extremely

Australia has a problem: extremely boring and monotonous roads. And it also has a solution: sign trivia

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If you drive on Australian roads you may come across unusual signs and we are not talking about the kangaroos warning (that also), but the one that warns you that you are about to cross the “90 Mile Straight“, a stretch of almost 150 kilometers in a straight line that means spending just under two hours without turning the steering wheel. Or a sign that directly throws you a random question typical of Trivial. The objective is that your brain does not disconnect because on such a monotonous route, boredom can be lethal. In fact, Australia has some of the most dangerous roads in the world and it is not because of their poor condition or their dizzying curves, quite the opposite: they are too long, too straight and too empty. So the country is exploring different solutions to avoid this potentially deadly drowsiness. Boring Australian roads. All of these roads have decent pavement, a predictable layout, a landscape with little variation and little traffic, a recipe for disaster: The Eyre Highway takes the cake: it connects Western Australia with South Australia across the plain Nullarbor Plain (which takes its name from the Latin: treeless) between Balladonia and Caiguna: 200,000 square kilometers of limestone land with hardly any vegetation or hills. A 146.6 km straight line without a single curve that you have to travel at 110 km/h (the legal limit in most of the country). After the Saudi Arabia Highway 10is the second longest straight road in the world. The Stuart Highway It crosses the center of the continent from north to south, from Darwin to Port Augusta, traveling more than 2,700 kilometers inland on a fairly simple route that also crosses the Northern Territory. There it has large stretches through northern areas with distances up to 252 kilometers Between gas stations, temperatures of up to 45 °C are reached and a landscape monotony that has little to envy of the Nullarbor. In fact, one of the roads with the highest rate of fatigue accidents in the country, according to the Australian government. The Barkly Highway It connects Queensland to the Northern Territory via the Barkly Tableland, a flat, arid plateau where the road stretches almost straight for hundreds of kilometres. The extreme heat, the total absence of shade and the sections without signage or rest areas make it a minefield for those who travel through it. The Flinders Highway Also in Queensland it runs through the interior of the state for more than 800 kilometers. It connects Townsville with the interior through a repetitive landscape, with little traffic and long distances between towns, the ideal breeding ground for boredom. At night it is even worse. The danger of road hypnosis. The highway hypnosis or white line fever is more than just being bored and drowsy: it is an altered mental state that allows you to continue driving, responding to basic stimuli and maintaining speed, but without being aware of what you are doing. Simply put: put your brain on automatic mode. science has an explanation: Flat, straight roads with little landscape variation produce a chronic deficiency of sensory stimulation, reducing alertness to dangerously low levels, causing drowsiness and inattention. This study on the phenomenon explains that cognitive fatigue reaches its peak just 20 minutes after entering that monotonous environment, much sooner than it might seem, even for those who are driving. When the brain warns, it has already been on autopilot for a while. The consequences can be tragic: unconscious speed increases or a minimal reaction capacity that already causes havoc. In Australia, fatigue while driving is four times more likely as a cause of this road hypnosis than drugs or alcohol. In Queensland, it accounts for 20 to 30% of road deaths. A15, Queensland. Via Google Maps Trivia on signs. The solution that Australian authorities have been implementing for years is so simple that it is shocking: posters with a question and answer game. As you enter one of those boringly dangerous areas, you come across a yellow sign that warns: “Fatigue Zone. Trivia Games Help You Stay Alert” (Fatigue zone. Trivia games to help you stay alert). From that moment on, you will find signs scattered along the route several kilometers away with a question and his corresponding response. Example: Question: Who was the first Premier of Queensland? Answer: Robert Herbert. And so on. The cognitive mechanism is exactly what science describes: introducing an unexpected and irrelevant stimulus for driving that forces the brain to come off autopilot. So the driver has to read, process the question, remember and, if there is a co-driver, even debate the answer. And then wait to see the solution a little later. A simple but effective way to activate the mind. Each question and answer is glued to the panel and secured with a padlock, allowing them to be renewed. And does it work? Well, probably yes, but no one has rigorously measured it. However, in theory the mechanism is supported by neuroscience. Professor Narelle Haworth, Director of the Center for Accident Research and Road Safety Queensland, endorses his presence: “Always doing the same thing, without much stimulation, causes a decrease in alertness (…) The idea of ​​trivia games on the road is to keep drivers more attentive… perhaps a passenger who knows the answer will start a conversation.” But Haworth herself acknowledges that although the objective is in line with road safety research, there is no study that has specifically analyzed the impact of the signs. In addition, it has its limitations: the signs lose effectiveness with those who travel the same route frequently and already know all the questions. And obviously they have a quite common risk in these times: Someone might think to look at their cell phone to look for the answer. And in any case, it does not replace rest. Triple animal sign. Bahnfrend, Wikimedia Trivia by dropper. This measure started in 2012 by the Queensland Transport Administration with the aim of “helping drivers … Read more

There are people so extremely competitive in ‘Tetris’ that they are literally breaking the game

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He ‘Tetris‘ for NES has been in circulation for 35 years. Most players who try this or any of the other home versions still operate it with their thumbs, like in 1989. But in the competitive scene (where the NES port is the most common version), however, the grip of the Nintendo controller is different. And it continues to evolve: for a few years now a new technique has been making it possible for the game’s classic records to be pulverized one after another. So much so that the first human to “beat” ‘Tetris’ did so with this new technique. ‘Tetris’: The End. The NES ‘Tetris’, released in the United States in 1989, has an ending. More or less: upon reaching level 29, the falling speed of the pieces doubles so abruptly that it is considered impossible to react in time to rotate and move them. The score counter also freezes when it reaches 999,999 (the so-called maxout). It’s not exactly impossible to overcome, but it’s difficult enough that it’s always been considered that way. For years, it was considered the ceiling of the game The best players in the world competed in the annual Classic Tetris World Championship (CTWC) with the goal of accumulating as many points as possible before level 29 stopped them. That was the way to determine a winner: maximum points before level 29. The considered best player in the world was Jonas Neubauer, with seven titles in nine consecutive finals. The controller was held as it has always been done, pressed at the speed that human thumbs would allow, and level 29 was the limit. DAS: the lifelong technique. DAS is the acronym for Delayed Auto Shift and it is the traditional way of playing. This is the standard behavior of the game when the D-pad is held down: although the pieces fall at maximum speed, there is a short delay before the piece begins to move, and that speed is around 10 Hz (ten moves per second). Competitive players who use the DAS technique do not simply hold the button down: they have perfected the pressure times to take advantage of that delay and throw pieces to the side with maximum efficiency. Between 2010 and 2017, the early years of CTWC, DAS players dominated the scene, but the deadly level 29 held everyone back equally. However, as we will see, this form of control has become outdated although today, the tournament has created its own category (the DAS Jonas Cup) to preserve this technique within the official competition. A sign that it is a classic wood technique, but it also indicates to what extent it has been displaced by more modern ones. Hypertapping is coming. This consensus was broken in 2011. Thor Aackerlund demonstrated that level 29 could be overcome with a different technique: instead of holding down the D-pad to take advantage of the delay of each piece, he pressed the controller repetitively and very quickly, pressing the D-pad at full speed. He hypertappingas this technique is known, allows the pieces to move at about 12 Hz, bypassing the DAS delay. Aackerlund thus reached level 30, and the community adopted the technique immediately. Problems and glory of hypertapping. Without a doubt, the big problem with the technique is how physically demanding it is: counterintuitive gripping positions on the controller, continuous muscular effort and, therefore, a real risk of injury. In 2018, 16-year-old Joseph Saelee defeated seven-time world champion Neubauer in the CTWC final using hypertapping. The effect was immediate: in a very short time, the hypertappers They took the records to levels that no one had reached: Saelee reached level 31 in 2018, and for 2020 the best hypertappers They had reached level 38. The ceiling was rising, but it was still a ceiling. The drummer. In November 2020, Christopher Martinez designed a new technique. Instead of pressing one finger on the pad at full speed, he placed one static finger on top of the pad and tapped the back of the controller with the others. When pressing from the bottom up, it was the crosshead that pressed the finger, so to speak. The result was up to 30 beats per second, the technical limit allowed by the framerate 60 Hz of the NES. Or put another way: double what the hypertapping faster. Martinez was inspired by techniques of tapping fast developed by speedrunners. Justin Yu, CTWC 2023 champion, described the principle as “you don’t have to use a single muscle; you use all your fingers to push the controller into your hand.” The ergonomic advantage is important: the hypertapping exhausts, but the rolling It distributes the effort between several fingers, in a way that the players themselves have compared to the way in which pianists and drummers optimize the effort of their arms and hands to reach high speeds. And it’s completely legal in tournaments. Stratospheric levels. The breaking of the invisible ceiling that until the arrival of the hypertapping had been at level 29 moved on. In August 2022, the player EricICX reached level 138, where the colors of the pieces are corrupted due to a bug in the original code: the developers had never planned for anyone to get that far. And then, Willis Gibson, known online as Blue Scuti, only 13 years old and with two years of experience playing ‘Tetris’, reached level 157 in a 38-minute session and the game crashed. He became the first person to “beat” the NES game. The post-rolling era. He rolling It is also changing how competitive players train. Instead of starting from level 1, they work directly from level 29 (which was previously the limit), because if you master the fastest level as your usual starting point, the previous ones lose all difficulty. CTWC co-founder states that, possibly in a few years all the finalists will reach level 28 with the score at the maximum and continue up to 50 without much difficulty. The last frontier. Level 255 was the theoretical … Read more

Mexico has made an extremely ambitious bet on the Mayan Train. And now a judge has suspended her

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“It is a magnum opus, we are not exaggerating if we say that there is no one like it in the world today.” The phrase It was pronounced at the end of 2023 by former Mexican president Manuel López Obrador, and although in politics (no matter the nation) the use of superlatives is common, the truth is that it was not misguided. What López Obrador was referring to was the Mayan Trainan ambitious railway circuit of more than 1,500 kilometers that started more than two years ago between Campeche and Cancun and continues to take shape become a priority of the Government. Mexico needs it to be a success, but not at any price. What has happened? That the Mexican justice system has just reminded the country’s administration that, no matter how important and strategic it may be, the Mayan Train cannot advance with its back to the regulations. That is why it has issued a suspension order that will mark the works of one of its most controversial sections. For the project to continue advancing, from now on the authorities will have to put more effort into protecting natural resources in one of the most sensitive areas through which the railway must circulate: the region located between Cancún and Tulum, right where it passes. Section 5 of the Mayan Train. What has justice done? Dictate a final suspension order focused on that specific section. That does not mean that it has condemned the project or that the Mayan Train should give up its Cancún-Tulum stretch, although it does represent a wake-up call for those responsible for the project and a reminder that the work must advance while respecting its environment. Basically what the magistrate has done is demand that the environmental authorities of Mexico confirm that the project complies with the regulations and are responsible for monitoring it. The court order obliges the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (Profepa) to carry out direct and permanent inspections in the Cancún-Tulum section. No revisions on paper or reports signed from the offices in Mexico City, miles from where the works are being carried out. The ruling was issued thanks to the mediation of the organization ‘Save me’ and is addressed to Profepa and the General Directorate of Crimes, Commutations, Complaints and Complaints. Is it so important? Yes. According to precise The Chroniclerthe order places several duties on the competent agencies that, in practice, will force them to reinforce their surveillance. To begin with, they will have to carry out direct, field supervision of the project. They must also verify the effects on protected species, the protection of cenotes and control underground rivers. Finally, the ruling points out the need to prepare detailed reports. If these demands are not met, those responsible could face sanctions. What do environmentalists say? Sélvame has valued the judge’s decision as “a significant achievement” in the defense of the media. “It is an important step towards the protection of natural resources and guarantees that verification, inspection, conservation and protection actions will be carried out in the event of pertinent public complaints,” celebrate. The groups that have been warning for some time about alleged irregularities, such as tree felling or unsupervised work that affects wetlands, they advance that they will be attentive so that the order is carried out. What area does it affect? That is one of the keys. The Mayan Train is a wide railway circuit, more than 1,500 kmbut the focus has been placed on a very specific point: Section 5, which is in turn divided into various segments (north and south) between Tulum and Cancun. In total, according to the Mayan Train Guidemeasures just over 100 km. Beyond its length, shorter than other sections, the local press stands out which is one of the most sensitive. The reason: the presence of vulnerable ecosystems, caves and underground rivers and the threat to their biodiversity. In August 2024 the Verified platform assured that the construction of the Mayan Train had affected approximately 7.3 million trees, a good part (3.5 million) in Section 5. In 2024 A court has already ordered work to stop until geological, geophysical and hydrological studies are delivered. Why is it important? To begin with and as López Obrador himself recognized in December 2023, when he presided over the inaugural tour of the Mayan Train, because the railway circuit is not just any project. And not only because of its impact on the environment, its dimensions, its costs or enormous ambition. With it, the Mexican authorities aspire to promote the development of the southeastern region, articulating a new communications backbone that favors tourism. The problem is that its implementation is not being easy. Its premiere has not had the expected success (at least in passenger traffic) and its management has just change handsmoving to the Secretary of Defense. Images | Mayan Train In Xataka | In case Machu Picchu had not already become a tourist theme park, Peru has had an idea: add an airport

Some extremely complicated days are coming

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If two years ago someone would have told us that today we would be wishing If it stopped raining, we wouldn’t have believed it. But reality always exceeds our expectations and, this week, it is about to also exceed the hydrological limits of the south and west of the country. And with the terrain already saturated after weeks of storms and more storms, AEMET rain warning “intense and extraordinarily persistent” that can trigger floods, floods and landslides, as well as strong winds and maritime storms. We don’t know what’s coming to us. What is going to happen? At a technical level, on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday the arrival of the high-impact storm Leonardo (fed by a current of humid subtropical air) will initiate an episode of precipitation that can turn the entire third of the peninsula and many points in the west of the country upside down. He black point is in Grazalemathe Ronda mountain range and the Strait of Gibraltar with up to 250 mm of rain in 24 hours. To this we must add Sierra Nevada, which, although it will receive about 100 mm, the rise in the snow level can cause a massive thaw that puts the entire Genil basin and the rivers of the Mediterranean coast in check. In general, any point in the south facing windward and areas with orographic enhancement are candidates to receive a huge hydrometeorological impact. It is not a specific event. Above all, because adding Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, more than 400 mm are expected in parts of the Béticas. To this we must add the more than 200mm in the upper Guadalquivir and the more than 100mm in the basin. That is, a lot of water. Something that added to that “The soil is clay and its use is agricultural.“, will make the filtration very poor. The entire Guadalquivir valley from Córdoba onwards is activating eviction plans because the overflowing of the river is a risk that cannot be ignored. Beyond the floods. Because yes, floods and overflows are possibly the main problem and the Hydrographic Confederations are working at full speed to regulate the levels of channels and reservoirs in anticipation. However, the problems are many and landslides that can cut roads, damage buildings and destroy basic infrastructure are not minor. Why is this happening? Or, rather, why is it going to happen? And the key to all this is the combination between “it has already rained a lot” with “more is coming.” When the soil is near saturation (and, right now, it is), the extra rain is almost automatically transformed into runoff: streams and ravines grow quickly and the risk of flooding increases even without a specific “waterspout” being necessary. Here, therefore, the problem is not so much in the sky (that too) but in the orography. We will see persistent rains that will accumulate enormous amounts in a few hours and the insufficiency of drainage infrastructure will do the rest. In other words, if we have to summarize everything we are going to experience in the next few hours and days, the precise word is “be careful.” Great care. Image | ECMWF In Xataka | What seemed like a “festival of storms” has turned into a nightmare: AEMET prepares for “the highest hydrometeorological impacts in the world”

Parmersan cheese is extremely serious business in Italy. To the point of having his own agent in Hollywood

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The most famous cheese in the world (with permission from Cabrales) has just hired representation in Hollywood. The Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium (which is what the Italians call what we simply call Parmesan) has signed United Talent Agency (UTA), one of the leading agencies in the film industry, to boost the presence of the Italian product in films, television series and platforms streaming on an international scale. The agreement. The strategy seeks to position this cheese with a Protected Designation of Origin in global productions in a more or less natural way, taking advantage of the fact that it is known throughout the world. According to statements by Carmine Forbuso, marketing manager of the Italian organization, the cheese represents “simplicity, quality and depth” thanks to only three ingredients, all natural, and centuries of tradition in its artisanal production. Exports of the product reached 53.2% in the first eight months of 2025. How’s the thing going? product placement. The global advertising placement market reached $33 billion in 2024 with a growth of 12.3% annually, which far exceeds the increase in traditional advertising investment. This marketing strategy has been experiencing four consecutive years of double-digit expansion, and as a marketing strategy it has doubled in size compared to 2018, so no, we are not just talking about the jar of soluble cocoa in ‘Family Doctor’. Specialized agencies as UTA ​​Entertainment Marketingwhich will represent parmesan, have doubled revenue in two years. And it seems to work: the success of this tactic lies in its naturalness, since more than 52% of US consumers They prefer these appearances over conventional advertisements. Some precedents in Hollywood. The history of product placement modern food has its founding moment in 1982when candy brand Reese’s Pieces focused all the attention on a crucial scene from Spielberg’s ‘ET.’ Mars refused to allow M&M’s to be used and it was quite a mistake, as Hershey, makers of Reese’s Pieces, tripled sales in two weeks. Currently it is a popular resource: in 2024, for exampleCoca-Cola appeared in 561 films and series. When it goes wrong. However, the forced placement It often generates rejection, and it is something that brands have to take into account. The oldest people in the place remember with a shudder the movie ‘My Friend Mac’ (curiously, a plagiarism of ‘ET’), full of covert advertising for Pepsi and MacDonald’s, and in whose restaurants even a musical number took place. When the brand interrupts the logical narrative of the film The viewer perceives it as invasive advertising, and that is what happened in this classic of eighties alien dandruff. Header | Brands&People in Unsplash In Xataka | Italy’s forbidden dish: a cheese so extreme in its preparation that the European Union had to put limits on it

Spain is a country extremely loyal to its local supermarkets. A chain wants to change that: Action

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He already competitive and highly contested sector of retail Spanish has become complicated with the emergence of a new actor, one whom some already present as a direct competitor of Mercadona or Aldi, although its approach is slightly different. Your name: actiona Dutch chain that is expanding strongly throughout Europe. So much so, in fact, that he boasts of having more than 3,000 stores spread across 13 countries and serve 20.2 million customers every week. And among those countries Spain is included. What exactly is Action? A chain of stores. So far nothing exceptional or out of the ordinary. What has made him stand out is his expansion ratesomething it has achieved largely due to its approach: an aggressive commitment to promotions, prices and an offer in continuous review. To start (and how you can check in your website) the company offers a wide catalog of items that includes everything from household items to stationery, electronics, toys, tools, parapharmacy, clothing or sports. What it differs from, for example, Mercadona (or most supermarkets) is in its power line. While Juan Roig’s firm pays more and more attention to already cooked food and ready to goAction is limited to snacks, cookies, candy, soft drinks and some packaged foods, such as instant noodles or protein bars. Nothing fresh. No butcher or fruit shop sections. Is it their only difference? Its main bet is prices, a discount policy that leads it to launch weekly promotions with products under €15. The company gives it so much importance that it presents itself as “a chain of discount stores for non-food products” and assures that the majority of its products (two thirds) can be purchased for less than two euros. It is nothing exceptional, but it is an effective formula that has allowed other companies to grow before, like Temu. Action ensures that it always has 1,500 products for one euro and renews its catalog with 150 new items every week. And does it work for you? It seems so. At least if we look at your history and figures. Although the company is young (it opened its first store in Enkhuizen, Netherlands, in 1993) it has managed to spread throughout Europe to add more than 3,000 stores in 13 countries. Your last balance shows that its net sales in the first half of the year reached 7.3 billion euros, 17.9% more than in 2024. Regarding commercial expansion, during the same period it opened 125 new stores that now receive, on average, around 20.2 million customers every week. Its main markets are France and Germany, where this year it opened its 600th store. Its presence is also notable in Poland, with around 400 premises. In general, its progression over the last 20 years has been more than notable: in 2003 the chain added 100 storesin 2008 they were already double, in 2014 it added half a thousand and in 2022 it exceeded the 2,000 barrier. This year it has already celebrated a new brand (3,000 stores), with the jump to the Romanian and Swiss markets. And in Spain? The chain debuted in Spain in 2022 and two years later it advanced its peninsular expansion with your first store in Portugal. Here the pioneer was an establishment in Girona, although during its inauguration those responsible for the company already announced that they would continue advancing with a view to the rest of Spain. In fact, during the Girona premiere, Monique Groeneveld, director of the firm, already clarified that in a matter of “weeks” more stores would open in the rest of Catalonia. The passing of the years has confirmed that he was not just talking. Today Action has almost 90 stores spread throughout much of the Spanish geography and a notable footprint in the Community of Madrid, Catalonia, Murcia and the Valencian Community. At the beginning of summer, when it had 74 stores, its workforce already exceeded 1,400 people. Recently its expansion throughout the Spanish geography was expanded with new stores in Royal City, Gijón, Baena and Tárrega. Since June, this vast commercial network has also been completed with its first distribution center in the country, the sixteenth in Europe. A facility of around 59,000 square meters (m2) located in Illescas, in the province of Toledo, designed to supply 210 stores throughout Spain and Portugal. Are they all advantages? No. Although the Dutch chain shares part of the strategy of other firms that have achieved a wide presence in Spain, as a commitment to low costaggressive pricing policy, promotions and own brandswill not have an easy time beating other large chains. Its offer is not comparable to that of Mercadona, Aldi or Lidl (especially due to the differences in food), but Spanish retail is already highly contested and has giants such as Roig’s firm, which has a share of almost 30%. The Spanish customer has also demonstrated notable loyalty towards regional firms. Images | Action and Google Maps In Xataka | For Juan Roig, the key to Mercadona’s future is very simple: “Salaries above the sector average”

The era of extremely slow hurricanes is here

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“I am speechless at how chilling these images are.” With those words, the meteorologist behind Backpirch Weather described what all the experts think seeing how Melissa reached 233 km/h and 941 mbar. That is, seeing live and direct, how “the hurricane reached an almost perfect symmetry 185 kilometers south-southwest of Kingston” (Jamaica). Above all, because (according to the National Hurricane Center) it is a matter of time before it reaches category 5 and, right after, provoke on the island “damage with little or no precedent.” A worrying trend. Melissa has been on the radar of everyone who monitors the hurricane corridor for days now. In fact, he had begun to attract attention for something curious: It was moving extremely slowly.. Now, Melissa moves at about seven kilometers per hour, but during these days she has reached three. This fits with research in recent years that suggests that the speed of hurricanes has been decreasing. And that decrease is important because “a slower-moving storm generally means more flooding and potentially more storm surge.” But Melissa wants to be more than just a trend. Because, how they explained MeteoredHurricane Melissa “has undergone explosive intensification and could reach Category 5 before making landfall in Jamaica.” 12 hours were enough. And things are going to get more serious: “the European model anticipates rains of more than 500 mm in eastern Jamaica, southwest Haiti and eastern regions of Cuba.” It is true that, As Michael Lowry pointed out“if Melissa has demonstrated anything today, it is the difficulty of predicting intensity fluctuations when hurricanes peak”; but, as he hastened to add, “in any case, the mighty Melissa stands firm.” What’s more, the videos that arrive are creepy. What is to come. As explained Álvaro OliverMelissa “has category 4 and it is not unusual for it to even reach 5, with winds exceeding 250 km/h.” But the peculiar thing will be what we said, its “very slow movement.” That could trigger the rains and cause a “great devastation in the next three days.” In Cuba They will displace almost a million peoplebut the Jamaicans don’t have much of an escape. And it is that, precisely that, that can trigger a disaster in slow motion. The next few days are going to be key not only to save hundreds of people; but also to understand why the Caribbean is becoming a death trap. Image | CIMSS (via Alvaro Oliver) In Xataka | If the question is what happens when a hurricane enters an extratropical transition, we will see the answer on Sunday: Gabrielle is at the doors

Openai estimates that it will enter 200,000 million dollars in 2030. The figure, like everything in OpenAi, is extremely ambitious

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OpenAI has set a target of 200,000 million dollars for 2030, as reported The Information. Your own internal documents reveal that to achieve this you will need multiply by 13 your current income In less than five years. Why is it important. The company is burning billions per month and plans to spend 90,000 million only in R&D by 2030. This represents 45% of its projected income, well above the percentage allocated by large technological ones, which remain mostly between 15% and 30% of their gross benefit, not even their income. If Openai’s income is below the goal, that percentage will be even greater. The figures. Openai expects to move from 13,000 million income at 2024 to 200,000 million in 2030. Its R&D expenditure would be proportionally double that of the most successful technological technological ones, much more mature and settled. To achieve this, it basically depends on large companies continue to invest in generative. If there is A brake on investmenteven if that does not imply the burst of a bubble, OpenAi will have accounting problems. In addition, this projection rises up to only one semester. OpenAI has increased the expected billing by 2030 by the beginning of the year. The big question. Is a business model sustainable where almost half of the income – even the gross benefit – is destined for research and development? If business income does not rise as Openai projects, the company will have a serious problem. Yesterday it was announced Your agreement with Oracle committing to a huge investment level to which you can hardly face except that you change the screws, or to deliver a good part in kind (business use licenses), as Microsoft did with it paying in Azure credits. In Xataka | Baidu is no longer satisfied with being the Chinese Google. His new AI model also wants to turn it into China Openai Outstanding image | IlgmyzinXataka

August has been an extremely warm month in Spain. That has had a side effect: make us older

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This summer has left repeated scenes: empty squares at the time of the nap, nights in the heat and a Mediterranean turned into a pressure pot. Spain has suffered suffocating days They will go to statistics, but the most serious is not measured in degrees. According to a recent study, heat waves do not leave when the temperature drops. They leave a silent trail in the body: they accelerate biological aging. A disturbing finding. A recent study Posted in Nature Climate Change It has shown that repeated exposure to heat waves accelerates biological aging. The work, led by the University of Hong Kong, followed 25,000 people for 15 years in Taiwan. The results speak for themselves: four extra days of heat wave in a period of two years were translated in nine days added to the biological age of the participants. In manual workers, more exposed to the sun and heat, that effect shot up to 33 days. “The impact of heat on our body is comparable to tobacco, alcohol, poor diet or lack of exercise,” The research team has summarized to The Guardian. The biological clock under pressure. How did they get to that conclusion? The scientists calculated the biological age from different markers: blood pressure, inflammation, cholesterol and the functioning of lungs, liver and kidneys. When comparing them with the real age of each person, the conclusion was clear: who had spent more time under heat waves showed accelerated aging. The exact reason is still unknown. The main hypothesis is that high temperatures damage DNA and submit the body to constant stress. “If the exhibition accumulates for decades, the impact on health will be much greater than we have now measured,” has pointed to The Guardian Dr. Cui Guo, main author of the study. More evidence: heat at all ages. This finding does not come alone. In 2024, another job Posted in Nature He revealed that early exposure to cold and heat interferes with the development of the white matter of the brain in children. The consequences, the authors warned, could extend throughout life. The conclusion is clear: heat does not understand ages. Inference affects developing brains; In adulthood, it accelerates the organism’s wear. Can the damage be stopped? The same study offers an interesting nuance: the harmful effect seemed to be reduced over time, probably because people learn to protect themselves better. Searching for shadow, hydrating or using air conditioning made a certain difference. Even so, the biological footprint never disappeared completely. The problem is that not everyone has the same possibilities to adapt. Older people, outdoor workers or those who live in neighborhoods with less resources suffer a much greater impact, As the study collects. Prevention, experts coincide, goes through reinforcing Urban design: More trees, more shadow, better isolated homes and just access to cooling. Individually, recommendations remain simple but effective: hydrate, avoid hours of heat and seek refuge in fresh places. The invisible heat scar. Until now we thought about heat as something passenger: annoying, exhausting and dangerous in extreme days. But scientific evidence points to something more disturbing. The heat, the experts say, does not leave at all when the thermometer goes down: it stays inside, accelerating the wear of the organism and leaving an invisible scar. For researchers, this finding is a turn in the way of understanding health. And the warning is clear: if the planet continues to heat up, we will not only have longer summers, also bodies that age faster. Image | Unspash Xataka | The sea is 30 degrees in the Balearic Islands and that worries meteorologists: the Mediterranean is a pressure cooker

The first photographic meme of history was extremely macabro: posing as beheaded corpses

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Who says that before the Internet people He made less bullshit? They were the same, what happens is that there was no potential audience of millions of people to reach (and was not monetized). What gives even more merit to analog memes, the fashions due to infection that passed from hand to hand, generating absurd fashions that followed thousands of people. One of the first of these fashions was the Horsemaning (either Jinetism), such a delicious way to make the fool that it was not as isolated at the beginning of the century. What is it. He Horsemaning It shows a person pretending to have been decapitated. Actually, two people participate in the joke: one, the body, placed at an angle that either the camera shot or the position of the deceased assumption makes the neck not seen; Another subject, the head, places the neck on the edge of a table or buries its own body in the sand of the beach, so that it looks decapitation. Both added things create a very shocking and hilarious effect, especially since it is obvious where the trick is. It is fun because we see people lose their composure before the camera, which always laughs. Why Jinetism. By the headless rider of ‘The Sleepy Hollow ‘Legend of Washington IrvingAbsolute classic of Anglo -Saxon literature. The story was written in 1820, a century before the popularization of meme. But it is a story that returns to the collective imaginary over and over again due to its powerful imagery, so linked to Halloween. In it appears a spectrum, that of the headless rider, a decapitated gentleman (supposedly a Hesian soldier) that he was left without a gunshot. Of Victorian England … Although it was in the VCEINTE years of the last century when it became fashionable, we can track the origins of the macabra jokes further back in time: to Victorian England and the first steps of photography. At that time, in times prior to television, the newborn invention caused a sensation in very different environments (from family chascarrillos to the first and disturbing pornography steps). Since their first steps, photographers experienced with tricks: overlays, transparencies and trapantojos, and fashions such as those of the BeachBackground of this Horsemaning: People with heads in the lap or under their arm, and sometimes were achieved with multiple negatives. … to when Facebook cool. Around 2011there was a resurgence of the photos of beheaded with perspective tricks. Surely you remember it, because around that year became fashionable he Stocking (imitate photos of image banks), the Planking (Photos of people laying down in the most incongruous places), the Owling (disturbing snapshots posing as owls), the Plowling (the two previous meetings) or the Batmanning (Hang upside down). Loquisimo Pre-Tiktok times, and still overwhelmed an endearing digital naivety. In Xataka | Putting the testicles in landscape photos is the latest crazy photographic fashion of the Internet. There are more

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