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Delaying the closure of a single plant forces us to redesign the entire energy map of Spain

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Right in the middle of a relentless political and business battle to extend the life of the Spanish atomic park, the harsh reality of the market has imposed itself. While top executives discuss the long-term future, the present has hit the table: the owner of the Almaraz II nuclear power plant notified the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) of an unscheduled shutdown of its reactor and its decoupling from the electrical grid. The alarms did not go off due to a security problem. In fact, the incident was classified as level 0 (no significance for security) on the international INES scale, to which we have had access. The real reason was purely economic and motivated by causes related to the electricity market. As explained The Extremadura Newspaper, The recent succession of storms triggered renewable production —sinking electricity prices— which, added to an “unaffordable tax burden” that represents more than 75% of its variable costs, made it completely unfeasible to keep the reactor on. The recent pulse: from disconnection to extension This disconnection collides head-on with the intense corporate movements of recent weeks. At the end of October, Iberdrola, Endesa and Naturgy presented to the Executive a formal request to postpone until June 2030 the closure of Almaraz, whose two reactors were scheduled to be disconnected for 2027 and 2028. But the ambition of the sector does not stop in Cáceres. According to Five Daysthe president of Iberdrola, Ignacio Sánchez Galán, has confirmed that they will request the expansion of other plants in the future, ensuring that “most of them can reach 60 and even 80 years.” This position is supported by technical and logistical arguments from the industry. As detailed in The Economistthe CEO of Endesa, José Bogas, aspires to prolong “in round numbers about 10 more years” the entire Spanish nuclear park. Bogas argues that it does not make logistical sense to proceed with the complex dismantling of two groups of the same plant on different dates (2027 and 2028). Meanwhile, the CSN is already analyzing the documentation to issue its mandatory report, foreseeably in summer, as reported in a press release from the regulator itself. The possible extension of Almaraz has opened a huge gap between two irreconcilable visions of the energy transition. In the block of those who defend extending atomic life, economic and labor arguments set the pace. According to the statements of Ignacio Sánchez Galán collected by Vozpópulinuclear power plants are a key element in reducing the price of electricity. In fact, the president of Iberdrola recalls that European countries that lack this type of energy, such as Italy and Germany, pay “about 20 euros more” per megawatt hour for electricity compared to Spain and France. Added to this defense of competitiveness is the warning about the direct impact on the final consumer’s pocket. A recent report from the OBS Business School alert that if Almaraz closesthe inevitable dependence on gas would increase the electricity bill by around 23% for households – between 150 and 250 euros more per year – and up to 35% for industry. Beyond the receipt, there is the territorial factor. The College of Industrial Engineers, in statements to The Energy Newspaperremember that this plant not only generates 7% of the electricity in all of Spain, complying with the highest international safety standards (WANO 1), but is also a vital economic engine to sustain 4,000 direct and indirect jobs that stop depopulation in the region. However, against this position stands a solid wall of detractors who see the extension as an imminent danger for the green transition. A joint investigation by the Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC) and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), prepared on behalf of Greenpeaceconcludes that extending Almaraz for just three years would mean “momentary relief, structural damage.” Researchers calculate that this decision would cost consumers a cumulative extra cost of 3,831 million euros between now and 2033 and would stop up to 26,129 million euros in investments destined for new clean energies. From Greenpeace they also point to the so-called “plug effect”: since nuclear is an inflexible technology that produces fixed gear regardless of demand, it often forces us to disconnect or waste renewable energy—free and clean—in times of high sun or wind. This situation generates a climate of enormous concern in the green sector. In an interview with InfoLibrePedro Fresco, general director of the Valencian renewable employer association Avaesen, warns that granting a “mini-extension” of three years would be the worst possible scenario. In his opinion, this movement would send a message of total uncertainty to investors, threatening to stop the development of future renewable projects in its tracks. The “Domino Effect”: rewriting the energy map The true background of this battle is that Almaraz is not an isolated piece. As several experts warn he Vigo Lighthouse and andl Newspaper of Extremaduradelaying the closure of the Cáceres plant would unleash an unstoppable “domino effect” throughout the national territory. If Almaraz is delayed to 2030, its closure would coincide in time with that of Ascó I (Tarragona) and Cofrentes (Valencia). The electricity companies assume that the Government would also have to postpone these closures to avoid overlapping the gigantic and complex work of dismantling four reactors simultaneously. This would also force the closures of Ascó II, Vandellós II and Trillo to be pushed well beyond 2035, blowing up the current National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC). The final decision is in the hands of the Executive, which for the moment maintains its position. The Government has marked three non-negotiable red lines to accept any change: that it guarantees radiological safety, security of supply and, above all, that it does not cost consumers an extra euro or imply tax reductions for electricity companies. And this is where the circle closes. As Galán insists on Vozpópulithe plants bear an enormous tax burden of “30-35 euros per megawatt hour.” Without a tax reduction, electricity companies threaten economic viability; but without profitability, it is the market itself that, as … Read more

Sam Altman has spent his entire life saying one thing and doing exactly the opposite. And this time it didn’t even take 48 hours.

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A Mecano’s great song —I know, this is very Kiss FM—he said that ‘the face you see is a Signal ad’. And in case any of our painfully young readers don’t know, Signal is a brand of toothpaste. And if there is anyone whose face is exactly like that, it is Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, who with a perfect and convincing smile tries to convince the world that his company is just as perfect and convincing. For many people, today is not the case. what has happened. These days we have seen how the US and its Department of Defense (or War, as they like to call it now) have decided that if any AI company wants to work with them, they are going to have to let them use the AI ​​as they see fit. That we have to massively spy on people? He spies on her, totally, we have already done it. What should we tell AI to develop lethal autonomous weapons? Well too. Anthropic stands. But lo and behold, precisely the company that was working with the Pentagon He said that oranges from China. Anthropic, which had been collaborating with the Government for months—Claude was used for the arrest of Nicolás Maduro—, has made it clear that there are red lines that he will not cross. If Anthropic doesn’t want to, let OpenAI do it. At the Pentagon they have threatened to turn Anthropic into a pariah company, but at the moment they have not made any official move. What has happened is that the US Government has decided to change its technological partner. OpenAI has replaced Anthropic and appears to have reached an agreement to work with US defense and security agencies. Sam Altman seizes the opportunity. This has been indicated by Sam Altman, who in an ad on Twitter (I still resist calling her “X”) explained that her company had agreed deploy their models on the US War Department’s classified network. The curious thing is that this agreement establishes the same red lines that Anthropic had: no espionage on American citizens and no autonomous weapons. In the official announcement they even highlight that their agreement “has more safeguards than any previous agreement for classified AI deployments, including Anthropic’s.” There is, for example, one more requirement: that their models not be used for “social credit” systems with which citizens are rated based on the information collected from them. But. Although both Sam Altman and the company’s blog appear to place limits on the War Department’s use of its AI, the terms of that agreement contradict Altman’s claims. The announcement mentions a specific paragraph of the agreement that explicitly states the following: The War Department may use the AI ​​system for all lawful purposes, consistent with applicable law, operational requirements, and well-established security and oversight protocols. “The AI ​​system will not be used to independently direct autonomous weapons in any case where human control is required by law, regulation or Department policy, nor will it be used to make other high-risk decisions that require approval from a similarly competent human decision-maker.” Mass spying on American citizens is legal in certain scenarios as part of the Patriot Act that was passed after the 9/11 attacks, and that would allow AI to process data and communications collected by mass surveillance systems. Jeremy Lewin, a State Department official, has indicated that this agreement “flows from the pillar of ‘all legitimate use’”, and points out that what Altman proposes regarding red lines is not as clear-cut as it seems. Internal protests. Last Friday at 5:01 p.m., Anthropic was due to accept the Pentagon’s terms, but it did not do so. During that morning, several OpenAI and Google employees showed their support for the ethical and moral positioning of the rival company, and almost 800 of them (681 from Google, 96 from OpenAI) signed an open letter entitled “We will not be divided.” Altman says one thing, does another. In an interview with CNBCSam Altman said on CNBC that despite all the differences he has with Anthropic, “I trust them as a company, and I think they really care about safety.” On Thursday, the CEO of OpenAI sent an internal statement expressing his desire for “things to de-escalate between Anthropic and the Department of Defense.” The message came to nothing less than two days later, when he announced the agreement with the same Department. Altman says one thing, does another. In an interview with CNBCSam Altman said on CNBC that despite all the differences he has with Anthropic, “I trust them as a company, and I think they really care about safety.” On Thursday, the CEO of OpenAI sent an internal statement expressing his desire for “things to de-escalate between Anthropic and the Department of Defense.” The message came to nothing less than two days later, when he announced the agreement with the same Department. The world against OpenAI. Many have ended up criticizing OpenAI’s way of acting on social networks. On Reddit they appeared several messages that encouraged users to “Cancel ChatGPT” with thousands of positive votes and also thousands of comments in which the tone was indignant with the way in which OpenAI and Sam Altman have taken advantage of this circumstance. We have seen critical movements in the past —Facebook, Netflix—, but it usually happens that after these first moments, companies end up recovering from the criticism and even come out stronger for a simple reason: Human beings have very bad memories. In Xataka | OpenAI has a problem: Anthropic is succeeding right where the most money is at stake

In the 70s Álava left an entire town under its airport. What I didn’t know was that it was hiding a treasure of 5,000 medieval coins.

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He Vitoria airport It may not be the largest, the best connected or the busiest in the country, but it stands out for the volume of merchandise it moves. Last month it exceeded 5,400 tonswhich consolidates it as Aena’s fourth busiest aerodrome, only behind Barajas, El Prat and Zaragoza. If the Alava terminal works, moving cargo, planes and hundreds of thousands of passengers, it is thanks to an old village that ended up buried in the 70s: Otaza. The most curious thing is that he did it with a hidden medieval treasure. The price of growing. In the 1970s, Álava businessmen found themselves with a dilemma. If they wanted to continue growing, they needed better connections, regular flights that would allow them to reach the rest of the metropolises in Spain and Europe. They had the Salburua airfieldinaugurated in 1935, but it did not seem like the best solution, so the technicians had to look for alternatives. And they found her. After evaluating several locations in the region, such as Ullibarri Arrazua. Salvatierra or Zurbano concluded that the best solution was to set up a new aircraft facility on the land of the town of Foronda. A work in record time. The project had the support of the Provincial Council and moved forward with astonishing speed. At least for the deadlines that infrastructures the size of an airport usually handle today. The construction of the aerodrome was approved in 1972 and in 1976 Civil Aviation gave its OK to the first phase. The works, remember The Mailinvolved the construction of a 2,200 x 45 m flight runway, in addition to the operating systems. The work (and procedures) continued to advance at a good pace during the following years. In 1978, the institutional machinery was launched to contract the control tower, accesses and urbanization and just two years later (the January 30, 1980) the ministry officially opened Vitoria Airport to national and international passenger traffic. In April of that same year Iberia inaugurated one of its most important lines, the one that exalts it with Madrid. Sew and sing, right? Not at all. The construction of the terminal encountered a problem: the proximity of a small village that ended up being located 370 meters from the runway. His name: Otaza. The population had a long history and it even had its own church, but it was not what is said to be very populous. It is estimated that at the beginning of the 19th century it hosted only about thirty of people, more or less what there were in 1974, when according to The Mail 26 neighbors lived there. The Álava authorities were therefore faced with a dilemma: What should take priority, the new airfield or a village with a handful of families? And the pickaxe arrived. The expropriation was not what is called simple. Not all the neighbors willingly agreed to leave their homes and in fact there were a few ‘numantinos’ (not many, it is true) who did not leave until the end. Their efforts did not prevent the bulldozers from taking Otaza away. In October 1979, the regional press reported how, after a break and despite not yet having reached a total agreement with the neighbors, the authorities had resumed the demolition work. The Bishopric had fewer objections, which reached an agreement that allowed the village temple to be demolished. The pickaxe had to work little. A few days later, on November 2, the demolition was completed. A town to remember. That was the end of Otaza. Although in its day the town had welcomed dozens of people, had a church and services, the expropriation of the land and the demolition works sealed its fate. Shortly after completing the works, the authorities agreed the disappearance of the council, which is now part of Astegieta. However, as EITB recalls, it was not the only town affected by the works on the new terminal. Antezana of Foronda He also paid a ‘toll’ for Álava to have its own flights. One last surprise. Otaza’s story could have ended there if it weren’t for the fact that shortly after his ‘death’, in April 1980, a family decided to take a walk through the grounds. During the walk, as they passed near the church of San Emeterio and San Celedonio, they found a jar with coins. The piece caught their attention enough to report it to the authorities, who confirmed that it was a curious treasure: more than 5,000 coins of copper and silver minted during the reigns of Alfonso I of Aragon and Alfonso VIIIbetween the 12th and 13th centuries. Today it is known as “the treasure of Otaza”. Images | WikipediaGoogle Earth and Mikelo (Flickr) In Xataka | Barajas needed to improve its roads but a baroque hermitage made it complicated. Solution: put it in a roundabout

the day an entire shipment arrived in Vladivostok frozen

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The cold wreaks havoc and not only on the gas bill: we have already seen how this winter they have had to cancel several flights, not because of storms or snow, but due to lack of antifreeze. If we talk about cars, beyond the myth that too cold affects the batteries of electric cars (tell it to the people of norway), we are clear that driving on ice is dangerous. And hey, carrying a load of cars in an extreme winter storm, too. We are going to the Russian city of Vladivostok, in December 2021. Russia is famous for harsh winters and although the port city is not Siberia, the reality is that its average in December around – 8 degrees. Well, at that time the cargo ship “Sun Rio” docked there, packed with enormous blocks of ice that, as if they were Kinder eggs, They hid used and new Japanese cars. It was not the typical frost that forms on cars when they are parked outdoors and it snows, but a solid and compact capsule that had originated in a strong storm that had occurred in the Sea of ​​Japan that the ship necessarily had to cross to reach its destination. In reality, it was the combination of storm and sea that had caused this effect. The phenomenon is called marine frosting or spray freezing and it occurs on boats, coastal structures or platforms when all the ingredients in the recipe are present, that is, very cold (temperatures below -2 degrees), there is strong wind and the sea is so rough that the waves spray water into the air. That sprayed salt water freezes instantly when it touches cold surfaces, as happened on those cars outdoors. The layer-by-layer adhesion completely covered the bodywork, the underside and even the interior of the cars in those vehicles in which the windows could not support the weight. To the rich marine glaze of cars Visually it is striking, but also It is dangerous both for the integrity of the vehicle As long as it blocks equipment and sensors, we have already seen its effects on the moons and we know that saltpeter is not the best precisely for the sheet metal. And also the ship. This thick layer adds weight to the element to which it has adhered, shifting its center of gravity and affecting its stability. The cars were stationary, yes, but there were a few on the deck, which increases the risk of listing or even capsizing for a relatively small ship like this. As Captain Pyotr Osichansky detailed to the Russian medium VLit was not the first time it had happened on this usual Vladivostok-Busan-Toyama car supply route, but it had been one of the most intense times. With cars trapped in ice, the unloading operation becomes complicated and waiting for the ice to melt is not an option. So the staff resorted to deicers, hoses and the classic iron lever to separate the cars one by one. Some turned out pretty well, others not so much.. It should be remembered that it is not normal ice but comes from salt water, a true catalyst for corrosion in the bodywork, screws, brakes and other elements, even in cars that were apparently in good condition. It is the risk of import in the Green Corner of Vladivostok: those cars with broken windows and deteriorated interiors were discarded for conventional saledestined for opportunity sale, scrapping or sold piecemeal. There was no official balance of losses. In Xataka | Extreme cold paralyzes Europe. KLM cancels more than 2,300 flights due to a technical detail: antifreeze In Xataka | If you think it’s cold it’s because you weren’t in Albacete in 1971: the day the temperature dropped to -24ºC Cover and images | SCMP and Siberian Times

Madrid and Barcelona have built an entire social and business life with the AVE. They are finding out what happens when it fails

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The Madrid-Barcelona high-speed line has collapsed. The trains do not arrive on time and no one pays their compensation, Adif has asked the companies to withdraw last-minute services, airlift prices have skyrocketed and there are companies working at half throttle because the goods do not arrive. A social and economic backbone of the country has been fractured. A Russian roulette. Taking a high-speed train between Madrid and Barcelona is, right now, Russian roulette if what you want is to arrive on time for an appointment. The link between the two most important cities in Spain has been broken via train and a round trip in the day is almost impossible. It is the result of a hasty revision of the train tracks, a direct consequence of the fateful Adamuz train accident (Córdoba) and the continuous warnings of the train drivers. Actions that have diluted the “high speed” concept between Madrid and Barcelona. What has happened? Since last January 18 An Iryo train derailed near Adamuz (Córdoba) and collided with another Renfe train that was traveling in the opposite direction, leaving 45 dead, Adif has been facing criticism about the track maintenance. In the case of Madrid-Barcelona, ​​the consequences were soon seen: speed limitations. Between confusing messages, Adif ended up imposing temporary speed restrictions at numerous points on the line, especially between Madrid and Zaragoza. Later, 300 km/h returned. But it didn’t last long because speed was reduced once again. The role of machinists. Since then, travelers between Madrid and Barcelona have been reporting severe delays, with trains taking more than four hours to reach their destination. As they explained to us Xataka From the SEMAF union, train drivers have the power to reduce speed if they consider it essential for the safety and comfort of travelers. They must notify the line controllers and put it in writing in a report. In addition, on each journey a document is filled out specifying the problems that have been found on the line. A train driver, who preferred to remain anonymous, corroborated this version to Xataka and made it clear that for months they have been traveling at a speed lower than the maximum speed allowed on the line and, especially, between Madrid and Zaragoza. Likewise, he pointed out that they have been complaining for months about the vibrations suffered by the trains but that they had not received a response until now. Adif’s role. Although unions and drivers claim to have been complaining about this situation for months, it was not until January when Adif appears to have taken more far-reaching measures. The road manager is doing an exhaustive review of the roads based on the continuous complaints from workers. These inspection and repair works, when necessary, are delaying travel times. The company has asked Renfe, Iryo and Ouigo to assume that trips will be extended to three hours (and they just pointed out that these travel times will extend until December) but has also asked them to eliminate the last services of the day to have more time for their performances. Collapsed by land and air. The result is a collapsed train line. The trains are not arriving on time nor in the three hours indicated by Adif (instead of the usual 150 minutes). And the problem for those passengers, who throw in the towel with punctuality, is that The companies are not responsible for compensation either. for delays, pointing out that they are the result of a problem beyond their control and that, therefore, they do not fall within the refund policies. At the same time, demand on flights has skyrocketed. Without the possibility of getting there and back within the day by train or for fear of doubling the usual travel time, travelers have turned to airlines. And the result is full flights and skyrocketing prices. After some bills will reach 300 euros, Iberia has reached its Air Bridge at 99 euros per trip. Vueling has also increased its frequencies. And the road alternative did not improve the situation either. Only in BlaBlaCar has an increase in demand of 130% been recorded, in data provided to The Newspapercompared to the previous year. Car rental companies do not seem to have been left behind either, since The Ombudsman has asked the CNMC to analyze whether illegalities have been incurred by skyrocketing prices for car rentals and plane tickets. And problems for companies. Companies in both cities have not only had to see meetings canceled or postponed these days. Some of them are having problems having their raw materials. In The Vanguard They include the case of some of them. Inovyn, in Martorell (Barcelona) had to send its 300 employees home earlier this week because they did not have the basic materials to produce plastic. “In normal situations we receive one train a day loaded with dichloromethane, a material with which we manufacture many of our compounds, but in the last ten days we have received only one train,” they explain to the newspaper. They explain that 18% of the goods that arrive at the port of Barcelona are sent to their destination by train. Those that use international gauges are stopped due to works in the Rubí tunnel and those that use the Iberian gauge circulate at night and in dribs and drabs. and in The Country They explain that the city’s port is becoming isolated, with an 80% drop in products coming from Germany, France or Poland by train. The road alternative is not working either. The AP-7 already there is enormous congestion since road tolls were lifted but, furthermore, there are not enough trucks to be a complete alternative given the volume of goods that move along the railways. Added to this are problems derived from the latest storms and the increase in traffic derived from a Rodalies service that has not been back to normal for more than ten days. Photo | Phil Richards In Xataka | Spain wants its AVE trains to travel at 350 … Read more

The last barrier against AI is good taste. The problem is that an entire generation is growing up without developing it

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The new normal in three acts: You open X and find a clearly AI-generated image trying to look legitimate. But it’s not bad, it complies. You go to LinkedIn and find a piece that reeks of ChatGPT, but you get the idea that its author wanted to convey. In GitHub You find code that works, but that no sensible programmer would write like that. You let it go. welcome to the era of “good enough”. Generative AI has made it easy, fast, and free to produce “acceptable” things, and that has moved the collective bar for quality. Not upward but towards “functional”. The worrying thing is not that AI produces mediocrity, but that it is accustoming us to accepting it. Before, if we needed an image for the article, we had to look for it or – for those who had ID – order it. There was friction or there was cost. Now we generate it in fifteen seconds (wink), and since it “serves”, it stays there (wink, wink, nudge). Even if it is generic or has that artificial veneer that we all recognize but no one talks about anymore. The problem is that when something acceptable costs nothing to produce, we stop asking ourselves if it is worth doing. We’re just wondering if it meets the minimum. AND meeting the minimum is not the same as doing something good. In development this is also very noticeable. An experienced and talented programmer instantly recognizes whether a code has been written by an AI. Even if it works (we already take that for granted), you can tell by the verbiage, because it is redundant, because it is not very elegant. It does what it has to do, but no senior He would be proud to have it bearing his signature. What is going to happen to a generation that is going to learn to program using AI from day one? If you’ve never written bad code and then understood what makes it good, how are you going to develop judgment? Good taste does not come standard. It is built by seeing many bad things, many good things, making mistakes. AI saves you that path by giving you something that works from the first try. But without going down that path, you never develop the eye to distinguish. Therein lies the risk. AI has raised the floor (anyone can produce something decent), but the ceiling is still just as high. At least for the majority. Creating something exceptional requires the same things as always: talent, effort, judgment. Only now it is buried under tons of slop and mediocre but functional content. And since creating it is free, we produce it non-stop. Human value remains in taste. Knowing how to look at something and say “okay, it’s good, but it’s not good”. But that criterion is only formed with practice. If an entire generation grows up consuming and producing what “just delivers,” how are they going to learn what is excellent? If you have never seen the difference, that difference does not exist for you. We are heading towards a world where it will be normalized that “good enough” is the only standard because we forget how to recognize when something will be done well. In Xataka | There is a generation working for free as a documentarian of their own life: they are not influencers but they act as if they were. Featured image | Xataka with Nano Banana

Siri is just the Trojan horse for Google to infiltrate the entire Apple ecosystem

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Apple doesn’t have its own AI, so it has chosen a girlfriend. That girlfriend is none other than Google, which has just signed an agreement with Cupertino to make Gemini the center of future developments. Not one, no. Of many. We thought this was just about Siri. The initial official announcement was brief. Apple would use Gemini, but it seemed that it was going to do so basically to launch its long-awaited version of that personalized Siri governed by a generative AI model at once. It turns out that the agreement is broader. Gemini is Google’s Trojan horse to conquer Apple. Google’s statement revealed that this alliance went beyond what seemed to focus on Siri. In a post on XGoogle stated the following: “Apple and Google have signed a multi-year collaboration agreement that will see the next generation of Apple’s entry-level models based on Gemini models and Google’s cloud technology. These models will help power future Apple Intelligence features, including a more personalized Siri coming this year.” This makes it clear that although the initial protagonist will be Siri, the scope of the agreement can be much more important and affect the entire Apple hardware and software ecosystem. Considering that AI options from Apple Intelligence and Siri will likely reach many of its products and services, Gemini, which will power all of those models, would end up being an integral part of said ecosystem. Collaboration above all. As indicated in The Informationthe agreement allows Apple to ask Google to modify some aspects of how Gemini works, but above all it will allow Apple to adjust Gemini itself so that it responds to requests in the way that Apple prefers. No Gemini branding. Sources close to the negotiations add an interesting fact: it will not be noticed that the AI ​​that we use in Siri and other Apple products is actually based on Gemini. Google’s branding will be blurred, and users will not know what is underneath and what is the engine of those interactions with AI. A more emotional Siri. That source cited in The Information also reveals that Siri will be more approachable and emotional. “Historically Siri has always had difficulty with emotional support,” he explains, but in the Gemini-based version, “Siri will give more complete conversational responses, just like ChatGPT and Gemini.” That, of course, has two sides: AI becomes more “human”, but for vulnerable people that can end up being dangerous. Apple Intelligence will still be there. Although Gemini thus infiltrates the Apple ecosystem, both companies clarified that Apple Intelligence will continue to be available on Apple devices and on the servers of its Private Cloud Compute platform. What is not so clear is that the Apple Intelligence models do not also end up being based on Gemini. Especially since Apple’s “foundational models will be based on Google’s Gemini models.” A priori that should mean internal changes at Apple Intelligence as they adopt Google technology. The new Siri at WWDC? The new version of Siri is expected to be presented in March or April behind him controversial delay which was announced almost a year ago. The new voice assistant will theoretically debut in iOS 26.4, the update that should arrive in those months, but Apple could take the opportunity to announce it at WWDC 2026, two years after that initial announcement that ended up becoming a fiasco: Apple promised things which it has not achieved until now, but Gemini may finally become the solution to that problem. In Xataka | Apple has decided not to enter the AI ​​war because it believes it has something more important: the entry “door”

Cooking for an entire family on Christmas Eve is a dying tradition. And the explanation is in Mercadona

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The usual thing at this time of year is that most family gatherings become a single topic: What to have for dinner on Christmas Eve? And on New Year’s Eve? Is the menu repeated from other years? Is the entire purchase completed or are there still issues pending? That was the usual. At least until, in one country at a time less fond to cook and more to the already prepared foodanother question began to form: Why spend hours in the kitchen on the afternoons of December 24 (and 31) if we can order dinner to a restaurant, catering or the super trustworthy? It may seem like a simple anecdote, but it says a lot not only about Christmas but about how homes and our consumer habits are changing. An afternoon locked in the stove? That Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve are special events, no one doubts it. Neither do they both basically revolve around the table. However, that is one thing and quite another that we are willing to spend hours locked in the kitchen to prepare appetizing dinners for a regiment of relatives, something not so strange just a few decades ago. In 2019 the German supermarket chain Aldi made a poll in which he asked the Spaniards the same thing: how much time we spend preparing Christmas lunches and dinners. Their conclusion was curious: although on average we dedicate 137 minutes to them, the vast majority of those interviewed (62%) aspire to cut that time between stoves, leaving it at 112 minutes at most. Who cooks then? Others. It’s that simple. It is not easy to measure the trend, but a Google search is enough to find articles from regional newspapers that talk about how more and more families order the main Christmas meals and dinners from restaurants, hotels or catering companies. It occurs in the Community of Madrid, Galicia, Aragon, Catalonia, Castile and León either Estremadurato cite a handful of examples of a trend that actually transcends communities. Not only that. In addition to families willing to pay to get rid of the burden of preparing dinners for 10, 12, 14… diners, we find companies willing to cover that growing market niche, some as relevant as Mercadona, the supermarket chain with higher quota of the country. Christmas Eve ‘made in Mercadona’? That’s how it is. Since the end of November, Juan Roig’s company has announced its ‘Ready to Eat’ oriented towards parties, a section that allows you to order canapés, stuffed chicken, suckling pig, lamb… in advance to be served during the nights of December 24 and 31. “Just heat and serve,” Mercadona boastswhich highlights how the service allows families to save time “without having to worry about the kitchen.” It makes complete sense if you take into account that the Valencian company has been betting for years precisely because of that line of business and Roig himself has publicly acknowledged who is convinced that in the middle of this century kitchens will disappear from Spanish homes. His prediction points in a clear direction: supermarkets will no longer be just the places where we shop, they will be the food references where we will buy dishes and even where we will consume them. Don’t we cook anymore? Not quite. We continue cooking, although it is true that we do it differently and less and less. He gave us a clue recently a study published in TIJGFS which leaves out a revealing piece of information: 59.1% of Spaniards We still cook practically every day, which means that most of us still use our ovens and vitro. The other side of that figure is that there is 40.9% who never cook or do it very rarely and that percentage has been growing in recent decades. The CIS has also confirmed that the majority of their respondents (46.5%) believe that home cooking is losing ground to fast food. If that were not interesting in itself, there are other indicators (from the food industry) that suggest changes in consumption: for example, we increasingly demand less fresh bread and fisha latter product that begins to associate to leisure outside the home. And what happens at Christmas? Beyond our general eating habits, Christmas has its own peculiarities. Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve dinners are not ‘normal’ dinners. Firstly, because a higher degree of elaboration than normal is expected of them. Second, because it involves cooking for many more people than those who are part of the usual family nucleus: on December 24 and 31, cousins, in-laws, brothers-in-law, nephews sit at the table… Which ends up easily translating into groups of more than ten diners. Is that important? Yes, if we take into account that we increasingly live in smaller apartments and families are smallerwhich translates into a series of practical complications: How to cook for 12 people in a tiny kitchen with a two-burner vitro? Where to store so much food? Where the hell can you seat 12 or 14 people in a room where there is furniture for one couple, who is the one who really eats in that house the rest of the year? It was done until now, right? Yes. But times change. And that is something that is easily observed when going out into the street. looking at statistics. The fact that there are more and more single-person households or households made up of two people and fewer than three, four or more members means that there are fewer people accustomed to cooking for groups. We are also less willing to spend hours in the kitchen, as stated in 2019 Aldi and confirm the boom of ‘Tardebuena’ and ‘Tardevieja’. We enjoy the afternoon more the 24th and 31st because we spend less time between pots. There is another factor and it is economic. In restaurants and catering establishments there are different rates, but they usually guarantee two things: fixed prices and menus and guaranteed product. Nothing about being surprised that the kilo of lamb has … Read more

In 1919 the Germans decided to sink their entire fleet in the North Sea. The steel from those ships ended up in space

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At 11:20 in the morning of June 21, 1919, Admiral von Reuter’s ship began to signal to the rest of the German ships in Scapa Flow Bay, England. The taps and water intakes were opened, the pipes were destroyed, the portholes were dismantled: no one noticed anything. Until around midday, the Friederich Der Grosse began to list to starboard. It was already late, the German flag was flying from the 74 masts. Scapa Flow. The image tells the story of Scapa Flowthe sinking of the German fleet immediately after World War I. While the Allies negotiated the terms of the Armistice with Germany, the fleet was held captive and stationed off the British coast. Von Reuter feared that the Allies would divide up the ships, so he decided to sink it completely, at any cost. The British naval ships that were on maneuvers arrived at 2:30 p.m. and were only able to save one ship. The last to sink was the battlecruiser Hindenburg. Nine Germans were killed, 16 were wounded, 1,774 were detained. 52 ships were sunk on June 21 at Scapa Flow. But they are no longer there: they are on the Moon, Jupiter and beyond the orbit of Pluto. steel is steel. A tough guy, with bad temper and few words. But in 1945 (or a little before), everything changed. We didn’t realize it at first, but we quickly discovered that although all steels are equal, there are some steels that are more equal than others. I’m not going around the bush: what happened in ’45 was the atomic bomb, the device of the Devil that made us change geological era. The problem. Since the first atomic bombs exploded on the Earth’s surface, the air contains traces of radioactive elements. They are there, dissolved in it, but the amount is so small that they are harmless. Unless for some strange reason you have to blow in enormous amounts of air in the manufacturing process of some material. It’s almost useless to us. That is, all steel manufactured after the explosion of the first atomic bomb is radioactive. Very little, almost nothing. But enough so that some medical, physical or astronomical instruments do not work correctly. For example, radioactivity monitoring systems used by spacecraft. He tells it David Bodanis in “E = mc². Biography of the most famous equation in the world“, a book that, although it has become somewhat outdated, is still a delight. You may have heard the story, but it is a good story. Steel = expensive. In the book, Bodanis explains that, faced with this problem, uncontaminated steel became very expensive. Above all, because before ’45 we did not make steel in quantities so industrial as now. I imagine dozens of NASA engineers rummaging through their family’s cutlery so they can send reliable machines into space. Until someone remembered Kaiser Wilhelm’s ships. The peculiarity of Scapa Flow. There are sunken ships in many places, but there are not many shallow inlets with 52 sunken ships in their waters. Not all of them were there, but a few were enough for us to manufacture the equipment that the Apollo mission left on the lunar surface, that which the Galileo probe took to Jupiter, and that which the Pioneer probe is taking even further. The evil, the sea. In Xataka | Quantum find in Cambridge points to solar ‘Holy Grail’: single-material solar panels In Xataka | The Atacama salt flat is the key on which the electric car industry pivots. And it’s starting to dry

A movie scene traumatized an entire generation every time they bathed in the sea. And it was all due to a mistake

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The story from ‘Jaws’ begins long before its monster appears on screen: it is born in a chaotic shoot, with a mechanical creature that did not work, a young director on the verge of dismissal and a climate of tension that threatened to sink not only the film, but also Steven Spielberg’s career. Hence the most chilling scene has arisen from the most logical thing: a failure. The technical failure and taking a bath. The story told a long time ago Spielberg himself. The entire team assumed that the film was doomed. Brucethe name given to the enormous robotic shark, constantly broke down as soon as it touched salt water, the days went by without being able to film anything usable and leaks from Hollywood ensured that the production was a disaster. However, from those limitations (and especially that useless shark) was born one of the most influential decisions in the history of cinema: not to show the threat, but to hint at it. Technical necessity forced Spielberg to shoot the film as a suspense thriller, closer to a Hitchcock film than a giant creature spectacle, and he turned the series of mechanical problems into the greater narrative success of his career. The result was a film where terror springs from the invisible, from calm water, from ominous sound. of two notes that advance like an unstoppable threat: a tension that would forever change the public’s relationship with the sea (for the worse). The sequence. The iconic opening scene (a quiet beach, a party and a girl who decides to bathe under the moon) is the perfect example of the way in which Spielberg transformed technical deficiencies into a cinematic virtue. We do not see the shark at any time, but we feel its presence from the first vibration of the water. Chrissie, played by Susan Backlinie, goes into the sea while the camera accompanies her slowly, without warning, until something grabs her from below, shakes her from side to side and ends up dragging her into the depths. On the surface calm returns, but the audience can no longer recover it: they know that the unknown is there, lurking where it cannot be seen. The psychological impact was so immediate that many viewers, first in the United States and then in Europe, left the cinema. with the same phrase in my head: “I will never get into the water again in my life.” Spielberg built an invisible attack in which the viewer’s imagination becomes the real monster, and he did it because he simply had no other choice: Bruce I would never have been able to shoot that shot convincingly. The absence of the animal, paradoxically, created a scariest presence than any mechanical creature. The failures that forged the tension. During filming, the mechanical shark turned out to be practically unusable. Engines corroded with salt, joints failed, and underwater operators spent hours trying to refloat a robot that was sinking rather than attacking. Spielberg confessed that the bug “looked silly” and that he was afraid that the public would laugh. But when something doesn’t work, cinema can reinvent itself. Forced to film without showing the predator, the director and his team chose to work as if the camera was the shark itself: water level shots, disturbing points of view, tense silences and, above all, the terrifying rhythm composed by John Williams, initially received as a joke and finally became one of the most recognizable leitmotifs in the history of cinema. Simple ball. The failed machinery forced the narrative to concentrate on “less is more,” and that visual reduction transformed what was going to be a monster film into a piece pure suspenseone in which the threat lurks beneath the surface like a collective trauma ready to emerge. Spielberg himself admitted after that, if the shark had worked well, ‘Jaws’ would have been a much worse movie or, at the very least, much less scary. From accident to cultural revolution. Thus, what began as a filming in crisis ended up triggering a unprecedented phenomenon. ‘Jaws’ not only terrified million viewers (literally altering his relationship with the beach), but also redefined the film industry. The film also inaugurated the concept “premiere-event”: massive campaigns, releases in hundreds of theaters and a summer strategy that demolished the old belief that no one went to the movies when the weather was good. The audience came again and again to scream, to feel the shock, to immerse themselves again in that first scene that turned a night bath into an act of pure recklessness. Spielberg’s film opened the door to a new economic model, inspired aggressive marketing strategies, generated an avalanche of imitators and consolidated the blockbuster as the central engine of Hollywood. By the way, I remembered in a wonderful Guardian report for the anniversary of the film, its cultural impact gave rise to infinite interpretations: readings on masculinity, power, institutional crisis, post-Watergate paranoia and even debates about its moral content. However, when Spielberg was asked what ‘Jaws’ really meant, the answer was so simple. like shiny: “It’s a movie about a shark.” And what makes it something bigger is that, because of a technical failurethat shark almost never shows up. Image | Universal Pictures In Xataka | In the 80s they were already cloning faces without the need for AI: ‘Back to the Future’ replaced an actor with a mask and we didn’t realize it In Xataka | Stephen King threw away the first pages of the book. His wife rescued them and turned a scene into horror film history

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