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This console that no one knows about and is full of strange games with motion control has sold more than Xbox

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The toy that no one saw coming ended up becoming the unexpected phenomenon of Black Friday 2025. At the end of November and facing the Christmas campaign, a practically unknown console surpassed Xbox in sales and was positioned as the third best-selling hardware in the country, only behind PlayStation 5 and nintendo switch 2. What is it. Is called Nex Playgrounda motion-controlled gaming console made by a Silicon Valley startup that, until recently, was developing artificial intelligence applications to extract basketball scoring statistics. The product didn’t even appear on the industry’s radars until the data analysis firm Circana revealedafter studying console sales figures in recent weeks, which had accumulated 14% of total hardware sales during the most competitive period of the American commercial year. How it works. Its interior houses an 8-core ARM processor, 64 GB of storage and a wide-angle camera that constitutes the heart of the system. The tracking technology detects 18 points on the human body in real time using artificial intelligence algorithms that They process everything locallywithout sending data to the cloud. Some critics they have praised its design and motion tracking capabilities, but questioned the limited library of games and the subscription pricing scheme under which it operates. How much does it cost. Its entry price is $249, and includes five pre-installed games, such as ‘Fruit Ninja’. He full access to the catalog requires purchasing the Play Pass, at $89 annually or $49 quarterly. Still, the total cost of $338 would still be significantly below traditional consoles. The console deliberately aims at an audience other than the gamer traditional: families with young children looking for physical activity disguised as digital entertainment. The sales curve. PlayStation 5 led the market last Black Friday and surrounding dates, with a 47% market share. Switch 2 scored 24%, relegating Xbox to fourth position with less than 14% remaining, according to official data from Circana Retail Tracking Service. Nex’s sales trajectory draws a curve that defies any algorithmic prediction: in 2022, the company barely shipped 5,000 units of its console. The following year, that figure multiplied by thirty to reach 150,000 units. By 2024, the projection points to 600,000 systems sold. The evolution of Nex. The most radical transformation of Nex, the company behind Nex Playground, was not only technological, but also identity-based. The company was born in 2017, founded by a group of former Apple, Google and Facebook engineers led by David Lee. Its first app, ‘HomeCourt’, from July 2018, featured cutting-edge technology applied to a very specific market: basketball players, amateur or not, who wanted to analyze performance metrics. In July 2019 they signed a shareholding with NBA and they started to grow receive recognition. The pandemic and the closure of gyms revealed a fact that had gone unnoticed: people I downloaded the app to access minigames They were practically hidden. In 2021, Nex launched ‘Active Arcade’, a free app with 13 body movement mini-games, and they got more downloads in their first month than ‘HomeCourt’ in its entire history. In December 2023, they launched this Nex Playground, which physically materialized everything they had learned up to that point, seeking a family audience more than expert athletes. Agreements have been signed with brands such as Bluey, Peppa Pig, Barbie and the Ninja Turtles, and project more than $150 million in sales this year. In Xataka | Microsoft is killing Xbox for Excel

The countries of northern Europe are full of offshore wind. So they’ve started to steal the wind from each other

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The world has thrown itself into the arms of renewables to meet the goals of decarbonization. Each country is developing its strategy And, if in some the photovoltaic takes the lead, in others it is the wind that splits the cod. The problem is the commitments: fill the plate field implies that crops receive less sunlight. And fill the world with wind turbines – apart from visual impact, for fishing and for the birds-, is causing something as curious as it is problematic. Countries that are stealing the wind from their neighbors. Wake effect. When the wind hits the wind turbine bladesthese rotate, generating kinetic energy and electricity. The wind continues its path, but after passing through a wind turbine, it does so with less force. Multiply that by fields full of these mills and we have what is known as the ‘wake effect‘ or ‘wake effect’. This air that has already passed through a wind turbine station does so with a lower speed and greater turbulence. And if this is important, it is because the wind takes time to recover: the wakes can extend more than 100 kilometers after crossing a field of windmills. wind thieves. These facilities are usually far from each other to better take advantage of the currents, but if under certain circumstances they extend tens of kilometers, and up to the aforementioned hundred, imagine the consequences for the wind turbines that remain behind that installation that receives the first “hit” of wind. It is not an assumption: there is measurements by SAR satellite that confirm that, if a wind farm is built upwind of another, the wind speed it receives is 9% lower, causing it to have a reduction between 10% and 20% compared to that first installation. This is what is known as “wind theft,” a colloquial term for something that is easy to understand, but not so easy to fix. This GIF of The Telegraph illustrates it perfectly: Princess Elisabeth. As we read in BBCthe lawyer Eirik Finseras, specialized in offshore wind energy, “is a somewhat misleading term because you cannot steal something that you cannot own. Nobody owns the wind” – del Sol, yes, a Galician -. But of course, the fact that no one owns the wind does not exempt that park on the windward side from suffering the effects of the park built on the leeward side. In the North Sea, this is already becoming a problembecause the denser and larger the wind farm, the more intense the wake effect will be. Belgium is building Princess Elisabeth, a huge park that will add a whopping 3.5 GW of offshore wind capacity to the country’s accounts. It is a really huge offshore facilitybut although it will allow the addition of those 3.5 GW, it will also affect the existing Belgian parks due to a wake that will extend 55 kilometers beyond the installation. According to the accounts of the University of Leuven, the oldest Belgian facilities located to the east will experience: An 8.5% reduction in annual electricity production. Losses of up to 15% on very windy days. Impact. That in Belgian parks, but of course, it is also an international problem because the wind does not understand borders. By 2030, it is estimated that the current capacity of offshore wind energy in the North Sea will triple. This implies that thousands of turbines will be erected in a very short time with Belgium, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands willing to obtain, in total, 65 GW of offshore wind energy. The problem is knowing what will happen to these trails, since it is estimated that the 1,400 MW installation in the Dutch area of Borssele will cause a reduction of 2.7% on average in some Belgian wind farms. It is a very clear case of how the Netherlands is “stealing” the wind from Belgium. It is logical to understand the interest in offshore wind Bigger blades. In a report by BBCPablo Ouro, a civil engineering researcher at the University of Manchester, points out that they have been seeing wake effects for years, but that “the problem is that, to achieve emissions neutrality, we will need to triple offshore wind capacity and some of these new turbines will operate very close to those already in operation. There will be more and more crowds and the wake effects will have a greater impact.” And it is no longer a question of the number of mills, but of their dimensions. In the North Sea we are seeing efforts to achieve both greater heights for the mills themselves (to take advantage of other currents that are not being taken advantage of right now, such as larger blades that receive even more force from the wind. They are imposing mega-constructions that will also affect this wake effect, aggravating the problem. Solutions? Different countries are doing calculations. For example, in the United States, esteem that the planned offshore wind farms will produce a devastating wake effect: losses in the annual electricity production of other farms by up to 48.5 TWh per year. And there are already accusations: the Netherlands says that Belgium takes advantage of its wind, Germany says that the Netherlands is harming them… and the United Kingdom’s offshore parks stealing wind each other. The solution? Nothing simple, especially when many of these parks have either already been built or are under construction, but even so, research is being carried out to optimize the facilities. For example, adjusting turbine angles and optimizing the space between them, manufacturing higher power turbines to produce more with less or creating buffer zones between parks And, perhaps, the most difficult thing: that countries cooperate to carry out joint studies to place their facilities in the most efficient way for everyone. Images | ESMAP, G B_NZ In Xataka | In the great battle for wind turbines, Spain goes against Europe: it wants them further away than ever

there are parking lots full of abandoned luxury supercars

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In the middle of the Dubai desert, where luxury and excess seem to be part of the urban landscape, a legion of supercars that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars but now lie silent. they are abandoned as if they were scrap metal. As you can see in some videos On the subject, those machines are in perfect condition, with intact bodies, unburned tires, but their owners they have abandoned them without looking back. The magnitude of the abandonment. According to a recent statement According to Dubai authorities, between January and June 2025 alone, 1,387 abandoned high-end cars were seized. According to published data by Gulf News2023 resulted in 2,053 vehicles confiscated for this reason. In 2018, this figure was exceeded with 3,577 recalls of high-end cars abandoned to the rigors of the desert. In addition, Dubai City Council has issued 6,187 additional recall notices for other cars that it has detected with clear signs of abandonment in parking lots, streets or areas bordering the airport. Paradoxically, behind the abandonment of these supercars that cost real fortunes, there are economic problems. Why is the city council removing them? The Dubai Municipalitythe competent authority in the urban management of the city, has established protocols for the removal of abandoned vehicles: When a car is parked for a long time without a valid license plate, with flat tires or visibly neglected, a notice is placed on the owner and, if he does not act within the period (between 3 and 15 days), the vehicle is towed to the depot. The purpose is twofold. On the one hand, prevent these vehicles from becoming a source of waste, wildlife or vandalism. But, on the other hand, the authorities want to preserve the image of the city as a clean metropolismodern and orderly and having cars in a clear state of abandonment, no matter how Ferrari, Porsche and even Bugatti, does not give a very good impression. Tap on the photo to go to the original message Living in full luxury…even if it is temporary. Have a tax system very lax and permissive with capital has turned Dubai into a very attractive place for big fortunes and expatriates looking to make their financial breakthrough. This means that the country has become a magnet for workers and investors foreigners who settle temporarily your residence in the United Arab Emirates. As and how they counted in Mojogripsome of these investors and new rich come to the country with the intention of living fast and large, but when their stay ends or their investments do not turn out as expected, selling or exporting a supercar may not be viable. In these cases, the most practical (although therefore less painful) is to abandon them in an open field. at the mercy of the implacable desert. The price of the supercar is the least important. Buying a luxury car in Dubai is almost the least of the problems. In this part of the world, the costs of insurance, maintenance, registration and extreme conditions (sand, heat, seasonal use) mean that the simple fact of having a car in perfect condition is already a huge cost. When these expenses exceed what was expected, some owners who begin to suffer financial problems abandon the idea of ​​​​keeping the vehicle, which is why it is not strange to see a Lamborghini, a Ferrari or a Bentley gathering dust in parking lots of the city’s shopping centers. Dream turns into nightmare. The phenomenon of luxury cars being abandoned in vacant lots and parking lots in Dubai is not something new. But it has intensified when there have been major financial shocks: drops in oil prices, falls in the stock market or, as has been happening lately, the economic uncertainty caused by tariffs that the United States imposes or withdraws for no apparent reason. When this scenario occurs, large investments fluctuate with great intensity, turning many into millionaires, but ruining others. Those supercars covered in desert sand are silent testimony to those fluctuations. Debts, loans and legal consequences. When the economic situation becomes complicated, incurring non-payments or delays is the order of the day. However, in the UAE, defaulting on loan payments or issuing bad checks can lead to serious criminal penalties. That is why, for some owners of those supercars, taking that risk is more expensive than abandoning the vehicle and leaving the country. And why don’t they sell the car to pay off their debts? That is one more condition to leave them behind. The second-hand market for these models does not always compensate for the initial investment: finding a buyer, obtaining the required documentation and transferring ownership. can be complicatedespecially when debts and time are against you. In addition, one of the requirements to execute the sale is that the car be free of financial charges or pending fines. This scenario makes it easy for very high-value cars to become wasteland fodder. In Xataka | Sleeping in the most luxurious room in the world comes at a price. Specifically $100,000 and a flight to Dubai Image | Xataka (Nano Banana)

Chile had a desert full of used clothes. Now you have something to brag about

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Just a few years ago, images of the Atacama Desert, covered by mountains of discarded clothing, they went around the world. From space, satellites they captured a multicolored mosaic in the middle of the arid land of northern Chile: thousands of tons of T-shirts, jeans and coats that had ended up there after crossing oceans and continents. Today, Chile is in the news again, but for a diametrically opposite reason. The country achieved the Guinness Record of the largest clothing exchange in the world, with more than 2,300 garments in perfect condition exchanged for eight hours at the La Moneda Cultural Center, in Santiago. A turning point. The event was organized by The Ropantic Showa pioneering start-up in circular fashion founded by María José Gómez Gracia. The initiative not only sought to break a record, but also to denounce the global overproduction of clothing and the environmental consequences of excessive consumption. “We have normalized that clothing is a completely disposable item, that shopping is a form of therapy,” Gómez Gracia explained. In Chile, each person consumes 32 kilos of textiles per year, generating more than 572,000 tons of waste, according to the Ministry of the Environment. This context makes the record not a simple cultural event, but a collective response to an environmental emergency. From desert catwalks to ‘re-commerce’. The change began with activism and creativity. In 2024, the NGO Desierto Vestido, together with Fashion Revolution Brasil and the Brazilian agency Artplan, organized the Atacama Fashion Week: a parade in the middle of the desert with models wearing clothes rescued from landfills. According to The Guardianthe pieces—designed by Brazilian artist Maya Ramos—were made with clothing found among the waste, symbolizing the four elements: earth, fire, air and water. A year later, that alliance gave rise to a revolutionary idea: “Atacama Re-commerce”an online store that gives away clothing rescued from the desert, charging only the cost of shipping. The project—promoted by VTEX, Fashion Revolution Brasil, Artplan and Desierto Vestido— seeks to convert the act of shopping online in a form of environmental activism. In just five hours, the first collection sold out and more than 200,000 people signed up for future releases. “It’s a simple and powerful way to transform commerce into consciousness,” summarized the creative Pedro Maneschy. A problem with fast fashion. This phenomenon has generated an environmental and social emergency. The United Nations warns that the textile and footwear industry is responsible for 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 20% of the planet’s wastewater. Global clothing production doubled between 2000 and 2014, and consumers they buy 60% more today of garments than two decades ago, keeping them half the time. For years, Chile was the final destination for discards from Europe and the United States. It is estimated that about 39,000 tons of clothing ended up in the illegal landfills of the Atacama each year. “We live five minutes from the garbage dumps and we breathe the smoke from the burned clothes,” denounced Ángela Astudillo, co-founder of Desierto Vestido, to The Guardian. Now, the country has become a circular economy laboratory. Projects like EcoFiberwhich makes insulating panels from used textiles, or Atacama Re-commercewhich rescues garments to reuse them, show that sustainability can also be an economic opportunity. From a court ruling to a circular country model. Last September, Chile’s First Environmental Court issued a historic ruling that forces the State to repair the Atacama “clothing desert.” The ruling orders a comprehensive plan to be presented in six months that includes the removal of waste, its safe final disposal and the restoration of the landscape. “The environmental damage is proven and the State must materially repair it,” said Minister Marcelo Hernández Rojas. The ruling, celebrated by organizations such as Desierto Vestido and Greenpeace Chile, sets a regional precedent in terms of environmental responsibility. In parallel, the Extended Producer Responsibility Law (REP)—which forces companies to take responsibility for the waste they generate— has incorporated textiles as priority products. And universities like Chile are already working on models that professionalize the restoration of garments and generate local employment, according to DW. Furthermore, the shift is also cultural. More and more young Chileans are opting for responsible consumption. “Massive consumption of clothing is normalized. I made the decision to buy almost everything second-hand or barter,” Antonia Jerez told21 year old student. “Buying new clothes is no longer fashionable, there are too many going around the world,” added Catalina Navarro, 23. This generational change reflects a new relationship with fashion: more conscious, local and circular. From symbol of excess to emblem of change. For years, the Atacama Desert was the mirror of global consumerism: a landscape where the labels of Zara, H&M or Nike mixed with sand and dust. Today, that same place is transformed into a symbol of environmental and social resilience. “We went around the world for the mountains of clothes in the desert; I hope they recognize us today for the solution,” pointed out María José Gómez Graciafounder of The Ropantic Show. The challenge is not over. There are still thousands of tons to remove and a global culture to transform. But Chile has shown that fashion can also be a tool of change. Image | skyfi and The Ropantic Show Xataka | There are so many “low cost” clothes accumulated in the Atacama landfill that can already be seen from space

The ChatGPT Atlas agent made my purchase at Mercadona and now I have a pantry full of garlic

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a week ago I tried the new ChatGPT Atlasthe new OpenAI browser and, although it has a lot to improve, it seemed like a threat to Google’s dominance with Chrome. Today I put it to the test again, this time with a Plus subscription, and I wanted to check if agent mode is capable of hmake the purchase at Mercadona. Posing the situation It was the first time I used ChatGPT for something like this and I didn’t want to just give you a list. of the purchase, so first I asked him for ideas to make healthy recipes that are delicious. He offered me several options and when I decided on one of them, I activated agent mode and asked him to buy the ingredients at Mercadona. We have already talked about AI browsers are vulnerable to prompt injection attacks and OpenAI knows it. Before starting, a message appeared alerting me that using agent mode carries risks and I could use it with or without the session logged in. In my case I have chosen the logged in session because I wanted to see it work more easily, but as a precaution I have first deleted my payment details on the Mercadona website. Making the purchase Once the risks have been accepted, agent mode has been activated and the mouse has started to move through the Mercadona website interface. The sidebar shows the model’s entire thought and decision-making process while buying the ingredients to make a chickpea curry. In the video you can see the entire purchase process. The agent has been making decisions when he has found several items to choose from. For example, the recipe required an onion, but decided that it was more practical to buy a 1kg package. However, when choosing spinach, he decided that a package of baby spinach was better than the large package that is much cheaper. When he finished choosing ingredients he asked me to check it and I asked him to change the spinach. He has done it without question. The process has stopped when it has run into an insurmountable obstacle: it only had 10.28 euros and the minimum order on the Mercadona website is 50 euros, so I asked it to also include the ingredients of another of the recipes that it had suggested to me at the beginning, one for baked salmon. Since that one didn’t reach the minimum order either, I told him that I wanted to make it for four people and please don’t give me frozen salmon, but fresh ones. The agent adjusted the quantities and changed the salmon for a fresh one, but it still didn’t reach 50 euros, so I asked for something more creative.: to look for the most viral Mercadona products recently and add them to the basket. The purchase is made for you, but there is a problem When he was done, it was time to check the basket. I found that I had added garlic and also purple garlic. The normal garlic was fine, but the purple ones? I have reviewed the chain of thought and he was confused looking for purple onion. Mercadona calls it “red onion” and the agent has decided that it was better to add purple garlic because the color matched, even though they were a different ingredient. Regarding the viral products, I have chosen an advent calendar with makeup, smoked raclette cheese, cookie nougat and pistachio cake. The total amount was 66 eurosit is true that I have not expressly told you to adjust to 50 euros, but it seems to me that you have gone a little overboard. The agent has taken control of the browser and done exactly what he wanted: make the purchase for me. However, there is a problem and that is It’s very slow. I haven’t helped much either. Not having anticipated that there was a minimum order and the additional requests that I have been making, such as changing the quantities or choosing products by itself, has made it even slower. In total he has been thinking for almost 15 minutes, but if we take into account only the first part of the purchase for the chickpea curry, it has taken 2:14 minutes. More than two minutes to add eight items to cart. All the time I had the feeling that I would already have the order finished and paid for. Regarding reliability, I have to say that He has made fewer mistakes than I expected, but it is still necessary to check what you have added to the basket at the end because you can sneak in some garlic instead of onions, and I already have enough garlic in the pantry. Much more practical in other scenarios One of the use scenarios that OpenAI gave in the presentation of its new browser was precisely to make the purchase. After trying it, it is clear to me that the ChatGPT Atlas agent mode has a lot of potential, but not for making the purchase, that’s why I have tried another scenario where it can be much more useful: organize a trip. I asked him to find places for me to go on a getaway over the December long weekend, that were less than 2 hours by car from Valencia, with a specific budget and to look for them on Booking and Airbnb. In six minutes he gave me options for two different destinationsorganized in a table with price per night and highlights. Once I have decided, I only had to give him the personal information to complete the reservation. To organize a trip it is practical. Making the purchase is simply adding things to the cart, a much more mechanical process that we can do manually in a very short time. If we also encounter obstacles such as the minimum order or we are not completely clear about what we want, we end up losing more time than gaining it. Where the agent does offer more … Read more

is in a park full of parents with umbrellas

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In times where love seems to be summed up in a “swipe left” or “swipe right”, finding a partner has never been so easy… Or so difficult. While Tinder, Bumble or Hinge promise algorithmic compatibility, in China the most popular dating “app” does not require an internet connection, just a printer, an umbrella and worried parents. Every weekend, entire parks in cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing are transformed into a mosaic of laminated posters with personal descriptions. It is not the singles themselves who place them, but their parents. It is the so-called marriage market or xiangqin jiao (literally, “blind dating corner”), a phenomenon that can be described as an analog version of a dating app. Love in times of demographic crisis. The rise of these markets has its origins in a paradox: while matching apps and agencies multiply, weddings and births plummet. In 2024, only 6.1 million couples will get married in China, 21% less than the previous year and the lowest number since records began. according to data from the Wall Street Journal. This year there was a small rebound — 3.54 million marriages in the first half — thanks to a new policy that simplifies civil registration according to the South Morning Post. But the general trend continues to plummet. The causes of this situation they are multiple: long working hours, high housing prices, gender inequality and, above all, new priorities among young people. “Energy is limited, so I eliminate what drains me the most. First thing? Dates,” confessed a 22-year-old studentreflecting a profound generational change. Faced with this scenario, many parents decided to move from concern to action: if their children are not looking for a partner online, they are looking for one in the parks. How does the Tinder of paper? According to Noema Magazinethe first love market emerged more than a decade ago in Shanghai, in People’s Park. Every Saturday and Sunday, no matter rain or shine, the park is filled with parents with signs hanging on ropes, benches or open umbrellas. They detail age, height, weight, salary, property, including whether the candidate’s parents have a pension. Photos, interestingly, are optional. “Those who do it best are the average ones: neither very good nor terrible,” explained a matchmaker nicknamed the Professor Guwhich charges the equivalent of $16 to display a poster for six months. In Chongqing, another of the large cities of the southwest, The Wall Street Journal described similar scenes: retired parents squeezed on paths covered with posters. Some attendees use WeChat — the ubiquitous app in China — to scan QR codes or exchange contacts. A woman included in her profile that she earns $560 a month, that she owns a house and a car, and that she is looking for a husband “without bad habits, under 29 years old and no taller than 1.73.” On the next page, a 26-year-old man asked for a wife with a university education and “who is not too plump,” a reflection of still very traditional standards. The cultural contrast is evident. In China, marriages are still considered an economic and family alliance rather than a romantic act. Therefore, the marriage market is, as detailed in Noema Magazine“a fusion between Match.com and a farmers market,” where banners replace digital profiles and parents act as human filters. Marriage market in Shanghai Is love found? Really, few achieve success. The stories of couples formed under this phenomenon They are almost non-existent. Most return every weekend out of habit, for company or simply to kill time. A father from Shanghai, interviewed by The Agehas been there for more than a year and has only gotten two matches for his 36-year-old son, with no results. “I only act as an intermediary, I pass the information on to him, but in the end it depends on him,” he confessed resignedly. Despite everything, for many it is a form of generational catharsis. “Our kids think ‘why should I settle?’” said a woman nicknamed Sister Gaoa veteran matchmaker who arrives every week with dozens of laminated profiles. “In our generation, people put up with more. Today they don’t want to tolerate anything.” There are also young people who challenge the norm. As reported by the state media CGTNHuang Junjie, 29, decided to advertise himself in the Beijing market. “I tried apps like Douyin or Xiaohongshu, but they felt very far away. Here at least you see people face to face,” he explained, standing next to his sign. He was looking for a mature woman and was even willing to get married. matrilocal —living with the wife’s family—something unthinkable a generation ago. Beyond love. Behind every umbrella is a story of anxiety and family pride. In China, many parents feel that seeing their children married is their last mission in life. In a society where being single is perceived almost as a failure, the markets They are both a space of hope and shame. For this reason, some parents They confessed to feeling humiliated for having to “offer” their children in public, although others defended their right to intervene. “The girls are not willing to say ‘I want a boyfriend’, so we help them,” said a mother from Shanghai. In essence, the phenomenon also reflects loneliness of an older generation. With more than 300 million retirees, many of them widowed or divorced, attending the love market is also a way to socialize, not to be left alone at home. Meanwhile, the Government is trying to stop the decline in marriages with economic incentives, child subsidies and even university courses on “romantic education.” But, as analysts point outthe results remain modest: young people value personal freedom more than the pressure to get married. A pressure for women. In this scenario, women bear disproportionate pressure. In China, staying single beyond the age of 27 can make you a Sheng Nuliterally “leftover woman.” The term, popularized by state media in the 2000s, became a social stigma that pushes many professionals to justify their singleness to … Read more

Europe has seen that Gen Z is full of militarism, body worship and a desire to party and has told them: go to the front

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First there were technical shoes, then sports watchesand now the military backpacks: khaki, resistant, full of patches and straps. Europe dresses usefully, as if preparing for war were just another aesthetic trend. In the gyms, more than in the barracks, a new type of citizenship is trained: bodies ready, gazes focused, backpacks ready for something that we still don’t know if it is a fad or a calling. Those who wear them seem to embody a new European trend: the return of the body as a patriotic symbol. A few weeks ago, the US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, declared: “It’s tiring to see obese troops.” His comment—as provocative as it was political—coincided with an unexpected finding: Generation Z, the same one that grew up among screens and anxiety, is recovering the cult of the body, the taste for action and, in some cases, a renewed curiosity for the idea of ​​serving or protecting something bigger than oneself. Europe has taken note. Atasila ne aniram? In a chapter of The SimpsonsBart and his friends formed a music group with subliminal lyrics to encourage young people to join the navy. A joke that, with the passage of time, has become another pop prophecy fulfilled. In a Financial Times column have started to unravel the new military movement. European armies have detected an unexpected change: young people who previously fled from conscription now sign up for military or civilian volunteering. In Germany, applications for voluntary military service They have grown 15% in a year; In Finland, the Government has announced his intention to increase to one million reservists in 2031, For its part, Sweden, with its “total defense” system (Totalförsvaret), already integrates 380,000 citizens into radio, transport or dog training associations that support the Army without holding weapons. According to official data from the Swedish governmentdue to the War in Ukraine, registrations skyrocketed: in a few months they received as many volunteers as in a normal year. Meanwhile, in the Baltic countries—Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania—they are also reinforcing their “civil militarism.” The three states prepare plans mass evacuation and citizen response to a possible Russian attack. The maneuvers include everything from logistics volunteers to farmers who learn to drive light armored vehicles. Furthermore, Estonia has created units of cybervolunteers to protect digital infrastructures and Lithuania just launched a program to train 22,000 drone operators. Europe is not raising massive armies: it is cultivating available, disciplined and functional bodies. A low-intensity militarism that mixes gym, volunteering and “healthy patriotism.” But why Gen Z? The simplest answer is because it is shaped by the mirror, but there is much more to it than that. Currently, we live in the era of protein chicof spiked shakes, sculpted bodies and extreme routines. The psychologist Sara Bolo warned that “Many apparently healthy behaviors hide disorders disguised as fitness culture.” But beyond the excesses, the cult of the body has become an ethic: physical self-discipline as a sense of purpose. And behind it there is something else: 36% of European Gen Z exercise regularly and another 50% want to start. However, the most revealing fact is not that, but the void it fills. Sociologist Robert Putnam already diagnosed that “we stopped bowling together.” Today, the gym replaces the social club, the bootcamp the summer camp, the weight routine the collective ritual. In other words, Generation Z isn’t just looking for muscle: it’s looking to belong. In a Europe where 13% of citizens and 20% of young people say they feel alone “most of the time”, according to Eurostatcivil defense appears as a new type of functional community: a gymnasium with anthem and purpose. The body as a political border. This cult of the body, born in gyms and amplified by networks, has also filtered into institutional discourse. What was once individual well-being, today takes on a collective, even patriotic tone. On the other side of the Atlantic, body obsession has acquired ideological overtones. Hegseth himself gathered hundreds of top brass to reprimand them: “No more beards. Let’s trim the hair, shave the beards and go back to standards.” His speech was more focused on appearance than performance, more on the image of the ideal soldier than on his operational capacity. Europe observes with caution, but the impulse is the same: the body once again becomes a metaphor for the nation, a space where the moral and physical health of the State is projected. Trained, vigilant, prepared. Recruit with algorithms. For now, the old continent is strengthening its network of civil associations. But if you look to the United States, you could find a more aggressive recruiting model. The US Army has hired e-girls and influencers like Hailey Lujan, an employee of the psychological operations division (PSYOP), who combines uniforms and beauty filters to attract new recruits. On the other hand, the Pentagon He also tried video games: America’s Armya shooter free launched in 2002 so that players wanted to get ready after playing. It worked for two decades as the first major gamified recruiting tool. For now, the European version of digital recruitment is more sober – campaigns about volunteering and civil protection – but the logic is identical: convince Generation Z that the uniform can also be a lifestyle. Fragility disguised as strength. On the margins of the gym where discipline and self-improvement are preached, a digital manosphere thrives that turns fragility into ideological fuel. On TikTok and YouTube, figures like Andrew Tate or anonymous accounts with a military aesthetic promote a masculinity “based on strength and control.” fitness has become in a gateway to the digital extreme right, where the body symbolizes purity and the enemy is always the weak. Cases like that of the Spanish influencer Llados, who combines coaching physical with discourses about “traditional masculinity”, illustrate that blurred border between personal improvement and emotional manipulation. The risk is not only the militarization of the body, but also its ideological instrumentalization. The gym, a space of redemption, can become soft indoctrination campwhere loneliness and … Read more

Libya has decided that the full weight of Islamic law must fall on one thing in particular: crows

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At 900 meters above sea level, the Green Mountain is actually a fertile plateau of lush forests in northern Libya. It is by far the wettest place in the country: one of the jewels of North Africa’s biodiversity. one that a religious ‘fatwa’ is about to load. A ‘fatwa’? Not only that: a ‘fatwa’ (that is, an Islamic legal opinion issued by a qualified jurist) whose content is almost entirely dedicated to crows. They told it in El PaísAhmad al Dalansi, of the Investment Authority of the National Salvation Government, made it clear “there is no religious objection to killing them.” In his view, “the prophetic tradition that classifies them as harmful (fawasiq) and dictates that they can therefore be eliminated “just like rats and snakes.” But why would anyone want to kill crows? That is to say, it is one thing that it is not prohibited to kill them and quite another that people are willing to do so. However, the matter is more complicated than it seems: because the truth is that crows are becoming a real problem. What is a crow like you doing in a place like this? Let’s start at the beginning: the crows (Corvus ruficollis) are not new to the Green Mountain area. However, in recent years the corvid population has not stopped growing and this seems to be causing problems in other animal populations. Especially in land turtles and a native type of short-toed eagle. This, although it may not seem like it, is part of the problem. Because, unlike other animals, crows do not attack crops. However, they are “very intelligent creatures, who do not fear humans and are capable of adapting to various environments.” The growth of its population, like a chess game, is what is pushing an ecological imbalance that triggers (in turn) rodents and snakes. Hence the consultation and the fatwa. It makes sense, right? If crows are a problem, the most direct question is whether they can be eliminated. AND the Al Dalansi edict maintains that culling them is not only Islamically acceptable, but that “preventing harm is a more important priority” than maintaining current populations. The problem is that, upon seeing it, the Libyan Heritage and Wildlife Authority came out to report that such an eradication would be disastrous. Not only because crows also have a very important role in regulating the ecosystem; but, above all, because the problem is not the crows. What is the problem? The problem is the garbage. In recent years, as explained by journalist AMR Fathallah“the crow population (…) has multiplied spectacularly in Shahat, (due to) poor waste management.” Shahat is in the heart of the mountain. The lack of urban planning has caused housing to get out of control and that has caused “secondary landfills to proliferate in the forests, valleys and even roads of Shahat.” And there the crows feel at home. And, of course, killing the crows won’t end the problem. Fathallah himself explains that the last time an attempt was made to eliminate the crow population, it was followed by a history-making infestation of ticks. It is reminiscent of the mass killing of Chinese sparrows that caused a famine that killed millions of people. Ecology is too complex to be solved with fatwas (or pseudoscientific theories). The central issue in all of this is that these are not isolated cases. As climate change accelerates, “magic” responses are becoming increasingly popular. The problem, as we see, is that this has consequences. Image | Sasha Matic | Aldin Nasrun On Magnet | 400 years ago, Chinese women invented a language to speak only among themselves. Today it is resurfacing

In full boom of energy drinks, Coca-Cola has decided to bet on something else: “advanced hydration”

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You just need to enter a power shop and see the refrigerators full of cans of a thousand and one colors to get to the conclusion that if there is any saturated sector in this country that is that of drinks. But Coca-Cola believes that it is not enough. That is why he has just announced that It disembarks in Europe with ‘Bodymarmor Lyte’its commitment to “revolutionize” the segment of advanced hydration; A sub-director who, in the next three years, will grow 24%. And he will start with Spain. And that is perhaps the most interesting question: how have we gone from living in a world hooked to energy drinks to another in which the largest world giant of drinks bet everything to a product To “squeeze life to the fullest and that sometimes experiences moments of exhaustion that prevent you from maintaining your usual rhythm”? What is the ‘advanced hydration’? An almost Marketinian term to call a “hydration approach” that beyond simple water consumption. It incorporates additional components such as electrolytes, vitamins, antioxidants or other ‘technologies’ to enhance “water absorption, retention and nutrient rebalancing.” It is used in several areas, but what interests us today to understand Coca-Cola is its use in the sports field. There, it comes to basically mean the use of water with electrolytes. Water with things. That’s where Bodymor Lyte enters. As explained from the companyit is a non -isotonic drink, low in calories, designed to improve water absorption (thanks to electrolytes) and B6 vitamins. And it is curious because Coca-Cola already has two very popular brands in this range: ‘Aquarius’ (with a composition based on mineral salts) and ‘Powerade’ (especially formulated for “rehydration and resistance” in sport). More than a curiosity … While ‘Aquarius’ is a product of daily, massive and accessible hydration, ‘Powerade’ focuses a lot on the sports field. This is important because with ‘Bodyarmor Lyte’, Coca-Cola is doing something similar to the turn that Apple with the Apple Watch: a turn towards health and the premium. Because? It is true that the great phenomenon of drinks in recent years has been energy. Coca-Cola, in fact, participates with own products (such as Burn) and also with participation in others (such as Monster). However, as the energy segment grows, so does the health sector (that of drinks without caffeine). In fact, it has been the boom of the “coffee” drinks that has driven the contracting of ‘Better-For-You. That’s where Bodymor Lyte wants to settle. A vision too uniform of an increasingly segmented market. In 2004, Malcolm Gladwell He told the story of Howard Moskowitz. Moskowitz was asked to find the perfect spaghetti sauce. The problem is that, after spinning and more turns, he realized that he could not make a sauce that liked everyone. It was then that he proposed to get more from a sauce. As Gadwell explainedfollowing his advice, “Preno introduced the extra thick sauce and, during the next 10 years, they earned 600 million dollars with their line of thick extra sauces.” In 2004, RAGU had 36 varieties of pasta sauce. Something almost unimaginable 20 years before, when there was only one. The world becomes increasingly diverse (or perhaps we see more and more) and that allows them to grow totally opposite phenomena. Who was going to tell us that a drink was going to reveal the difficulty we have to design policies in today’s world? Image | Coca-Cola Company | GKGRAPHIX53 In Xataka | We already know what energy drinks cost your rest. They are bad news for your dream

In full birth crisis, Japan faces an extra challenge in 2026: a superstition

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Japan is a country with several calendars. The Western, or Gregorian, is common in the Asian country, which also has its own calendar, based on the “Eras”, the reign periods of its emperors. But in the culture of the country there is still the embers of another calendar, the one based on the traditional Chinese calendar. In 2026 we can verify to what extent this embers is still alive in the Japanese archipelago. To understand why we have to go a complete cycle behind, the year 1966. That year Japan experienced A significant phenomenon: a Fall marked in birthan abrupt contrast with the historical series. If in 1965 around 1.82 million children were born, in 1966 the figure was 1.36 million, 25% less, according to Explain Japan Times. The births were immediately recovered: in 1967 they rolled 1.94 million. The collapse in birth can also be seen in the Japanese health ministry data. As explained by the international agency, the fertility rate went from 2.14 in 1965 to 1.58 in 1966, to “bounce” up to 2.23 the following year. The data was not the result of a statistical anomaly or a disaster, neither natural nor created by the human being. We can see this reflected in an increase in induced abortions in the country, which was recorded A study Posted in 1974 in the magazine Annals of Human Biology. It was the fault of a superstition. The year 1966 corresponded (approximately) to the year of the horse of fire in the cycle on which the traditional Chinese calendar is based. The calendar based on the sexagesimal cycle used in some Asian countries relates each of the 60 years of its cycle with one of Twelve animals (which includes the rat, the tiger, the dragon and also the horse), and one of five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal and water). And what is special for the year Hinoeuma? According to Japanese superstition, women born during the Fire horse year They will kill their husbands or, according to translations, will be at least the cause of the death of their spouses. This would have taken many couples of childbearing age to avoid pregnancy (or even interrupt), at a time when, as Emi Suzuki and Haruna Kashiwase explain in An article For him Data Blog of the World Bank, there was no possibility of a selective abortion depending on sex. Another important detail mentioned in its article is that the phenomenon occurred more marked in rural Japan and not so much in the urban context, which reflects the greatest follow -up that this type of superstitions used to have in the rural world. 60 years of change 60 years is a long time and Japanese society is no longer the one. Will something be repeated again similar in 2026? There are two reasons why it can be suspected that, if the fall in birth rate occurs, this will be of a minor magnitude of experienced in 66. The first reason is in the slightest weight that today has the superstitious in society. Japan lived an abrupt transition series between the end of the EDO era and the present. One of the most vertiginous progress is the one that led a country ravaged by war to become a worldwide technological innovation pole. 1966 It can be seen as a year of transition in this context, 2026 not so much. In any case, the peculiar relationship between Japanese tradition and modernity is often difficult to understand from the western point of view, so it is not convenient to venture into this direction. However, there is another fact that takes us away from that year 1966: 1.15. We said at the beginning that between 1965 and 1966 the Japanese fertility rate went from 2.1 to 1.6. The fall associated with the year Hinoeuma It was punctual and was reversed the following year, but if we looked at the set of the Historical data we see that it is a small detour in a curve with A marked trend: Japan He runs out of birth progressively. According to data from the Japanese Ministry of Health cited by Suzuki and Kashiwasethe Japanese fertility rate was descending throughout the second half of the twentieth century, first quickly and then slower. In 1989 the birth rate would be located again in 1.58 and has not been recovered or expected to do so. It was known as he “shock of 1.57 “ When the rate fell below the year Hinoeuma. Today the rate It is already 1.15. A few years before, in 1987, Japan celebrated a kind of “Fiesta de Quintos”, a celebration in honor of the generation that had turned 20 in the previous months, those born in Hinoeuma. The newspaper The New York Times It echoed of that celebration and superstition that had diminished the generation held that year. Then it seemed clear that the “fifths” of 86 would be the smallest promotion in history, but they would only be for a short time. In Xataka | While the population of Japan sinks irremediably, Tokyo grows. There is an explanation: Ikkyoku Shūchū Image | Evgeny Tchebotarev

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