disturbing

NASA has captured how an entire lake in Canada disappeared in just 15 days. Science has a disturbing explanation

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Seen and unseen. In the spring of 2025 something happened in central Quebec: an entire lake disappeared in a matter of days. Lac Rouge, a 1.4 square kilometer body of water located in the Lac-Walker region of Sept-Rivières, a popular hunting and fishing area in the Waswanipi Cree First Nationdisappeared. It did not dry out little by little as a result of a prolonged lack of rain as for example happens to Moroccoit was something abrupt and silent. What you see on these lines is the before and after photographed by the Landsat 9 satellite NASA from space with a margin of one year (June 2024 on the left and June 2025 on the right). That a lake disappears is scientifically interesting, as is the list of suspects: the shores have soft geology, the terrain has been suffering from forest fires for years, there is a lot of logging and also melting ice. Where is the trick. What happened to the lake. The first sign was a destroyed road, as reported by local people who used it to move around the area: the access road was completely destroyed by water, as NASA explains. CBC echoes the subsequent investigationwhich revealed that the land surrounding the lake had collapsed and that Lac Rouge had been emptied. The lake had water on April 29, 2025 but was completely dry on May 14. I mean, It dried in just 15 days. At that time, the local administration released a statement alerting of the event. But the water didn’t disappear, it just moved around. Instead of following its usual outlet channel, it opened a new channel to the northeast, crossing a 10-kilometer chain of lakes and wetlands until it reached Lac Doda. If you look at the after photo, you will see that it left a mark in the form of light brown sediments. The explanation. Science explains this mechanism called outburst flooda flash overflow flood: a portion of the lake shore suddenly gave way and water quickly escaped through that gap instead of overflowing into existing river channels. He NASA Earth Observatory confirmed that it was the east bank that gave way, originating that new route. This phenomenon is relatively common in lakes of glacial origin with unstable ice barriers, but rare in a lake like Lac Rouge, whose barrier is made of soft sedimentary soil. The underlying physics is common in basin hydrology: a coniferous forest absorbs between 20% and 50% of the rain it receives, according to this meta-study published in Nature. If there is no vegetation cover, the water reaches the soil directly, saturates it and weakens those banks. Hydrologist Younes Alila, from the University of British Columbia, summarizes it like this: Any ground disturbance (e.g. fire, logging or forestry) raises the water table and keeps it high for longer, increasing the risk of extreme flooding. There is no Lake Ninio left, only Masibón. POT Why is it important. Because Lac Rouge is not an isolated case: it is a warning. Climate change is making fires more frequent and melting more irregular, as the IPCC climate change expert group explains in his AR6while intensive logging continues to weaken soils. The combination of both factors in basins with soft geology favors the appearance of these poorly studied and difficult to anticipate events, as warned by a study on the boreal forest and climate change published in Springer Nature. In this case, the direct blow is suffered by the indigenous communities. More than 600 communities depend on the Canadian boreal forest for their livelihood, according to the Boreal Conservation Foundationand events like this disappearance drastically alter the territory’s ecosystems and activities, such as hunting and fishing, from one day to the next. The list of suspects. Considering these risk factors, Lac Rouge had all the cards: The fire. In 2019 and 2023, areas near the lake burned. The 2023 fire was Quebec’s worst in more than a century: it burned 4.5 million hectares, according to this study published in the Canadian Journal of Forest Research. The Guardian echoes from the Quebec Cree forestry department, which concludes that those fires eliminated much of the mature vegetation cover in the Lac Rouge basin, including that bank that gave way. Furthermore, the fires can reduce infiltration and increase runoff. Intensive logging. After the fires, logging companies obtained wood by scarifying the land to facilitate replanting, which worsened even more the hydrological degradation of the basin. The thaw of 2025. The winter of 2025 snowed more than normal and the thaw was rapid, generating a volume of water that those weak banks could not contain. Natural or provoked? The Quebec government classified it as a natural event and did not investigate further. Their argument: Their own forestry studies say that if less than half of a watershed’s forest is damaged, the risk to rivers and lakes is minimal, as Sigma Earth collects. International experts and the Cree community do not accept it: these studies do not take into account that in Lac Rouge the damage accumulated in layers or that climate change makes all this happen with more frequency and intensity, according to the IPCC in its Sixth Assessment Report. It was probably a combination of everything: soft soil and weak shoreline set the stage, rapid snowmelt was the spark, and decades of logging and fires made the system much more fragile than it otherwise would have been. As points out Sigma EarthLac Rouge can be a warning of what is to come if the way this territory is managed is not changed. In Xataka | Chronicle of an announced collapse: the NASA map that shows how quickly Mexico City is sinking In Xataka | The Earth’s seabed has always been a mystery: an amazing 3D map reveals it in unprecedented detail Cover | POT

this week, a remake of an explosive thriller, a disturbing documentary and very recent Spanish cinema

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The week of April 27 to May 3 comes packed with new releases on Netflix. The most anticipated title for action thriller fans is ‘The Fire of Vengeance’. In the documentaries section true crime highlights ‘Should I Marry a Murderer?’, a three-episode docuseries about a woman who discovers her fiancé’s dark past. And the gem of the week is the Spanish ‘Mi Querida Señorita’, produced by Los Javis. series Should I marry a murderer? The documentaries true crime are one of Netflix’s safest bets, and ‘Should I Marry a Murderer?’ He wants to continue the streak. The British-produced docuseries begins with a more or less conventional love story: a young forensic examiner meets a man through Tinder and the relationship progresses quickly until a commitment is made. One day the man confesses that he has committed a murder and the victim is still missing. However, the woman decides to keep the commitment while gathering evidence against him. The series is built from real testimonies, archival material and reconstructions of the case. The fire of revenge One of the platform’s most ambitious action bets for this spring goes beyond the simple remake of the blockbuster directed by Tony Scott and starring Denzel Washington in 2004. The series is based on the original novels by AJ Quinnell and proposes a renewed vision of John Creasy’s character, taking advantage of the episodic format: a former special forces soldier suffers from untreated post-traumatic stress disorder that keeps him on the brink of collapse. A former colleague offers him a job as a bodyguard in Brazil, where he develops an unexpected bond with the person he must protect. Other series you will go to hell – April 27 Rescue Me: Rescue Team – April 27 envious (Season 4) – April 29 Parenthood – May 1 30 Rock – May 1 Glory – May 1 Booba (Season 6) – May 1 Miraculous: The Adventures of Ladybug – May 1 Movies Gladiator II One of the great film releases of 2024 arrives this week in the Netflix catalog, returning us to ancient Rome to explore what happened after the death of Maximus, placing the action fifteen years after the duel in the Colosseum. The protagonist is the grandson of Marcus Aurelius and son of Maximus, and is played by Paul Mescal: captured and enslaved after the invasion of his home in Numidia, he is forced to fight in the arena while seeking revenge. A top-notch cast with Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington and Joseph Quinn stands out in this return by Ridley Scott to the universe that gave him one of his greatest commercial successes. My dear lady Free adaptation of the 1972 film of the same name by Jaime de Armiñán, which completely changed the image of José Luis López Vázquez, and which here delves into much more contemporary terrain thanks to the script by Alana S. Portero and the production by Los Javis. The story follows Adela, the only child of a conservative family, marked by silence about her intersexuality, a condition she is unaware of but that shapes her life. An unexpected friendship with a priest and other decisive events in her life take her from Pamplona to Madrid. The protagonist is Elisabeth Martínez, also an intersex actress who makes her debut here as the protagonist. Premiere: May 1 Other movies My name Agneta – April 29 Janur Ireng – April 30 Miraculous World: Paris, The Adventures of Shadybug and Claw Noir – April 30 Boys and girls – May 1 Exchanged – May 1 The son-in-law – May 1 In Xataka | Today the animated spin-off of the platform’s only powerful franchise premieres on Netflix: ‘Stranger Things’

We thought that 3D printing a gun was already disturbing. Now someone has gone one step further with a homemade guided “missile”

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Talking about 3D printing is no longer just talking about prototypes or industrial environments. In recent years, this technology has been established as a tool available to enthusiasts and creators who can design and manufacture complex objects from home with relative ease. That accessibility has expanded the possibilities of use, but has also opened debates about its limits, especially when it intersects with weapons development. The precedents of 3D printed guns They have been on the table for some time, and now a new project once again pushes that debate into even more delicate terrain. The disturbing jump. What has now put the focus on this issue is a video of just five minutes in which the amateur Alisher Khojayev shows a prototype that is reminiscent, at least in its approach, of portable anti-aircraft missile systems. The project includes a launcher, a projectile and several electronic systems designed to assist in guidance. What does it teach. In practical terms, what Khojayev shows is a set divided into three parts that the creator presents as a coordinated system. The launcher acts as the base of the system, the projectile concentrates a good part of the 3D printed components, and an additional node with a camera can be incorporated to reinforce tracking. How the system is laid out. The architecture proposed by the project is based on linking several devices through a wireless network that coordinates the flow of data. The first step is to connect the launcher with a control computer via WiFi, which analyzes the information received and calculates the trajectory. In a second phase, the projectile becomes part of that network and receives instructions to adjust its orientation using moving surfaces. The system combines ESP32 microcontrollers with sensors such as GPS, barometer, compass and an inertial measurement unit to estimate variables such as speed and position. The cost data. The project is not only presented as a technical demonstration, but also as a low-cost exercise. According to the creator, the entire system can be assembled for about $96 from commercial components and 3D printed parts. That, of course, doesn’t mean that anyone can make something similar at home, not least because such a development would probably be illegal in many parts of the world. But it does leave a broader reading: 3D printing is reducing barriers and costs in a growing variety of projects. Images | Alisher Khojayev In Xataka | We thought that the war in Iran was about missiles. Until Germany has started counting them: it’s about what will happen in May without them

An economic science fiction text has sunk Visa and Mastercard in the stock market. The reason is more disturbing than the story itself

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Citrini Research, a hedge fund American published this week a text written as if it were a macroeconomic memorandum from June 2028. It is not a prediction, its authors warn. It is a speculative exercise. A feasible scenario. It has achieved 24 million impressions, and counting. It is not an anecdotal tweet. The markets they have responded by sinking. Visa has fallen 4.4%. Mastercard, 6.3%. American Express, almost 8%. And Capital One, 8%. This deserves an explanation. And it’s not what it seems. Between the lines. The market reaction is not explained by the specific content of the Citrini Research report, which includes arguments as debatable as that AI agents will abandon cards to pay with stablecoins in Solana. Antonio Ortiz, technology analysts, has pointed it out precisely: part of the argument “it is from the first of Twitter AI-hype“. The idea that an agent will compare twenty food delivery apps vibecodeadas to find the cheapest one smells like a caricature of the future. But the panic is not irrational. It is precisely the panic of not knowing where the limit is. Why is it importantand. What has moved the market has not been so much the thesis about payments but the thesis about the destruction of value. And that is solid: many billions of dollars of market capitalization have been built on a single foundation: that humans are slow, impatient, forgetful and loyal out of inertia. That we do not compare prices. That we renew subscriptions that we do not use. And that we pay commissions that we do not negotiate. An AI agent has none of those weaknesses. And that changes everything. The backdrop. Citrini’s report comes at a time when the so-called “saaspocalypse“is no longer a metaphor. WSJ states that investors are terrified by the possibility that AI ends up doing the work that large software companies bill for today. ServiceNow, Salesforce, business management platforms… all built on the premise that companies need software for their employees to do their jobs. But… what happens when employees disappear? What if the software itself can be replicated in weeks with agentic coding tools? Citrini’s fiction begins exactly there, in early 2026, when a competent developer can reproduce the core functionality of a mid-market SaaS in a few weeks, and constructs a scenario of systemic collapse. The big question. The report’s most disturbing argument is that in every previous technological cycle, job destruction created new jobs that only humans could do. This time, AI is already occupying those new positions as well. If that’s true—if AI improves faster than workers can reorient themselves—the self-correcting mechanism that has always kept creative destruction from turning into outright destruction wouldn’t work. That is the scenario that the markets have discounted this week, even if only partially and speculatively thanks to a creepypasta financial. Yes, but. The scenario requires assuming a speed of adoption that is not guaranteed, a completely absent political response and a total absence of new economic sectors. None of the three conditions are set in stone. Furthermore, as Antonio points out, there is some collective hysteria in the reaction: each announcement or “scary story catches attention and moves investors.” Markets are trading in panic over the unknown. But there’s an important difference between saying “this scenario won’t happen” and saying “this scenario is impossible.” And that difference is exactly what has the market nervous. The alarm signal. The most striking thing this week is that a speculative text, written in economic science fiction format, has been enough to move billions in market capitalization. That says a lot about the state of certainty in the markets regarding AI: it is practically non-existent. Nobody really knows how much a company whose moat It is human friction in a world where that friction is disappearing. The canary is still alive. But investors have stopped trusting the canary. In Xataka | AI promised to revolutionize all sectors. It has only revolutionized programming while the rest is still waiting Featured image | Avery Evans

Now that the most wanted cartel in Mexico has died, three disturbing possibilities open up. All with the US in the target

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For more than four decades, the relationship between Mexico and the United States has been marked by a shared war and asymmetric against drug traffickinga fight that has oscillated between open confrontation, silent cooperation and the reproaches mutual while criminal networks adapted, fragmented and strengthened in the heat of the demand for drugs north of the border and violence to the south. In this permanent pulse, each hit against a boss has not only been an operational successbut also the beginning of a new disturbing phase. The biggest blow in a decade. The death of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho”undisputed leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, represents the most important blow against organized crime in Mexico since fall of “El Chapo”. It is, not only because of the dejected figure, but because structural weight of the organization he directed, which became one of the most expansive, violent and with the greatest international capacity in the country. We are talking about an organization with presence in dozens of nations and a central role in the trafficking of methamphetamine and fentanyl into the United States. The definitive breakup. From the political side, the operation confirms the breakup with the stage of “hugs, not bullets” and consolidates a strategy based on intelligence, coordination and direct action against criminal leaders. In fact, the administration of Claudia Sheinbaum has multiplied arrests, seizures and deployments on the northern border. The internal message is crystal clear: the State seeks regain the initiative in the face of organizations that took advantage of years of limited containment to expand and professionalize. Immediate response that has paralyzed regions. There is no doubt, in an operation of this caliber, the reaction of the cartel has been lightning and coordinatedwith blockades, vehicle fires, attacks on infrastructure and suspension of activities in several states. Cities like Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta are experiencing panic scenes that are reminiscent of previous crises in Sinaloa after the capture of other leaders such as that of “El Mayo”. And, as almost always, the deployment of federal forces and the alerts to foreign citizens show a reality most uncomfortable: The group’s operational capacity does not disappear with the death of its leader. The great unknown and a risk. This being the case, and with the natural heir imprisoned in the United States, the replacement of the next great drug trafficker open a fight potential between regional commanders and key operators. They remembered in the New York Times that, if the chain of command is not imposed quickly, it is very possible that internal disputes will begin to arise that fragment or weaken the organization. The Mexican experience shows that these transitions usually translate in prolonged violence and territorial fights that affect entire communities. The first possibility looking at Washington. With this scenario, what happens in the coming weeks can greatly alter the security architecture not only of the United States, but from all over North America opening before him three most disturbing scenarios. First of all, a more than possible internal war due to the succession within the CJNG that destabilizes the organization and multiplies all types of sources of regional violence, generating in turn displacement, migratory pressure and greater disorderly flow of weapons and drugs towards the north of the continent. And the remaining two. Secondly, the equally plausible possibility opens up: that of a rival cartels offensive to dispute territories and the most strategic routes, a situation that could trigger a prolonged national conflict similar to the one that occurred in Sinaloaaffecting logistics chains, investment and, in general, border stability. Finally, the third way is that of rapid consolidation under a new leadershipone that, far from weakening the business, makes it more opaque and decentralized, maintaining or even sophisticating fentanyl trafficking to the United States and beyond, which would force Washington to rethink its cooperation, its political pressure and even the debate on direct interventions, with profound implications for Mexican sovereignty and regional integration. In short, with consequences for the entire North American security architecture. A turning point in relationships. The last thing that we have known of the operation has been that it was carried out by Mexican forces together with US intelligence, all in a context political pressure from the White House and millionaire rewards offered by the DEA, along with the review of commercial and security commitments. Plus: arrives after months of extraditionsconvictions and mass arrests linked to the capo’s entourage, suggesting that the operation has been a sustained strategy and not an isolated hit. Tactical success obviously reinforces cooperation, but it will also very likely raise expectations and scrutiny over actual results. If violence expands or the criminal business adapts and diversifies without losing any capacity, such as it has already happened In the past, the region could enter a highest voltage phase strategic that redefines the way in which both countries manage their border, their trade and their shared security. Image | Knight Foundation In Xataka | The cartels have a vehicle that looks like something out of Mad Max: it is called a “narcotanque” and it is a nightmare in Mexico In Xataka | There is a “cocaine of the sea” that is breaking the Chinese market. And that is a huge problem for Mexico.

Stephen Hawking’s disturbing prediction about our future

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In 1818, when an expedition led by John Ross came across them around Inglefield Firth, the Inughuit had not seen another human being for centuries. Descendants of the thule villagesarrived in Greenland in the 13th century and lived a small golden age until, around the 17th century, climate change isolated them from the rest of civilization. They were a community of just over 200 people convinced that they were the last human beings on the face of the Earth. AND They were for hundreds of years. The ends of the world This case is very interesting because, although the “end of the world” has been a literary trope for thousands of years, there are not many communities that thought they were the last ones left. The ‘Apocalypse’ historically was more of a ‘reset’ than a ‘game over’. As I pointed out Thomas Moynihan in his ‘X-Risk: How humanity discovered its own extinction‘, the idea of ​​the world ending completely was “virtually unthinkable.” But 200 years ago something changed. It was when we began to understand that there is no “anthropic principle“, that we are not necessary, nor the natural result of the evolution of the universe. That is, we began to understand that we could disappear. The problem is that in these two centuries things have only gotten worse. It defended Nick Bostrom more than twenty years ago“due to the acceleration of technological progress, humanity may be rapidly approaching a critical phase of its career.” The ‘existential risk’ That is, “a threat that could annihilate humanity or permanently destroy much of its potential.” We are talking about a risk that could eliminate not only the current human population, but also all potential future generations. Dan Meyers A risk that, moreover, has not stopped growing since the beginning of the century because, given the threats we already had (the climatenuclear weapons, etc…) now the derivative of artificial intelligence is added. In 2016, in front of the Oxford Union (probably the most prestigious debating society in the world), Stephen Hawking Yogave a conference about cosmology that ended with a profound and terrible reflection on existential risk and the future of humanity. With that phrase (“I don’t think we will survive another thousand years”), the Hawking of 2016 was not inventing anything, he was putting into words something that experts had been ruminating on for many years. He was also giving us a solution. Because, although the quote is at the end of the conference, the British physicist still had time to add something key: that he did not believe that we would survive another thousand years, otherwise we would not “escape beyond our fragile planet.” It was a way of putting eggs in several baskets; but on an interplanetary scale. As the risks on the planet growthe space appears as “plan B.” Hawking is quite explicit about this: “it is not just an intellectual question,” he tells us. “It’s not even an economic issue, it’s an existential issue.” Obviously, it’s a tricky thing. The moral hazard is there. The risk that we use that scarecrow as an excuse not to reduce risks on Earth. However, if we read Hawking’s words in context, it is clear that that is not what he is telling us. “We need other worlds, but they are in this one.” Taking Hawking’s argument to the limit, we don’t even need to go to space, we need to want to go. We need the special dream because we need stories that tell us how far we can go; stories that motivate us to create new technologies and develop new ways of looking at the world. The case of the Inughuit is also very frustrating, because contact with the outside world changed them very quickly and did not give us time to study their way of life or their belief system. However, we can always make tales and that is what Hawking does. in the 2016 speech: realize something that, without a doubt, the Inughuit lost in the white hell realized, that “the important thing is not to give up.” Image | Tanya Hart | Alexander Andrews In Xataka | In 2009 Stephen Hawking hosted “the party of the century.” No one came precisely because Stephen Hawking organized it

The biggest geopolitical risk on the planet is not Greenland. It’s a smaller island with a disturbing neighbor: Taiwan

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Throughout the cold warthere were points on the map whose real value was not measured by their size, but by what could be triggered if someone tried to force the situation. Today, one of those places once again concentrates gazes, calculations and uncomfortable silences among the great powers. and it is not in Greenlandbut on a smaller island. The global risk enclave. The tension between United States and China is concentrating increasingly evident in Taiwan, a territory small in size but enormous in strategic consequences. While Washington allows itself dramatize scenarios secondary in the Arctic, Chinese military maneuvers around the island they have been become routineincreasingly aggressive and similar to real blocking or maximum pressure tests. The absence of clear and quick responses from the White House projects a dangerous sign in a context where deterrence depends less on formal declarations than on immediate political reflections. The deterrence that is called into question. The contrast between Trump’s political lukewarmness and the warnings of the US military apparatus itself has opened a visible crack. The Telegraph said that Pentagon commanders have been warning for some time that China is preparing to be able to fight and win a conflict over Taiwan before the end of the decade, although that diagnosis does not always translate into credible public messages. This dissonance reduces the perceived cost of a Chinese action and leaves open the possibility of a calculation error on Xi Jinping’s part, especially if he interprets American caution as a lack of will. Taiwan as a key piece. Taiwan’s importance to the United States is not symbolic, but rather structural. We are talking about an advanced democracy in a region dominated by authoritarian regimes, one that houses the core of world production advanced semiconductor and is part of the first island chain that limits military projection China in the Pacific. From that perspective, the fall would be a direct blow to the global economy, Western technological superiority and Washington’s strategic credibility in Asia. Taiwan Navy It’s not 1996 anymore. Unlike previous crises, when American naval and air superiority was overwhelming, today the balance is much tighter. China has built a navy larger than the American in number of ships, an air force with hundreds of fifth generation fighters and, above all, a massive arsenal conventional missiles capable of hitting bases, ports and fleets at great distances. Although the United States continues to spend more on defense, lower Chinese industrial costs and its geographic proximity to the theater of operations significantly erode that advantage. The “logistics” weapon. The New York Times recalled in a column that one of the factors that moderated Beijing’s behavior for years was its dependence on critical raw materials from countries aligned with the West, especially Australian iron ore. That brake is weakening as China secure supplies alternatives from Africa, reducing their vulnerability to sanctions or blockades in the event of conflict. The result: an environment in which the economic costs of a war over Taiwan, while enormous, are already They are not so deterrent for Beijing as they were in the past. No clear winner. The open simulations and internal leaks From Washington they agree on a most uncomfortable diagnosis: if necessary, a war over Taiwan it would be devastating even for those who managed to impose their immediate objective. China could fail in invasion, but the United States and its allies would pay a military price not seen since World War II, with massive losses of aircraft, ships and personnel. Taiwan, even if it managed to resist, would be deeply damaged as a country and as a global economic engine, dragging the world into a prolonged crisis. The island that weighs the most. All this explains why Taiwan is, by far, the increased geopolitical risk of the planet at this time and a strategic priority, surely far above scenarios like greenland. It is not about territory, or not only, but about credibility, balance of power and stability of the international system between two superpowers. And, on that board, every gesture of ambiguity counts, and every sign of weakness can bring closer a conflict that no one would win on paperbut whose consequences would affect everyone. Image | Pexels, 總統府 In Xataka | China has just shown the world that it “plays” in another league: it only needs one soldier to control 200 drones in combat In Xataka | China’s best weapon doesn’t fire a single bullet: 300km ‘moving wall’ to close sea routes instantly

We lost a robot under Antarctica for eight months. He’s back with disturbing facts about the Denman Glacier

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On planet Earth there are still many mysteries that we do not know, especially those that hide in the deep sea where It is very difficult for us humans to reach due to the high pressures that exist. That is why science is committed to send robots to explore this area, although the last one we sent stopped sending signals for months, something that would undoubtedly indicate the worst. But the reality has been very different. The exploration. The mission led for the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership Its objective was to study the ice shelves of Denman and Shackleton of which we really knew little. To do this, they used a float Argo standard that modify their buoyancy to sink, take measurements and rise to the surface again. But in this case there was a big problem: under the ice platform there is no surface, only a ceiling of ice hundreds of meters thick that prevented this robot from rising again, remaining adrift, dragged by the waves. sea ​​currents. We expected the worst. This robot stopped emitting signals about what it was doing in the depths, and was already considered ‘dead’ by the researchers. But now it has resurfaced after eight months of being in this situation. And the good news is that even if it didn’t emit signals, the robot continued working and created 200 profiles, going up and down every five days, collecting data that no human had ever seen. Sailing blindly. The question is obligatory: how do we know where the robot was if it did not have GPS under the ice? To do this, the researchers used an ingenious reverse engineering technique described in the study: every time the robot tried to go up to the surface to transmit, collided with the surface and recorded the pressure at the moment of impact. Something that can be related to the depth at which it was found. When recovering data after its reappearance in open waters, scientists compared those impact points with satellite maps indicating the thickness of the ice in the area. In this way, it was like solving a 3D maze: if the robot crashed 300 meters deep, it had to be at a point where the ice is 300 meters thick. Thus they reconstructed their erratic trajectory of almost 300 kilometers. What we know. Until now we had the idea that East Antarctica was always a ‘stable’ and cold area because, unlike the West, it thaws very slowly. But now we have data that makes us doubt this a lot. In the case of the Shackleton platform we know that it is a cold fortress with a cavity under the ice that is filled with very cold water that protects it from melting from below. If we talk about Denman Glacier We can now relate it to a danger zone, as an intrusion of ‘warm’ water was found flowing towards the base of the glacier. Why it is important. Denman Glacier It’s not just any harmless thing.but it has enough ice to raise global sea level by 1.5 meters. In this way, if the water is warm it will be able to cause this glacier to end up melting and this will undoubtedly be a big problem for the coasts of our planet. Now all that remains is to monitor this area, which can now be categorized as dangerous due to the risks that the planet may finally have if this is something that ends up being confirmed. Images | henrique setim AOML In Xataka | We have been trying to figure out what Antarctica would be like without ice since 1950. We just discovered it

This graph shows per capita coffee consumption and leaves us with a disturbing question: what is happening in Luxembourg?

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Be it for your energetic effectsby its benefits in the body or even for their psychological effectscoffee is the second most consumed beverage in the world. Is one of the engines of the economy of countries like Colombia or Brazil, as well as a thermometer of global economic health. Coffee culture continues to expand, and in this graph we can see which countries whose inhabitants drink the most coffee every day. There is only one question: what about Luxembourg. Europe >> others. Despite not being producers (although climate change may change that sooner rather than later), Europe gives the rest of the world a review of coffee consumption. Including powers like Brazil, Costa Rica or Colombia. The top 10 positions in coffee consumption correspond to European countries, and except for Greece, which has managed to sneak into the TOP, they are all northern countries. Outside of that ranking we find a country that may be unexpected: Lebanon. Then we have Brazil, Canada and another string of European countries. But if there is a proper name on this list, it is Luxembourg. Luxembourg has a trick. Visual Capitalist has created the graph taking the data from Cafely. After an impressive display of figures, they detail that they have taken data from sources such as the International Coffee Organization, as well as from Wikipedia to calculate per capita consumption and from global surveys of more than 4,000 people. All this has led them to calculate that Luxembourg drinks coffee. And a lot. That each person, on average, drinks 5.31 cups a day seems outrageous. It does not reach worrying levels of caffeine consumption (There are drinks that are not coffee and have much more caffeine), but it is a fact that draws attention. However, there is a trick: Luxembourg’s per capita figure is explained because almost half of those who work in the country live abroad and drink coffee on the road, as well as to stay awake, and although they are not the country’s population, that consumption has been taken into account for Luxembourg’s totals. 5.31 coffees a day implies 118,227 cups that each person drinks throughout their life, and is well above other countries: Cups consumed throughout life Money spent throughout life Luxembourg 118,227 425,618 Finland 83,939 335,756 Sweden 58,612 216,863 Norway 58,159 255,900 Austria 45,198 149,153 Denmark 44,676 241,250 Swiss 42,318 211,591 Netherlands 39,854 123,548 Greece 37,449 116,092 (27) Spain 23,988 46,057 (28) Costa Rica 22,229 56,683 (39) venezuela 12,844 20,423 (41) Colombia 12,264 13,981 a fortune. The average price per cupFurthermore, it is not cheap at all. Not counting atrocities that can be paid in countries like Japan (it is not a product either and transportation is expensive) or Dubai (because… it’s Dubai), the average price of a cup in northern European countries is quite high. Contrast with the average price as we go down to Portugal, Italy or Spain. And more interesting than the average price of a cup It is the account of the money we spend on coffee throughout our lives, which we can also see in the table above. The great absentee. It may be striking that countries like Mexico have a consumption of just 0.29 cups, but along with Guatemala, Argentina or Peru, it is one of the countries with the least roots in coffee. For example, it esteem that each Mexican consumes 2.1 kilos of coffee per year, while Colombians increase the figure to 4.2 kilos. But the big absentee on this list is… China. The Asian giant is not a traditional coffee consumer, but things are changing. There is not only multitude of cafes and chains like Luckin Coffee that are present practically on every corner of a big city, but they are leading the greatest growth in the region in opening of new brand cafes. And they are not only emerging in the region: China is taking over tons of coffee from Brazil due to a market that is growing at double-digit speed since 2010, with a growth annual average of more than 20%, which is well above a world average that barely reaches 2% But anyway, there is no one to blame Luxembourg. And if at some point they blame you for drinking a lot, you can now say that you are trying to raise the average for your country in this curious competition. In Xataka | The latest craze for weight loss is adding mushrooms to coffee. Science is not clear that it is a good idea

The overhaul of 6,000 Airbus A320 aircraft is a disturbing reminder that our technology is at the mercy of the Sun

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Airports around the world have once again plunged into chaos of red screens and canceled flights. Airbus and EASA They have ordered an unprecedented technical stoppage of 6,000 A320 aircraft to apply a patch that prevents “data corruption in the ELAC computer.” Behind this technicality lies a disturbing reminder that all of our digital technology is at the mercy of the Sun. The more advanced, miniaturized and efficient our infrastructure is, the more vulnerable it becomes to space weather. Anatomy of a “bit flip”. On October 30, a JetBlue Airbus A320 covering the route between Cancun and Newark made a sudden downward pitch without the pilots commanding it. A manufacturer inquiry revealed that the culprit had been a high-energy particle: a neutron generated by the interaction of the solar wind with the atmosphere that impacted a memory cell of the ELAC (Elevator Aileron Computer) computer with enough energy to change the voltage of a microscopic transistor from 0 to 1. This phenomenon known as a “bit flip” caused the L104 version of the Airbus software to interpret that the plane was in a dangerous situation (such as a stall). The computer did what it was programmed to do: “save” the plane by lowering the nose to gain speed. But the problem was not the hardware itself, but rather the software logic, which in this version does not have the necessary immunity to discard corrupt data. Hence, it does not affect all aircraft, and the solution is to apply a patch. The price of Moore’s law. 30 years ago, transistors were macroscopic bricks that required a lot of energy to alter. Today, microprocessors in airplanes (as well as those in cars and cell phones) have transistors on the nanometer scale. They are so sensitive that a minor solar storm, like the one on October 30, which was classified as G1, has the potential to wreak havoc that we previously only expected from catastrophic solar stormslike the Carrington event. It is the price that we pay for Moore’s law– As transistors become smaller and operate at lower voltages, less power is required to disturb their state. A precedent called Qantas 72. While the JetBlue Flight 1230 case has ended up affecting an unusual number of aircraft, industry veterans have had a déjà vu. In 2008, Qantas Flight 72 (an Airbus A330) experienced a similar nightmare over the Indian Ocean. The plane abruptly lowered its nose twice without warning, throwing passengers against the cabin roof. The Australian ATSB investigation concluded that one of the aircraft’s inertial reference units had been hit by cosmic rays, causing it to take an angle of attack of 50 degrees. The difference is that today we have thousands more planes in the sky, more dependent on automation, and operating under a 25 Solar Cycle which is proving to be more active than anticipated. Beyond airplanes. The Sun had already sent us a warning about its new maximum in 2022, when SpaceX lost 38 of 49 Starlink satellites just released. Not due to electronic failures, but thermodynamic ones. A solar storm increased the density of air in the Earth’s atmosphere, slowing satellites in low orbit until they fell. It was a minor storm, but enough to cost millions of dollars. The satellites are more exposed to solar radiation and are especially sensitive to geomagnetic storms. On Halloween night 2003, the Sun played trick-or-treating, causing a 30-hour crash in the FAA’s WAAS system, which is vital to GPS landing accuracy. If that were to happen today, with the current reliance on GNSS for everything (from Uber to banking transactions), the impact would be incalculable. Will there be another Carrington event? The most disturbing thing about the technical report on the A320 is that the triggering event was a level G1 geomagnetic storm, classified as minor. The scale goes up to G5, classified as extreme. In 1859, the Carrington Event fried telegraph networks around the world. If a storm of that magnitude hit the Earth today, we wouldn’t be talking about updating the software of 6,000 airplanes. We would be talking about the possible loss of entire GPS constellations, massive physical damage to the electrical grid and a paralysis of global transportation for weeks or months. We’ve built a civilization on extremely fragile silicon scaffolding, and our host star has a bad temper. Hence, space meteorology has ceased to be a scientific curiosity and has become a first-rate mission to predict solar storms and prepare satellites, astronauts and electrical infrastructure on the ground for any possibility. Today was a software patch, tomorrow we may need to rethink how we harden all of our technology. Image | ESA, Airbus In Xataka | Airbus has launched an urgent alert for the A320, the most delivered aircraft in the world: “operational interruptions” are looming

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