Fashion

AI is bringing back into fashion something that we thought was only for geeks: the command line

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At first it was the command line. It was 1982, maybe 1983, and I first saw a ZX Spectrum 48K. That fascinated me not only because of the noises and beeps and colors and crappy and wonderful games, but because you wrote something on the screen in text mode and suddenly things happened. I would end up having a C64, which of course was far better 😉 but that’s another story. Then, a couple of years later, a personal visit to the IT department of El Corte Inglés, which was one of the few places where one could no longer see computers, but touch them. That was like the Apple stores of today, and preteens and not so preteens came there not to see machines, but to feel them. Hello, old friend. There were PCs there, of course. Boring and gray and yet also wonderful. And the first thing they did when they turned on was ask the date and time to adjust their internal clocks, and I was amazed and thought in my innocence, “Oh my God, how clever is he that he asks the date and time to be super updated.” And immediately afterwards, of course, the MS-DOS logo appeared and that terrible and magical prompt at the same time (or a similar one, because I doubt they had a hard drive): C:\ I was little, but human-computer interaction had long been dominated by that technology: the command line. You wrote, the machine responded. The UNIX systems did it before, the “operating systems” of the Spectrum or the C64 later, and of course it was also done by that MS-DOS that seemed amazing because once again I, in my innocence, did not even know that there was already a brilliant crazy visionary out there who was selling some simply amazing little machines with a 7-inch screen that They greeted you with “Hello, I’m Macintosh”. Everything changed (quite) quickly and suddenly the command line became somewhat awkward, clunky, obsolete. Everything had to be visual. Windows and graphic elements evolved so that we wrote less and clicked (not to mention scrolled) much more. And in the last 30 years we have not stopped doing that and defending that the graphical interface was perfect for humans and for most scenarios in which we have to talk to our machines. And it was. And it is. But AI has changed that. Hello again, CLI The explosion of generative AI has turned this situation 180 degrees. It is true that in recent years we have used AI through (mostly) a browser or a mobile app that was actually an embedded browser, but over time we have seen that if we wanted AI to do things for us, there was a problem. Than to AI has a hard time seeing and working with a graphical user interface. But at the same time there were those who realized that what AI did like angels was work with a command line interpreter or CLI. It suddenly made sense to use the terminal again or our computer consolebecause the AI ​​felt at home with it. I didn’t have to recognize and interpret the screen: I just had to read it, and that was wonderful. That is why we have seen how Claude Code (or Codex, or Gemini CLI, or similar tools) has become an absolute marvel. One that suddenly returned us to the command line and a terminal in which we felt like we were in the ZX Spectrum that I saw when I was 9 or 10 years old. You wrote and the machine responded, and here it was the same, but of course, wildly. What seemed like something relegated to the realm of programming is slowly making sense for many other scenarios. You can actually use Claude Code or Codex like you use ChatGPT, for chatting, but it seemed like they could only be used for programming. And not. We are seeing how more and more solutions designed to take advantage of the power of generative AI are programmed with a text interface, for the command line. Those tools They are designed to be used much more by an AI than by a human. They also come in there the MCPs that connect AI models with tools and services like Slack, GitHub or AWS, and if those services have their own versions of themselves in text mode, the AI ​​will be able to use them much better and much more efficiently. We have the last example in Google Workspace CLIa platform that allows Drive, Gmail, or Calendar to be used from the command line. It is not designed for humans—although we can use it—but rather for AI models to take advantage of it. It’s a gift from Google to the machines, and one that is not at all generous: what the company wants here is to convince the machines to use its services. The humans have already won. btop, a system monitoring tool that makes use of a text-mode interface that is still wonderful. Source: Wikipedia. It’s just an example, because little by little we see how the command line is experiencing a second youth. We no longer only talk about the GUI (Graphical User Interface), but from the TUI (Text-based User Interface). It is something that has always had its place, especially in the Linux operating system, where tools like btop or Neofetch showed that text can be (very) pretty, but now. These are just two examples, because there are dozens of them. Hundreds. Probably thousands. Not necessarily beautiful, but efficient and functional, like mutt (mail client) or Midnight Commanderlegendary file explorer in text mode. For AI, these types of apps are wonderful, because I insist, it does not have to make an effort to understand what is happening: it reads text at full speed and understands and acts. And that is vital for those AI agents who are beginning to conquer everything and everyone. OpenClaw, for example, is showing us that potential … Read more

With the fashion of American kitchens, a refrigerator that makes noise can be torture when watching TV. How to choose well to avoid it

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How cool American kitchens are. You have, without walls, doors or partitions in between, the kitchen next to the living room and dining room. I love the concept itself, but there are two things that have always raised doubts in my mind. One is the smell, because imagine starting to do something that doesn’t smell good (like cooking cauliflower or making some fried fish, for example) and going to the couch to watch TV while you do it. And then there is the issue of noise. Of course, here you may think that it is the price to pay for having everything in the same space and you are right. If everything is together, you have to assume that, while you cook, you will have noise next to the TV. But the stove, the extractor or the oven are not the only things that make noise in a kitchen. What’s wrong with the refrigerator? This appliance makes noise and is not like the rest of the things in the kitchen: it is always working. For this reason, if you have an American kitchen, It is essential that you choose carefully which refrigerator you are going to place in it. Yes, it’s about looking at what decibels it emits, but there is something to it. I explain everything you need to know about the subject. Two or three dB more than necessary are enough to ruin your movie night A refrigerator is not as noisy as a washing machine when it starts spinning like crazy, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t make sound. In houses or apartments with traditional kitchens, this is not a problem. I have been living in my apartment for more than 20 years and, since the kitchen is at one end, I barely know the noise my refrigerator makes. Things change if the kitchen is American. I put you in situation. Imagine that you are on the couch watching a movie with a blanket and popcorn. During shootings and explosions you will not hear anything other than the TV, but things change when there is dialogue or even nothing at all. There, if your refrigerator sounds more than necessary, you are going to hear a hum that is anything but pleasant. Okay, but how do I know how loud a refrigerator sounds? If you take a look at the technical data sheet of any refrigerator, you will find the sound it emits measured in decibels (or dB). It is obvious that the higher the dB number, the greater the noise it emits. What is not so obvious is that A difference of just 3 dB will make us perceive twice as much noise.. To put it bluntly: a refrigerator that emits 40 dB or more in a kitchenette can be really annoying when watching TV. The ideal is to search for this type of spaces a refrigerator that emits 39 dB or less. But of course, since two or three dB less is noticeable, the less the refrigerator emits, the better. The noise comes from the compressor, but not all are the same We have talked about the noise, but not its origin. The sound that refrigerators emit comes from their compressor, which is responsible for keeping your food and drinks very cool. And what does that matter to me for my American kitchen? The answer is very simple: depending on the type of compressor or motor, the type of noise is not the same. Refrigerators that are a few years old have a traditional motor or compressor. This, in summary, only has two modes: either it’s off or it’s on. If the refrigerator detects that the temperature inside is too high, it starts the compressor at full speed to cool down. This means that, when this happens (which often happens if you open the door too much, for example), we will hear a loud noise when starting, followed by a humming noise that will last until the compressor stops. That changes with Inverter motors. These are basically always on and they regulate their speed depending on the temperature. If you open the door and it gets a little cold, speed up a little. However, if your refrigerator has been closed for a long time, it will run very slowly, so the noise will be less. This way, the noise made by the refrigerator will be quieter most of the time. And of course, you get rid of the “noise” of the traditional compressor when starting up. If you are looking to save as much as possible, refrigerators with traditional compressors are cheaper. In price, because traditional compressors consume significantly more energy than inverter motors. However, I would only place one of these in a conventional kitchen and away from the living room or bedrooms. For an American kitchen, in 100% of cases, I would always recommend a refrigerator with an inverter motor. Not only because they tend to emit, on average, less noise. It is due to the fact that we are not going to hear them start suddenly, something that does happen (and very often) with those that have a conventional engine and that can be annoying if we have the refrigerator next to the TV. Therefore, with that clear, it is time to take a good look at the dB. The good and the bad of both options, face to face 36 dB or less between 37 and 39 dB THE GOOD 🟢 You won’t hear it even when the protagonists of your movie look at each other without speaking. They are cheaper and, at the same price, you get a refrigerator to store more food or drinks THE BAD 🔴 It is a more expensive option that may cause you to have to cut back on capacity or features You will hear a slight hum while watching TV that can take you out of the movie Ideal for: Do not hear any type of hum or vibration when watching TV Families who … Read more

the dark history of mercury in the fashion industry

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When we think of Alice in Wonderland one of the most recognized characters is ‘Mad Hatter’‘, an eccentric character with a top hat and a label that says 10/6. And although it may seem that the author of this story wanted to give that characterization to the famous rabbit, the truth is that all hats at that time had a serious problem which made them look too much like the classic rabbit. What’s behind. And the reality behind the character is much murkier and less colorful than in Disney or Tim Burton films. The expression “mad as a hatter” was not a literary invention in this case, but a quite popular medical diagnosis for the timesince for centuries the hat industry suffered a silent epidemic that led to serious neurological damage. and the culprit it was mercury. The ‘carroting’. To understand why hatters fell ill, we must look at how the felt was made between the 17th and 20th centuries that would give rise to hats. The raw material was usually rabbit, hare or beaver fur, and in order for these furs to become a high-quality, rigid and durable felt, they were subjected to a chemical process called “carroting”. This name came from the orange color of the carrots that the skins acquired when treated with a hot solution of mercury nitrate. But logically it was a death trap for the workshops of the time, just as collect NIOSH historical archives. Security issues. Although there are now strong regulations regarding safety at work, if we look back it was not like that. And the treatment was carried out in a poorly ventilated space, which caused mercury vapors to be released when the acid mixture was heated with the skins. By not being able to escape through any ventilation slits, the professionals who were constantly working with the skins ended up inhaling the mercury vapors. It was not a one-time accident, but rather a chronic exposure that accumulated in the body and directly attacked the central nervous system. A new reality. Although in the popular culture of the time the profession was directly related to being completely crazy, the truth is that current toxicological reviews indicate that chronic mercury poisoning produces a devastating and very specific clinical picture. And the hatters did not simply become ‘eccentric’, but also had Danbury tremorswhich are uncontrollable muscle spasms and intentional tremors that prevented fine movements. But there were also personality changes making pathological shyness, extreme irritability, depression and emotional lability the norm. The countries took note. Logically, this is something that had to be regulated to guarantee the safety of workers. France was one of the pioneers by prohibiting the use of mercury in the manufacture of hat boxes in 1898, but in Anglo-Saxon countries the industry was quite resistant to change. And the resentful. In the United States the process remained in force for decades. In this case, it took World War II for the tables to turn and it was not until 1941 when the use of mercury was definitively abandoned in key states such as Connecticut. But the reason was not the safety of its artisans, but rather that the war required a large amount of mercury to manufacture detonators, which forced the hat industry to look for substitutes such as hydrogen peroxide, as detailed in the industrial records of the time. Alice’s Hatter. It’s tempting to think that Lewis Carroll designed his character as a textbook case of erethism, but the evidence suggests otherwise. A classic analysis published in BMJ puts the dots on the i’s in this case, pointing out that Carrol knew the popular expression “mad as a hatter”, since he lived in a time where hatters with tremors were a visible social reality. However, the character of Alice in Wonderland It doesn’t quite fit the medical profile. The Hatter in the book is hyperactive, talkative, euphoric and a lover of riddles. Mercury erethism, on the other hand, is characterized by extreme shyness, social anxiety, and depression. It is likely that Carroll took the figure of the hatter and the idiom to create a caricature, but the identification of the character as “mercury poisoned” is a reading that we have made a posteriori. In Xataka | If you have ever thought that AI is useless, science has something for you: an antidote to cobras

The fashion among Spanish operators is the ERE. Meanwhile, Digi is hiring more than anyone else

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DIGI’s ambition has not been enough to become one of the three largest operators in the country. It also wants to be one of the main job refuges in the national telecom sector. In a context of uncertainty and restructuring, the Romanian operator is close to tripling its workforce while the rest adjust their workforce. Closing 2025. Digi closed last year with 10,200 direct employees in Spain. Data that is better understood if we put it in context. Against the current. While the telecommunications industry shrinks its workforce, destroying more than 14,000 jobs together, Digi does just the opposite: grow in customers and employment. One of the pillars that cements this stage of growth for the company is its first national agreement, signed last November. In it, the conditions of its employees are homogenized and progressive salary increases linked to performance are proposed. what’s happening. Digi’s strategy collides head-on with a classic among large telecos: outsourcing. The Romanian operator has opted for an internalization strategy: While the three large operators in the country have been focused for years on increasing income per customer, Digi is doing just the opposite: taking away customer volume, sacrificing profitability per user. No changes in the short term. Digi’s strategy seems clear: volume over margin and commitment to not outsourcing its services. The plan to become the third operator nationwide continues from strength to strength: In 2022 it managed to take over 60% of portability in Spain. It is currently the fourth national operator, behind Vodafone. While the rest raises prices, Digi maintains them or adjusts them even more. It is on track to become the third largest operator in fiber lines if it maintains its growth in 2026. The big question. Whether or not Telefónica will end up taking over Digi is the big question. The Spanish giant neither confirms nor rules out future purchases and mergers in its growth plan until 2030. For the moment, Digi is an ally: the Romanian operator uses Movistar coverage and infrastructure and will continue to do so for at least 16 years. Image | Digi In Xataka | All teleoperators plan to raise prices in Spain from 2026. All? No: DIGI still resists

why interior design occupies the place of fashion today

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There was a time when status was measured by the cut of a lapel or the logo on a handbag. Today, the true statement of intent is not in the closet, but on the living room shelf. The scene is typical: a dinner at home does not begin until the table, perfectly “staged”, has been captured by the lens of a smartphone. Decoration is the new language of identity; a space where we project who we are with the same urgency with which we previously chose a outfit to go out into the street. The exposed shelter. The border between private and public has jumped into the air. If before the home was the place where “we took off our shoes”, now it is the stage where we “put on the filter.” An example of this phenomenon It’s the rise of the breakfast nook. What started as a functional gesture to organize cups and coffee makers has ended up being a “symbol of the aspirational home” that floods our morning stories on social media. This phenomenon is not coincidental. As detailed in the S Moda supplementthe house operates today with the codes of the street style: millimeter poses, studied corners and carefully filtered light. We no longer decorate to live, but so that our life “is sustained before the eyes of the eyes.” voyeurs of the networks”. The landing of the brands. The market has read the change with surgical precision. According to a report by Business of Fashionhome design is a $643 billion global market that has reached a higher cruising speed than fashion after the pandemic. Large luxury brands no longer see furniture as an accessory, but as a central piece of their ecosystem: Luxury as an architect of lives: Brands such as Hermès, Bottega Veneta or Loewe use fairs such as the Mobile Show from Milan to demonstrate that its aesthetics can encompass everything, from a bag to an armchair worth thousands of euros. The Democratization of Style: Real change comes from affordable fashion. As Modaes points outMango Home is emulating Zara Home’s strategy, positioning its home line in the segment premium with openings in strategic locations to elevate the brand. You no longer buy a quilt, you buy the “universe” of the firm. Even home care has become a beauty routine. Actress Courteney Cox, through her brand Homecourthas turned detergent and linen sprays into objects of desire. As explained in Forbestheir intention is to make mundane tasks like doing laundry feel like “a self-care ritual” and for the jars to be so pretty that they don’t have to be hidden. How did we get here? To understand why we are obsessed with making our living room “instagrammable”, we have to look back. We could place the starting point in the birth of Pinterest in 2010, a platform that created the first global archive of domestic aspirations. However, the real turning point was 2020. Seeing ourselves locked up, our homes became our offices, gyms and leisure centers. How do they explain from the Somos Nido studio For the supplement, space stopped being something external and became part of our mental health. At the same time, the real estate crisis has played a psychological role. According to psychologist Noelia Sanchointerviewed in El Mueble, faced with the impossibility of buying a house, we invest in objects to generate an emotional bond and reaffirm our identity in an unstable world. The rebellion against the “dictatorship of the neutral.” In recent years, a search for simplicity and homogenization has prevailed; an aesthetic of beige spaces designed for the algorithm. But the trends of 2026 already propose a rebellion against that coldness. Pantone’s recent selection of the color ‘Cloud Dancer’ (an ethereal white) as Color of the Year 2026 has sparked debate. According to Architecture and Designinterior designer Virginia Sánchez admits “not being a big fan” because she considers it a somewhat cold tone. To prevent homes from looking like empty clinics, experts recommend accompany this white with rustic materials and warm woods. In this context, furniture with character regains its throne. Pieces such as mango or walnut wood sideboards and grooved fronts — like those proposed by the firm sweeek— they come back strong to provide that personality and “exoticism” that extreme minimalism had stolen from our living rooms. Living is the new dressing. The rise of interior design tells us that we are no longer satisfied with being spectators of beauty; we want to live inside it. Whether through tablescape —the art of decorating the table in an almost theatrical way— or choosing a designer lamp, we are trying to regain control of our immediate environment. Fashion has moved from the catwalk to the sofa because, in an increasingly digital and ephemeral world, the home continues to be the only place where we can build a refuge that, in addition to being beautiful on a screen, makes us feel good when the camera turns off. In the end, the question is no longer what we wear to be seen, but what atmosphere we have created to be ourselves. Image | Unsplash Xataka | The bidet is dead. The square meter killed it and Scandinavian design buried it

Thousands of people bought the “romantasy” fashion book because it was cute. An unpleasant surprise awaited them.

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The consumerist desire that invades any area of ​​our lives also contaminates our hobbies. We are no longer talking about your identity being determined by your style when it comes to dressing or the music you listen to; Now, not missing the latest literary viral phenomenon in #Booktok also forms that identity that is built through what we consume. And if not tell everyone who bought ‘Catabasis‘, the author’s new novel RF Kuangfor its colorful edition and supposed themes related to a whole legion of readers, only to end up with a disappointment that leads them to abandon it after a few pages. Be aware of the latest news and let your private library be ground zero of your literary diogenes, full of those decorated songs so instagrammableis a new aspect of consumerism. The essential thing is not to search and select a book that suits your taste or surprises you, but to look for that pompous edition in trend on Tiktok. With the rise and increase in the number of readers has given way to a community on social networks that consumes books, mostly from a specific genrehe romanticasyand that follows like a mantra literary fashion of the month. As we have mentioned, marketing strategies can confuse the public and in order to attract the largest number of buyers, sometimes blur categories and genres that should be delimited. The fever for colored songs As a regular reader, it is healthy to get out of that nebula and inform yourself well about the reading you are going to do or, on the contrary, go with an open mind and let yourself go when starting those new pages. Because if you don’t, you can come to ‘Catábasis’ looking for a romance within an academic-fantastic environment and end up with your head full of equations, formulas and philosophical postulates. If we dive in reviews from ‘Catábasis’, we will find an alleged romance Dark Academia with the clichés of rivals to lovers (rivals to lovers), forced proximity (forced proximity) or one bed (the famous trope of rom-coms where the protagonists are forced to share a single bed). This would lead us to place our perception of the work in an erroneous perspective. The novel has been sold as if it were addressed to the general public, when It’s niche. Doctoral thesis, graphic description. RF Kuang is not your typical romance writer. In his previous books such as the ‘Poppy War’ trilogy (named by Time as one of ‘The 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time‘) we find an epic fantasy of Asian inspiration; in ‘Babel’, a criticism of British imperialism; and in ‘Amarilla’, a satire on the publishing world. Perhaps it is from there that we have to establish the starting point of ‘Catábasis’. It may be that the public has been launched en masse to buy Kuang’s new novel infected by expectations, but just look at social networks to see that the outcome has been disappointing for not a few. The result of this phenomenon is curious because the criticisms of Kuang’s novel are based, for the most part, on issues that have little to do with its theme or the characters. It seemed that part of the book’s audience, directly, I didn’t know what he was facing. On this occasion the #Booktok community was a victim of “what goes” and an elegant and striking edition: but, dear readers, not everything has to be romance and romanticasy. This lucrative sales strategy that consists of labeling all the literary novelties under clichés that are associated with romance to attract more attention ends up being a double-edged sword for books like Kuang’s. hell is a campus In this new novel we find the story of two Cambridge doctoral students who, after the death of their thesis advisor, decide to travel to hell to look for him and obtain a letter of recommendation that will determine their professional future. And yes, we can accept the label Dark Academia since it has several of its elements, just as we also find a romance that floods and emerges throughout the story; but ‘Catabasis’ (a Greek term that refers to the descent to hell and subsequent exit from it), is about something else. RF Kuang, in essence, uses the underworld as MacGuffin to create a critique and a satire of the academic world through a raw and realistic vision. Sounds good, maybe not so good. The author shoots us with scenes in offices that cause more chills than Dante’s own inferno; while talking about toxic rivalries, directors who abuse their power, gender inequality and academic obsession with knowledge. And, despite fantasy and a system of magic based on logic and paradox, these unreal situations trigger a conversation and social criticism about the academy. While the protagonists Alice and Peter wander through the “eight circles of hell” we are immersed in numerous philosophical and mathematical elements. Dante, Piranesi, the myth of Orpheus or the scrolls of Hecate are part of the daily narrative. The book is full of mathematical theories, academic references, and terms that will make you stop several times to do a Google search. The fact that for some doctoral students hell is, literally, their own university, already makes us suspect that we are not facing a rivals to lovers to use; not even in the face of academic criticism of Ali Hazelwood style. ‘Catabasis’ is dense and requires active reading; In fact, we can say that it is an essay disguised as a novel that sometimes sacrifices the rhythm of the plot or its development in favor of the style and ideas it wants to convey. With an acidic, witty and harsh tone, Kuang uses Alice as the epicenter of the narrative. A character who is not designed to make you like him, but to embody the loss of health and identity caused by the pressure of his tutor and the academic environment. The message that we can filter is quite clear: Sartre said that … Read more

There is more demand than leaves, more fashion than ceremony

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the book The wind through the pinesby Malena Higashi talk about a lesson that seems forgotten: relearning to breathe. In its pages, the tea ceremony—the chado, or “tea path”—is a metaphor for slowness, for respect, for what the Japanese summarize in four words: wa, kei, sei, jaku (harmony, respect, purity, tranquility). That ancestral stillness contrasts with the present. In just a decade, matcha—that green powder that for centuries was ground in temples and served in silence— has become in a global phenomenon. Coffee shops in New York, Paris or Madrid offer it with vanilla, banana or oat milk. There are numerous videos on social networks of people drinking matcha with hundreds of millions of views. However, behind that vibrant color and perfect foam there is something broken: “The matcha market is cracking under pressure.” From the temple to the algorithm. For four centuries, matcha was reserved for formal ceremonies and high tea craftsmanship. Today, as explained in The New York Times: “Harmony has been replaced by discord, respect by unscrupulousness, and purity by fraud.” Historical companies such as Marukyu Koyamaen, founded in 1704, They fight fakes of their tea on Amazon or Facebook Marketplace. Some sellers offer yellowish powder—ordinary ground tea—in fancy packaging, while others market an “imperial grade” or “barista grade” that do not exist in the Japanese classification. The global boom has created a demand that Japan cannot satisfy. “It’s like the Old West,” points out the merchant Sebastian Beckwith, faced with a deregulated market where matcha has become a label rather than a quality. The numbers in a bubble. The data does not deceive anyone. In just one year, Japanese exports of green tea powder have grown by 75%reaching almost 27,000 million yen, about 165 million euros. But enthusiasm has its price: a kilo of tencha leaves – the base of matcha – already exceeds 14,000 yen (about 85 euros), almost triple what it was a year ago. It is the highest price in memory and a clear sign that global demand is pushing the limits of tradition. Japan today exports more than half of the matcha that it produces, but that has not resolved the imbalance. In Uji, the birthplace of green tea, the shops limit the sale to one can per customer and farmers reject new orders until the next harvest. Jiro Katahira, a producer from Shizuoka, says to have received requests from all over the world: “Even from Benin. But I can’t mass produce. You can’t speed up a process that takes years.” For its part, in Los Angeles, the crisis is felt differently. At the Kettl Tea bar, only four of the 25 varieties on the menu remain. “There is nothing more to buy”, confessed its founderZach Mangan. The result is a fractured market: large wholesalers like Marukyu Koyamaen cannot cope, and small producers struggle to maintain quality while prices rise and there is a lack of young hands in the fields. An unsustainable boom. Matcha cannot be grown like corn or coffee. The tencha leaves They need weeks of shade before being collected, steamed and slowly ground between granite stones. Five years can pass from sowing to the first harvest, and many Japanese farmers – with an average age of 69 – lack generational change. The Japanese government has launched subsidies to modernize factories and increase mechanization, but that, experts warnyou could sacrifice the artisanal quality that distinguishes Japanese matcha. Meanwhile, China, Korea and Australia are taking advantage of the vacuum. According to FTChinese producers are introducing matchas “dyed” with chlorophyll to achieve a brighter green. “If everything becomes matcha, nothing will be,” a merchant tells the newspaper. The loss of value: from ceremony to latte. In the chadoeach movement has a meaning. In the global market, everything is measured by likes. “Using first-harvest matcha in a latte is like using Burgundy wine to make sangria,” Zach Mangan denouncedfounder of Kettl. The big chains have turned it into a trendy flavor. starbucks launched matcha protein drinks with banana cream; Blank Street Coffee removed the word “Coffee” of his name and embraced the “matchacore” aesthetic; the influencers they mix matcha with collagen. In this new context, matcha is no longer a drink, but a texture, a color, a mood. Master Rie Takeda, founder of the Chazen tea room, prefers to see it from an optimistic perspective: “Yes, there are concerns, but if this trend sparks interest in the tea ceremony, welcome. Our challenge is to share the essence of tea without losing its spirit.” Others, like Shihori Suzuki, warn of the risk of confusing spirituality with aesthetics: “Matcha has become a mass product, alien to the ceremony. If it becomes just a business, we will lose quality and meaning.” What is at stake. The rise of matcha not only threatens to deplete the fields, but to disfigure a cultural identity that took centuries to build. Farmers, like Katahira, they see it with ambivalence: Thanks to the boom they have paid off debts, but many feel that the spirit of tea is diluted between influencers, baristas and designer packaging. “Those who rush to produce don’t think about tradition. They only think about lattes,” he says. However, other people see it as a phenomenon that could save the tradition: more visitors flock to authentic tea rooms, seeking the calm that social media does not offer. After the pandemic, says Atsuko Morifounder of Camellia Tea Ceremony in Kyoto: “Visitors don’t just want to taste matcha, they want to understand it. They value its sense of presence and attention.” But that balance is fragile. The same tea that calms is also exhausting those who grow it. Producers face a paradox: commercial success can destroy what made it valuable. Return to the dô? Matcha was born to stop time, not speed it up. The tea master Sen no Rikyū, in the 16th century, said to serve a perfect cup was an act of harmony between host and guest. Today, that harmony is sought between saturated markets, influencers … Read more

The dangerous Tiktok fashion that can destroy your smile

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Have perfect teeth with a good aligned and especially completely white It is not easy to get. But given this aesthetic need, there are many products that have been viralized that promise rapid dental whitening, ‘natural’ and under cost that They have been viralized in networksand everyone has in common that they use activated carbon. A product that has flooded the market, but that According to experts Consulted by Infosalud can have a completely contrary effect. Miracle. We all want to have a miraculous solution for our problems, and above all it does not cost us too much effort. In this case, activated carbon tooth pastes seemed ideal to have the perfect smile without having to go through the annoying dental whitening that they can do to us in a specialized clinic. But, as the saying goes, ‘the cheap is expensive’. The product. Activated carbon is a very porous black powder that is obtained from materials such as coconut shell or wood. In a classic way it has been used In the hospital sphere Because of their ability to absorb toxins, so it has been used to treat those who suffered an poisoning produced for example by a drug overdose, as it has surely been seen on some occasion in a film or series to be very appealed. And using this property of ‘entrapment’ is where marketing lies behind that activated carbon can be the perfect bleach. They precisely sell it through the ability to ‘catch’ ‘and eliminate teeth spots, leaving them whiter. Reality. Despite its great popularity, there is no solid scientific evidence that supports what the influencers say. An article published in 2023 entitled “Effectiveness and abrasiveness of activated carbon as a bleaching agent: a systematic review of in vitro studies” wanted to give a little light. After analyzing 208 articles on this matter, they could conclude that dental pastes based on activated carbon have a lower bleaching effect “than other alternatives and can be considered as less safe due to their high abrasive potential.” Also the American Dental Association (ADA) opted for making an article where literature on this subject is analyzed, and saw that abrasive nature is a big problem. The consequences. Having an abrasing effect causes enamel wear irreversibly, since it is not regenerated. And once the enamel is wearing up, the dentin is exposed, an internal yellowing layer, which can cause precisely an opposite effect to the one who wanted to be: perfectly yellow teeth. But ending this protection layer makes the tooth nerve more exposed, which makes an external stimulus such as cold or heat the sensitivity increases much greater. This is something similar to what can be felt after finishing a dental whitening treatment in a clinic. The negative effects do not stay here. The rough texture of coal can irritate the gums, causing inflammation and even gingival recession. And if we also add that many pastes with activated carbon do not have fluoride, we can also find long -term decay. The experts. They have a fairly unanimous opinion regarding the use of this type of products. As Infosalus collects, the president of the Council of Dentists of Spain points to these pasta “do not eliminate spots, or bleach the enamel in a quick and economical way.” But it adds to “the use of activated carbon in the teeth can mean serious oral health problems.” Safe alternatives. In the case of wanting a smile as if Photoshop had been done, it is best to go to a dentist to receive the best tips. In this case, advice on treatments that have been scientifically tested may be received. For example, there are whitening pasta that do have evidence when using polish agents such as carbamide peroxide or hydrogen peroxide in low concentrations that are completely safe and effective for daily use and have the support of health authorities. Images | Tony Litvyak Chris Slupski In Xataka | We are a little closer to fulfilling the dream of the dentists: teeth that grow again

Four -hour tails for the Labubu store in Barcelona illustrate that they are more than a fashion: they are an addiction

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Labubu fever moves globally. In Spain it takes time being a phenomenon And this is certified by the opening of a new permanent store in Barcelona that already has four -hour tails and people traveling from other countries To buy in it. Pop mart, The Chinese company that manufactures these dolls Collectibles, has generated a millionaire business with inherited tactics of video games and bets. Phenomenon in Barcelona. The new Pop Mart, and only permanent in Spain (in November last year the brand opened A pop-up also in Barcelona), has opened in the portal of L’àngel, one of the main commercial arteries of the Catalan capital. The first day were seen tails of more than 200 meters and astronomical expenses: with prices that are between 12 and 240 euros, there are those who confess to having Inverted 700 euros in these dolls for being “an investment.” What are they? The Pop Mart are the dolls that the company of the same name manufactures and can be purchased Through its websitein specific stores such as this new one in Barcelona, and even in vending machines. They are divided into series of variants of the same doll, thus promoting collecting. His most successful product is Labubu, a creature with a monkey and disturbing smile. It is part of a broader collection called The Monsters, and generated last year 419 million dollars in benefits for Pop Mart. Massive success. The company was founded in 2000 and has ended up becoming one of China’s best known brands at the global level, with milestones such as its actions in 2024 They rose 370%. They even have their own attraction park in Beijing, Pop Land40 square kilometers. According to data from Time130 of the company’s 530 stores at the end of last year are outside China. In 2024, its benefits for international sales rose 375%. According to him The company itselfin 2024 it had benefits of 1.8 billion dollars, of which 40% came from outside China. The reasons for success. The first and most obvious is viral contagion in networks. It is obvious that there are more and more celebrities and influencers that show your labubusand it is usually pointed out as the initiator of the viral phenomenon to Lisa, from the K-Pop Blackpink group, Although now the dolls are in the hands of famous Americans and European such as Rihanna, Dua Lipa, Madonna or Kim Kardashian. Fever is such that they have already generated their own falsification marketwhich swarm for markets such as Wallapop, Milanuncios or Vinted, sometimes with swollen prices. However, beyond the imitation behavior of celebrities, there are other reasons for success: the gamification of the phenomenon. Little thing. The first step that Pop Mart takes to generate addiction is to generate shortage: there are no specimens of the doll, and take advantage of Pop Mart Mart. A small art that many Influencers They explain How to master social media accounts. As explained This Rolling Stone articlethe purchase process is already a maze of voluble rules tests and that include virtual dead ends in the store, and knowing how to enter the Store At the right time of the Just day (Pop Mart does not warn when the Restocks will be). The Labubus Gacha. The Pop Labubu Mart and the Gacha video games (In which random awards are paid with virtual coins, although in many cases the games have systems free-to-play) share the mechanics of random collecting, that is, they are steroid slots. Labubu They are sold in surprise boxes or Blind Boxeswhere buyers do not know exactly what figure they will receive. Labubu reward to the most constant (or fortunate) with “secret” unusual figures and the Gacha games have certain extremely difficult characters to obtain. Both systems are designed to generate addiction and compulsive purchase, with psychological manipulation through hidden probabilities (although today in video games They are regulated) and limited events. The key is to convert uncertainty into an entertainment experience for which consumers are willing to pay, creating a cycle of expectation, emotion and disappointment that drives to try again. Header | Dushawn Jovic in Unspash In Xataka | There is a 30 -euro doll over a lot of mobiles in Spain. Welcome to the fashion of the ‘Sonny Angel’

Walking cats with belt is in fashion. We have asked an expert in feline behavior and is clear about what he thinks

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If you have Instagram or Tiktok and you like cats, I bet an arm to which videos have come out of Cats that leave the house tied with strap and harness. Some even go on a trip around the world, explore forests, jump, run and They even swimas if they were dogs. How is it possible? Is it advisable to walk the cat? To solve these and other doubts we have spoken with Paula VanascoFeline therapist and president of the association Rescues Borges Blanques. The phenomenon of adventurous cats It began to popularize in the 2010 on Instagram. One of the first was Vladimirthat traveled with its owners in a motorhome Throughout the United States. Also Skattya Maine Coon who was traveling on a sailboat with its owner, who was completely deaf and leaned on the cat to know when ships approached or sent him messages. A search on Tiktok returns to hundreds of results. “Cat harness”, “Adventure Cat”, “Cat Leash Training” … Today, any of these searches in Tiktok or Instagram returns us hundreds of results. Walking to the cat is fashionablebut it is not easy. If not, many of the reels that appear to us would not be tutorials and advice to accustom the cat. And if there is something that has tried to know is that, unlike dogs, cats They don’t like anything to atten. Understanding the nature of cats Paula is part of the team of Feline therapy And in your day to day Treat cats with behavioral problemssome of them caused precisely by these walks. Its positioning is clear: it is not a good idea to put a belt to a cat. “Cats are hypersensitive animals. For them a harness is stressful, so when you put it on the first time, many are thrown to the ground.” In addition, he adds that “to make it safe, it has to go very tight, which still makes it more annoying for the animal.” You have to understand that the nature of cats differs a lot from the dog. They are territorial animals and They feel safe within their territoryit doesn’t matter if that territory is the countryside or a flat in the city. When they leave their comfort zone, they always do it very little by little: “The cat needs to explore the territory at its rhythm, not that you take it wherever you want.” Instead, walking to a dog is more natural because its nature is to move in herd. They are social animals And security is provided by your pack, so when we walk them they feel safe. Image: Amparo Babyloni, Xataka Surely you have seen cats rubbing against the corners of furniture or other objects. It is the way they have of Create a safe space. When they explore, cats are rubbing at different points where They leave pheromones that serve as olfactory references. “This is how they explore the territory feeling safe. If there is any scare they go back, then they leave again … and so on until they have it controlled.” “When we get the cat out of its territory, it adopts a prey behavior. If there is a strong noise you will try to run and if you are tied, you can’t do it.” Nor should we forget that, although cats are predators of small animals, they are also prey to other larger ones. “When we get the cat out of its territory, it adopts a prey behavior. If there is a strong noise you will try to run and if you are tied, you can’t do it,” says Paula. It is not that the cats we see in the Instagram videos are all stressed, Some enjoy those outings, But according to Paula “they are the exception. They are cats that have learned that their environment is that and also have a very balanced character.” Using them since childhood is key because “cats do not develop fear until they have 5 or 6 months,” but insists that this is not a guarantee that it will enjoy it and should never be forced. What we don’t see on Instagram If it is outside its territory and scares, The cat instinct is running and getting safebut what happens if we have it tied? Two things can happen: “Let the harness escape or attack you.” In This video You can see perfectly how the cat tries to flee and when not getting it, he ends up biting its owner. Is what is known as redirected aggressivenessan episode in which the cat has a very violent response, in this case for a clear cause: try to flee and not be able to. If the cat tries to flee being tied, two things can happen: “That the harness escapes or that attacks you” The other scenario is to get rid of the harness and run away (the most common, because we already know that Cats are liquid). Being in a environment“It has no visual or olfactory references and there are not a few cases of cats that end up being lost.” If it is also in the city, the risk that a car is hit or attack a dog is very high. There are people who opt for Take the cat inside a backpack type carrier and walk it in this way. Here it is much more difficult for the cat to flee, but Paula does not recommend it either: “I had a case of a cat that took him inside a backpack. The cat did not show the stress at the time, but when he got home he became aggressive. They were very frustrated to be locked up.” Another problem is that many people who get their cats abroad do not know how to understand The language of cats. “That a cat is still does not mean that it is calm.” In other words, it is not necessary to go crazy like that of the video so that it is assuming stress. Cats … Read more

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