Extreme

Using multiple VPN hops is an extreme technique to leave no trace on the internet. This is how it works

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Let’s explain to you How the multi-hop technique works in a VPNso that you know this method to leave no trace on the Internet when you browse. Because if one VPN It already offers you a layer of security and privacy, with this technique also called Multi-Hop you add more additional layers. This is a technique that is implemented in several commercial VPN services, from NordVPN even others of the best vpn services. But sometimes they can have somewhat different names and characteristics. Therefore, we are going to try to explain everything to you in a simple way. What is multi-hop in a VPN When you use a VPN, you are protecting your online traffic with a layer of security. This is done by passing your traffic through a server before it reaches its destination. This server sees and hides information such as your real IP, which makes your browsing safer. But there are times when this is not enough, and there are users who need additional layers of privacy. This is where the multi-hop technique comes in, which instead of sending your traffic through a single VPN server, routes it through two or more servers until it reaches the Internet. Imagine that you want to get from point A, which is your computer, to point B, which is the website you are going to visit. You can do it without further ado, in plain sight of everyone, or you can use a VPN which is like a tunnel where it is hidden from you and your browsing is made more private. Here, a multi-hop would mean taking several detours and several tunnels to make tracking you much more complicated. NordVPN with 76% discount The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Using this technique, your data is protected with several layers of encryption. Before leaving the computer or mobile phone, several layers are applied beforehand depending on how many hops you are going to have, and then each server decrypts its corresponding layer. It’s like putting it in a safe box to which only you know the key, but inside there is another box with another key, and inside another with another key. As if I were inside a Russian doll. This technique also change your IP address on each server to make it more difficult to track you. None of the intermediate servers will have full visibility. Meanwhile, the former knows where you come from but not where you are going, and the latter knows where you are going but not where you come from. And what’s the difference between a multi-hop or changing the VPN server manually? If you disconnect from one VPN server and connect to another, things like your IP and location change, but you’re still using a single server that knows where you come from and where you’re going, where your connection starts and ends. While, a multihop divides on two or more servers this information of where you come from and where you are going. You will have hidden more. Depending on the VPN service you have contracted or configured, this multi-hop can be offered to you in different ways. For example, NordVPN offers the option Double VPNwhich is a multi-hop on two servers. This doubles the encryption of your connection, and although it is less private than doing it on three or more servers, it means that your connection does not slow down as much. In short, this is a technique for those seeking maximum privacy, although It is not the only alternative. There are technologies like Tor network which do the same thing natively with at least three nodes, being the great reference for external anonymity. The difference is that Multi-hop chains together commercial VPN servers, while Tor routes traffic through nodes operated by anonymous volunteers, prioritizing complete anonymity over speed. You can go further by jumping between different providers Another thing to keep in mind is that multi-hop can be done within the same supplier or between different. Within the VPN provider itself, it is usually done with its own systems such as the aforementioned DobleVPN from NordVPN, a method that facilitates the process but allows the provider to have a theoretical global vision of the chain. While, doing it between different providers maximizes privacy. Doing this is more complex, as it is not natively supported in commercial apps. You would have to do this by setting up the router with a VPN and then using someone else’s software, or by using an intermediate VPS server. These are more technical configurations, although in exchange you get more privacy and security. No VPN service will have a complete view of your traffic, or if a service is hacked or has to give access to third parties through a court order, it will not have all of your browsing information either. It is for very extreme casesbut it is a possibility that exists. Multi-hop has two negative things The multi-hop technique adds as many additional layers of encryption and privacy as there are hops to different VPN servers you make. However, you already know what happens when when driving your car you deviate down several streets instead of going in a straight line: it takes you longer to reach your destination. This makes using this technique your connection is slower and has more latency. There is data which indicate that latency increases between 50 and 150 ms with each hop, while connection speed can drop between 30 and 60% per hop. This data can change a lot because they depend on aspects such as the distance between VPN servers, the protocols you are using, or the processing power of your devices. For example, jumps to geographically close servers each other cause less slowdown, while a jump between servers on different continents can severely penalize your browsing. However, although there may be changes, all this always ends up translating into The websites and apps you use take longer to loadwhere … Read more

CEO Toyota believes his extreme perfectionism is a problem

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Japan is an extremely peculiar country. It is for many reasons in the eyes of a European. One of them is the mixture of humility at work and absolute dedication to the company to achieve a common objective that materializes in designing and producing the best possible products. The contrast is more complicated to understand if possible in the automobile industry. Toyota is considered the mother of what we know today as “toyotism”. A formula to work in a chain with a very limited stock. That is, without a safety net that allows unforeseen events to be handled with a warehouse large enough to support production until the problem is solved. This is achieved, of course, by building a chain that is oiled with the precision of a Swiss watch. But also with the certainty that what goes on the market is the best version of what each worker has in hand. Toyota revolutionized automobile assembly line production by giving the workers themselves the power to stop production if any failure was detected. It is a way of working that can only be carried out when, when developing the parts and design of an entire car, you work with the firmness of philosophy Kaizen. This Japanese word defines the pursuit of perfection through continuous improvement. This allows each modified part in the process of producing a new car to have the support of years of experience behind it. This way of working has been a competitive advantage until now has made Toyota the largest car manufacturer of the world. The company was, in 2025, the world’s largest automobile producer, with more than 11 million units manufactured. Volkswagen is second and remained at 9 million units manufactured. It is the result of production measured to the millimeter and reliability earned by hard work. That philosophy kaizen which Mazda or Toyota boast has allowed the latter to always be at the top of the reliability rankings, a value when it comes to putting millions and millions of units on the market. But this way of working has its drawbacks when you have to make agile decisions. China is the train to follow “If things don’t change, we won’t survive.” The phrase is from Koij Sato, CEO of Toyota, and is especially relevant because, as we pointed out, it comes from the head of the world’s leading brand. The message was sent to 489 suppliers with the aim of making them understand the importance of improving competitiveness against Chinese companies, they state in Automotive News. According to AutoblogToyota’s quality standards have been so strict that parts have been returned with small resin wrinkles that had no impact on a vehicle’s dynamics or reliability. The same thing was happening with thousands of wire harnesses that would have been returned because they showed minor signs of discoloration. Small aesthetic defects that buyers did not even notice because they are hidden inside the vehicle itself. Now Sato has asked its suppliers to be more flexible to save money on production and be more agile. The message launched by the company’s CEO is not coincidental. Months ago, a consulting firm specialized in reverse engineering I already alerted Toyota that their electric cars were designed as combustion vehicles and that penalized them when producing them. The problem is that, according to this company, producing an electric car is so different from a combustion car that it is almost equivalent to two different products even though both have four wheels and a steering wheel. They pointed out, for example, that Toyota used steel bars and reinforcements in the steering column or to hold the dashboard, thinking about reducing vibrations. However, Chinese manufacturers and Tesla choose to increased use of plastics because those vibrations are almost non-existent in an electric car. This allows them to produce cheaper and faster. And get lighter cars. “The average customer doesn’t even see these parts,” explained Shoji Nishihara, purchasing manager for Toyota’s vehicle development department, in statements reported by forumelectriccars. The final goal is complicated. The company aims to improve competitiveness by reducing production times and making the final quality of its products more flexible. A complicated balance if we want to continue being the reference in terms of reliability. For now, Toyota believes that its perfectionism was already bordering on healthy. Photo | toyota In Xataka | The legend of the Toyota Supra, one of the legendary Japanese sports cars: the fusion of illegal racing and the Kaizen philosophy

the birth of the most extreme magnetic monster in the universe

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In the vast catalog of violent cosmic events, there are explosions and then there are superluminous supernovae, which are nothing more than the result of a stellar death which is capable of shining up to 100 times brighter than a conventional supernova, challenging our understanding of astrophysics for years, since it is not known where it can get so much energy from. Now we are getting an idea. What do we know? The big news in the world of astrophysics comes from an international team of astronomers who has been able to observe for the first time the live birth of a magnetar, conclusively confirming the link between these highly magnetic stellar corpses and the brightest supernovae in the cosmos. Where. The protagonist of this discovery is SN 2024fav, a type I superluminous supernova detected on December 9, 2024 and located in the Eridanus constellation about 1,000 million light years from us. And it’s not that it is a very common phenomenon, because watching this event is like looking for a needle in an intergalactic haystack. Finding this ‘needle’ is something very precious and that is why, in order not to lose any detail of this brilliant monster, the astronomical community mobilized a network of more than 20 telescopes around the world, including the fundamental contribution of the LOCGT. Thanks to this uninterrupted surveillance, scientists obtained the observational data necessary to reconstruct what was happening in the depths of the explosion. The relativistic screech. The question here is pretty clear: how do you confirm that there is a magnetar inside that expanding fireball? The first thing is to know what a magnetar is, which is nothing other than a very dense neutron star that has a magnetic field trillions of times stronger than that of the Earth. And it is not static, because when born after the collapse of a massive star it can rotate several times per second, reaching high speeds. In order to discover it, the researchers have named what gave them the key ‘relativistic chirp’. In this way, as the newborn magnetar rotates at the center of the supernova, its immense magnetic field acts as a brake, transferring its colossal rotational energy to the ejected stellar matter, causing it to shine with such extreme intensity. What they saw. From here, the researchers precisely detected the temporal signature of this external braking. From here, the light curve of SN 2024afav fit perfectly with the prediction of the energy loss of an incipient magnetar injecting power into the supernova, so we are facing the birth of a magnetar. Its importance. This discovery not only allows us to understand why certain stars say goodbye to the universe with a blinding brightness capable of eclipsing entire galaxies, but also opens a new window to study the behavior of matter subjected to such extreme magnetic fields that modern physics can barely replicate on paper. Images | NASA Hubble Space Telescope In Xataka | James Webb has been detecting red dots in the universe for years: the only problem is that we don’t know what they are

When a mountaineer experiences extreme experiences on the mountain, his brain begins to imagine something: a “third man”

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Not all adventures have to be successfully resolved to become epic. It happened with what is known as Imperial Transantarcticthe expedition that left England in August 1914 under the orders of explorer Ernest Shackleton with an enormous purpose and not for the faint of heart: cross Antarcticafrom Vahsel in the Weddell Sea to Ross Island at the other end. Due to the harsh conditions at the South Pole, the ship Endurance ended up trapped between ice and Shackleton saw how his plans became complicated until they dragged him into a real feat that took his endurance and that of his colleagues to a limit level only achievable between icebergs, glacial temperatures and extreme exhaustion. The explorer’s feat also served something that he probably did not even suspect: coining the expression “third man factor or syndrome”. Well known by mountaineers and which is, even today, a fascinating phenomenon. “Who is the third person walking beside you?” Ernest Shackleton (left) with Robert Falcon Scott and Edward Wilson in Antarctica, 1902. The phenomenon was described by Shackleton when he recalled the very hard two and a half days during which he advanced—along with Frank Worseley and Tom Cream—towards a whaling station located on the northern coast of South Georgia. The group walked 36 long hours between terrible conditions, with hardly any material and avoiding death. On their shoulders they also carried the responsibility of having to help the rest of their companions from the ill-fated Imperial Transantarctic. Only the three of them, Ernest, Frank and Tom, wandered through the desolate Antarctica, although if someone had asked them how many people made up that desperate entourage, they would probably have answered something different: that with them was another person, a fourth member, nameless, faceless… but undeniable. “I know that during that long and stormy march over nameless mountains and glaciers, it often seemed to me that there were four of us, not three,” the explorer wrote. That common feeling, precise Guardianoverwhelmed the three men who undertook the journey: the presence of a “fourth” that accompanied them. Such an expression must have surprised the poet. T. S. Eliotwho some time later, in 1922, after reading Shackleton’s story, picked up the idea to capture it in his popular poem The Waste Land: “Who is the third one who always walks by your side? When I count, there is only you and me together, but when I look ahead on the white road there is always another walking at your side.” Eliot’s license, which changed Shackleton’s “fourth” man for a “third” was successful and since then we usually talk about the “third man syndrome” to refer to that: the feeling of a ghost companion, a presence that in a way comforts people who face a borderline sensation. Shackleton was not the only one to describe it. Several years after his death, in 1933, Frank SmytheBritish and explorer like him, recounted an experience similar while trying to summit Mount Everest. “The whole time I was climbing alone I had the strong feeling that I was accompanied by a second person. It was so strong that completely eliminated all the loneliness I might otherwise have felt,” the explorer wrote in his diary. So vivid was the sensation that, Smythe explains, at one point during the ascent he searched in his pocket, took out a piece of Kendal Mint Cakebroke it and turned to offer one of the halves to that companion who felt so close. He didn’t see anyone, of course. You don’t have to go back that far in time. Not that far. The Madrid mountaineer Fernando Garrido wrote in his notebook the feeling that came over him when, at the beginning of 1986, he spent more than two months on the lonely summit of the Aconcaguaat almost 7,000 meters, to achieve the altitude survival record. “Today, like other times, I woke up with the feeling that there was someone outsidenext to the store. Have you spent the night there? Why didn’t he call me to let him in? (…) —said the mountaineer in statements collected for him The Confidential—He’s my brother, my brother Javier! Javi, wake up, come on, wake up! I turn it towards me. “He is dead, his head is a skull.” “A solid science” A good handful of articles and references have been written about the phenomenon, some in media within the reach of Guardian either NPRand in 2008 the writer John Geiger dedicated a monographic book to him, ‘The Third Man Factor: Surviving the Impossible’ after spending five years tracking down similar stories. It is more complicated than collecting experiences, however, to give them a plausible explanation. Years ago, during a chat with the journalist NPR’s Guy Raz, Geiger reported that there are those who turn to spirituality, although he insists that the syndrome can be explained by “a solid science”. “Many skeptics and non-believers have had this experience and attribute it to other causes,” claims the author, who in his volume even includes the case of a 9/11 survivor. In 2009 Geiger pointed out explanations such as biochemical reactions or simply failures in brain activity. “If we understand that the third man factor is part of us, like adrenaline is… then we can access it more easily. It is not a hallucination in the sense that hallucinations are disordered. This is a very useful and orderly guide,” he reflected. Years ago, researchers Ben Alderson-Day and David Smailes commented on the phenomenon and they explained that “strong feelings of presence” do not occur only in dramatic circumstances. Cases have been recorded after bereavement, during sleep paralysis or in cases of neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease or brain damage. “The different contexts in which they occur give us some clues about what could be happening,” they say. “Understanding more about how and why felt presences occur has the potential to tell us many things about ourselves: how we react under intense mental or physical stress, how we deal with danger and threat, … Read more

The extreme stress of the Spanish water network explained from within

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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

The US has such a big problem with Asian carp in its rivers that it has decided something extreme: electrocute them

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Back in the 70s in the United States someone had an idea to control the growth of algae, weeds and parasites from aquaculture farms in the southern states: introduce four species of carp from Asia, more specifically the bighead carpthe black carpthe grass carp and the silver carp. If you know a little about biology or ever fishing you have come across a tremendous catfishwhat happened next will not surprise you: he got into a mess. Tonight we cross the Mississippi. These four voracious “natural herbicides” released in Arkansas were colonizing the river network, first ascending the Mississippi River and its tributaries and helped by floods to reach open rivers until threatening the Great Lakes located in the northern United States, this chronology of expansion and reproduction details it the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The impressive Mississippi basin or how carp left Arkansas for the Great Lakes. Via Shannon1 They are true titans. Carp are a great example of adaptive management of invasive species: they are able to withstand different environments, can live for several decades and lay millions of eggs. Carp are in their element at the bottom of lakes, ponds or rivers and they swallow everything, since practically any organic matter will do, from plankton to small fish. So they gobble up food that native species could eat. Destination: Great Lakes. Present in every state of the continental United States, the northern Great Lakes are a destination as desirable as it is devastating. In addition to the damage to the ecosystem, a large-scale invasion would cause a catastrophe to the local economy while decimating the fishing industry, which generates approximately 7 billion dollars a year. So the Administration, scientists and environmentalists have been drawing up plans for years to keep them out of there. The grass carp has already been sighted in the lake erie. How many Asian carp can you catch? The first measure they implemented was to encourage the increase of their fishing, with tournaments such as the Redneck Fishing Tournament so that those who participate try to capture as many as they can. The problem is that fishing is not enough to decimate a species with such a reproductive desire. Michigan DNR Aquatic Species Expert Seth Herbst concludes that It would be necessary to get rid of 80% so that its population does not recover. If you can’t handle it, eat it.. In 2022 the Illinois Department of Natural Resources had an idea: use large-scale commercial fishing as an aquatic management tool to reduce population pressure. In other words: encourage human consumption of carp, which renamed “Copi”. Carp meat is rich in protein and is consumed in China and other Asian countries, so why not in the United States? The campaign is still alive and well (like the tents): on the campaign website there is a long list of recipes and restaurants in different states where you can try them. And speaking of recipes, this one from “Can’t Beat ‘Em, Eat ‘Em” (if you can’t beat ’em, eat ’em) gives more ideas for cooking this and other invasive species. The delicious Asian carp taco Chicago’s electric wall. Since 2013, the United States Army Corps of Engineers A series of permanent electric barriers are operational in the Chicago area waterway system with a direct current field of 2.3 Volts per square inch (about 0.35 Volts per square centimeter). This spark does not kill the carp, it only paralyzes them so that they do not advance and remain downstream. Of course, this method is not infallible: changes in water levels or the salt used for defrosting can alter the conductivity of the water and, therefore, the effectiveness of this method. In addition, smaller specimens can escape into shelters that form between boats. And one obvious thing: it affects carp and non-carp fish, thus altering their behavior. And yet, it continues to be used. Looking for the infallible system against carp. In the river basins of Illinois they have tried walls of bubbles made from a pipe, thus obstructing their vision. Its sound also serves as a warning. The problem? That also affects native species. And one step further, a variant in the form of cavitation curtains in which the bubbles are broken to disturb the fish. This method was the winner of the contest Carp Tankwith a succulent reward of $500,000 to whoever came up with the definitive idea. Brandon Road Dam Project The chaos zone. Since electricity is not 100% infallible, in 2024 they allocated 858 million dollars to build the dam project. Brandon Road Interbasind which has everything: improved electric barriers, acoustic deterrents (the silver carp jump when they hear the noise of the engines) and bubbles to obscure their vision. The objective is to prevent the carp from crossing the dam at all, minimizing damage to the rest. In Xataka | The Iberian Peninsula is being invaded: more than 1,200 exotic species have come to stay In Xataka | The coypu, one of the 100 most harmful invasive species in the world, is at the doors of Barcelona Cover | Flickr

We believed that a vegetarian diet guaranteed longevity. In extreme old age, the data says just the opposite

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There are many positions in nutrition about what food It is the one that will give us a better old age. One of the positions that you have surely heard is the need to reduce meat consumption to prioritize vegetables for everyone the benefits that they contribute. But now science is pointing out that what works at age 40 may not be ideal at age 90. The change of course. A published study this same year in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has shaken the hornet’s nest of gerontology after analyzing thousands of elderly people. The conclusion they have drawn is that among those over 80 years of age, those who consume meat are more likely to become centenarians than strict vegetarians. But before you rush to cancel your salad order, read the fine print: the key is not the meat per sebut weight, fragility and the fight against muscle loss. The data. In order to reach this conclusion, the study analyzed data from a longevity survey in the Chinese population carried out between 1998 and 2018. In total, the researchers followed 5,203 participants who were over 80 years old, classifying them based on omnivores or vegetariansincluding vegans and ovolactovegetarians. The results. Adjusting for age, gender, and baseline health, the study yielded a surprising finding: vegetarian diets were associated with a 25% lower chance of reaching age 100 compared to omnivorous diets. A correlation that was statistically significant mainly in the elderly who were already thin. Thinness. This is a really important point to present one of the nuances of this research. And the advantage of carnivores disappears in people who have a weight within the established normality. Thus, the negative association between being vegetarian and extreme longevity was observed almost exclusively in participants with a BMI lower than 18.5. That is, extreme thinness. This reinforces what is sometimes known in medicine as the “paradox of obesity in old age“. While in youth overweight is a risk factor for almost everything, in extreme old age, having energy reserves and muscle mass is life insurance. This is why the authors of the study emphasize that the consumption of foods of animal origin seems to act as a protective factor against malnutrition and frailty in these vulnerable individuals. Because. The biological explanation that suggests that meat is good in old age is based on the constant fight against degradation. One of these events is the dreaded sarcopeniawhich occurs when the natural loss of muscle mass accelerates over time. One of the objectives here, as we have repeated many times, is to maintain muscle with highly bioavailable proteins that are in meat, eggs and milk. In addition to this, the study suggests that strict vegetarians, especially thin ones, may not be ingesting enough total calories to maintain their physiology in stressful situations. And it is not crazy now, but previous studies have already pointed out that, although restricting meat reduces mortality in young people and middle adults, this effect was reversed in old age. They don’t cast a shadow. Logically, this study does not negate the many benefits of a plant-based diet for the general population. In fact, there are studies that suggest that for the vast majority of the population the priority continues to be preventing serious chronic diseases such as diabetes. However, this work suggests that nutrition must be dynamic, since the requirement in middle age is not the same as in the last years of life. Images | Simon Godfrey Kile Mickey In Xataka | Being bored is psychologically positive but it has an undesirable consequence on your body: it makes you gain weight.

This is one of the most extreme northern lights hunts in Norway

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There are nights when northern Norway does not promise anything, and that is precisely why it is so attractive. Close darkness, sustained cold and a landscape that, for hours, barely offers references beyond mountains, snow and silence. In this context, the idea of ​​going out to search northern lights It stops looking like a conventional tourist plan and becomes something else, a conscious wait in a unique environment with epicenter in Narvik. What is offered here is not a themed train or a rolling observation deck, but rather a nighttime experience organized around a real railway journey. The call Northern Lights Train It uses an existing line to get away from the city and take travelers to areas with very little light pollution, where waiting is a central part of the plan. The train is the means, not the end, and the proposal is structured around moving, getting off, waiting and returning. Everything is designed to increase the chances of seeing auroras. A trip designed to pursue something unique Traveling on the Ofoten line means crossing one of the most unique railway corridors in northern Norway. In the context of this experience, the journey functions as a process of gradual disconnection, Narvik is left behind and, with it, artificial lighting and the feeling of an inhabited environment. The train enters a mountainous landscape where the sky begins to take over. The itinerary has two proper names that organize the experience. The first is Bjørnfjella station located next to the border with Sweden, where the train makes a brief stop before continuing its ascent. The final destination is Katteratabout 374 meters above sea level, a former railway enclave with no road access. That detail is not minor, getting there is only possible by train, and it turns the place into a particularly secluded point. Once in Katterat, the experience shifts from journey to waiting. Travelers get off the train and move on foot through the immediate surroundings, where a meeting point is organized around a bonfire. There is a hot drink and some simple food, not as a gastronomic attraction, but as support against the cold and the waiting time. The pace consciously slows down and the night takes over as the group remains attentive to the sky. Here the guides fulfill a more strategic than spectacular function. They are the ones who interpret forecasts, explain why it is expected at a specific point and adjust the plan if conditions change. They are also those who lower expectations, remembering that the dawn does not light up on demand and that the night can be resolved without major apparitions. This balance between information, prudence and support is an essential part of the product offered. Auroras are not a local or spontaneous phenomenon, but the visible consequence of processes that begin much further away. The origin is in the solar wind, a flow of charged particles ejected by the Sun constantly and It takes around 40 hours to reach Earth. When this material interacts with the Earth’s magnetic field, it is deflected towards the poles and collides with oxygen and nitrogen at high altitudes. If we talk about the price, the train trip, the organization of the wait, the hot drinks, the snack and the guide’s explanations are part of the same package, whose cost starts at 1495 Norwegian crowns (about 127 euros). The model is clear, to shape an unpredictable night within an organized experience, where the value is not in the result, but in the set of elements that make the attempt possible. The journey ends as it began, on rails, with the train returning to Narvik as the group leaves Katerat behind and the mountain once again closes in darkness. Heaven may or may not have answeredbut the experience has already been completed on another level. What remains is the feeling of having participated in something that cannot be forced, where the journey, the wait and the context weigh as much as the result. It should be noted that an image that does not correspond to reality has been built on these types of experiences lately. On social networks and some media circulate images and videospossibly generated or altered with artificial intelligence, showing supposed luxury Norwegian trains with wrap-around glass roofs and perfect views of the sky. Those trains do not exist. The real experience, as we have seen, is very different from those recreations. Images | Norwegian Travel | Visit Narvik | Arctic Train In Xataka | Marbella is no longer the favorite destination of Russian millionaires: it is now a paradise island in China where they are not held accountable

Before, advertising was to monetize. Now it is to punish you and YouTube has taken it to the extreme

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About fifteen years ago, online advertising was the implicit deal: you saw a banner or a pre-roll fifteen seconds and you had free access to everything. It wasn’t ideal, but it was logical: someone paid for the content you consumed so you didn’t have to pay for it. It worked because the discomfort was proportionate. That exists less and less. What we have now is something else: the platforms have discovered that advertising serves less to monetize than to push. To degrade the free experience until paying premium stops being a whim and becomes the only tolerable way to use the product. And no one does it with more brazenness – or mastery – than YouTube. That’s how he hunted me. If you use it without paying, you know: increasingly longer and more frequent ads, several before starting the video, the same shady spot repeated three times in ten minutes. Ads that cut sentences in half, destroy the rhythm of a song, or appear just when you got to the part you were interested in. It is that way by design. YouTube doesn’t need to show you so many ads to monetize. You would probably earn more with less, better targeted advertising. But it’s not about that. It’s about making the free experience so unbearable that you end up paying to stay sane. I don’t pay YouTube Premium for what it offers me, but for what it takes from me. And more and more people pay not because they want extra features, but so they don’t end up crashing their phone on the ground. Other platforms do the same but disguise it better. Netflix with shared accounts, Disney+ with the video quality on the cheap plan, Spotify putting ads on you and forcing random mode. They are visible tricks, but at least you have less and what you have works. YouTube has gone further: it doesn’t take away your features, it poisons them. The catalog is still complete, but the experience is hostile. You pay with your patience and with your fragmented attention. The curious thing is that YouTube is pretty honest. It doesn’t talk about Premium as an “improved experience” or “exclusive content.” It basically tells you: if you want this to stop being hell, check out. They don’t deceive. They tell you what the deal is. Forks the Internet model in the 1920s. Platforms no longer build something so good that people want to pay for it. They make the free plan so bad that there is no other option. The logic is identical: friction is no longer a side effect. It’s the lever. This also says something about us: a decade ago, ads were annoying but bearable. Today they are intrusions that we cannot tolerate. We have normalized that the Internet should be fluid, without interruptions or waiting. The platforms know it. They know that we have lost the ability to endure any friction. So they make it, multiply it, and then charge you to remove it. YouTube has perfected something that other platforms may not want to admit: The ad no longer sells products. Sell ​​your own absence. And that is perhaps the only advertising that really works. In Xataka | I’ve been paying for YouTube Premium for years and I don’t regret it. The problem is that going back is impossible. Featured image | Xataka with Mockuuups Studio

How to see the warnings for extreme cold and snow anywhere in Spain

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We are going to tell you how to see the AEMET weather warnings, with which you will be able to know every day when and where extreme cold or snow is expected to fall. This way, you can get this information directly from the main source. On this website you will be able to see a map with the weather warnings indicated with colors, depending on whether they are yellow, orange or red alerts. You will also know if the alerts are due to wind, waves, extreme temperatures or snow. Check weather warnings To check the weather warnings throughout the Spanish territory you have to enter the website aemet.es/es/eltiempo/forecast/notices. On this web page, at the top you will see a map where weather alerts are indicated. On the left you can choose to see only a specific type of alerts or on specific days. Below the map you will have a timeline, so you can review the status of the alerts hour by hour by clicking on the one you want. And below, you will first have a list with all the notices in a color code, indicating towns and showing you icons so that you know the main notices that are in each of them. Furthermore, below you will have the details of the notices. In them you will be given specific information about each of the notices, such as their level, expected values ​​or probability, as well as comments and start and end times. In Xataka Basics | Personal weather forecast in Gemini: how to use it to ask the weather today and how to schedule forecasts to appear for you

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