empire

Bathing in Rome was not a priority. Until the elites of the empire discovered the luxury of the Termas de Trajan

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At present, daily hygiene is (or it should beat least) something we assume with total normality. But in the times of the Republic of Rome, the bathroom was not considered as A priority. The Personal hygiene It consisted of little more than washing your arms once a day and the rest of the body every nine or ten days. At the end of the 1st century, a new trend inspired by classical Greece was gaining importance among the privileged classes of Rome, which began to build spaces dedicated to the pleasures of the bathroom in its lavish villas. The ones were born Balnea that worshiped to the Salutem per Aquam or health through water. Submerging in water bathtubs at different temperature went from being a mere practical requirement to wash, something more playful that fit as a glove with the enjoyment of the patricians and other wealthy class. The challenge: get the greatest and most luxurious hot springs of the empire Marco Vipsanio Agrippa was the first ruler of Rome to which it occurred to build a huge Balneum in the Mars field as a meeting and entertainment place for the citizens of Rome. However, unlike Balneumwhich were deprived, these public water baths will receive the name of Themaereaching Our days like Termas. Agrippa, without knowing it, had started a career with its predecessors in which each new ruler wanted to leave their mark with some larger, more luxurious and most ostentatious hot springs than those of his predecessor. Trajan, as a good Sevillianhe knew the benefits of a good bath to cool off the heats and relax at the end of the day, so he entered the rag in the competition by building an authentic architectural and technological wonder of the ancient world. Ruins of the Termas de Trajan If we could Travel in time to ancient Romewe would meet the sumptuous Trajan Termas. Considered as An architectural wonder delivered to the luxury and well -being of those who visited it. These places offered numerous attractions for the entertainment and health of citizens: saunas, bath pools, Palestras, libraries, porches and gardens decorated with everything luxury of detail. However, although in most cases the cost of the entrance was available to the majority of citizens of Rome, only the wealthiest and powerful could pay all the pleasures and luxury offered by these facilities. The hot springs were inaugurated in the Oppio hill in 109 AD covering the void of public bathrooms left by the fire of the Domus Aureaof Emperor Nero. The Trajan Termas They were a real display of architectural innovation that Integrated the latest in Roman air conditioning technology and opulence in the decorations and mosaics. Mosaic with sandals in hot springs. “Salvom Lavisse”, a bath is good for you In the structure of its construction it was innovated with the development of lighter materials to achieve a equally resistant concretebut much lighter and permissive with heat based on volcanic rock either Tufo Giallo. The wooden structures, which served as fuel for the previous hot springs, were replaced by slender advocated ceilings and large interior spaces. The whole occupied the triple of the surface that its predecessor with some 111,000 square meters of luxury dedicated to body cult. The water supply was guaranteed by a complex aqueduct that brought the water from different sources of the Bracciano lake located 40 km from Rome, and was stored in huge deposits near the theater enclosure with a capacity of eight million liters of water. Trajan thermal complex plant Enjoy a bath in that sumptuous temple dedicated to hygiene and health was A luxurious and relaxing experience. The thermal complex was designed with an impressive architecture and offered a wide range of services and comforts to enjoy. The operation Upon entering, he passed by the NATATIO A large pool with which the first visual contact with the water was had, but that was visited until the end. Before, it should be passed through the APODYTERIA or common dressing rooms. From that point, the visitor passed to the Palestra Fully naked or smeared in essential oils to worship the body exercising the muscles or participating in ball games. Moment that many used to achieve political favors or influences between high society. Columns on which the ground rested. Eustolian house. Cyprus Then, the Thermal circuit It continued through heated rooms with an elaborate system in which the exposure of the sun’s rays was combined through large double windows, and a system of “radiant soil” raised on a series of columns that was heated by the circulation of hot air under the ground, the walls and the vaults. The wealthiest could enjoy massage services with scented oils and ointments and even body hair removal executed by slaves Hot water pools (Caldolarium) and temperate (Tepidarium) were conditioned using the same underground boilers with which the air that acclimatized the entire enclosure was heated. These boilers warmed a large bronze container with inverted turtle shell that came into contact with the base of the bathtub Caldolarium and circulated hot water by convection until The whole pool had the same temperature. Maximum resources optimization, with the same fire air and water heated. The thermal circuit ended with a bathroom in the four cold water pools of the huge central basilica of the Termas de Trajan. In them you could share the bathroom, the conversation (or what arises) with the rest of the hot springs, it was already allowed entry of both men and women. The route ended in the NATATIO who welcomed the visitor. This was one outdoor pool With an approximate depth of one meter, with which the visitor left his luxury and well -being reverie to return to his routine, which Rome did not do in one day. Unfortunately, fate wanted all this wonder of ancient Rome to succumb under a fire. An even greater project emerged from its ashes: the hot springs of Emperor Caracalla … but that is another story. In Xataka … Read more

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

China has built a space empire in 30 years after being expelled from ISS. Your revenge is about to complete

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If the space race of the last century was decided on the moon, that of this century could be a few years after its final act. The space is again the great theater where the two greatest economies in the world demonstrate their technological muscle, and China He has been preparing a master function to close your arc of redemption. A little paint in the face. This story has a clear origin: 1994. That year, China requested to join the International Space Station program with the other partners, But the United States vetoed its entrancearguing that the Asian country was not trustworthy. China developed its own manned space program, but in 2011, the United States Wolf amendment was a second blow, prohibiting NASA from any type of cooperation with Chinese counterparts. In parallel, China suffered the consequences of a world increasingly dependent on navigation satellites. In 1993 he had a first affront when the United States deliberately turned off GPS satellites on the Chinese ship Yinhe, leaving it drifting for 33 days. In 1996, a new blackout made the GPS guidance of a Chinese missile fail. In 2003, China invested 230 million euros to join the Galilean satellite navigation system of the European Union, but also ended up being expelled from this project. Of isolated to self -sufficient. Instead, China started a long -term plan to build, piece by piece, everything they had denied. In 1999 he launched the Shenzhou ship 1. In 2003, it became the third country, after the Soviet Union and the United States, to independently send a man to space: Yang Liwei aboard the Shenzhou 5. In 2007, China undertaked at the same time its lunar career and its own navigation network. The Chang’e 1 probe began to orbit the moon, and the Beidou-1 satellite meant the first stone of an alternative system to the American GPS. Similarly, in 2011 he launched Tiangong-1, the embryo of what would be his future space station. In 2022 he was no longer interested in ISS: China put the Tiangong Space Stationthat since then It is permanently inhabited. Even in areas such as planetary defense, China is replicating and improving Western missions. After the success of NASA’s dart mission, will launch its own mission to divert an asteroidwith a key improvement: a second ship that will observe the impact in real time and measure the live result. The first milestones. China’s space exploits have been growing in complexity. In 2020, the Chang’e 5 probe brought samples of the visible face of the moon for the first time in 44 years, and of a geologically younger area than the samples of the Apollo missions, so that They also interested NASAdespite the law that prevents them from collaborating. It was not until 2024, with the Chang’e-6 mission, which China achieved an impressive unpublished feat: bring to Earth The first samples of the hidden face of the moona tremendous effect in the new space race that now seeks to repeat on Mars, going for the first soil samples of the red planet. While NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission is in a limbo, China plans to launch its Tianwen-3 probe in 2028 and bring samples of Mars in 2031, foreseeably advanceing NASA. He could do it alone, but in a brilliant geopolitical movement, he has invited agencies around the world to join with their own instruments, which leaves the United States in an awkward position. Sorpasso in sight. Beyond the robotic missions, the most important milestones at stake are the missions manned to the moon. While the NASA Artemis program accumulates numerous delays and cost overruns, China advances firmly towards its objectives of stepping on the moon and establishing a lunar base. NASA has already arrived six times to the surface of the moon between 1969 and 1972, but the new lunar race does not go to put a flag, but to control resources. The one who arrives first and establishes a base in the South Lunar Pole It will have a key advantage to select areas with ice water and establish the communication protocols of the cislunar space. Nervousness in Washington. The United States reaction to China’s spatial advances show that the Sorpasso It is possible. The Wolf amendment has fallen short, and now NASA has hardened its position, prohibiting Chinese citizens Access to all its facilities, programs and even zoom meetings. The agency alleges reasons for “cybersecurity.” At the same time, NASA’s acting administrator, Sean Duffy, has adopted A belligerent rhetoric against China: “We are in a second space race. We will win the Chinese on the moon.” You can intuit the fear of a defeat, and one of the strategic movements of the United States to avoid it will be to install a nuclear reactor on the moon before China does, to be able to declare an “exclusion zone”, de facto controlling the most valuable areas. In 30 years, China has gone from being a spatial outcome to an undisputed leader who marks the rhythm in the exploration of the 21st century. The veto that had to stop her became the fuel of her ambition. His space empire is no longer a promise; It is a reality that orbits our heads and perches on other worlds. Revenge, patient and meticulous, is already served. Image | Xinhua In Xataka | While NASA faces the cancellation of 41 missions, China is making authentic virguerías in space

Amancio Ortega has built a second brick -based empire. The funniest thing is that Pontegadea hates to do works

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Amancio Ortega founded one of the world’s largest textile multinationals: Inditex. The Dividends of this empireits founder has created Pontegadea: a International Real Empire with assets valued at more than 20,000 million dollars. However, according to The published by Digital economyin recent months the real estate arm of the Spanish millionaire has carried out two very unusual operations: sell two buildings. A rental -based strategy. Pontegadea has become the Major Inmobiliaria de España for the value of its assets. Its portfolio has been built by investing the annual dividends that Amancio Ortega receives for his inditex actions, which gives him a strategic advantage with respect to his competence because every year he receives a millmillionaire injection of capital to invest without issuing debt. The buildings that has been buying Amancio Ortega’s investment arm have a very diverse use: high -end apartments, strategic commercial premises, office buildings, hotels, Logistic centersetc. However, they all have something in common: solvent tenants who already pay their income even before Amancio is interested in it. That is, unlike other real estate companies, the Pontegadea business is not the sale of real estate, but the Purchase and long -term rental of its properties. It is not usual to sell. The Amancio Ortega real estate business has surprised in recent months with an unusual decision. However, Pontegadea has chosen to get rid of two outstanding buildings in just under six months. The objective of these divestments has been to avoid expensive Reform works that the properties required. One of the properties was actually divided into two buildings, and was used, for more than 20 years and until the end of 2024, as one of the headquarters of the Bank of France in Paris. The offices occupied an area of ​​6,724 square meters, but after the exit of the banking entity it needed a deep reform. That has made the investment group choose it for an amount of 80 million and recover the surplus value. The key: ensure profitability, minimize expenses. More paradoxical is the Sale of the second asset. It is an office building of 15 plants in Manhattan that has recently been put up for sale for the same reason as Paris: I needed A deep rehabilitation Before rented again. However, in this case the sale has been announced for a price of 50 million dollars, which represents 57% less of the 115.5 million dollars that the investment fund paid in 2006 for the property. The sale of these two buildings responds to a strategy mainly oriented to maximize profitability by obtaining an immediate investment return through rentals, avoiding large update expenses in old real estate. Pontegadea usually operates under the principle of maintaining almost the entire portfolio occupied with Tenants of maximum solvency. Assets sales, especially those that imply a devaluation of their purchase price, are very anecdotal. The expansion does not stop. Despite these sales, Pontegadea investments have not stopped in recent months. Among the latest acquisitions, the purchase of an offices building in Paris, which will go to house the group’s offices in the neighboring country, and reinforces its presence in Europe. In addition, Pontegadea He bought recently A 163 -room hotel in Amsterdam for 85 million euros, and a logistics distribution center in the nearby city of Hofddorp for about 145 million euros. In Xataka | Amancio Ortega: the billionaire who lives as one more neighbor. Except for private jets and superyates Image | Gtres, Flickr (Daquella way)

According to NASA, there has only been one person injured by a meteorite. The Ottoman Empire has another opinion

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It could be a trivial question: how many people have been injured by the impact of a meteorite? The official answer, the only documented by NASA, is one. Only one. His name was Ann Hodges. He was taking a nap on the couch of his house, and survived to tell it. However, the dusty files of the Ottoman Empire tell a different story. One that does not end with a great Moraton, but with a death. The interrupted nap of Ann Hodges. The probability that a rock rock falls is very small, but it is never zero. On November 30, 1954, Ann Hodges was sleeping on the sofa of his house in Alabama when an object of the size of a softball ball crossed the roof, bounced on a radio and hit it on the hip. The result: a considerable bruise and a legal dispute between Hodges and her homemade. Tired of media care and curious tourists, the woman ended up donating the meteorite to Alabama Natural History Museum In 1956, where it can still be visited. Two subsequent cases. From the interrupted nap of Ann Hodges there have been two doubtful cases. In 1992, a Uganda child said he was reached in the head by a small rock fragment. The Meteoritus rain existedbut the child suffered any damage. In 2016, a man died in India for the alleged impact of a meteorite. NASA It ended up determining that had not been a meteorite, but an explosion on land. A death in Ottoman archives. In 2020, a team of researchers diving in the state archives of Türkiye found something unexpected. Three manuscripts written in Turkish Ottoman described with chilling details An event occurred on August 22, 1888. The documents, which were official reports aimed at Sultan Abdul Hamid II, report that a “bright light accompanied by smoke” was followed, for about ten minutes, of meteorites that fell “like the rain” on a village of Sulaymaniyah, a region that today is part of Iraq. The consequences were tragic: “A man died and another was seriously injured and was paralyzed.” The texts also mention extensive damage to crops. No one knows where those rocks are. The documents mention that samples of the rocks were sent to the capital, but the researchers have not found them. Even so, it is the first report in the story, backed by three manuscripts, which states that the impact of a meteorite killed a man. The incident has gone unnoticed by more than a century by the idiomatic barrier and the little interest in reviewing historical archives of this type, but seems authentic. “Because these documents come from official government sources, we have no suspicion about their truthfulness,” the study concludes. Unlikely, but not impossible. Every day, about 44 tons of meteoritic material bombard the earthbut the vast majority disintegrates in the atmosphere. That a large enough fragment survives and, in addition, impacts a populated area and, to top it off, hit a person, it is statistically unlikely, but not impossible. Even so, it is not the meteorites that should worry, but our own garbage. Every day three large pieces of space garbage, such as dead satellites or rocket stages re -entering in the atmosphere. The majority burns or falls into the ocean, but luck is not eternal. With the new megaconstellations, the resentments will multiply. “Sooner or later we will have bad luck and someone will be injured by the fall of space garbage,” warns the astrophysic Jonathan McDowell. Images | Public domain In Xataka | A huge meteorite boiled the oceans 3,000 million years ago. It was a “fertilizer bomb” for the earth

Its empire covers 17,000 properties, 38 private jets and a collection of 300 luxury cars

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While in Europe The monarchies They still remain They have made it delegating a good part of their power to parliaments, while maintaining a close and austere profilein Asia its evolution has been Just the opposite: greater concentration of power in the figure of the king and an opulence and excess that exceeds the imaginable. Maha Vajiralongkorn, also known as Rama X, is the monarch of Thailand and is considered as The richest king in the world. Its heritage is valued at 43,000 million dollars, including tens of thousands of properties, a huge collection of luxury cars and even several private planes. A unique heritage in the world The figures surrounding King Rama X not only attract attention for its size, but for the ostentation of it that the monarch does without complexes. It is estimated that King Rama X of Thailand has some 17,000 real estate properties Only in Bangkok, which cover from mansions on the banks of a lake in Bavaria where It passes long seasonspalaces and private residences, even urban developments and shopping centers. All his fortune is managed by the Crown Property Bureauan organism equivalent to what would be national heritage in Spain, which manages the assets of the Monarchy of Thailand. In addition to being able to sleep in a different house every day for the rest of his life, the Thai monarch has 38 private jets that he could pilot the military training he received as part of his preparation as a monarch. He put himself at the controls From Boeing 737-800 in which the Thai delegation was traveling and landed without major problems at the unemployment International Airport, considered one of the most dangerous airports in the world for its orography. His collection of cars is not far behind. According to published Autobildyour collection exceeds 300 luxury carsamong which are a Rolls-Royce Phantom from 1960, a Maybach 62, a Mercedes class S AMG, a Mercedes Class V, a Cadillac DTS or a Rolls-Royce Silver Limousine. This opulence is added 52 real barges, decorated with gold bread, which participate in traditional ceremonies in Thai rivers. A rich heir As usual in the monarchy, in addition to the throne, the Thai King inherited a substantial fortune of his father, King Bhumibol Adjusadej, who ruled for more than 70 years and established the basis of the real heritage that his only son enjoyed now. Forbes already included To the late king as The richest monarch in the world In 2008, with a fortune valued at about 35,000 million dollars. After his rise to the throne in 2016, Rama X did not limit himself to living in income, but has invested in numerous real estate projects that have generated new income. These investments include urban developments and shopping centers that have significantly increased their fortune. In addition, the monarch has invested in actions Of the main Thai companies and financial entities, so it has linked part of its fortune to the success of local companies, while increasing their economic and political influence on their commercial strategies. Rama X leads the ranking as the richest monarch in the worldwith a fortune valued at 43,000 million dollars. The Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunéi, with a fortune 28,000 million. With something more distance, the Fortunas de los Reyes and Emires of the Middle East headed by the Saudi Arabia Monarchyand the ABU DABI EMIRES and Dubai, with fortunes estimated at 18,000 and 14,000 million respectively. In Xataka | A single millionaire spent on his luxury vacation in Mallorca the equivalent of 10,000 tourists: the Emir de Catar Image | Wikimedia Commons (Tris_T7)

YouTube has built its empire as an individual use platform. Now hugging group consumption

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Since its inception, YouTube was synonymous with personal entertainment: short videos we saw alone on the computer or on the mobile. However, the video platform has adapted to the times, investing great efforts to become the main streaming platform also on smart TV. And it is a long time since YouTube also won our rooms. More Smart TV, more YouTube. The platform has gone from being a simple alternative to traditional television, its main competitor. According to the last Nielsen datathe platform already represents 12.5% of the total television viewing time in the United States, surpassing Netflix and other streaming services. In fact, according to study figures, US users now pass an average of More than one billion hours a day watching YouTube on its televisions. In Spain, the platform is also sweeping at Smart TV. We have the example in The Barlovento Study in which they explain that, only in June 2025, 10.1 million unique users agreed to YouTube from their television connected in Spain. The sofa phenomenon. This migration to large screens has completely changed consumption behavior. It is not for less, because the smart TV now provide greater facilities When reproducing content from YouTube or any streaming service. Sending content from the mobile is easier than ever, and also many content creators have also adapted their videos to television consumption, with much more elaborate and more ‘suitable’ productions to enjoy them on the big screen (more resolution, production levels, rhythm, etc.). In WSJ They highlight the statements of American YouTube stars such as Rhett & Link with their “Good Mythical Morning” program, who confirm that 53% of their visualizations come from televisions. Group consumption is increasingly widespread, and it is no longer so strange to wear a background background video on TV with family and friends around. Longer, more professional content. Producers and content creators have quickly captured this trend and are adapting their content. Long -lasting proposals (more than 15 minutes) have experienced an exponential growthespecially on televisions. We see this trend reflected from star canals such as Mrbeast and Yes Theory to national referents such as Ibai Llanos, Jordi Wild or Clavero, among many others, where productions of more than half an hour, with professional equipment and with a content adapted to play it on a television with family and friends. In addition to because many times the content asks for it, there are also other reasons: to maintain the viewer’s attention for a longer time and maximize advertising income through intermediate ads. Between the lines. YouTube has not forgotten the consumption of individual content. In fact, their shorts They are paving their transformation towards a multiformat and multidispositive content platform. A strategy that combines the best of both worlds without giving up the original YouTube DNA. In the United States and other regions, the platform has greater similarities to the rest of streaming platforms, since it has functions such as “shows” (which allows you to see complete seasons such as in Netflix and many others), traditional television channels and personalized recommendations adapted to large screens. The conquest of the TV by YouTube is a battle that has been fighting for many yearsonly that they have taken more than what they expected, partly for the arrival of new technologies to televisions to further facilitate their use. The price of success. This transition to group consumption is also accompanied by an increasing advertising saturation. Ads can occupy between 15% and 20% of the total visualization time, especially on televisions, where YouTube has implemented specific interactive formats such as QR codes for direct purchases. The platform has also hardened Measures against advertising blockersconverting Premium YouTube into the only official escape route for an interruption experience. And now what. YouTube is in a unique position: it has made streaming overcome for the first time in history to combined traditional television and cable consumption in its predominant region, according to Nielsen. His next challenge will be to maintain the balance between aggressive monetization and the user experience, especially when more and more content creators who seek user attention arise. Analysts like Wells Fargo They suggest that Netflix should invest 500 million dollars to attract 20-30 from the main creators of YouTube, although several assured WSJ that there is no check large enough to abandon the audiences they have built for years. Exclusive productions as long as streaming platforms is common in large content creators such as the case of The Beast Games Mrbeast in Prime Video. Leaving a channel after so many years to create exclusive content on a platform such as Netflix, Prime or HBO, is something else. Cover image | Xataka Smart Home In Xataka | Tiktok has been contaminating the rest of the social networks for years. Thanks to that, YouTube is going very well

Pontegadea turns Luxembourg into the new homeland for the Empire of the brick of Amancio Ortega in Europe

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Pontegadea, the Real Estate Holding of Amancio Ortega, It has grown so much In recent years that he has had to review his management strategy for the company’s European assets. Given this change of structure, the company has taken advantage of centralize management Of all the real estate holding company, making the one that until now was the subsidiary of Luxembourg in its new international headquarters. Luxembourg, the new Pontegadea headquarters. Amancio Ortega has completely reorganized the operational structure of its real estate holding company in Europe to convert its subsidiary Pontegadea Luxembourg into a giant that will manage real estate assets worth 7,033 million euros. However, although restructuring has been completed in 2025, it has been forging since 2024, as confirmed From Pontegadea EuropePress. The decision that has encouraged this change is that the great duchy is in a geographical position closer to the assets that it manages, in addition to having a much more friendly taxation for the taxation of the large real estate operations. Expansion under the structure of Luxembourg. In January 2023, Pontegadea registered the Luxembourg subsidiary to, throughout 2024, make several purchases of strategic real estate such as the offices of the Clifford Chance firm or the purchase of two more office buildings more worth 321 million euros. The luxembourgish subsidiary has absorbed the French, and takes control of all the residential buildingshotels, logistics centers and shopping centers that the company has in Germany, France, Ireland, Italy or Netherlands. In addition, it will also take control of the management of some assets in Canada and the United States. Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom stay out. Despite its proximity, the assets that Amancio Ortega bought in Spain and Portugal, as well as The properties of the subsidiary Pontegadea in the United Kingdom remain outside this luxembourg dependent reorganization, and remain under the umbrella of Pontegadea investments. Under Pontegadea investments, 50.01% of the participation of Amancio Ortega en Inditex, Telxius, the telecommunications company that shares with Telefonica, and the entire investment arm in investment in Renewable energy and natural gas that the company has in Spain and Portugal. Why Luxembourg? The short response is for taxation. The long answer is that, the Pontegadea model does not consist of obtaining surplus value of real estate, but of become the landlord of important companies such as Amazon, Apple, Meta or Spotify, as well as renting their buildings To large hotel chains so that they exploit it commercially. All those rental income They are taxed in the countries where the properties are located, but Luxembourg’s fiscal advantage lies in a low tax burden when buying those properties. Amancio Ortega goes shopping in Europe. With this movement, Pontegadea has laid the foundations to begin its expansion throughout Europe, as demonstrated by the latest movements with the Purchase of an office building in the port area of Dublin for 70 million dollars; with the acquisition of the headquarters of the Editorial Planeta in Barcelona for 250 million euros; wave recent acquisition of the Luxury Banke hotel in Paris, for 97 million euros. Both the Dublin building and that of Paris, have directly passed to the Pontegadea Luxembourg asset portfolio. With assets valued at more than 110,000 million euros, Pontegadea has become the largest real estate in Spain, surpassing giants in the sector as colonial or Merlin. With this strategic movement towards Luxembourg, the investment arm of Amancio Ortega prepares to advise a blow to the European real estate market and position itself among the largest in the old continent. In Xataka | Amancio Ortega knows that millionaires are moving to Florida: a skyscraper has been bought for 165 million dollars Image | Gtres, Pexels (ABODI VESAKARAN)

The world’s largest cars laundry empire

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80 years ago, German businessman Joseph Enning set up a business he discovered after spending a year studying in the United States. A car laundry. That tunnel-car-wash that saw in New York had only a conveyor belt, a couple of groups of brushes and a blower to dry the cars. In 1964, he decided to inaugurate the first car wash under the name of MRW-Uuto-Service GmbH. And from there, the rest is history. At that time, Europe had nothing similar. The laundries were completely manual, scarce and expensive. It imported a concept that the United States had been using since the 1950s and, for practically 20 years operating in practically alone, it had hardly any competition. Since then, MR.Wash has opened more than 30 locations in Germany, and Clean more than 8 million cars a year. They are numbers that compete with the laundries installed in the gas stations of the main fuel distributors. The German group is currently considered as the largest automatic laundry operator by center volume (How many cars washed a single center per day), attending up to 5,000 cars per day, 300 every hour with about 100 workers per center. For more context it is convenient to know that in Spain, One of Norauto’s longest tunnels (50 meters)accompanied by a total of 24 boxes, manages to make about 30,000 washes per year. To achieve this volume of daily washes, the company needs unusual laundry. Some of them, Like the open in Bonn in 2021They have a total of three floors and carry a cost of 20 million euros at their opening. An area of ​​5,800 square meters in which plants construction is key to taking advantage of spaces. In Spain, one of Norauto’s longest tunnels (50 meters), accompanied by a total of 24 boxes, achieves about 30,000 washes per year. A volume of washing remarkably lower than that of a single MR.Wash center. There is also nothing similar in Europe or outside it: the maximum capacity usually is around 1,000 daily washes. This ends up translating into an annual turnover, with 2023 figures, 140 million euros only in washes. To which we must add the adjacent service stations of the group itself (110 million) and another 40 for its oil change services. The business and customer service model goes far beyond car washing. In the facilities there is cafeteria to wait while they wash in the car There is library service (in this case, free) In addition to automated washing services, facilities include manual washing boxes Basic maintenance services are offered, such as oil changes If you wonder how much it costs to wash the car in such a place, the answer is … it depends. The basic programs start from 12 euros, which include interior washing up to 40 euros, and the most premium washing rises to 75 euros including tires, shine and waxed. As a curiosity, in some of the MR.Wash centers, the manager himself manually ends the service if the client is not satisfied. Image | MR.Carwash

Sam Altman is building an empire with Openai. One with some lights and with many shadows

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Sam Altman is a master of empathy. He listens to you as if you were the most interesting person in the world, learn what he needs about you and his speech fits what you want. And so convince you. It is one of the first conclusions that Karen Hao arrives in her new book ‘Empire of ai’. In it we are narrated OpenAI origins and its evolution Thanks to hundreds of interviews with employees and former employees of the company, in addition to those made to professionals from other companies in the artificial intelligence industry. Altman is loved or hated, there is no middle ground We actually know the story – in Xataka We have been Speaking of Openai – but what Hao proposes to us is a visit to what happens behind the scenes, contributing many details that help us understand the past, present and perhaps the future of the company. Many of those details focus on the figure of Sam Altman, which does not go especially well stopped. Brilliant as a seller of apparently impossible projects, Altman is sparse in words in his communications with other colleagues. Write emails with a single word, “Meet”to arrange appointments, and sometimes use a simple “?” Because who writes less seems to win the game. Of that Jeff Bezos knows a lot. That, of course, when I wrote something, because according to Hao Altman leaves almost nothing written. Everything is verbal, something that allowed him to argue after people did not remember well what he had talked to him. The opinions of those who talk about him in the book are significant. One of them commented that “it is so attentive. But partly uses it to find out how to influence you in different ways.” Others commented how Altman avoids expressing negative emotions and also confrontation. He dodged the word “no” in conversations with other people. “Others began to see him as someone diabolically capable of beating situations in his favor.” Ilya Sutskever, one of the co -founders who came after her differences with him, left A disturbing statement: “I don’t think Sam is the right person to be the one who has your finger on the AGI button.” OpenAi lives his own ‘Game of Thrones’ Paul Graham, his mentor in Yc Combinator, left two citations that leave a clear idea of ​​what Sam Altman is like. In the first commented that “you could throw in parachute to an island full of cannibals, return in five years and he would be the king.” In the second reinforced That vision of his protégé: “Sam is extremely good when it comes to becoming someone with power.” It is something that Hao often mentions in the book and that makes it clear that Altman does very well one thing: win the battles for power. There are two clear examples, also known. The first, when managed to snatch Musk The direction of Openai at the beginning of that unique adventure. The second, when After his scandalous dismissal He returned more force than ever as the almighty CEO of OpenAi. Those two moments in the history of this company are actually reflecting what happens in any empire: the view seen is usually impeccable, great, powerful. The hidden face is full of internal conflicts and wars, battles for power, and rivalries and differences of criteria that end badly. In all these battles an Altman was imposed again and again that according to Hao used a singular tactic: he changed his speech according to the interlocutor. What he had told A was often what he had told B. The problem arose when A and B were talking about what Altman had told both of them. That also happened with Openai’s original vision. Created as a laboratory for the development of a beneficial for the world, The approach would change soon. To share knowledge and details about its models, the company became a secretism bunker. Seeking to be the AI ​​monopoly Like Oppenheimer, Altman Believe That “technology occurs because it is possible”, and like others before him – including one of his mentors and friends, Peter Thiel – his goal (such as his competitors, of course) is clear according to Hao: What he wants is to create an AI monopoly. We have seen that with the evolution of their models, increasingly powerful, and that They were there to earn money. That was the vision that has ended up winning. The other, to try to develop a safe and “aligned with the objectives of the human race” has been in the background. In fact Hao reflects it well in the book. If Openai is leading the AI ​​career today it is not only for having been the first to launch a chatbot like Chatgpt, but for its apparently disproportionate climbing. He has invested more than anyone from the beginning. To start, to capture talent. When the project began to create OpenAi Ilya Sutskever, I worked in Google Brain and was already considered a superlla of this segment. The rest of the founding members were offered a salary of $ 175,000 and shares of YC Combinator or Spacex. But Sutskever was offered almost two million dollars annuallybut Google counteroffierted on a bid whose final figure is not known. What is known is that Sutskever ended up abandoning Google to sign for Openai –And then leave it-. In 2016 of the 11 million that Openai spent, seven were for salaries. Initially the company “did not really know what I was doing,” explains Hao: few of the things they worked worked, and those who did it “seemed little original or something someone had already done.” There were more ambitious bets. It is demonstrated by the famous demo of that kind of “GPT 2.5” that made Bill Gates in April 2019. Until then those who investigated the development of foundational models of AI did so training those models with a few dozen gpus. Darío Amodei – who ended up leaving Openai to co -confound … Read more

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