interactive simulation away from traditional 2D maps to offer us a photorealistic, and above all alarming, experience. A great result that has been achieved using the powerful photorealistic 3D mosaics of Google Maps and rendering technologies such as deck.gl and three.js. Something that has allowed any user to become a direct witness of the consequences of climate change. Furthermore, the code is completely open as it is published on GitHub. How it works. The genius of ‘Sea Level Rise 3D Map’ lies in its simplicity. When accessing the website, we find a 3D map of the world accompanied by a very minimalist interface that focuses on two key elements: Sea level: in this case it is possible to visualize how the coastal geography will change when the sea level increases meter by meter. With each increase, a layer of blue water will rise to cover the entire terrain, first flooding the port areas and beaches and then entering the urban centers. And we must take into account that For every cm that sea level rises, the coastline retreats 100 cm. Time of day: a second control located at the bottom that allows us to change the time, adjusting the lighting and shadows to have an even more realistic effect. Simulation on the coasts of Motril (Granada) that shows the impact that an increase in sea level of 58 meters would have. But the best of all is the search engine that is at the top of the map and that allows us to go to any city in the world with Google 3D coverage and see streets, monuments or emblematic neighborhoods that can end up underwater. And from the Statue of Liberty in New York to the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona or Big Ben in London, the tool offers a unique and personalized perspective of a global crisis. The science behind. Although the tool is a visual demonstration and not a predictive model with the precision of scientific studies, it puts face and volume to the data that the scientific community has been warning about for years through papers or conferences. It must be taken into account that the rise of the sea is caused by two key factors. The first of them is thermal expansion, since the oceans have absorbed more than 90% of the extra heat generated by human emissionscausing the water to expand much more, which causes the coastline to end up receding. This also adds to the melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, as well as mountain glaciers, dumping billions of tons of water into the oceans each year. Few solutions. Even if we started doing things right now, according to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), even if the global warming at 1.5°C, sea ​​level would continue to rise inevitably. Projections for 2100 vary from about 43 cm in the most optimistic scenario to exceeding 84 cm in the most pessimistic. But clearly with this tool, what represents just two or three meters of climbing gives us an idea of ​​the magnitude of the long-term challenge to finish raising awareness of where we can venture and what we are going to leave to our descendants. The conscience. Projects like the “Sea Level Rise 3D Map” are more necessary than ever. By transforming abstract data into a visual and personal experience, they achieve something that scientific reports often fail to do: generate an emotional impact and a sense of urgency on society. Images | Chris Gallagher In Xataka | What is a dana: how it forms, how it differs from a normal storm and how to act in one of them

The USB-A ports are not going to disappear so please, manufacturers, stop eliminating them from their equipment

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My Logitech keyboard has a wireless receptor in the form of USB-A adapter. The same goes for the Anker webcam that I use, which is great and that connects to my equipment with its cable with a USB-A connector. The wired mouse I use to play, surprise, also uses that port. In fact, the Mac Mini M4 that I use daily to work has a great paste: It has no USB-A connectors. On its front there are two great USB-C ports, but I do not use them as such: I have long bought two USB-A (female) adapters to USB-C (male) to be able to use my peripherals easily in that equipment. That has long been the constant appearance of the front of my Mac. It is no longer as stylized as they conceived in Apple, but I don’t care, because what is is practical. I have some USB-C peripherals, yes, but they are the least, and despite the advantages of the USB-C connector, the reality is that today many peripherals-trays, keyboards, webcams, pendrives, etc.— They are still betting on the well-known, old and good USB-A connector. The dichotomy of the industry: do we kill the USB-A, yes or no? It doesn’t matter if it is more speaking, more rough and zero reversible. In his favor he has played the fact that he is recognizable and that he managed to give a simple answer to the problem of differentiation. In USB-C there is no easy way to know if a cable offers better transfers and supports better load capabilities than another. In USB-A connectors, look if The inner color of the connector. Color Standard Speed Special characteristics White USB 1.x 1.5 – 12 Mbps None Black USB 2.0 Hi-Speed 480 Mbps None Blue USB 3.0 Superspeed Up to 5 Gbps None Red USB 3.1 Gen 2 & USB 3.2 10-20 Gbps Always on Yellow USB 2.0 & USB 3.0 480 – 5 Gbps Always on, Power Liabilities Delivery Orange USB 3.0 Up to 5 GPBS Always on, Power Liabilities Delivery The connector USB-C has been imposed In the mobile devices segment. The same European Union chosen it as the standard of iure that They had to use all manufacturersincluding an Apple that surely did not like the idea. The funny thing is that this same company has been an ultranza defender of the USB-C connector in its Mac and MacBooks. Apple went through a terrible stage in which the number of connectors minimized to the maximum –The infamous MacBook He only had a USB-C port— and that made many complain about The #Donglelife condemnation although in the end it was not so much. The funny thing is that Apple ended up reconciling with connectivity, and both the Mac Studio and the MacBook Pro are an example of it. The first to They tell With USB-A ports (surprise!), While the latter include SD card reader and HDMI port but, pity, no USB-A ports. The laptops loved (alone) to the USB-C connectors That unique obsession with not including USB-A ports in laptops is common in the segment and is not limited to Apple’s MacBook. You have to search well among the available models of HP, Lenovo or Dell to find equipment that has USB-A ports. Even “big” teams like the Dell XPS 16 They pass olympically from that port. The manufacturer goes further and, anticipating the complaints, gives us the option of buying a USB-C adapter to USB-A (additional 25 euros) to be able to connect peripherals of this type to their laptop. Arch. Fortunately those ports Yes they are available For example, in its gaming laptop alienware range, something logical if we consider that it is much more normal to connect gaming peripherals that usually use the USB-A connector. There is no doubt that the USB-C connector has important advantages. Murphy’s law is usually complied with the USB-A connectors: We often try to connect on the side that is not. That does not happen with the USB-C connectors, wonderfully reversible, but it is also possible to combine data transfer with the video signal. But with everything and with that, the USB-C connector and those cables have their own problems, among which it stands out the chaos of variants that exist. That is a separate problem that does not especially affect that other reality we are talking about: the USB-A connector is still used by all types of manufacturers for all types of peripherals. And that is why it is striking to see how most portable manufacturers (and some desktop equipment, such as the Mac Mini) continue to be obtained with a forced update that has not been produced. Some brands have been trying to forget the port and USB-A connectors, but again and again the peripheral market prevents it. It is true that adapters and the Dongles They solve the problem acceptably. But it would not be to see from time to time no gaming teams that recovered those ports. That, I’m afraid, it’s going to be difficult. Image | Bram van Oost In Xataka | Clariating with USB-C ports is an impossible mission. A new labeling system wants to end the mess

The blue eyes were about to disappear under the Roman Empire. Now we know why

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About 35,000 years ago, in Buran-Kayato the north of the mountains of Crimea, the first person who knows that he had blue eyes died. Since then, the story of the Iris clear has been complex, violent and very interesting. Today, thanks to the improvement of genetic analysis techniques, we know many things. In recent years, it has been said that effectively The Vikings had blue eyesthat the eyes of the steppe peoples were surprisingly dark and that, during the Roman Empire, the clear eyes almost disappeared. How do we know all this? Davide Piffer used 4,133 old genomes (They covered 44,000 years) to explain when the blue eyes arose, how they were selected generation after generation and why today there are people who still have them. Why do we have blue eyes? At the genetic level, which is what interests us in this case, the explanation is simple: As Piffer himself explained“Blue eyes genetics focuses on two neighboring genes on chromosome 15: OCA2 that controls the production of melanin in the iris, and Herc2 which contains a regulatory element “. In the case of brown eyes, “Herc2 ‘active’ OCA2 effectively to produce enough pigment.” With blue eyes, the situation is different: a mutation in RS12913832 weakens HERC2 control and the least amount of melanin is perceived as bluish or greenish eyes. That is, there is a genetic ‘trace’ that allows us to dive in ancient DNA to know how (with a certain degree of variability) the eyes of our ancestors. What did you discover? This is how Piffer confirmed That the Vikings had mostly blue eyes, the steppe peoples had them darker than expected and that the current prevalence of clear eyes is due to fairly recent factors. He also discovered something curious: that the story of Rome is much more complicated than it seems. While in ancient Rome the blue eyes appear in 22.2%of the population and in medieval Rome in 21.4%, during the empire that figure fell 4.2%. What happened here? The best known explanation. For Pifferthis agrees with the increase in European northwestern descent during those periods. During the first period, although the genetic base is mostly anatolia, there was a high influence of Yamnas groups. During the last one, the arrival of Germanic groups “such as longobardos and ostrogods” would change the general genetic mix. On the other hand, during the years of Roman hegemony, the most purely Latin features had disproportionate prestige that caused a boom of brown eyes. For years, this has been part of the consensus of populations genetics. However, it is not so clear. The demograph Lyman Stone He analyzed exhaustively The Roman genomes of those 4,133 samples to determine if we really had sufficient data to talk about the eyes of the Romans. Their conclusions, between failures in dating and historical confusion, are that we do not have them. According to Stone, there are reasons to think that in the metropolitan area of ​​Rome the blue eyes were reduced (as a consequence of the increase in immigration). In the same way, it is very likely that in the empire there were more people with brown eyes in 200 d. C. that in 300 d. C. (After all, the Empire grew hugely). This is true even if Bologna’s genetics did not change at all. What about blue eyes, then? It is a question that, for the first time, we have technology to answer. However, we have no samples to do so. As Lyman saidold DNA is a fantastic tool, but it is still difficult to interpret correctly. So the answer to the initial question (why (do we believe) the Romans did not have blue eyes?) It is simple: because we do not have enough data. And this configures our world vision much more often than we are willing to admit. Image | Amanda Dalbjörn | Clemens van Lay In Xataka | Every time you think about everything the Romans managed to do, remember that they did it intoxicated with lead

Some Amazon made in the US hid a fantastic option for privacy. Alexa +’s arrival will disappear

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In recent times Amazon launched three models of his family with an interesting option that yes, was only available in the US and in English: local processing of voice recordings. That prevented users from They had to send those recordings to the Amazon cloud and supposed an interesting improvement in privacy. That option will soon stop being available. Less privacy. The products that allowed this feature, explain In The Vergeit was the Echo Dot (4th generation), echo show 10, and echo show 15. As of March 28, those devices of the Amazon Echo family will stop being able to process the audio locally on the device itself. Thus, all audio clips will end up transferred to their servers to be processed in their cloud infrastructure. AI as an excuse. In Ars Technica They indicate how Amazon has explained in an email to this publication that the change is due to the new use of AI models in Alexa+. Specifically, they assure, By continuing to expand Alexa’s capabilities with generative functions that depend on the processing power of the safe cloud of Amazon, we have decided to stop supporting this function. Alexa+ in sight. After this decision is the launch of Alexa+the new version of this voice assistant that will now be enhanced by AI models. To process these models, however, the power of the Amazon cloud is needed, which according to the company makes it impossible for requests to be processed at home as happened so far. Voice recognition. The new AI system that will govern these devices will also have more advanced options to recognize the voice of who is using it and thus be able to respond more precisely and contextually, something that the company calls Voice ID. This characteristic forces Amazon to eliminate the privacy function that was present before, although very limitedly: it is likely that many users of these models did not even know that such privacy characteristic was available. It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to in your echo. Users of these devices will not be able to avoid this sending of audio clips even if Alexa+will not use: Amazon will also send those audios even if they do not use said service with ia. The Alexa+ service based on AI models will be included in the Amazon Prime subscription. Another condemnation for privacy. Apart from that special option, the Amazon Echo family devices allow to control certain privacy options like him time that the recordings were stored If they reach their servers. Controversies of the past. In April 2019 it was revealed how Amazon employees listened recordings with the excuse of improving the service. That made The controversy will jump And in fact they already had problems with the suspicion about privacy When Alexa began to be available in Spanish. Amazon promises to protect that data. In that email to Ars Technica Amazon also assured that “Alexa’s voice requests are always sent to the Amazon security cloud, which was designed with security protection layers to keep customer information safe.” They also point out that there will still be various controls to refine that way of managing user data. In Xataka | The announcement of the new Alexa hides an awkward truth: the silent sunset of the Solo-Voz interface

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