explained

The brutal crisis of ViñaRock in one year is explained in an empty venue

by

The ViñaRock audience debacle is no longer a secret: the clear highlight of the edition, the Sex Pistols (or the group that today bears that name, without the band’s classic vocalist, Johnny Rotten, at the helm), played in front of around 100,000 people. A year earlier, the same event had brought together 240,000 attendees. ViñaRock is the main victim of the crisis unleashed by the financing of several Spanish festivals by Israeli investment funds. The vindication, part of its DNA. ViñaRock was born in Villarrobledo in 1996 with a very specific profile: combative rock, affordable prices and alternative spirit. This differentiated it from other macro events and also favored the approach of the public and bands with very explicit political positions leaning to the left. It did not take long for it to grow until it became one of the main festivals in Spain under the motto ‘Neither God, nor country, nor king’, becoming the largest of its kind. In 2025 it brought together 240,000 people and generated 22 million euros economic impact in the region. The numbers of 2026. The public number of attendees was 100,000 in three days, less than half that in 2025. The organization presented it as a relative successalthough the economic impact falls: of the 22 million generated in 2025, around 11 million will remain. To compensate for the lower external influx, the festival allowed access by the residents of Villarrobledo through its registration program, a formula that for years reserve tickets at starting price for residents of the municipality before the general sale. In the 2026 edition, this preferential access had more weight than ever, and the result was something that in networks It has been closer to the classic image of a patron saint festival, more than a classic rock festival. How it started. In May 2025. El Salto published an investigationrevealing that Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), an American venture capital fund, had acquired in 2024 the promoter Superstruct Entertainment for around 1,400 million euros. Superstruct manages nearly 80 festivals around the world and, in Spain, it has more than twenty events under its umbrella, such as Sónar, Arenal Sound, FIB, Resurrection Fest, O Son do Camiño, Monegros Desert Festival or ViñaRock. The crisis came when it became known that KKR maintains positions in Israeli cybersecurity companiesis the main investor of the German media group Axel Springer (which has real estate activity in occupied Palestinian territoriessomething contrary to international law) and its president for the Middle East moved in May 2025 to the Civil-Military Coordination Center run by US army officials in Israel. For many regular bands on the circuit, it was a very difficult issue to ignore. Cancellations begin. The rap-metal group Sons of Aguirre & Scila was among the first to formalize the boycott: in a statement announced that he would not participate in any festival in the KKR orbit again until the owners changed. They were soon joined by Fermín Muguruza, Los de Marras, Sinkope, No Konforme, Residente, Judeline and Samantha Hudson, among others. The ViñaRock tried to do damage controlreaffirming their artistic independence, condemning the situation in Palestine and announcing legal action against what they considered a smear campaign. New poster. In February 2026 It was made public that the festival had been acquired by Orange Alive, and an attempt was made to rebuild the 2026 edition practically from scratch. It didn’t help much, because that same month it was made public that They were still linked to Superconstruct. The poster featured groups such as the Sex Pistols with Frank Carter, Turbonegro, Skindred, Celtas Cortos, Medina Azahara, Kiko Veneno and Barón Rojo. The tickets started at 39.99 euros, notably lower than previous editions, and the videos on social networks left images of the events for posterity. half empty stages. He’s not the only one. The ViñaRock crisis is far from being the only one: the concentration of festivals in the hands of large financial groups is a consolidated trend in the live entertainment industry. Other festivals in the Superstruct orbit may face similar reactions from the public and groups, although Resurrection Fest, similar in nature to ViñaRock, broke attendance record shortly after the controversy broke out. Quite possibly, ViñaRock has been affected by both the boycott and the little time it had to restructure its lineup after the defections. Header | Vinarock In Xataka | If your favorite band has left Spotify, don’t be surprised: they are boycotting their CEO’s warring investments

The best tricks to improve your prompts in Claude, two types of structure explained by the Claude team itself

by

Let’s tell you two structures to create better prompts in Claude, explained by the Anthropic team, creators of this artificial intelligence. They are very precise structures for this specific AI, although they will also work well in other alternatives such as ChatGPT , Gemini either Copilot inter alia. This is something more advanced than when we taught you how to improve Claude’s answers in a simple way. This is a lesson in good prompting practices using engineering engineering. promptsthe practice with which to improve the commands you give to applications LLM. Come on, these are tricks to learn how to communicate with an AI more effectively and shape its responses so that they are better, more reliable, and more tailored to the task you want it to perform. We are going to offer you two prompt structures. The first is a simple five step structure. It is perfect for relatively simple or slightly advanced tasks, and we are going to explain it to you in depth. Then there is a structure for much more sophisticated tasks that has ten steps, and in this case we are going to summarize it for you. Five-step structure of a good prompt The best way to communicate with artificial intelligence and with Claude in particular is to know the best structure for a good prompt. These structures are set up to make sure you give you all the information necessary for the AI ​​to correctly understand what you are asking it to do. This is the best structure for a prompt according to Anthropic: One or two sentences to establish the role and description of the task you want me to do. Add dynamic content to contextualize Detailed task instructions Examples of what you want it to do (optional) Repeat critical instructions (especially when you write a very long prompt. 1. Describe the role and task to be performed As you can see, first of all you need to spend some time establishing the role of the AI, saying what role it should play. For example, telling you that you are a high school teacher, or an AI specialized in reviewing accident reporting forms. Along with the role of AI, it is also recommended describe the task to be performed. Come on, this is where you have to tell him what you want him to do by playing the role that you have indicated. These two elements should be the beginning of a good prompt. 2. Add dynamic content to contextualize After describing the task, it is helpful to provide content to better contextualize your task or the content you want me to work on. For example, if you want it to analyze a text, a photograph, or even a web link, you should add it after the description. This content can also be another element that you have obtained from an application, or even from an AI, whether it is a screenshot or something else. The main thing is that add what the AI ​​needs to do what you asked it to do. You can attach several files, but then you will have to describe well what you want it to do with each one. 3. Detailed task instructions At the beginning of the prompt you have told it in summary what you want it to do, and then you have attached the content on which you want it to work. Now, after this introduction you will have to detail task instructions What do you want me to do? This fragment of text becomes the heart of the task you are programming. You will have to tell it what you want it to do precisely, just as if you were telling it to a person so that they understand it correctly without having to ask you anything else. If you have added several images or different types of content for context, you will also have to explain what you want it to do with each of the elements. 4. You can give him examples of what you want him to do When you do not give the AI ​​any example of the result you want it to offer you, it is what is called a Zero-shot or “0 examples”. With this, you will blindly trust that the artificial intelligence model knows how to do the task. However, when you want to obtain very specific results or with a specific formatthen you should explain this with examples. You can use a single example or multiple examples. By doing this, the model will see the examples of the task already classified or solved, and will use that information to generate the new answers. keeping the same response format that you have indicated. The more examples you give, the more precise the answer format will be. This is optional, but in tasks that require a specific type of response it can be very useful. 5. Repeat critical instructions. You’ve started by describing the task, and then you’ve given him a thorough description of each step he must take. But if you’re asking it to do a very complex task with a particularly long prompt, it’s a good idea to at the end repeat the most critical instructions of the task you have asked him to do. This is the equivalent of underlining the most important and vital points of the instructions, something that you think is absolutely vital that you always keep in mind and not overlook it. Advanced prompt structure in 10 steps If the five-step structure isn’t enough for you, Claude’s creators also aim for a 10-step structure. It is like the first one we told you about, but more fragmented to give AI each and every detail what you will need. Each of these steps can be one or several paragraphs in the prompt that we are going to compose. You don’t have to do this every time, normally the previous structure is enough, but for particularly complex tasks can help you. … Read more

WireGuard, OpenVPN and IKEv2 explained without jargon

by

Let’s tell you why the protocol you choose is so important in one VPNand we will also explain three of the most important ones in detail. We will talk to you about WireGuard, OpenVPN and IKEv2, which you can find in services such as NordVPN or any of the best vpn serviceseven also in some free vpn. Let’s start by explaining to you what VPN protocols are and why they are so important. And then we will tell you what the protocols offer WireGuard, OpenVPN and IKEv2so you know which one to choose. We will try to explain all this in an easy and understandable way. Why protocol may matter more than other things When choosing a VPN, it is normal to look above all at practical aspects, such as the price of its subscription, the number of servers it offers and how many countries it has them distributed in, and even aspects such as the aesthetics and design of its application. However, We don’t usually pay so much attention to protocols. supported by each service, and it is something important. The protocol is the layer that determines the operation of the VPN itself. The one you choose can directly define aspects such as the speed or encryption strength of the connectionas well as other things like network stability, and how they manage potential network outages or transitions. Therefore, protocol shapes the VPN experience when you use it. There are several modern options here, such as an OpenVPN that offers great security, a WireGuard with faster performance, or IKEv2 that is perfect for mobile users. Which one to choose will depend on how you want to use the network and the purposes at all times. NordVPN with 76% discount The price could vary. We earn commission from these links OpenVPN is the industry standard OpenVPN has been the standard that dominates the VPN industry since its launch in 2001. He is the great veteranthat has enormous value for cybersecurity, since it involves two and a half decades of audits, testing in real environments, and reviews by security researchers around the world. Its main advantage is its flexibilitysince it can be easily configured to work on any port, using both UDP and TCP. This allows the protocol to work against restrictive firewalls, being a very good weapon against Internet censorship, as well as in blocked corporate networks where WireFuard or IKEv2 could be cut. As OpenVPN has among its modes the ability to operate over TCP on port 433, the same port used by normal https web traffic, it is impossible to block it without breaking general browsing. Use encryption AES-256considered indecipherable by current computing standards, so your traffic travels safely so that they don’t spy on what you do. The price to pay is in speed. Because yes, OpenVPN is that perfectly secure and private veteran technology, but it offers a slightly lower browsing speed than other alternatives. WireGuard is modern and fast WireGuard is the most modern protocol of the three we are talking about today, and its great asset is its extreme simplicity. Its source code takes up only about 4,000 lines compared to OpenVPN’s 100,000, and less code means fewer points where something can fail or get stuck, and greater speed. It also makes things much easier for audits. The most interesting part of this protocol is that it prioritizes simplicity and speed, but does not make sacrifices in security. It is open source, so anyone can review and use it, and uses various types of ciphers such as ChaCha20Poly1305 for packet encapsulation in UDP, or various cryptographic algorithms such as Curve25519 for key exchange, ChaCha20 for encryption, Poly1305 for authentication, and BLAKE2s for hashing. It is a carefully chosen selection of technologies. But where this protocol really shines is in speed, being able to reach quadruple OpenVPN connection speed in some configurations. It also maintains low latency in real-time activities, being the best alternative for gaming, streaming content or video conferencing. The only drawback that can be made is that it is not a protocol created for the general public, and that it stores IP addresses on the server during connections. However, most commercial VPNs that use it have created effective solutions, such as double NAT systems or dynamic IP assignment to maintain privacy. IKEv2 is perfect for mobile IKEv2 is a protocol designed for the mobile phone and the real life of conventional users. Specifically for those users who move from one place to another and connect to different networks. Its great asset is the MOBIKE protocol, which keeps the VPN connection active even when you change networks. Come on, if you change from home WiFi to your mobile data, your connection tunnel is maintained without you having to do anything. The other protocols can handle this as well, but MOBIKE was designed specifically for these scenarios. Another of the strong points of this protocol is in your connection timeswhich equals and even exceeds those of the competition’s protocols. Users typically connect within seconds, and reconnections after a network outage occur almost instantly. IKEv2 uses the AES-256-GCM encryption algorithm to offer maximum security. It also uses SHA-2-384 for integrity verification and 3072-bit Diffie-Hellmann keys. This security structure meets the strict requirements of companies and public administrations. In addition, IKEv2 also offers advantages in speed, security and stability. The Achilles heel of this protocol is visibility. It uses fixed ports and specific protocols, so it is easier to block than OpenVPN when faced with aggressive firewalls like those used by some countries to censor the Internet. Therefore, sometimes it doesn’t work well where other protocols do. What protocol to use protocol average speed size of your code time to connect mobile stability firewall bypass OpenVPN Moderate ~600,000 lines 3-5 seconds Good Excellent WireGuard Very fast ~4,000 lines 1-2 seconds Excellent Moderate IKEv2 Fast ~400,000 lines 2-3 seconds Excellent Moderate As you can see, each protocol has its pluses and minusesso there is no easy choice. … Read more

A comedian has explained what the song from ‘The Lion King’ means in Zulu. It was fake and could cost you 27 million

by

A Zimbabwean comedian went viral last month after claiming on a podcast that the Zulu phrase that opens the legendary theme song of ‘The Lion King’, ‘Circle of Life’ meant, simply and plainly, “Look, there’s a lion.” However, it was a joke: a false translation. Now the original composer, the South African Lebo M, is demanding $27 million from him in a federal court in Los Angeles. Aaaaa stork. Since 1994, millions of people have hummed “Nants ingonyama bagithi baba” without having the slightest idea of ​​its meaning. The phrase opens ‘Circle of Life’, the song with which ‘The Lion King’and is written in isiZulu and isiXhosa, two of the twelve official languages ​​of South Africa. The official translation used by Disney says: “Everyone hails the king, we bow before his presence.” It’s a Praise Imbongia form of oral royal praise poetry rooted in South African cultural tradition. Author, author. The song composed and performed by Lebohang Morakeknown artistically as Lebo M. Morake lived in exile in Los Angeles during apartheid. Hans Zimmer asked him to contribute his voice and his knowledge of African music to ‘The Lion King’ and the result was that initial scream that, as dawn broke on the savanna and the Disney logo rose, made the hairs on the back of the viewers of the time stand on end. The song was nominated for an Oscar for best original song and a Grammy, although it lost both to another piece from the same film, ‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight’. The false translation. In February, Zimbabwean comedian Learnmore Mwanyenyeka, known as Learnmore Jonasi, appeared on the ‘One54’ podcast. The presenters began to sing the phrase from memory, like every neighbor’s son does. Jonasi stopped them: “That’s not how you sing, don’t destroy our language.” He then offered his translation: “Look, there’s a lion! Oh my God!” When one of the incredulous drivers asked him if he was serious, Jonasi insisted: “That’s exactly what it means.” The clip went viral in a matter of days. The song that seemed like an epic proclamation was actually just pointing to an animal. The demand de Morake acknowledges that “ingonyama” can be literally translated as “lion” in Zulu, but argues that in the context of the Praise Imbongi The word functions as a metaphor for royalty and ancestral authority. Jonasi’s translation would be, in the words of Morake’s lawyers, “a manufactured and trivializing distortion, intended as a crude joke for personal gain.” According to the same legal document, Jonasi has been making this joke in his repertoire for eight years. Who is Jonasi? The comedian, born in Zimbabwe and based in Pittsburgh, rose to fame in 2024 when he placed fifth in that year’s edition of ‘America’s Got Talent’. His comedy usually revolves around the contrasts between his life in Africa and American culture, and part of his regular repertoire includes criticism of the representation of Africa in Hollywood, such as the lions in ‘The Lion King’ having American accents or the baboon Rafiki speaking English with a South African accent. The joke was, in that sense, consistent with his usual discourse of questioning how Disney had treated African culture. Can a joke cost 27 million? The legal key to the whole matter lies in a well-established principle in American law: the First Amendment protects parody and artistic satire, but not false statements presented as true, even if said in a comedic context. Morake’s lawyers argue precisely that: that Jonasi did not present his translation as a joke but “as authoritative fact.” The lawsuit also cites: Jonasi’s attempt to monetize virality through merchandising. The amount requested amounts to more than $20 million in actual damages, plus $7 million in punitive damages. It is alleged to justify it that the viral is directly damaging Lebo M’s professional relationship with Disney and reducing his income from royalties. Disney has not made any statements on the matter. The answer. Jonasi launched a GoFundMe campaign titled ‘Help Learnmore Fight an Unjust Lawsuit‘ with which he has raised more than 16,000 of the 20,000 dollars he asks for. There he says that he never intended to cause harm and that he needs support to “protect his right to speak and tell jokes.” Before that, posted a video on Instagram in which he declared himself a fan of Lebo M’s work and proposed making a video together explaining the real meaning of the song. In networks, the composer responded that Jonasi “crossed a line by insulting African culture and spreading colonialist propaganda.” In Xataka | We all assumed that ‘The Simpsons’ would never end. Now, its showrunner has just confirmed it

The length of “a day” on all the planets in the Solar System, explained in a revealing video of just one minute

by

The Universe is full of unknowns for humanity. What’s more, even data that we know ends up being questioned and reformulated, such as: the distances between planets in the solar system. In fact, as a millennial, when I was a child I learned all the planets at once and then I had to forget about Pluto. However, a reasonably solid and most interesting piece of information is How long is a day on a planet in the Solar System?information that on Earth is approximately 24 hours (23 hours and 56 minutes, specifically). This duration is due to the average time it takes our planet to complete a rotation on its own axis, although translation has an influence. Furthermore, it has evolved historically due to the gravitational pull of the Moon. Thus, and in general terms, we can establish that to estimate this duration, factors influence its radius, its orbit and also interactions with other celestial bodies. The reality is that we are facing a non-intuitive pattern with results that defy logic. To solve the question numerically, the popular science channel The Brain Maze has a great video the most agile and visual to clear our doubts with the figures in just one minute: Now we know how much, but it is even more interesting to understand why. As a summary, there are certain general rules that are met: paradoxically the largest planets are those that rotate the fastest and those closest to the Sun have suffered the effects of gravitational tides in such a way that they have slowed down to almost a stop. Although we already told you that there are quite a few anomalies. The counterintuitive pattern for determining how long a day is The Sun and the planets of the solar system. The sizes are to scale, but the distances are not. By Edits by Pepedavila. Source image on Commons edited by Farry, credited by original uploader to “Martin Kornmesser”, and later an anonymous edit re-credited it to “zaria mayers”. – Edit of File:Planets2008.jpg by Farry., Public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20584284 Giant planets have shorter days than the Earth and in short, they spin fast because they grew fast. When the Solar System formed, these early planets accumulated gas and dust with angular momentum. The gas giants captured so much material in a short time that they were able to preserve almost all of that original angular momentum. They go without brakes and it shows: it takes Jupiter less than 10 hours to make a complete revolution on itself, despite the fact that compared to Earth, it is more than 300 times its mass and 11 times larger. With Saturn this also applies, but for Uranus and Neptune the explanation is incomplete: the ice giants also spin fast for the same reason, but their history is much more eventful, either due to collisions or disturbances in the early days. On Mercury and Venus the days become eternal. The rocky planets close to the Sun found a brake in the tides. Mercury is so close to the star that its gravity has dissipated its original rotation over time. If you were on the surface of Mercury looking at the Sun, you would see it stop, move backwards, and move forward again: it is the effect of its elliptical orbit and its slow rotation, compared to its orbital speed. In fact, even has a double dawn in some parts of the planet. Venus is also slowed down by the sun’s gravity, but it also rotates in the opposite direction. Because? Good question, for you, for me and for science in general: it remains a mystery, although there are hypotheses. A curiosity to reinforce the rarities of Venus: a day lasts longer than its own year, it takes 243 Earth days to rotate on itself and only 225 to complete its orbit around the Sun. By the way, the fact that a day on Mars and on Earth lasts practically the same is, according to science, almost certainly a coincidence. This similarity and other factors have fueled for decades the idea that Mars is the ideal candidate to host life. In Xataka | We have been deceived by the distances of the Solar System: the closest neighbor to Neptune is Mercury In Xataka | The true size of all the planets in the Solar System, explained in a clarifying video

8 GB of RAM has gone from $40 to $130 in five months. It is explained in four words: “It is what it is”

by

At this point in the film, it no longer escapes us that we are in the midst of a new component crisis. What started with RAM crisis ended up mutating into SSD crisis and any device that has memory or a memory controller. We are in an “unprecedented” situation, said by the companies themselves that manufacture that memory, and although it all started with SSDs and more expensive RAM ‘chips’, now things have escalated. How much? Let’s go with some examples. a rocket. Maybe in Europe they are not the best known, but Framework It is a company that is doing things well. It has a desktop PC, but also something much more interesting: modular laptops. It is not so common to be able to choose all the components of a laptop, and the Framework components do give us that opportunity. The fact is that they are the perfect example to see how the market is. In September they stopped selling standalone RAM modules. They were not the only ones who began to sell computers without memory or with less physical SSD than advertised, but now the next ‘stick’ has arrived: if before 8 GB of RAM cost 40 dollars, now it is 130 dollars. And if you wanted 96 GB of RAM, before it “only” cost you $480… and now you have to shell out $1,340. It’s the market, friend. It is estimated that prices are increasing between 6% and 16% on the company’s equipment. The Framework Desktop 32GB LPDDR5X memory is up $110 since it launched. And the 128 GB one has increased by about $600. The equipment that was already built in the warehouse has not been affected by this, but as the stock runs out, they will inevitably follow the same path. “The price is what it is, unfortunately,” says the CEO of Framework In ArsTechnica we can read that Nirav Patel, CEO of the company, points out that they are trying to solve the problems, but in the end… he is not on his own and the best thing he can do is be transparent. In an interview with BIpoints out that they are looking under the rocks and that if an intermediary tells them “we have found 5,000 RAM modules in a warehouse”, they would buy them without thinking. The problem is accessing new RAM modules… because there aren’t any. Increases. As we say, it is no longer just the RAM that we can see in stores like Amazon, but the components of a computer, a cell phone, a television, a cara modem or… one Raspberry Pi. Since this crisis began, we have talked a lot about how manufacturers were saying that things were tough and it was going to take a while for the market to recover. But the case of Framework helps ground things, and so does Raspberry. Because if Framework uses DDR5 memory, which is the most advanced, Raspberry’s is not the latest generation. However, the company has also had to raise prices. Yes three months ago increased a little, now they have skyrocketed. Its memories are LPDDR4 and the company has published a table that point Because the more RAM your board has, the more the price goes up. Raspberry PI 4 and Raspberry Pi 5 Price increase 1 GB Nothing 2GB 10 dollars 4GB 15 dollars 8GB 30 dollars 16 GB 30 dollars Out of the race. In the end, it all depends on the price of the device. In a 4,000 euro computer that you need for professional work, you have no choice but to pay about 600 more to expand the RAM. But on cheaper equipment, the feeling is that it has a much greater impact. This is the case of the Raspberry. In a 120 euro device like the Raspberry Pi 5 of 16 GB, an increase of 60 euros is stupid. And as the situation lasts a long time, that will be the big problem for many software manufacturers. Apple just present new laptops and the iPhone 17e and, in Spain at least, the price has remained the same. This has not happened in other countries such as the United States, seeing strong increases in some models. Apple, Lenovo, Dell… are companies that have already said that things are bad and the users will have to bear the cost. But there are also voices that point out that not all companies can allow their users to be the ones who ‘swallow’ with the situation. From SMICChina’s large foundry, has already pointed out that there will be hardware companies that will be left out of the game. We are already seeing it: the cheap mobile is suffering the consequences and the Chinese Meizu, which wanted to eagerly return to the Western market, is already backing down. 2027 2028. Valve and its Steam Machine is another example: the console should come out this spring, but not only is there no price, but it is not known when it will arrive. And when will the end of this catastrophic situation be? It’s the million dollar question. Patel comments that the relief will begin in early 2028, a date similar to what other parts of the industry are managing. However, Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, has already warned that the AI ​​race He has seven or eight years leftand just now they have begun to commission TSMC to begin mass manufacturing of Vera Rubin, their next-generation acceleration platform. It is something that needs memory and only Samsung and SK Hynix (two of the big three RAM companies) are able to supply it right now. In the end, it is about going day by day in this new crisis, but everything indicates that if we need something, it is better to buy it as soon as possible because ifamsung, Micron and SK Hynix they are not doing consumption memoryprices will rise more and more over the next few months. Images | Raspberry, Framework In Xataka | SK is one … Read more

The extreme stress of the Spanish water network explained from within

by

The images have flooded social networks this weekend: the Aldeadávila dam “turbinating at full capacity” with the Duero river descending with enormous force, or the Iznájar reservoir recovering its splendor in a matter of days. They are hypnotic images that hide a much more tense and calculated reality. While the citizen sees natural spectacles, the engineers see a fight against the disaster. In the midst of this “festival” of storms that has shaken the peninsula this month of February, One phrase sums up the situation better than any other. It is pronounced by José María Sanz de Galdeanodirector of Hydrological Planning and Works of the Basque Water Agency (URA): “The dams were not designed for floods, but today they are key to cushioning them.” These infrastructures, designed decades ago so that water comes out when you turn on the tap or to turn on the light, have become—almost by historical accident—the last line of defense between the perfect storm and the safety of the populations downstream. A winter concentrated in a few days. To understand the magnitude of the event, we must first look at the Basque Country, where the orography and intense rains have tested the system. As explained by Sanz de Galdeano in the SER ChainEuskadi has faced a winter marked by episodes of very intense rain concentrated in very few days. The situation has forced the activation of the two major Basque regulatory systems. On the one hand, the Zadorra system composed of the Ullibarri-Gamboa reservoir and the Urrunaga dam. On the other hand, the Añarbe system is responsible for supplying the Donostialdea area. It is not a local phenomenon. It is a symptom of a broader hydrometeorological pattern that has affected the entire peninsula. While in the Tormes system, reservoirs like Santa Teresa are close to 80% and release water preventively to defend the city of SalamancaIn the south the situation has been even more drastic. In Andalusia, the Iznájar reservoir—the giant of the community— has doubled its reserves in just two weeks, going from a critical 25% to exceeding 50%, something that had not been seen in a decade. The intensity has been such that the AEMET even warned of scenarios of soil saturation with impacts “some of the highest in the world”, causing water to gush directly from the ground in places like Grazalema (Cádiz). forcing preventive evacuations. From supply to “lamination”. The relevant thing about these weeks is not only that it has rained, but how we have managed that rain. Sanz de Galdeano puts his finger on the sore: “These infrastructures were built primarily for water supply, not specifically to laminate avenues.” However, its immense storage capacity has made it possible to change its function on the fly. Dams have acted as giant shock absorbers. “They have sufficient volume to play with reserves, create space and retain water at the most critical moments,” says the director of URA. Sanz de Galdeano’s warning has scientific support. A study on the effectiveness of dams in the face of climate change confirms that infrastructure designed with “historical data” They are operating blind to the new reality. Old models did not account for this extreme variability; under severe warming scenarios, the risk of large dams overflowing could multiply by up to 17 compared to historical records. The conclusion is technical but terrifying: the effectiveness of a dam decreases dramatically under extreme hydrological regimes if adaptive management is not applied. This excess water has had an unexpected side effect on the energy market: Spain’s “battery” it’s so loaded (117% more stored hydroelectric energy than last year) that nuclear energy is no longer competitive. The Trillo plant, for example, has been disconnected from the grid because, given such an abundance of turbineable water, the numbers simply “did not add up.” Choreography of floodgates. The precision mathematics that decides how much water reaches your home. The management of these crises is a precision choreography that Sanz de Galdeano graphically defines as working “with one eye on the river and another on the sky.” The technical key lies in the “reservoir”: the empty space that is deliberately left in the reservoir before the rain arrives in order to swallow the flood. The director of URA details how it is applied this differently depending on the capacity of each system: In the Zadorra (High regulation): These dams control 60% of the upstream basin. This allows for drastic intervention. The figures from Sunday night are the best example: 260 cubic meters per second of furious water entered the system, but the floodgates only let out 54. That difference (more than 200 m³/s retained) is the flood that was avoided. In Añarbe (Less regulation): Here the dam only controls 23% of the basin. Most of the river water circulates freely, so there is less room for maneuver. Even so, the strategy is the same: when the river goes high, floodgates are closed to retain “as much as possible.” All this is done under administrative coordination complex but fluid between URA, the Ebro Hydrographic Confederation and that of the Cantabrian Sea. Not all barriers are the same. In this context of saving dams, a reasonable question arises: why then are some dams on Basque rivers being demolished? Sanz de Galdeano makes a crucial distinction between large regulatory infrastructures and small weirs. “These are not large infrastructures like those of Zadorra, but rather low-rise structures that have no real capacity to manage avenues,” he clarifies. The elimination of these small obstacles responds to two logics: Environmental: they allow fish and fauna to ascend the river, improving ecological health. Hydraulics: Although it may seem contradictory, these small walls can raise the water table in local floods, worsening the problem instead of solving it. However, large dams have their own silent enemy: sediment. Experts and organizations like Greenpeace warn that torrential rains They drag tons of mud that accumulate at the bottom of the reservoirs, subtracting their real capacity (that “hole” that Galdeano spoke of) and … Read more

In 1957 the BBC explained that Italians picked their spaghetti from “pasta trees.” And millions of Britons believed it

by

On April 1, 1976, Patrick Moore He entered the BBC Radio 2 morning show to comment on a curious astronomical phenomenon that was about to take place. He explained that, just at 9:47 that morning, Jupiter and Pluto would align with the Earth, producing a gravitational effect that would predictably be noticed throughout the planet. According to Moore, the most (re)known astronomer in England at the time, those who jumped at that precise moment would notice a brief but significant sensation of weightlessness. Just after 9:47 the BBC lines were jammed with people saying that, indeed, they had observed this decrease in gravity. The only problem is that it was all a joke. On April 1 (‘april fool’s day‘) is the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of our April Fool’s Day and Moore’s action was, indeed, an April Fool’s joke. A very successful prank: a woman even claimed that she and eleven other friends had been “dragged from their chairs and orbits gently around the room” as a result of the gravitational phenomenon. In 2008, the British network announced that a colony of flying penguins on King George Islandvery close to Antarctica. In fact, they made a video as you may have seen above. Another very funny one was the ’57 documentary about the “pasta trees” from which the Italians collected spaghetti. the dragons return The BBC has a long history of dabbling with pranks and science, but they’re not the only ones: to the now traditional BJM joke numberwe can add very funny jokes like NASA’s cow spacesuit, the Stonehege forgery by Martínez Ron or the one Nature published in 2015 about the existence of dragons. “Emerging evidence indicates that dragons can no longer be dismissed as creatures of legend and fantasy, and that anthropogenic effects on the global climate may be paving the way for the resurgence of these beasts,” they said in Nature. And, hey, it sounded like a great argument against climate change. In ’96, Discover Magazine published a long report about a new fundamental particle in physics, the bigon, and it was the size of a bowling ball. According to scientists, the only factor that prevents us from identifying them is that they only exist for a millionth of a second. The article ended on a wonderful note: “Is there any chance that bigon is just some kind of ridiculous April Fool’s Day joke, as almost every other physicist says? ‘People are so cynical,’ Zweistein replies. ‘Science,’ he notes, ‘routinely produces findings that seem too wonderful to be believed, and yet turn out to be true.’” But without a doubt my favorite joke was from CERN in 2015. That April 1st, they released a press release with a bang: they had found the “first unequivocal evidence of the Force.” Finally, so many millions invested were useful for something! As the researchers explained, many details were unclear and much remained to be investigated, but the preliminary results They indicated that this new physical phenomenon could be used for “long-distance communications, influencing minds, and lifting heavy things out of reservoirs.” The research was carried out by a research team led by the prestigious Professor Ben Kenobi from Mos Eisley University on Tatooine. So that later they say that scientists are not doing well. In Xataka | “It’s a little scary, but it’s normal”: in Sweden anyone can know how much their neighbor earns and it has been a success In Xataka | I asked the AI ​​any nonsense and now I’m writing a news story about it

The most expensive cities in the world to live in 2025, explained in a very illustrative graphics

by

In 2025, the cost of living in some cities is a combination of high prices in goods, services and housing, which can only face who have income enough for it. For those who do not reach enough income to cover those basic needs that each city demands are dedicated to poverty or to move to other cities More affordable, something that is already beginning to happen in our country in large cities such as Madrid or Barcelona. The “Numbeo Index” Numouso is a database Collaborative that collects the prices of restaurants, services and goods in the main cities of the world and, based on this data, it produces listings in which you can analyze which cities are the highest cost of life, in which the price of housing has a greater impact or determining the economic effort of its inhabitants to live in them. For establishing a reference point in the comparison, Numbeo uses New York data as a reference value 100 in all its data. That implies that, if another city has an index of 112 in one of its parameters, it means that, in that parameter, that city is 12% more expensive than New York. If the value of the index is 88, it implies that it is a cheaper 12%. Based on these data, the portal Visualcapitalist.com has elaborated a graph in which it is clearly represented in what cities in the world is more expensive to live. The most expensive cities to live The graph prepared by VisualcapitalistNew York leads the global ranking as the most expensive city in the world. According to data collected by Numbeo, New York is positioned as the most expensive city, with a fork in the rent price ranging from $ 1,100 to $ 4,108 for an apartment in a room and up to $ 8,174 for a three bedroom apartment. The Swiss cities of Zurich and Geneva are followed in the ranking, with an index of the Cost of life more rental of 93.2 and 90.6 respectively, indicating that living in them is around 7 and 10% cheaper than doing so In New York. In the fourth position there is San Francisco (85.3) that sneaks between the Swiss cities of Basel (83.9) and Lausana (83,4). If we focus on more expensive cities to live From Spain including the cost of life, we find Barcelona in position 137 with an index of cost of life including rental of 48.29, followed by Madrid (47.38) that occupies the 142nd position of the global ranking. Palma de Mallorca (43,79) and Malaga (39,24) follow them closely, occupying positions 180 and 203 of the world respectively. The weight of rent when living in a city The price of housing is a determining factor when establishing the cost of living in a city. For this reason, the list changes completely when the data is filtered to unlink the cost of the home of the equation. In that scenario, New York no longer leads the List of more expensive cities to livebut goes down to seventh place. Those who do maintain consistency are the Swiss cities, which remain the most expensive in the world to live, with Zurich (112.54) leading the list, followed by Geneva (111,41), Basel (110,71), Lausana (110.55) and Lugano (108,38). From the Spanish perspective, all cities fall several positions indicating the impact of the rental price at your cost of life. Barcelona (with a cost of life without rent of 57.03) goes on to position 183, while Madrid (55.79) falls less positions until 187. In the case of Palma de Mallorca (55,13) and Malaga (48,02) the fall is just ten positions, indicating that the housing price impact It is less than in Madrid and Barcelona, ​​but the cost of the rest of the index factors (food price, Public Transportation Pricerestaurants, services, etc.) It is higher in these cities. Living in some cities is more difficult A very important fact that can be extracted from this database on the cost of life in large cities, is the purchasing power index, which uses the salary average of that city and compares it to the base reference that is that of New York. The result leaves us a photo of which citizens do a minor economic effort to live In a certain city. In this scenario, the inhabitants of Mannheim in Germany are the ones who must make less effort to live in the city with an index of 198.64, which implies that these citizens can buy 98.64% more goods and services than a New York with their salary. The Swiss Basel (194,85), Bern (186.76) and Lausana (180,45) sneak into the top five, occupying positions two, four and five respectively. Only truncated Swiss hegemony the city of Erlangen (189,69) in Germany, which is placed in third position. Spanish cities draw a slightly different panorama, being Valencia (131,73) Alicante (113,27), Seville (102.62) and Madrid (101,39) the only ones in which its inhabitants They have greater purchasing power than a New Yorker in the field of his city. On the other hand, Barcelona (88,37), Málaga (86,34), Palma de Mallorca (86,34) are cities where the opposite happens, its inhabitants have a lower local purchasing power rate by having a lower average salary and a higher life cost. In Xataka | The cities with more billionaires as residents, gathered in this illustrative graphic Image | Visualcapitalist.com

Starship ended as an orange after flight 10. Spacex has not explained the reason, but the Internet has its theories

by

Starship’s tenth test has been a resounding success. The highest rocket in history took up a lot of expectation after three failed pitches, but this time one by one fulfilled the objectives of the mission. What surprised many was the orange color that the ship had when it merited in the Indian Ocean, a tone that we had not seen so far. Extreme suffering. After displaying Starlink Satellites simulators for the first time, Starship 37 lit an engine in the exorbitant space. It was then that Spacex tested the structure of the ship. An especially hard reentry angle, a series of aggressive maneuvers with the ailerons and a deliberately incomplete thermal shield made the ship suffer, but never disintegrated or stop maneuvering. Unlike flights 7, 8 and 9, which did not have a controlled reentry, flight 10 has allowed Spacex to collect an incalculable amount of data to improve Starship’s most critical and green part: Your reusable thermal shield. And it is precisely the thermal shield in the rocket belly that seems to have acquired an orange color after 26,000 km/ha 12 km/h. But how did that rusty tone occur if the thermal tiles are ceramic? A buoy and a mystery. Although Spacex has not yet pronounced on the subject, the images of the Ship 37 issued live from a buoy in the Indian Ocean called the attention of fans and aerospace experts equally. While the ship’s belly seems to have churruscado, the main theories do not point to The tiles fall Or they were burned, but for something deposited on them. The location of the experimental metal tiles at the vertex of the orange cone A refrigerant leak. The hypothesis that has gained the most force is the one that points to one of the key experiments of this flight: a metal tile with active cooling In the upper part of the thermal shield. Unlike the usual ceramic tiles, which are passive insulators, this experimental piece leaves circular cohete refrigerant to dissipate heat. The theory, supported by Analysts like Scott Manleysuggests that the tile with active cooling could have suffered a leak. The refrigerant fluid (perhaps methane of the rocket itself), by escaping and coming into contact with the incandescent plasma of the reentry, would have been burned and deposited throughout the fuselage, creating that characteristic feature of orange -shaped cone color that is appreciated in the images. In fact, the location of the experimental tile It coincides perfectly with the vertex of the orange area. Other possibilities. A non -exclusive theory is that experimental metal tiles (there were others on board without active refrigeration) They will simply oxidize Due to the extreme temperatures of the reentry, leaving that trail of oxide color. What seems clear is that we are not seeing the result of a ablation. Starship silica tiles are reusable insulating, not ablative shields that disintegrate by design. If the tiles had worn up to the point of exposing the ablative material underneath, we would be talking about a catastrophic failure of the system. A torture laboratory. This visual result, far from being a failure, is the direct consequence of Spacex experiments for this flight. The Starship 37 has gone through an authentic test bench for the thermal shield, which Elon Musk himself has pointed out as The main technological stumbling block of the program. On this flight, Spacex withdrew tens of tiles in key areas to see how the lower structure endured. At the same time, he added metal tiles and with active cooling to look for more resistant alternatives in areas of maximum thermal stress. And softened the edges of some tiles to mitigate the hot points observed in previous flights. In summary, the orange color of the Starship does not seem to be a sign of a catastrophic failure, but the visible footprint of an experiment taken to the limit. Images | Spacex In Xataka | A astrophysicist calls Elon Musk: “Even in a nuclear apocalypse, the earth would be a paradise compared to Mars”

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.