fight

We are going to see a lot of strange things as platforms fight to survive

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The platform war is increasing, and given the atomization that we have been seeing for years (each production company with its own platforms), we started attending to some apparently unnatural pairings but that make all the commercial sense in the world. The latest: Netflix wants to promote content that it had not entered into until now: podcasts. To do this, it partners with another digital communication giant, Spotify. From the digital hand. Netflix and Spotify have signed an agreement which can mark a turning point in the world of streaming audio and video. The pact will allow Netflix to distribute a selection of video podcasts produced by Spotify Studios and The Ringer, the label founded by sports journalist Bill Simmons and acquired by Spotify in 2020. The official launch is scheduled for early 2026 in the United States, with international expansion plans throughout the same year.​ Everyone against YouTube. The alliance places both companies in a competitive position against YouTube, until now a benchmark in the long-form video format with conversational content. Unlike what happens on the Google portal, where the main financing model is advertising, Netflix will not include ads, while Spotify will maintain control of the podcast advertising inventory, which reinforces its business strategy based on creator monetization more than in dependence on the user and subscriptions. The programs. Due to the language barrier, not well known outside the United States, although that could change. The initial catalog will include 16 video podcasts. Some of them are: The Bill Simmons Podcast: sport and pop culture. The Rewatchables: analysis of iconic films The Dave Chang Show: conversations about food culture. Conspiracy Theories and Serial Killers: true crime. Dissect: in-depth analysis of historical records. Also abundant sports programs, a specialty of The Ringer: The Ringer NBA Show, The Ringer NFL Show and Fairway Rollin’. Spotify and podcasts. Since 2023, Spotify is increasing its presence in the podcast landscape after years of heavy investments. The company invested more than a billion dollars in famous exclusive contractslike those of The Joe Rogan Experience or Call Her Daddy. But high costs and the evolution of the podcast landscape led it to abandon the exclusivity policy. For some time now it has decided to reinforce its bet on videosince the video podcasts register a growth twenty times greater than audio-only programs, according to account TechCrunch. Netflix wants variety. As for Netflix, this fits perfectly into its diversification policy: Ted Sarandos, co-CEO, had already advanced in April 2025 the intention to incorporate conversational and experimental video content. It is normal for it to join forces with Spotify to fight Youtubewhich has grown noticeably since the public began to stream your content from television. Two super two. The alliance also allows Spotify to avoid the high infrastructure costs that would entail maintaining its own streaming service. streaming videowhile Netflix obtains a volume of new content that does not require large production investments. It is a beneficial collaboration for both content giants: while Spotify expands the spaces where it can be consumed, Netflix diversifies its catalog with a reasonable investment. Header | kit in Unsplash / Netflix In Xataka | Spain is one of the most important “sets” in Europe: the platforms already invest 2,000 million in filming here

The Captcha had become an excellent tool to fight the bots. Until Chatgpt Agent arrived

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In 2003 a young Guatemalan named Luis von Ahn published a unique study along with two colleagues from the Carnegie Mellon University and an IBM researcher. That project described an automated test that was easy to solve for humans but practically insurmountable for artificial intelligence systems. Those researchers called that test Captcha. The concept was simple and focused on the already famous Moravec paradox: there are things that humans do effortlessly – such as solving the visual puzzles that the captcha propose – but that the machines fail to solve. The idea turned out to be one of those between one million. Von ahn He ended up creating an improved version to which He called recaptcha that not only verified that you were human: I did it helping Train and perfect OCR systems. That other complementary idea was another unique moment “Eureka!” De von Ahn, and in fact he ended up making him a millionaire in 2009, the year Google decided to buy his service. Then he would dedicate himself to another equally striking project (or perhaps more): Duolingo. A dizzying (and juicy) evolution While doing so, the captcha continued to grow and evolve. Putting it more and more difficult for machines that gradually stated that perhaps those tests were no longer so valid. From those basic captchas we ended up moving to recaptchas of all kinds in which visual puzzles not only challenged the abstraction capacity of machines, but also helped to train no longer OCR systems, but artificial vision systems to better recognize cars, buses, zebra crossings or, how not, fire mouths. But artificial vision and intelligence systems also improved, and that struggle between these tests (Captcha comes from Completely Automated Turing Tests to Tell Computers and Humans Apart) and the machines became more and more interesting. It was a Singular cat and mouse game with spambotsand when some AI system managed to overcome a captcha or any of its variants, the puzzles became more and more difficult. The story has repeated again. He did this Friday. It was then that a User of the R/OpenAI community in Reddit published captures of Chatgpt agent overcoming without apparent problems one of the recaptchas more popular and used today on the Internet. This is the system TURONSTIL from Cloudflare, which presents a small box with the text “I’M not a robot“(” I am not a robot “) to click on it. It seems very simple and simple, but it is not so much for the machines. As indicated in Cloudflare, this recaptcha variant analyzes various signals such as the mouse movement, the time we take to click, the “digital footprint” of our browser, the “reputation” of our IP or some Javascript execution patterns. With them determines whether the user is a human being or is suspicious of being a bot. And if there is suspicion, the system presents after that first captcha another in which we do have to solve some type of visual puzzle. AI does not know if it is human, it only tries to operate as such The funny thing here is that Openai’s agent solved the problem in an obvious way: seeing what was on the screen to act accordingly, something that had not been easy until now. The agent was even narrating what he was doing, and while doing that step he showed the following text: “The link is inserted, so I will click on the” verify that you are human “click to complete the verification in Cloudflare. This step is necessary to demonstrate that I am not a bot and be able to continue with the action.” Or what is the same: The machine was self -healing like a human being. It is something unusual, but perhaps not quite strange considering that 1) AI does not really know what it says and 2) has been trained to speak (and act, at least in a limited way) as a human being. Operator, Openai’s previous agriculture, passed it really bad With these systems. Does this mean that captcha are threatened with death? Probably not. This is nothing more than another battle of that war between the bots and the captcha. One that for example we saw Another AI victory In October 2024 but it did not involve the debacle of this type of user verification tests. As they point out In Ars Technicathe captcha systems have not stopped evolving. From those blurred and deformed texts we go to recaptcha in which we had to solve visual puzzles of all kinds that lately force us not to identify traffic lights, but to place an image in a specific orientation – a increasingly popular system called Arkose MatchKey– Oa having to identify some element of an image that does not agree on it. In fact, the most recent captchas are no longer so much to prevent bots from exceeding that barrier to slow them so much that making brute force attacks with bots does not compensate. Captchas not as a barrier, but as a bots brake An article of those responsible for Arkose Labs, creators of Matchkey, made it clear that “There is no completely impenetrable captcha“, and that with their proposal what they intended was” to introduce an economic deterrence or cost proof for the malicious behavior of the bots. “Or what is the same: than to develop a bot that exceeds those captcha was so expensive that It was not worth it. Thus, we should not worry much in case the agents of AI can overcome this test, because surely they will appear captchas that continue to assume an almost impassable barrier for these systems. It is precisely the same concept with which it works THE ARC-AGI 2 TESTwhich measures visual understanding and abstract reasoning of AI systems and that is so complicated that the best AI models, which are also very expensive, do not exceed 4% of cases in the best case (O3-Preview). Will there come a time when those agents of ia get … Read more

What is global warming, what are its causes and how we are trying to fight it

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The concept “global warming” seems to have fallen into disuse. Today we often speak of concepts such as “climate change” or even “anthropogenic climate change.” Are synonyms? Two expressions with which we can refer to the same phenomenon? Not quite. We could say that global warming is a single Appearance of climate changealthough perhaps it is the central aspect of this. The difference between one concept and another can be subtle but understanding it can help us better understand the phenomenon as a whole. What is global warming Let’s start with the basic question: what is global warming. We call global warming to a phenomenon observed in recent decades: a Increase in the global average temperature Atmospheric This increase in temperatures is not uniform or constant, but the records indicate that it has been producing, at least, Since the beginning of the 20th century. It is impossible to give a concrete measure of this increase since it can vary depending on the reference period we use. For example, According to the data of the surveillance system Copernicuswe can ensure that the temperature of the year 2024 was 1.65º Celsius higher than the pre -industrial average temperature, understood as the average temperatures between 1850 and 1900. It was the first year in which we exceed the imaginary figure of 1.5º, a key figure for climate experts. The figure must be taken with caution: the natural variability of global temperatures, including factors such as the oscillation of the southern El Niño could have contributed to an extremely warm year. That is why the trend is in this case more important than the data itself. Difference between global warming and climate change We indicated at the beginning that global warming It is one of the aspects of a more general phenomenon, Climate change; also called anthropogenic climate change to distinguish it from the numerous climate changes that have occurred throughout the geological history of our planet. We generally see the weather as something static, in contrast to the weather, changing. However, the weather varies not only depending on our location but also over time. What makes special climate change are two factors: the rapid speed at which the climate and its anthropogenic origin change. He Average increase in global temperatures It is the key characteristic of climate change, but not the only one, so the distinction between both concept is important. Climate change includes changes in the evolution of rain patterns or extreme weathering phenomena, changes in atmospheric and oceanic circulations, or even Located atmospheric cooling. Causes of global warming Something that have in common climate change and global warming is their origin, the accumulation of Greenhouse gases. Although we continue studying the details, the scientific community keeps a general consensus in regards to the triggers of this phenomenon. The industrial era has seen a rapid increase in atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide and other gases greenhouse effect like methane. Under normal conditions, part of the solar energy that our planet reaches is reflected back to space. These gases favor the retention of an important portion of this energy. This generates an imbalance that causes the Earth’s atmosphere to accumulate energy in the form of heat, thus causing the so -called global warming and thus unleashing changes in the climate that go beyond the simple increase in temperature. How global warming affects us We have been studying the consequences of this accumulation for decades in the atmosphere and the possible impacts planned in two dimensions: its severity and the certainty we have about its appearance. The increase in temperatures has direct consequences. More heatFor example, It implies health riskssuch as heat blows or cardiovascular problems, but also implies a greater energy expenditure when it comes to refreshing households, workplaces or vehicles. Also can affect agricultureto the Habitats of many animals and implies greater evaporation of water which increases the risk of drought. Not all impacts in the planet’s heating are negative: in some areas, an increase in temperatures can have positive effects for agriculture or for the health of those who inhabit these areas. The problem is that it does not seem that these advantages will compensate for the negative impacts we expect. Periodic reports of the Intergovernmental Panel against Climate Change of the UN (IPCC), dedicate part of their attention to the impact evaluation, taking into account the aforementioned dimensions: severity of the impact and the degree of certainty that we have regarding these impacts. The last iteration of this report, the sixth evaluation report, was published in 2022. How can we reduce global warming Strategies to dodge the impacts of global warming (and climate change in general) are divided into two groups: adaptation strategies and mitigation strategies. Those that lead us to reduce warming in itself are what we call mitigation. Mitigation strategies seek accelerating speed with which these gases are extracted from the atmosphere. For now the efforts to stop this increase in concentrations have served little, but at least we have managed to reduce the rhythm at which concentrations increase, According to the latest IPCC report. How can we adapt to heating The strategies that are based on assuming that a certain degree of heating is, at least, very likely so We must adapt To this they are classified, as its name suggests, as adaptation strategies. Although we left today of emitting greenhouse gases, the concentrations of this would take years to reduce to a “pre -industrial” level, so a certain degree of heating is inevitable. Adaptation strategies are varied and depend on the different impacts that climate change can imply. We know, for example, that the increase in temperatures puts cities at greater risk due to heat island effectso that adapting the architecture, the green spaces or the urban framework of these are possible strategies with which to face the change. Another example is in Adapt the coastal lines at a somewhat higher sea level, also in introducing new mechanisms to reduce the risk of floods in … Read more

China already has an army of drones and firefighters. And fight the fire to cannon

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In recent days, a video has gone viral in Chinese networks: that of a skyscraper 150 meters with flames at the top. The special thing is that, fighting the flames there were no human firefighters, but drones. And, however futuristic it is, the craziest thing is that those drones are not alone: ​​next to you there are dogs, Robot dogs that have already been incorporated into the Fire Department. Fire drones. Fire can appear at any time. In Spain we know well, especially in summerand fighting it is dangerous for specialists. A way to give a first response to fire is Through robots and drones. But apart from being able to fight the fire without putting us at risk, the advantage is that they can reach high points to which a human would take longer to access. That’s why being able to fly, basically. In the video that we leave on these lines we can see some maneuvers in which two strategies against fire are raised. One is the most striking: robots that, armed with hoses, expel water and foam to placate the flames that appear abroad. As we say, it is something we carry years Seeing in different maneuvers in China. Fighting the fire to missile. Thus, there are several drones that can already rise to 200 meters and start fighting the flames in less than 30 seconds. It is a figure that a human cannot match and that gives time to land equipment to address the entrance to the building and rescue work. One of those models is the HZH CF30a drone with six blades capable of loading up to 30 kilos of weight and that has an interesting feature: it can be equipped with a multitude of tools, from emergency equipment for survival work to missile pitchers that are thrown into the interior to placate the flames from within. EHANG 216F. But there are also manned vehicles. An example is the EHANG 216-Fsimilar to the one that has already completed Test flights for the National Police of Spainbut focused on tasks of extinction and fire assessment in upper skyscrapers. With 16 propellers, an electric motor per propeller, a maximum speed of 130 km/Hy a flight time of 21 minutes, firefighters can use it in two ways. One, as an identification vehicle. Thanks to the camera and sensors like lidarThey can identify the location of the most critical points to act. The second, as a direct action vehicle thanks to its pressurized nozzle to expel fire extinction fluid and its six projectiles full of dry dust superfine. The payload they can transport is 220 kilos and the idea is that the cities fire stations can respond to fires in high -rise buildings that are within a three -kilometer radius with respect to the station itself. Special Unitree B2. Beyond the autonomous and manned drones, another recent added to the Fire Response forces are the United Square robots. Yes, the New Chinese technological jewel that has put to fight to two of his robots. A few weeks ago, They announced A version of your UNITREE B2 Designed for emergencies in dangerous environments. It is a modular robot that can be used within flames buildings to locate the focus, evaluate the level of gases or, directly, use a water and foam cannon that can be coupled to the spine. This model is reinforced with more resistant joints that help greater security when the robot is move through complicated landsuch as stairs or collapsed buildings. As we say, it has several modules that can be installed, being one of them a kind of “shield” that expels water not to turn off the fire, but to prevent the robot from overheating and can, thus, continue to operate in complicated conditions with fire. Rescue robots. And that there is so much device focused on rescue and emergency work in China is not a coincidence. It is something that is being promoted from companies and Governmentas demonstrates the recent International Emergency Exhibition of the Yangtze River Delta. Although it seems a specific name, the Expo has become a meeting point in which innovations are shown in the field of security, rescue work and disaster prevention. 500 companies from 20 countries gathered to show their technology, being models such as that of Unitree some of the main dishes of the event. Because, in the end, China is not alone in this. Japan already has its “Dragon firefighter”To combat the fire and we are clear that they can also be Help in natural disastersas forest fires. Images | UNITREE, Ehang In Xataka | In China patrol a new unstoppable police robot: identifies objectives, launches networks, gas bombs and almost never rests

An army of 25,000 North Koreans addresses Russia. They will not fight, they will build the biggest army of kamikaze drones

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It is taking place A paradox in the war that is taking place in Europe. While Ukraine has weakened Russian artillery, another growing threat has been increasing more and more over the months. If kyiv became a industry of combat drones in record time, Moscow is determined to overcome. As? To begin with, with the arrival of thousands of North Koreans. Drones, workers and an alliance. The strategic alliance between Russia and North Korea has ceased to be a marginal cooperation to become a structural axis with direct implications in the evolution of the war in Ukraine and in the security architecture of Eastern Asia. According to diplomatic sources cited in media Japanese and Western, Pyongyang has begun to send an army of up to 25,000 workers to the Special Economic Zone of Alabuga, in the Russian Republic of Tartaristan. THE OBJECTIVE: Massive support the industrial production of Shahed dronesof Iranian origin, used by Moscow As a main weapon of saturation and attack in Ukraine. But there is more. This collaboration also includes knowledge transfer operational, training in the use of unmanned systems, and a component of reconstruction aid in combat areas, Like Kurskwhich has suffered important damage from the Ukrainian offensive of August 2024. The arrival of North Korean personnel not only represents a solution to the growing labor shortage qualified in Russia, but also contributes to consolidating a political and military axis based on convergent interests against the West. Mass kamikazes. The Alabuga factory, epicenter of the Russian Drones Shahed program, currently produces some 2,000 units per month with the objective of reach 5,000 Thanks to this new workforce. In fact, satellites They have detected an enormous expansion in the industrial zone, with the construction of Collective bedrooms designed to accommodate hundreds of workersfollowing an intensive and permanent occupation architecture. The logistics reinforcement aims to guarantee the continuity of production even under direct threat, since the plant has repeatedly suffered attacks by Ukrainian drones, as it happened June 15 with a Airrakt A-22 loaded with explosives that towed a glider, unpublished tactics Until then and capable of attacking two goals simultaneously. Russian Drones Shahed A key drone. The Russian need to maintain pressure on Ukrainian defenses has turned Shahed into the backbone of his aerial offensive. It We have counted before: these vehicles are modified to carry major explosive loads and, in some cases, elements of autonomy that make them more difficult to intercept. He massive use (With attacks that reach more than a hundred drones per night) it forces Ukraine to accelerate their anti -aircraft reserves, progressively weakening their defense and reaction capacity. Rebuild with military logic. The sending of North Korean workers is not limited to the production of weapons. After his visit to Pyongyang, Russian Defense Minister Serguéi Shoigú, confirmed the incorporation of about 1,000 North Korean and at least 5,000 civil workers which will participate in the reconstruction of destroyed infrastructure in Kursk. This region, invaded by Ukrainian forces In August 2024 And recovered by Russia after weeks of combat, it has been deeply damaged. Moscow considers its reconstruction essential both in terms of national morals and the logistics sustainability of the front. Not just that. They counted the Twz analysts that the initiative also responds to a Internal logic: Kremlin perceives Central Asian migrants as politically unstable and potentially vulnerable to recruitment for Western or Ukrainian intelligence services, which has driven the search of “Leales migrants”like North Koreans. A labor hybrid. According to General Ukrainian Kyrylo Budanovpart of these workers will end up signing Contracts with the Ministry Russian defense, constituting unofficial units of Russian nationality but North Korean origin, which would mark a new step in hybridization between foreign workforce and regular military structure. Inverse technological transfer. It is another leg to analyze. The alliance has an even deeper geopolitical dimension. According to BudanovRussia is actively helping North Korea to improve the accuracy of Your KN-23 ballistic missilesto Modernize your missiles long-range air-air and reinforce the capacities of Its nuclear submarinesparticularly in relation to missile launch from submerged platforms. Strategic evolution. In exchange for Labor and Cooperation Logistics, Moscow is consolidating a North Korean offensive capacity that could alter military balance in the Korean peninsula. In that sense and how We countPyongyang is developing (with Russian assistance) the necessary infrastructure to produce local versions Of the Shahed drones, which would endow the regime of Kim Jong-un of an arsenal capable of, for example, saturate the aerial defenses of South Korea through mass and simultaneous attacks. This change represents a strategic evolution for a country that until a few years ago operated outside the large global military production chains, but now emerges as a relevant actor in asymmetric technological warfare. “Other” world order. In short, the image of a giant factory where thousands of Russians and North Koreans come together In a Shahed drone assembly line, that Moscow-Pyongyang alliance at a new level. If you also want, it marks the emergence of an authoritarian axis not only military, but also economic and structuralthat frontally challenges the Western Alliances System. What doubt fits, if Russia manages to stabilize its forehead through Drones produced by mass With North Korean help and at the same time strengthens Pyongyang’s strategic capabilities in Asia, global security architecture will experience A dangerous mutation. Now it is not simply an exchange of resources for services, but the training of a Coordinated Interest Network With a shared narrative against the United States, Europe and its Asian allies. Image | KNCA, X. In Xataka | North Korea has been sending armament for months to Russia. In return, Russia is giving him what longs for her: a functional army In Xataka | Ukraine is surviving in the war thanks to the drones. Russia has an ally to change that: North Korea

Scientists have a new very powerful tool to fight Alzheimer’s and Parkinson: quantum computers

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To solve most of the problems that scientists expect to be able to address in the future with Quantum computers capable of amending their own mistakes, such as optimization, those in the field of cryptography or artificial intelligenceit will be necessary have several million cubits. It can even, that hundreds of millions of cubits. The most advanced quantum processor currently IBM has itand it has just over a thousand cubits, so it is evident that many technological challenges remain that it is necessary to solve. The interesting thing is that there is no single way to go through this path. Organizations that are investigating in the field of quantum computing work in several different cubits technologiesand each of them is in a different degree of development. IBM, Intel and Google are some of the big companies that have opted for superconductor cubits, but also do so smaller ones, such as Atlantic Quantum, IQM, Anyon Systems, Rigetti Computing or Bleximo. In fact, if we stick to the number of companies that are working on this type of quantum bits it is reasonable to conclude that this is the technology that has greater support and greater investment, so, in some way, it is the one that goes in the lead. This strategy is probably what will help us to have more cubits, but it is also more prone to make mistakes than ion traps cubits, which are one of the alternatives to superconductors. In addition, these last cubits are characterized by working at a temperature of about 20 millikelvin, which are approximately -273 degrees Celsius, with the purpose of operating with the greater degree of isolation of the possible environment. Ion traps are given great proteins Ion traps are currently the main alternative to superconductor cubits. This is the technology in which they are working, among other companies, Ionq and Honeywell, and is characterized by using ionized atoms, and, therefore, with a non -neutral global electric charge. This property allows them to be isolated and confined inside an electromagnetic field, although this is only the starting point. From here Ionq acts on the quantum state of its cubits with ion traps cooling them to reduce the level of computational noise and uses lasers just then to operate with them. However, it does not use a single laser; Use one for each ionand also a global laser that acts on all of them simultaneously. Honeywell also uses ionized and laser atoms, but the procedure used to establish the intertwining between two ions and act on them with a laser is different from that used by Ionq. For scientists it is crucial to understand the folding of proteins that triggers Alzheimer’s or Parkinson Parkinson Precisely a team of researchers from this last company and the German emerging company specialized in quantum quantum computing To do something amazing: Solve protein folding problems with up to 12 amino acids. To carry it out they designed a quantum optimization method that seeks to find the optimal configuration of protein folding. Expressed in this way it seems complex, and it is, but the really important thing, and with what is worth it, it is that these quantum computers thanks to the appropriate algorithm are able to help scientists Understand the protein folding mechanism that triggers diseases such as Alzheimer’s or the Parkinson. And understand this phenomenon well is the first step towards the elaboration of effective treatment. This result is very promising, but there is still a lot of work to do so that quantum computers help us in front of these diseases. On the one hand, folding models must evolve to be more reliable and realistic. And, in addition, the classic algorithm that is responsible for refining the results delivered by the quantum algorithm should be more precise. Even so, the work of these researchers is an exceptionally promising starting point. Image | Ionq More information | Arxiv In Xataka | Quantum computers threaten encryption technologies. This is the reason why we do not have to panic

The fight between “giants” causes Tesla to collapse and lose 100,000 million in a few hours

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The good relationship that Donald Trump and Elon Musk exhibited for months has deteriorated significantly in recent days. Although the businessman seemed to leave his position in the Doge (Department of Government Efficient) in good terms, With a farewell from the Oval Officetensions have not stopped increasing. So much so that on Thursday the president of the United States was “very disappointed” by the criticisms of the CEO of Tesla to the fiscal bill that promotes its administration. The owner of X (formerly Twitter) responded in several publications that, without his support, Trump “would have lost the elections.” The dispute rose when Trump said that “the easiest way to save billions of dollars” of the federal budget is canceling the subsidies and government contracts that benefit Musk companies. According to The New York Timesonly in 2024 the companies linked to the tycoon accumulated about 100 contracts with about 17 federal agencies. Most were for Spacex, but Tesla also is among the beneficiaries. In total, there were about 3,000 million dollars. Trump even affirmed that he had asked Musk to leave his post in the government, an affirmation that the businessman strongly denied in X: “What a lie so obvious. How sad.” The climb coincides with a delicate front for Tesla. The fiscal policies promoted by the Trump administration could be a coup of 1.2 billion dollars to the annual benefit of Tesla, according to JPMorgan (Via Bloomberg), by largely eliminating the fiscal credit of 7,500 dollars for electric vehicles. On Thursday, the stock market effects were demolving. Tesla fell up to 18 % in its worst day since September 2020. At the close, the collapse was 14.26 %. Only on that day, he lost more than 100,000 million dollars of stock market capitalization, erasing a good part of the rebound he had achieved in recent weeks. Images | The White House In Xataka | Elon Musk entered the US government with the aim of having a more favorable NASA to their interests. It has been regular

Robots with flamethrows fight against shotguns

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That the war in Ukraine is breaking all the molds of the war tactics of conflicts of the past, is out of any doubt. Interestingly, the battle that is fought is a test field where the more advanced technologies of military artillery, with other ideas that worked in such distant contests Like World War I. In fact, to the Ukrainian application of the “Davis Canyon”, Russia has replicated with a plane of the same era. And, in the meantime, the first flamethrower robot appears. Reinvent the obsolete. As we said, Russia has resorted to such an unusual method as revealing the growing pressure that Ukraine exerts with its unmanned air attacks: adapting the old training plane YAK-52 as a rudimentary anti -Didish platform. As? Armed with A semi -automatic shotgun and a multispectral sensor under the wing. The aircraft, now called YAK-52B2, has been redesigned to detect and knock down long-range drones that fly over the Russian territory, especially those of unidirectional attack such as the AN-196 Liutyi or non -manned versions of ultraliger planes such as Airrakt A-22used by Ukraine to hit the enemy borders. This adaptation remembers the experiments of the Soviet era with the YAK-52B, a counterinsurgent version armed with guns and rockets that never reached serial production, but now finds a Luck of rebirth Forced by the new conditions of the battlefield. Improvised solution. The Appearance of YAK-52B2 It responds to the growing limitations of traditional Russian anti -aircraft systems, increasingly saturated or deployed in the front. Putin himself publicly admitted, after a wave of attacks in May 2024, that Moscow’s aerial defense worked in shape “Satisfactory” but improvable. In this context, a slow, cheap plane, with good maneuverability at low altitude and capable of operating from makeshift airfields can offer an additional layer of punctual defenseespecially useful for protecting critical infrastructures away from the front. The use of electrooptic sensors and an on -board shooting computer allows nightly or adverse climatic conditions, just when Ukrainian drones are usually launched. However, the chosen armament (A 12 caliber shotgun, probably a Semi -automatic saiga) raises serious operational doubts due to its extremely limited reach, especially In combat Aire-Airewhere shooting at such a short distance can involve collisions with debris or the premature detonation of the enemy drone. FrEE OF THE SENSOR TORRET BELOW THE YAK-52B2 WING A new phase of unmanned war. At the same time that Russia has used its modified Yak-52, an unprecedented evolution of drones has appeared. Ukraine has approved officially the Incorporation of Krampusa non -manned land vehicle (UGV), who has earned the nickname of “ruling robot” for its ability to launch thermobárica rounds RPV-16an ammunition that disperses fuel in the air and lights it, generating a devastating explosion. This authorization places it among the more than 80 designs of terrestrial drones already supported by kyiv, consolidating a tendency of technological diversification that seeks to maximize the operational autonomy of the Ukrainian army. The Krampus, of Local designit has been conceived as a robust platform for missions so much offensives as defensive against infantry and light armored vehicles, and is driven by two silent engines that allow it to cross complicated land such as thick forests, swamps or slopes, without losing mobility under extreme weather conditions. The flamethrower used RPV 16 Lethal effect With the ability to be transported in the back of a truck, this hybrid incorporates a video camera and even Four RPV-16 pitchers On a single use, which suggests that the robot can shoot those four times before requiring replenishment. Although the ministry has not revealed its operational autonomy or the amount of ammunition that it can load, it has confirmed that its control systems are designed to Resist electronic interferencewhich is crucial in a saturated front of electronic warfare. Your battery also allows you to remain in motion for several hours or stay in waiting mode For long periods, which increases its tactical utility in prolonged or ambush operations. Advantages of weight and permanence. The incorporation of krampus, what’s doubt, is an evolution (Another one) In the use of drones, traditionally focused on aerial vehicles, taking advantage of the unique advantages of the UGVas its ability to transport major explosive loadsits usefulness for mining cleaning missions, or even the evacuation of injured in extreme situations. This versatility has caused Ukrainian units to develop Your own UGV models With mounted machine guns, capable of operating at distances of up to 20 kilometers and normally coordinated with aerial recognition drones to detect mines, traps or enemy positions. Technological mutation: the past. The appearance of Russian Yak-52 “Vitaminate”together with the Krampus Ukranian They are faithful mirrors of what is happening in the front: past and future intermingle. The conversion of Yak-52 in a kind of drone hunter reflects the deeply adaptive and decentralized character of modern conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In the absence of clear technological superiority, both sides are forced to reuse available resources with creativity and urgency. As we have told before, the proliferation of Cheap and effective drones He has caused even air forces to be forced to rethink their doctrines. Technological mutation: The future. On the other sidewalk, the adoption of robots, Like Krampusit is not only a sample of technical innovation, but a direct measure for replace soldiers in the most dangerous areas of the front. In a context where human casualties accumulate and the exhaustion of personnel is a constant, the UGV represent an alternative to maintain the offensive without depending exclusively of human sacrifice. Its implementation also sends a clear message about the evolution of the conflict: the war in Ukraine is no longer only a territorial or geopolitical dispute, but an extreme laboratory where the role of military technology of the 21st century is redefined … with help of the last century. Image | Defense Ministry of Ukraine, Voidwanderer In Xataka | To hunt Russian drones, Ukraine is resorting to a revolutionary technique … from World War I In Xataka | The … Read more

Russia opened her prisons to fight in Ukraine. The problem is that they are returning free … and they were convicted murderers

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In the month of January several data and figures of the war in Ukraine were known through the Institute for the Study of War. We already knew that among the many paradoxes that the conflict threw, one of them had to do with The economic “value” that he had a Russian soldier in his native country. However, then another reality was also revealed: Moscow’s casualties on the front led the Kremlin to implement drastic strategies to fill their ranks, opening the door of their prisons To recruit criminals of all fur. The problem has arrived months later, when many of those soldiers are returning home. Return murderers. I told it a few days ago in Exclusive Washington Post. As we said, the war in Ukraine opened a Unusual and disturbing door: convict criminals, even murderers and rapists, could obtain forgiveness of the State If they agreed to fight in the front. This macabre pact has now resulted in a new wave of violence in the interior of the country, fed by veterans and former inmates who, after surviving the war, return home as free men and, in many cases, returning to crime. Real examples. In The report There were tremendous stories like Yekaterina Polyanskayamurdered with a knife by its ex -husband in an Achinsk park, Siberia. Shortly before, the man had also killed his new partner. This was only one of the numerous cases that have shaken communities that fear to see how their worst executioners escape from punishment under a war medal. In a dystopian turn of events, his aggressor, Kirill Cheplygin, currently arrested, has requested Go back to the forehead To avoid their conviction, and the neighbors, terrified, have started a campaign to prevent their possible return. It is not an isolated case: other criminals have followed that way, some so monstrous like Nikolai Ogolobyakconvicted By cannibalism and murderor Viktor Savvinov, who, after being pardoned by fighting, killed brutally to two more peopleincluding a decorated teacher. The pattern is repeated: atrocious crimes, a brief step by prison, armed redemption in the front and, for many, definitive impunity. Between war heroes and predators. In the background, a story that We already count in the month of January and that the New York Times published Exclusive: Russian authorities promoted this policy with patriotic rhetoric and institutional fatalism. According to Kremlin, shedding blood on the battlefield can even redeem the cruelest of criminals. In fact, They counted the reports that the official press portrays them as a new heroic elite, and the Censorship Law prevents openly criticizing to those who have fought in the so -called “special military operation”. However, in the streets, especially in rural or peripheral communities, imposes fear. Families of victims live knowing that the murderers of their daughters, mothers or neighbors could Return armedproud and without control. Cases like Oksana Pekhtelevawhose daughter was murdered with sadism by her ex -boyfriend and tortured for hours without the police intervened, she learned by the press that the man had been released and sent to the front. Today he doesn’t know where he is, or if he will return. An arbitrariness that breaks any possibility of justice. Plus: citizen protests run into a wall of Institutional indifferencewhile the crimes accumulate in those margins of the heroism officialized. Brutality and abandonment. Within the Russian army itself, violence is not only against the enemy. According to The reports With which the post has been made, there are dozens of documents that describe commanders who “cancel” their own soldiers by sending them to suicidal missions, punishing them in cages, burying them alive or hitting them. In total psychological support, structural brutality has transformed thousands of men In human bombs ready to explode. To all this we must add another “bad” of wars: Alcoholism has shotwith record figures for consumption after the invasion of Ukraine, and the crime rates They have reached levels not seen for a decade. He Washington Post counted Cases such as Danil Akhipov, who fled from the country after flying their hand and defecting, which describe a front where superiors treat soldiers as cannon flesh and human life is not worth much. AkHipov explained to the environment that, of every fifteen men in his assault unit, Only three survived to each operation. The result: a dehumanized army, full of combatants With posttraumatic stressaccustomed to killing and now reintegrated into society without supervision or purpose. No exit for victims. Meanwhile, the Legal and political framework Russia seems to reinforce this spiral of impunity. The law, as we said, consecrates forgiveness as a reward for combat, without evaluating the risk of freeing certain individuals. Neither multiple sexual crimes nor particularly sadistic murders prevent access to this kind of “war pardon.” Ukraine too approved a law A year ago, it allows “minor” criminals to fight, but those convicted of murders, sexual crimes or violations of national security laws are prohibited from doing so. In addition, the victims and their relatives are not informed in Russia, nor do they have access to legal resources to oppose, and in many cases they do not even know that their aggressors were released until It’s too late. The political elite, armored by institutional machinery, ignores citizens’ requests. For many, to live in the same city or town that who killed his mother or daughter is a daily hell. And yet there is no legal tools To protect them. Trauma mirror without justice. The documents and the experiences collected For the Times and The post They reflect a reality that has surely been repeated in all wars and conflicts of the last centuries. In the case of Russia it is not only a consequence of the armed conflict, but the consolidation of a model that sacrifices justice, security and truth in favor of a warmongering rhetoric that makes criminals patriots. Because of its proximity, the parallels with the return of traumatized veterans after Afghanistan in the 80s serve as warning, but the difference is that today impunity … Read more

It is a fight to improve the quality of life

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Throughout the existence of our species, we have given menopause, an unavoidable stage of women’s life, for some bearable, for others more suffered. However, the last decades have served us to learn a lot from female reproductive health, and that learning has opened the door to something that would seem unthinkable: delay and even end menopause. To fight something, the first step is to understand it, and perhaps we are not bad to clarify this concept. Menopause It is the stage that marks the end of female reproductive life, but leads to a series of changes that go beyond the mere end of menstruations. Menopause It usually occurs In women aged between 45 and 55 and is the process marked by the end of women’s reproductive capacity. The term “perimenopause” is often used to refer to the transition period, a period that usually extends several years. During perimenopausechanges are experienced both in the menstrual cycle, which can be lengthened or shortened; and at the level of estrogens produced by these organs. Progesterone production also falls. “Unlike other organs, ovaries experience accelerated aging, with a drastic drop in its functionality that begins in the 30,” explained to National Geographic ZEV Williams, director of the Fertility Center of Columbia University. Menopause not only implies internal changes but also has very palpable effects for those who go through it. Sophocals are perhaps the symptom that we most strongly associate with this process, although all symptoms depend on the case. The List of symptoms Common includes, in addition to changes in menstrual regularity and suffocation, strong or accelerated heartbeat, night sweat, skin redness, or sleeping problems. Changes in the vagina that take pain during sexual intercourse, urine escapes and more frequent infections can also occur. Menopause is not common in the animal kingdom: only a few species reach the end of their reproductive stage throughout their lives, which has intrigued experts for years. Does it make any evolutionary sense? The truth is that we do not know, so there are different hypotheses to explain this phenomenon. One of them is the Grandma’s hypothesis. This hypothesis proposes that living after the reproductive stage could have helped our ancestors to take a role beyond the breeding of the first generation of descendants. That is, allowing grandmothers to take care of their grandchildren or other relatives without having their own children to attend. There are also those who believe that menopause is not due to our evolution but is the effect of our growing life expectancy. While it is true that the human being has a relatively long life expectancy And increasingly extensive, we must bear in mind that throughout history it would not have been strange to see women reaching the end of their reproductive stage. And yes, life expectancy at birth has changed a lot, but the life expectancy fulfilled an age has done it to a lesser extent. For example, in the 1840s, the life expectancy of a person reached at 10 was over 57 years. More than 60 once the 20th. Ending with menopause At birth, the ovules that will give rise to the next generation are already located in the ovaries. We might think that, as it is a limited number of ovules, stretching the amount of menstrual cycles would be impossible, but the truth is that the number of ovules with which it is born gives for several lives, since this number is Between million and two million of gametes. These are disappearing, but it is estimated that during puberty the number of oocytes is about 300,000. Menopause is not a direct consequence of the exhaustion of these cells but of the aging of the organs that house them, the ovaries. The possibility of delaying the aging of these organs opens a way to prolong their reproductive life and their endocrine role. One of the promising techniques in this context is frozen ovarian tissue. This is a technique designed to simplify the process of extraction of ovules in people with cancer who want to maintain their fertility after very aggressive treatments. The technique, still experimental, is based on extracting tissue from the organ, freezing it and then reimpling it, could open the path to delay the menopausal process. According to their developerswhen reimplanting the fabric, this could be reimplanted in successive sessions, gradually lengthening the fertile age of those who decide to submit to treatment. The developers of the technique published last year An article In the magazine American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology in which they detailed their proposal. The Rapamycin It is a compound that could help us to delay menopause without going through the operating room. It is a already known drugderived from a bacterium, Streptomyces Hygroscopicusand used in other contexts for their immunosuppressive and antiproliferative properties. Recently, a team led by Williams, tested this drug. The treatment starts from the capacity of this compound to inhibit a protein related to aging, called MTOR. The provisional results of the study They gave rise to optimismbut we would still be in early stages of the investigation. Often if we have wondered if we can do something we also have to ask ourselves if it is a good idea to do so. Or the less ask ourselves, and all this for what? The answer in this case can be as simple as improving the lives of people who are going through this stage, whose symptoms can lead to a loss of quality of life and whose consequences may be complicated to fit sometimes. But there is even more. Because trying to stop menopause can also serve us as motivation when it comes to understanding it better, which could lead us to solve indirectly linked problems. For example, we know that the late appearance of menopause It has been associated with a lower bone loss in the elderly, as well as a lower risk of vascular and dementia diseases. Know why it can be of great help when improving the … Read more

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