future

China is so clear that the future of pork lies in ‘skyscraper farms’ that it is doing something: taking them to other countries

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When you think of pig farms, what comes to mind are large farms with pig pens, breeding areas, silos with feed… All of this (of course) horizontally. Things change if we are in China. There they have been thinking vertically for years and betting on farms in buildings of various heights, including authentic skyscrapers, such as the two 26-story towers raised in Ezhou (Hubei) and that are capable of breeding 1.2 million pigs every year. Now China has started ‘international’ model. What has happened? That China has begun to export its model of macro farms pig verticals. Although a few years ago the ‘farm towers’ sounded like science fiction and there were even foreign ranchers who raised their eyebrows reading about them, the bet seems to have worked for Beijing. At least enough to consider take her to Vietnamwhere the Chinese firm Muyuan Foods has joined forces with the local BAF to build a complex in the province of Tay Ninhin the southeast of the country. Its main peculiarity: breeding at altitude. What do they want to do? The idea is to develop a high-rise complex dedicated to pig farming, an infrastructure that will be carried out with an investment of just over 450 million dollars and will integrate a farm of 64,000 pigs with a factory capable of producing close to 600,000 tons of feed every year. In September Vietnam Investment Review pointed out that the project has received approval from the authorities of the province of Tay Ninh, where the complex will be built, and from the state authorities. What does it have to do with China? That one of the promoters of the project is Muyuan Foodshe greatest breeder of pigs from China and a heavy weight of the sector at an international level. In addition to his enormous capacity of production, the firm stands out for its commitment to raising pigs in buildings of up to six floors. “We have replaced traditional single-story pig farms with multi-story ones to improve efficiency and land use, promote recycling of manure and waste and ensure biosecurity,” the company explained during its IPO in Hong Kong, a few weeks ago. What is China doing? Although in other countries macro pig farms in towers may be shocking, in China they have been implementing the model for some time. To understand it, you have to go back to 2018, when the country saw how swine fever undermined its herds. The American Society for Microbiology estimates that in total the outbreak killed or forced the sacrifice of 225 million of pigs. The country is the largest producer and pork consumer in the world and it is estimated that before the 2018 outbreak it housed half of the planet’s pig population. In 2019, the Government formally allowed the use of multi-story buildings for livestock farming and just a year later Muyuan opened its doors. a macro complex in Nanyangwith twenty blocks of various plants capable of producing more than two million pigs each year. Little by little, China has been moving from a model in which pig farming was a common practice in homes (it still is in part of the country) to one based on commercial farms in which it is easier to manage waste and diseases such as swine fever. Why farms in skyscrapers? a few years ago The New York Times I was chatting with an expert of the US pork market that acknowledged that US farmers “look at photos of Chinese farms and just scratch their heads and say, ‘We would never dare do that.’” The truth is that buildings like those of Muyuan or the 26-story towers driven by Hubei Zhongxin Kaiwei Modern Farming in Ezhou have their advantages. This is what its promoters defend, at least, who present it as another step towards industrial agriculture. The same one that has also opted for the vertical farming farms. By thinking vertically, instead of the traditional horizontal model, they basically seek greater biosecurity and more efficient management. Why’s that? In the Ezhou skyscrapers, for example, they boast of incorporating thousands of automatic feeding points and a system capable of collecting, analyzing and using livestock feces. Not to mention that by betting on high-rise models, macro farms such as those in Muyuan, Zhongxin or Guangxi Yangxiang make it possible to address one of the sector’s biggest problems: the availability of land is limited, especially in populated areas. Of course, the tall model also has significant risks. The main one: that diseases spread more quickly through ventilation systems. Now, as Beijing tries stabilize the livestock herd China to avoid surpluses and prop up prices, the country is considering taking vertical macro farms beyond its borders. Images | China-Singapore Kaiwei Modern Animal Husbandry WeChat In Xataka | The new Spanish farmer no longer lives in the town: his name is John, he studied at Wharton and manages olive trees from New York

the new newsletter from Xataka Xtra about the trends that are changing the present and will define the future

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‘Proxima X’ is one of the newsletters exclusives included in Xtrathe Xataka subscription plan. It is biweekly (we send it every other Thursday) and is part of a benefits plan that includes access to other newsletters, a consultation with editors and raffles and discounts exclusive for subscribers. The first draw, a 75″ TV. For years, one of the last questions that every Xataka editor has asked his interviewees has been “If we were having this conversation In five or ten years, what would we be talking about??”. Next X is our commitment to doing exactly that every two weeks: talking, analyzing and thinking about the things that will be central a decade from now. And yes, we know it is a risky job. But who was going to tell that group of bloggers that They launched Xataka in November 2004 that 20 years later that passion for gadgets, online services and digital culture was going to be fundamental to understanding the contemporary world? The lesson is clear: we have to live passionately in the present, to understand what will define the future. We will talk about AI, quantum computing, biotechnology and space exploration, yes. But we will talk about many more things, because what defines this newsletter is not a list of topics, it is a question: what’s next? And “up next” this week has been the profound effect that technology has on human societies. One in particular: boredom. Is it possible that one of the most unexpected (and important) consequences of all the technological development of recent decades is boredom? Well yes and, as I say, It is much more important than it seems. Other Xataka Xtra newsletters Chip War (weekly, every Monday): The semiconductor industry is the technological, economic and geopolitical battlefield of our time. Every week we analyze what is happening in the race for chips: from the tensions between the United States and China to the decisions of TSMC, Intel, SK Hynix or Samsung that will determine who leads the next decade. B-sides (weekly, every Saturday): Five curious and fascinating readings every week. Strange, counterintuitive or unexpected stories that we find on the Internet and that deserve your attention. From industrial accidents that changed the world to surprising scientific research or absurdities of late capitalism. More information | Xataka Xtra

Tecno has finally seen a future for the old modular dream

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Being able to update the phone without having to change it for a new one is the dream of many of us who love telephony. Throughout history there were several brands that tried it, such as Motorola: Project Ara to the commercial materialization of that format, the Moto Z and its Moto Mods. Currently, one of the manufacturers that has most opted for modularity It’s Fairphone. Now, Tecno has decided to skip what is established and take that dream one step further. Although with a difference from the original Ara: Tecno proposes a magnetic, not structural, modularity. Techno It is not a manufacturer that we know in Europe for its smartphones. Even so, it is one of the brands that the more it grows in share and distribution at a global level. Despite having a clear orientation towards accessible mobile phones, Tecno is characterized by being one of the most innovative and risky. Apart from those two adjectives, there is a third that occurred to me while holding the modular mobile: surprising. But can you still add more things? There are LEGO boxes that have fewer pieces than this mobile When I approached the Tecno stand, and saw all the phone pieces scattered on the table, I thought about the LEGOs I had when I was little and how I was combining the parts to make new figures. What Tecno brought to MWC is more or less the same, at least in essence. The base is an extremely thin phone that features a small camera module in the upper area. Tecno has provided all the components with a good number of magnets, it surely used up the store’s stock. Because everything comes together through magnetism. You can add a telephoto camera module by simply “gluing” this piece to the base lens, for example. Everything fits into place with magnets, just like the external battery module, microphone, speaker… Or the SLR camera accessory. When asked how many modules you can put on the phone at most, Tecno said: “Yes.” I have not put the parallel with LEGO at random: the phone supports a good number of pieces on top. Furthermore, there is another important point: The modules can also be combined without having the base telephone. And they work independently You can put a clip on the microphone and use it as a tie microphone. The same for the speaker, for example. Or use the stand to support the pieces outside the mobile. Everything is anchored by magnetism and in its place. With the drawback that it has to be placed correctly the first time, the system does not offer a visual guide to know how to build the LEGO. An idea that seems extravagant and yet works Modular mobile phones were already invented. And Tecno has come to give the concept a twist to take it to the extreme. Because the mobile works, the parts make sense, the entire concept transcends experimentation to become a product that could be viable. Wow, I could totally buy it. The pieces are solid and well thought out, it shows that Tecno has designed each component with precision. And maturity. Now, it’s not perfect, because the pieces can come apart somewhat easily. The magnetic anchor is strong, but it is still that: magnetic. If the camera gets caught in your pocket, it gets left behind. And if the modular phone falls to the ground… Instead of a phone you have a puzzle. Still far from being able to be bought It is beautiful, it is impressive and it appears solid beyond doubt due to the magnetic union between the pieces. Even so, it probably won’t see the light of day in the near future. Tecno is characterized by experiments, by trying to make smartphones show a different face. Many of their concepts end up as a hook to attract the real catalog, the one that really works. I thought that modular mobile phones, as designed by Motorola with Project Ara, would have no future. Tecno has shown me the opposite: apart from being feasible, with a little imagination you can achieve use cases that no one imagined before. That something like this is so refreshing says more about the current stagnation of the smartphone than about modular phones themselves. Images | Ivan Linares In Xataka | The best mobile phones (2026), we have tested them and here are their analyzes

Samsung is already thinking about a future with OLED screens everywhere. Included in a collar or foldable console

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One of the most entertaining activities you can do at the Mobile World Congress is to walk around the Samsung Display stand. This is Samsung’s division, one of the many it has, in charge of research and development of panels. If today we have the TriFold in the market is because, years ago, We saw its prototype displayed here. That’s why taking a look around their stand is so entertaining, because it lets you see what developments the company has in the works. Whether they see the light or not is another story, but the proposal is nice. OLED panels everywhere. Samsung is, along with LG and BOE, one of the few companies capable of produce OLED panels. That’s why it makes sense that the company wants to put them everywhere. Not only on premium mobile phones, where they are already practically omnipresent, or on televisions, but on every possible gadget, be it a controller, a console or a virtual assistant with AI. This is how Samsung makes money: the secret is in the IPHONE This smartphone unrolls and allows the diagonal of the screen to be increased | Image: Xataka From tiny to conventional size. One of the prototypes we have seen is a vertically rollable phone. The device has a motor that unfolds the screen upwards and hides it downwards, as if it were a blind, and allows you to have a compact phone and, if you want to play or read, a more elongated panel. Very interesting, although with some flaws. The main one is that, rolled up, what in another context would be an aluminum edge would, on this occasion, be a screen, one that is also very exposed to all kinds of misfortunes in the pocket, dirt, knocks, etc. It is striking as a concept, but perhaps it makes more sense on a laptop where, in fact, we are already starting to see them. This tablet unrolls to the side | Image: Xataka Here we can see the unwinding system | Image: Xataka What’s more, Samsung is in it. We have also seen this same roll-up panel technology in a type of tablet and a laptop. The latter is very reminiscent of the Lenovo proposal and unroll the screen to go from 13 to 17 inches. This format, still in its infancy, has a lot of potential if we think of a device that combines productivity and versatility. Samsung Rollable Laptop Concept | Image: Xataka On the tablet, which could also be understood as a portable external monitor, the panel goes from a panoramic format to a 4:3 format that is practically 1:1, something that can be somewhat useful when having several applications open and in office tasks. Without a doubt, where the roll-up format is going to shine is in medium/large panels. Whether we see them on the street or not… only time will tell. Laptop with vertical folding screen | Image: Xataka Laptop with vertical folding screen | Image: Xataka From big to bigger. One of the most curious prototypes has been this trilaptop. Unlike the TriFold, which has three screens, the two folds of this device come in the form of a keyboard and foldable screen. By default, it is a normal laptop, but if we unfold the screen it is like putting another 13-inch panel on top. Useful, very useful, especially for programming. In addition, the unfolded screen is not excessively thick, so the laptop, at least in theory, should not weigh more than necessary, although it will be heavier than normal. Folding console prototype | Image: Xataka So far the normal. Now let’s go with the most peculiar concepts. The first is a folding console. This device, which is clearly reminiscent of a Nintendo Switch, has a Fold-type folding panel that, at least in theory, seeks to make a portable console even more portable. The concept is interesting and I can imagine a console like this in a few years, although perhaps the price would be higher than the 400-550 euros that we are used to seeing. Console controller with integrated screen | Image: Xataka The second is a controller with a central screen. Central touch panels are not new, see Sony’s DualShock and DualSense, but adding a screen opens up a whole range of possibilities. That screen could be part of the HUD, offer actions, provide contextual information or serve to interact with the game in some way through gestures or quick touches. Very curious, it is one of those ideas that I wouldn’t be surprised to see implemented sooner rather than later. Necklace with OLED screen | Image: Xataka Nice necklace. But the concept that takes the cake is the necklace. It is, like everything else, a concept, but the idea is curious. What if, in the same way that you can change the watchface of your necklace, you could change the image of your necklace? The device is big, huge, something that is normal if we want the screen to have some prominence. In a few years will we see a diamond necklace with a GIF of a diamond spinning around? I have no proof, but I have no doubt either. Flexible Micro-LED Panels | Image: Xataka Space for Micro-LED. Samsung has also taken the opportunity to show some advances in Micro-LED, a technology called to be the Holy Grail of panels: OLED blacks, LCD brightness, without degradation or bloombing. The problem is that they are very expensive because their manufacturing is extremely complex. At the moment, we have only seen them on televisions whose prices exceed an average Spanish salary, but Samsung already seems to be working on bringing them to smaller formats. The key, of course, is the excellent color reproduction and brightness, which, in this case, amounts to 7,000 nits. Micro-RGB panel example | Image: Xataka Be that as it may, what is clear is that we are heading to a world full of screens where there were previously printed canvases. Samsung wants … Read more

It’s a clue to your strategy for the hardware of the future

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Apple has acquired Invrs.io, a small AI-guided photonics and optical research company. It is one of those purchases that almost goes unnoticed, but that reveals a lot about where Apple is aiming in the hardware and AI race. Below these lines we tell you all the details. What has happened. According to a notification published by the European Commission, Apple announced in October 2025 that it was acquiring certain assets of Invrs.io LLC and hiring its only employee and founder, Martin Schubert. The information was made public this week, after the regulatory waiting period of four months, according to counted MacRumors. Who is Schubert and what he did. Schubert founded Invrs.io in 2023 after spending more than a decade working on advanced display, chip and optics technologies at companies including Google, Alphabet, X and Meta. According to your LinkedIn profileaccumulates nearly a hundred patents. At Invrs.io his goal was to develop AI-guided design tools focused on optics and photonics, with direct applications in augmented and virtual reality, data centers and autonomous vehicles. The company, according to its page on GitHubbuilt open source frameworks for photonics research, with standardized simulations and a public ranking to compare design results. Why does this matter? Photonics is the science that studies how to generate, control and detect photons, that is, light particles. In practical terms, it is the basis for optical components such as cameras, sensors, displays, LiDAR scanners, and lenses for mixed reality devices. Apple has been integrating this type of technology into its products for years, from the iPhone’s camera system to the Apple Vision Pro. Bringing in someone specialized in designing those components with the help of AI allows you to speed up that process and do it with greater precision. The Apple pattern. This acquisition fits perfectly into Apple’s usual way of moving: small, silent purchases highly oriented toward specific capabilities, generally months before introducing a new product. In January of this year it bought Q.aian Israeli AI startup applied to audio, in what is considered its second largest historical acquisition with nearly $2 billion. Invrs.io is much more modest in size (it literally has one person in charge), but it gives us small clues as to how the company’s movements regarding its products will be in the following years. The hardware that accompanies AI. Although we are now witnessing a great technological battle to see who launches the most powerful AI model, there is a race in the background that will decide who stays on top, and that race involves hardware. Specifically, the hardware that AI will use to perceive the physical world: sensors, lenses, optical systems, computer vision technology, etc. Google now has Nano Bananaa model with which it works so that AI can generate images with knowledge of the real world. Apple, with moves like this, could bet on integrating ultra-precise optics into its wearables and future devices. They are different strategies, but with a common objective: to be the eyes of the AI. And now what. Apple has not confirmed which projects Schubert will work on internally, something completely common for the company. But everything indicates that the company will intend with this purchase to improve the optical components of future models of the Apple Vision Pro, the iPhone or devices yet to be announced. Cover image | Junseong Lee and Xataka In Xataka | Apple is not yet ready to manufacture the iPhone in the US, but it has given in something: part of the Mac Mini is

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra has shown us a wonderful future. One full of screens with privacy technology

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Many revolutions come without us realizing it and by surprise. As if they were a supporting actor that no one seemed to pay attention to and turns out to be the real star of the movie: This is how the privacy screen arrived of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: an innovation that no one expected and that made the AI ​​or the cameras of that mobile barely matter. Because although all those things add up, they are an evolution that we were all waiting for. But the privacy screen thing is something else: it is an everyday revolution and so obvious that one can only think how it is possible that we are in 2026 and no one would have invented something like this before. Samsung, as our colleague Ana Boria rightly says – please, don’t miss the Short -, has suddenly destroyed the entire industry of tempered glass that protects privacy. For years we have seen how it was possible to add a “privacy protector” in the form of protective glass to our mobile phone or laptop. With it it was possible to prevent any curious/gossip from taking a look at our device over our shoulder, but Samsung has made these protectors no longer necessary, because it has shown us how this technology can be part of the device’s screen itself. The idea is not entirely new, of course. HP has already applied a similar idea in some of its laptops a whopping 10 years ago. He called it Sure View and developed it in collaboration with 3M. That technology effectively allowed the viewing angles of the EliteBook 1040 and 840 to be critically reduced, but the proposal did not seem to work. Image: Samsung. Samsung, however, has gone a step further because this privacy screen can not only be activated and deactivated whenever we want: it can even be activated or deactivated in a personalized way for each application: if you want the privacy screen mode to be activated every time you look at your bank application, you just have to select this option in the settings. The customization of this feature is also extraordinaryand Samsung allows you to adjust it so that it is activated automatically, for example, when we receive notifications, or that the screen also goes into “anti-gossip” mode just when we are entering a PIN for an application. With the function activated, the screen only looks good to those looking at it from the front. This is one of those ideas that show that not everything is invented in the world of technology and that a real practical and everyday improvement as “silly” as this can be much more important and impactful than some AI options that remain fireworks. In fact, here Samsung has surprised us with an innovation that should make apple blush: the Cupertino company does not stop boasting that They are the champions of privacyand although they have certainly traditionally stood out in this section, here Samsung has left them biting the dust. To them and to everyone. Privacy screens have already become one of the clear technological innovations of 2026. Now We just hope that all manufacturers follow the story and end up implementing similar systems on their mobile phones. That may take some time, of course, but today it seems inevitable to think that what Samsung has done is open the door to a wonderful future in which we will be much safer from gossip. Good for Samsung. In Xataka | Image | Xataka with Freepik

All Big Tech are betting the money they have and the money they don’t have on the future of AI. All but one: Apple

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650 billion dollars. There it is nothing. That is the total amount that Google, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft are going to invest in data centers for AI. That amount of money is astonishing and is similar to the current GDP of countries like Argentina or Israel. But the curious thing is not only that: there is a Big Tech that is totally ignoring this fever to spend on AI as if there were no tomorrow. Apple against the current. The company led by Tim Cook is the only one of the group of large technology companies whose capex (planned capital expenditure) was reduced last quarter. Based on FactSet data compiled by SherwoodApple’s forecasts for that quarter were not to spend more, but attention, spend (quite a bit) less. The numbers don’t lie. According to the data provided by these companies, Amazon expects that in 2026 its capex reaches up to 200,000 million dollars. Google wants to go from 175,000 to 185,000 million. Meta estimates that the expense will be between 115,000 and the 135,000 million. And although Microsoft did not give a specific figure, it surely exceeds the $114 billion estimated by Wall Street. And Apple? Apple will not spend more, but 19% according to its latest estimates: about $12.7 billion. Amazon: +42% YoY (vs. previous year) Microsoft: +89% YoY Google: +95% YoY Goal: +48% YoY Apple: -19% YoY Cupertino goes from AI. While its competitors spent record sums last quarter (which ended December 31) on the purchase of material and properties linked to the AI ​​sector and data centers, Apple continues not to invest in this sector. It is something that makes it clear that the company seems to have definitively decided that this is not its war. Siri+Gemini is the best test. Confirmation of that “surrender” is in the recent announcement that Gemini will be the AI ​​on which the new version of Siri will be based. Apple’s new AI assistant is expected to hit the market this spring with at least some initial features, but the fact that it does so depends entirely on Google’s AI model makes it clear that Apple here prefers to delegate rather than invest to have its own foundational model. AI will be a commodity. Instead of participating in this costly war of language models, Apple is clear that AI is going to end up being a commodity, something that is going to become a basic standard technology like the PC, mobile phone or laptop is now. Model prices plummet as the capacity of those models grows, and benchmarks make it clear that no model is better than another for long. Apple as a gateway to AI. As usual, what Apple will do is take advantage of the fact that has the “gateway to AI. With 2.4 billion devices worldwide, it controls the most valuable distribution channel on the planet. It has the luxury of not making “the engine,” but rather acting as an avenue to bring AI to the masses. Here agreements like the one it has completed with Google are just the beginning. It doesn’t matter being late. It is something that is in the company’s DNA. He also did not want to fight the search engine battle, but it did not matter: he reached an agreement with Google, which has paid him billions of dollars for years to be able to put its search engine as the default engine on iPhones, iPads and Macs. Apple prefers that others pave the way and absorb the costs of early learning. Then she usually arrives with superior integration and a refined experience (iPod, iPhone) or directly with deals like the one she completed in the search engine space. AI will be invisible and ubiquitous. Apple’s goal doesn’t seem to be to offer its own chatbot on the web, but to make AI invisible and ubiquitous. It doesn’t matter which model runs behind it, but simply that this AI works transparently for the user. And it does so, of course, seamlessly integrated into Apple services and applications. Privacy by flag. And of course, with that vaunted commitment to privacy that Apple always boasts of. Its Private Cloud Compute is the best proof of this. By not relying on advertising (hello Google, hello OpenAI), it is able to offer advanced features without collecting massive data from users. But there is risk. Still, the strategy has a critical risk: if AI models become a commodity and end up creating technological monopolies, Apple could be permanently at the mercy of its suppliers. If these competitive advantages end up being consolidated in the model layer – the one controlled by OpenAI, Anthropic and Google – and not in the integration layer – which is Apple’s – the dependence on third parties will be a dangerous strategic weakness. Room for maneuver. Apple has annual benefits close to 100 billion dollars, which gives it an enviable financial position to wait for this “hype” cycle to cool down. It is clear that there is an AI bubble and that bubble will probably end up exploding and leaving many victims. If it does, one of those that will undoubtedly have room to maneuver to survive will be Apple. Image | Xataka with Freepik In Xataka | China does not have a spending problem with AI. What it has is a huge income gap compared to its main rival

“task dates” are the new way to screen your future partner

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Picture the scene: no candles, no jazz music in the background, no glasses of wine. In its place is an Allen wrench, an instruction manual with silent drawings, and a pressed-wood shelf that seems to resist the laws of physics. What for many would be the prelude to a breakup, for a new generation of singles it is the perfect date. Welcome to choremancingthe trend that proposes that, if you want to know who someone really is, forget the gala dinner and take them to do the weekly shopping. For years, the dominant dating app narrative sold us the matches as the gateway to an endless parade of sophisticated plans. However, how to explain Guardian, something is changing. The British media defines the choremancing like a portmanteau chore (homework) and romance. The idea is as simple as it is cynical: why waste time pretending at a cocktail bar if 90% of life as a couple is going to consist of deciding who takes out the trash or how the bills are paid? This trend was consolidated after the application Plenty of Fish would include it in its annual trends report. It’s no longer about impressing, but about “folding a date into an errand you had to do anyway.” It is, in essence, the definitive compatibility test. The end of romantic “posturing” Why do we prefer to see our date in the frozen food aisle than under the dim light of a restaurant? The answer lies in authenticity. As Bruce Y. Lee analyzes in the magazine Psychology Todaymundane tasks reveal what people are “at their core.” At a dinner party it’s easy to maintain a façade, but when faced with a logistical challenge—like figuring out why a piece of furniture is missing—the real personality comes out: Is your date cooperative and adaptable, or does he become selfish and irritable at the first setback? However, this “test” has its dangers. Quartz warns that assembling Ikea furniture is a real emotional minefield. Citing expert psychologiststhe outlet explains that these tasks activate old “triggers” and latent insecurities. A simple bookshelf can lead to existential questions: “Do you think I’m stupid?”, “Don’t you trust me?” Additionally, psychology professor Dan Ariely points in the same medium a dangerous phenomenon: the fundamental attribution error. We tend to think that if we make a mistake it is because the instructions are bad, but if the other person makes a mistake it is because they “never pay attention.” He choremancing It is, therefore, a quick way to see how the couple manages guilt and pressure. The collapse of the Tinder model This retreat into everyday life is not coincidental, but symptomatic. Traditional dating apps are suffering from structural wear. Although 80% of Generation Z want to find love, only 55% feel ready for a relationship. It is the “paradox of preparation”: the fear of failure is so high that young people prefer not to try. “Traditional flirting” is on the decline. Today you no longer ask for a date, you ask for Instagram, and that is where the interaction often dies. The fear of “public failure”—having to delete photos or explain things if a relationship doesn’t work out—acts like a handbrake. In this context, a “task date” is much safer: less pressure, less exposition, and above all, more honesty. Faced with this boredom, some are returning to old methods, like the resurgence of marriage agencies. “We get a lot of tired and frustrated people from the digital world,” they explain from the sector. Singles now seek “exclusivity and anonymity”, fleeing the public showcase of social networks. This search for tangible connection has taken courtship to the most unexpected spaces. For example, a couple of months ago the “hook up in Mercadona from seven to eight in the afternoon” went viral. What started as a joke about secret codes—like carrying an upside-down pineapple in your cart to indicate availability— reflects a deep reality: the desire to return to face-to-face in real environments, away from the algorithm. But he choremancing It goes beyond the first date; It is also the glue of coexistence. According to psychologist Dr. Hannah Lawson, cited by Uniladtechcouples who do household chores together, like washing dishes, are 20% happier. Lawson maintains that sharing these small daily rituals builds a stronger emotional connection than large romantic gestures. “It’s a symbol of equality,” he says, preventing resentment and encouraging natural conversation. However, there is a cruder reading behind this boom in useful quotes. First of all, the economic context does not help. With housing through the roof, looking for a partner has become a pragmatic decision: “you need two incomes to aspire to a stable life.” In this scenario, evaluating whether your potential partner is efficient at managing the house is not a lack of romanticism, it is a survival instinct. So is he choremancing The future of love or simply proof that we are too tired for traditional courtship? Either way, it seems like an efficient strategy. In a world where time is the most scarce resource, combining logistics with romance allows us to optimize the agenda and, in the process, truly get to know who we have in front of us. At the end of the day, logic is unbeatable. If the date goes wrong and you discover that that person doesn’t know how to work as a team or gets frustrated with an instruction manual, at least you won’t have wasted the afternoon in a pretentious bar. In the worst case scenario, the relationship will not have prospered, but you will have been left with the purchase made, the dog walked or, with a little luck, the living room furniture finally assembled. Image | freepik Xataka | Zara dressed Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl. That says much more about Zara’s plans than about Bad Bunny

This Star Trek movie was canceled in 1977 because science fiction had no future. Two weeks later Star Wars premiered

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In the mid-1970s, ‘Star Trek‘ was experiencing a unique phenomenon in the entertainment industry. The original series, canceled in 1969 after three seasons of discreet audiences, had found an unexpected second life. Continuous reruns and fan enthusiasm (the first phenomenon of its kind to develop pop culture) encouraged Paramount to extend the original mythology. In 1976, a full-page advertisement appeared in ‘The New York Times’ proclaiming the imminent production of a Star Trek film: ‘Planet of the Titans’, and which aspired to take the franchise into uncharted cinematic territories. The origin. Producer Gerald Isenberg assumed executive control of the project in July 1976, intending to transform ‘Star Trek’ into a first-rate cinematic event. To direct, Paramount hired Philip Kaufman, a filmmaker whose profile was unconventional for a franchise. Kaufman would direct acclaimed works such as ‘Chosen for Glory’ and would delve into a science fiction very different from ‘Star Trek’ in the remake of ‘Invasion of the Ultracorps’ in 1978. But by 1976 he had already directed the western ‘No Law or Hope’ and the arctic adventures of ‘The White Dawn’. Chris Bryant and Allan Scott, British writers of the superb and extremely rare ‘Shadow Menace’, were chosen as scriptwriters. The conceptual basis of the project was nourished by ambitious sources: Kaufman and Isenberg structured the narrative inspired by the novel ‘The Last and the First Humanity’ by Olaf Stapledon, which traces human evolution over billions of years. As a scientific advisor, Paramount hired Jesco von Puttkamer, a NASA engineer. Ralph McQuarriewhose conceptual work for ‘Star Wars’ was then in full development, would do the designs. The conflicts. Creative tensions quickly emerged. Kaufman aspired to create a cinematographic work that would dialogue with ‘2001: A Space Odyssey‘ in visual and philosophical complexity. Gene Roddenberry, creator of the original series, defended its essence. Bryant and Scott they were trapped between these two incompatible visions, trying to balance the artistic ambitions of one and the fidelity of the other. The budget, initially set at three million dollars, rose to 10 million. What was it about? Captain James T. Kirk has disappeared three years ago, during a rescue mission near a black hole. The Enterprise remains operational, but Spock has returned to Vulcan. When Starfleet detects anomalous energetic emissions coming from the same black hole where Kirk was lost, Spock rejoins. They discover a planet trapped inside the black hole, the mythical home of the Titans, an ancient civilization possessing technology superior to that of humans. The planet is being inexorably sucked into the black hole. Spock locates Kirk, scarred by years of isolation and transformed by cosmic forces. The planned outcome was the most radical bet: to escape collapse, the Enterprise deliberately enters the black hole, emerging not in its time, but in our prehistory. The crew discovers that they themselves are the Titans of mythology. Kirk is Prometheus, the bringer of fire to early humanity. The script does not clarify whether the crew would finally manage to return to their time or would be trapped observing the slow development of human history that they themselves had started. Kirk is dead. But… why make a movie in which the legendary Kirk is practically absent? William Shatner’s contract with Paramount had expired, leading Bryant and Scott to develop a first draft that eliminated Kirk. After several weeks of work, the studio informed them that an agreement had been reached and that Kirk should be reinstated as the lead. This twist forced a substantial rewrite of the material. And the situation with Leonard Nimoy was even more complex: the actor withdrew from the project due to a conflict over the unauthorized use of his image as Spock in a Heineken advertisement, but an agreement was finally reached. The cancellation. Bryant and Scott submitted their first completed draft on March 1, 1977, after months of intense creative negotiations, but ultimately walked away from the project. Kaufman personally took on the rewrite of the script. His version intensified the role of Spock and developed the dynamic with a Klingon played by none other than the legendary Toshiro Mifune. Just when he was convinced he had found the definitive story, he was told that Paramount had canceled the project. This happened in May 1977, just seventeen days before the premiere of ‘Star Wars’. Kaufman would always remember the phrase that a studio executive told him as justification for the cancellation: “there is no future in science fiction.” Why was it cancelled? They converged different factors: the increase in costs, the fear that ‘Star Wars’ would saturate the science fiction market and the belief that they had distanced themselves too much from the original series. When ‘Star Wars’ grossed more than $775 million worldwide, Paramount pitched ‘Star Trek: Phase II,’ a television series planned as the flagship of a new company television network. It would also be cancelled, although one of its scripts would eventually become the basis for ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’, released in December 1979. The legacy. ‘‘Planet of the Titans’ was not the first failed attempt to bring ‘Star Trek’ to the cinema, but rather one more link in a chain of frustrated projects that reflected Paramount’s uncertainty about how to capitalize on the franchise: there are cases as popular as the legendary and disturbing film ‘The God Thing’, written by Roddenberry himself in 1975, or the many attempts to recruit science fiction authors to contribute ideas for films, as happened with Harlan Ellison in the late seventies. And although something remained from the film in the future after the cancellation of ‘Planet of the Titans’ (for example, the concept designs They were reused in 2017 in ‘Star Trek: Discovery’), this cursed movie is the perfect example of what ‘Star Trek’ has always been. A sign that there are more ways to do science fiction outside of spectacle pulp of Star Wars and, at the same time, the confirmation that it is very complicated to do so. In Xataka | More and more … Read more

five TVs at outlet prices with coupons for future purchases

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Carrefour has launched a new brochure with discounts on a wide range of devices, among which we have a good variety of Samsung, LG, Hisense and TCL televisions. Not only are they reduced to “outlet price”, but the store also gives you a coupon for future purchases. Are you interested? Let’s take a look at the best offers. LG OLED55B56LA by 799 eurosa 55-inch OLED TV. Samsung TQ65S93FAT by 1,399 eurosa smart TV with OLED panel technology and a size of 65 inches. TCL 65C71K by 899 eurosa good 65-inch QD-Mini LED TV. Samsung TQ55QN74FAT by 599 eurosa very reasonable price for a Neo QLED TV. Hisense 43E79Q by 299 eurosa very low price for a television compatible with Dolby technologies. LG OLED55B56LA An OLED television for less than 700 euros? This is something that a few years ago was difficult to see (if we were able to see it, of course), but now it is a reality: although Carrefour has it on offer for 799 euros and gives you a 15% coupon, if you register at MediaMarkt you can buy it for 669.94 euros. The LG OLED55B56LA is a smart OLED TV with 55-inch screen which offers a refresh rate of 120 Hz, something ideal for playing video games. It is compatible with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos and includes technologies gaming such as Nvidia G-Sync or AMD FreeSync. LG OLED55B56LA (OLED, 65 inches) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Samsung TQ65S93FAT If the previous television is too small for you, Carrefour (and other stores) has reduced the Samsung TQ65S93FAT for a price of 1,399 euros and gives you a 15% coupon, as well as a refund of 150 euros. This OLED TV has a 65-inch diagonal and offers a refresh rate of up to 144 Hz, its panel is anti-reflective and it supports Dolby Atmos. Its speakers offer a power of 60W and integrates the voice assistant Alexa. Samsung TQ65S93FAT (OLED, 65 inches) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links TCL 65C71K Carrefour also has on offer the TCL 65C71Ka smart TV that, for 899 eurosoffers you a 15% coupon for future purchases. It incorporates a 65-inch QD-Mini LED panel and is compatible with Dolby Vision IQ and with Dolby Atmos. Its operating system is Google TV, it comes with Game Master mode for video games and incorporates HDMI 2.1. TCL 65C71K (QD-Mini LED, 65 inches) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Samsung TQ55QN74FAT If the previous Samsung television is beyond your budget, be very careful with the Samsung TQ55QN74FATa model that, despite being found in Carrefour for 599 euros and comes with a 15% coupon, El Corte Inglés has it for 579 euros. In this case we are talking about a mid-high range smart TV that incorporates a panel Neo QLED. Football, series, movies and documentaries no matter what operator you are. No permanence The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Its diagonal is 55 inches and it reaches a refresh rate of up to 144 Hz. It also comes with the Filmmaker mode to watch movies and series and integrates the Alexa voice assistant. Samsung TQ55QN74FAT (Neo QLED, 55 inches) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Hisense 43E79Q Finally, if what you are looking for is a smaller and much cheaper television, Carrefour has the Hisense 43E79Q by 299 euros and also gives you a 15% coupon for future purchases. In this case, we are talking about a smart TV with a 43-inch QLED panel that is compatible with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos and offers viewing angles of 178º. Hisense 43E79Q (QLED, 43 inches) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Carrefour and Compradicción (header), LG, Samsung, TCL, Hisense In Xataka | Best sound bars in quality price (2026). Which one to buy and seven recommended models from 99 euros In Xataka | Best home theater projectors. Which one to buy and five recommended models from 299 to 18,000 euros

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