Golden

“It is sold as the golden goal, but for some it is an existential abyss”

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Leo She is 79 years old and continues to work in the nut store she opened 51 years ago with her husband. Amadeoa 96-year-old “tavernkeeper”, may be the oldest active hotelier in Spain; After a lifetime of working, he continues to proudly say that he is in love with the union and that his thing is “a game” that feeds him spiritually. These two stories have gone viral on the social media profile of @comilonestvwhich takes time recovering people’s stories who “have spent a lifetime working” and continue to do so despite having passed retirement age. The comments that accompany these videos contain a mixture of astonishment and admiration, but above all they make it clear that these cases represent a not so small reality in Spain—dozens of users mention similar examples in their cities and nearby environments. The moment of the retirement It is often imagined as a desired goal after decades of work: a stage associated with more freedom, one’s own time, and the possibility of taking up hobbies or discovering new ones. However, for a part of the population, the arrival of retirement does not imply a total break with their profession. While some people completely disassociate themselves from their work activity, others choose to maintain a certain connection with it or even decide to continue working beyond retirement age. The economic weight The transition from collecting a payroll to receiving a pension implies, in many cases, a reconfiguration of the economy in many homes. Money then appears as one of the possible motivations among those people who choose to continue working when the opportunity to retire arrives. This trend has exploded in the last decade in the United States, where studies They point out how the number of workers aged 65 or over who remain in the labor market has grown. In fact, some statistics They point out that in 2024 just over 22% of adults over 65 were still employed, whether full or part-time. Meanwhile, in Spain, the last Active Population Survey (EPA) of 2025 has placed the employment among those over 65 years of age at historical highs, going from 5% to 14% in the last ten years. There are multiple factors behind this increase, but the economic factor appears recurrently in those who decide to prolong their working life. Antonio, a 67-year-old doctor who continues to practice in the private sector after retiring from the public system — and who prefers to keep his identity private — assures that “the economic issue usually weighs heavily” in this decision. Especially, he explains, because many people reach retirement with children still financially dependent. “It is very rare that at 65 years old people have their children already placed, emancipated and all expenses paid,” he points out. He assures that the situation has changed a lot compared to previous generations: “Before, when the parents retired, the children were already emancipated. Not now.” The delay in emancipation and the cost increase of life means that many families continue to have significant financial burdens even after reaching retirement age, which according to Antonio makes it “so common” in the health sector to maintain activity: “It is very rare for someone at 65 to say: ‘I’ll take my clogs and phonendo forever’.” However, reducing this phenomenon solely to an economic issue would be oversimplifying it for Gema Pérez Rojo, professor at the CEU San Pablo University and psychologist certified by the Official College of Psychology of Madrid. Although money matters—and a lot in some cases—the psychologist believes that it is a multifactorial decision and “it is rarely just about money.” A decision with different “edges” The reasons for continuing to work at retirement age rarely respond to a single reason. For Antonio, in fact, there are several: he mentions financial income, but also the need to stay active and avoid boredom —“What do I do at home 24 hours without any professional activity?”—, continue feeling useful, maintain a routine, continue practicing a profession that he defines as vocational or “wait” for his partner, who is not yet old enough to retire. Rosa María Álvarez Barral, a psychologist active in Venezuela, also does not believe that there is a “specific profile” of a person who chooses to continue their work activity beyond the age of 65. In his opinion, this is a decision that mixes motivational factorssocial and economic. “Work makes you feel important, valuable, distracted and continues to have interesting challenges,” he explains. Furthermore, he maintains that the profession can become an important part of personal identity and provide social recognition, especially in people with long careers or prestige within their sector. “Retirement is often sold as the golden goal of existence, but psychologically it is complex territory. It is not just a change of schedule; it is a metamorphosis of one’s identity.” This is how Professor Pérez Rojo explains how the arrival of retirement can be “for some a haven of peace and for others an existential abyss.” During working life, the profession is part of our cover letter. And after decades dedicated to a position, Pérez Rojo, who is also part of the Aging research group (BUENAVEJEZ), notices how “self-concept merges with role.” So, “when you retire you not only leave a job, you leave an identity.” Psychologist Álvarez Barral speaks of “symbiosis” or “marriage”: a “sense that your identity is linked to your profession.” This is the case of Nacho Valbuena, a journalist who, despite having retired three years ago, continues to collaborate with the media very actively. For him, vocation has been key and age has not represented an impediment, since he claims not to be able to live without practicing journalism: “I don’t think about age, I will be 90 years old and I will continue with this profession (…) It is very deep within me.” And the type of employment is decisive when facing the transition to retirement. Those who have held “jobs with a high load of physical or mental stress … Read more

They are the tree of golden eggs

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A question: What unites Venus, Steve Jobs’ 78-meter-long superyacht, and a remote forestry farm in León? There were many ways to start this article, but I couldn’t resist doing it because of the most unexpected fact: what unites those two things is the poplar. The story is known: before he died, Jobs designed a spectacular boat that he couldn’t have ready before he died. Well, the wood for the kitchen of that luxurious floating mansion came from León. And this, although it does not explain why Spain is being filled with poplars, does give an idea of ​​why. The poplar boom. In Europe the hectares of poplar have grown at 2% annually during the last few years. But Spain is not Europe as far as poplar fields are concerned. With its epicenter in the province of León, the country has some 81,000 hectares of poplar dedicated to production. And it has been that way for a long time. That is, there have been no substantial changes in the cultivated land. However, genetic improvement and more efficient cultivation practices have done that production does not stop growing. In fact, France and Italy have publicly recognized that “they are being left behind” In that sense, the poplar seemed a calm, safe and powerful sector. But things have changed… for the better. The high industrial demand for its wood (and the environmental benefits associated with its cultivation) have revived interest in this tree. Like Flor Álvarez Taboada, the greatest Spanish expert in the sector, explained in the Voice of Galicia“poplar is paid twice as much as pine and three times more than eucalyptus.” That sums it up. And what is the problem? It is not the profitability of the farms (which, as we see, is skyrocketing), but the capacity of the Spanish forest to produce wood on the scale that the industry needs. Alvarez made it clear that “a plantation where there are only about fifty poplar trees is not viable for companies that work with this wood”, that plantations of “at least two or three hectares in area” are needed. The country needs to “create homeowner associations that coordinate and plant poplar trees simultaneously on their land.” That is to say, it is not just a job for ‘lone wolves’; If we want Spain to take advantage of the populculture boom, a structured effort is needed that integrates the industry, administrations and farmers. Some areas, such as the Granada plain, there are european projects coordinated by the University to recover the traditional poplar groves and convert them into a source of quality structural lumber. It is a key step for an industry (construction) that is rediscovering wood at a forced pace. Against the eucalyptus. This is perhaps its greatest asset. We have been listening for years speak ill of eucalyptus. It is usually unjustified fame, but it opens up a whole world of possibilities. And the poplar is one of them. Because due to its rapid growth, the high profitability of its quality wood, its adaptability to riverine terrain and its important environmental (and social) value, it is an excellent forestry alternative. So the question is twofold: will Spain manage to enter the table of the majors in the timber industry? Are we prepared to see the landscape change — again –? Image | Garnica In Xataka | Converting Portugal to eucalyptus monoculture was a disaster. And the latest fires only remind us of this.

the sordid story of the Nazis’ golden retreat in the interior of Chile

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Let’s say you are in a chilean villagethat you are with your friends or your family enjoying a few days of rest in what seems like a tourist venue that is passed off as a mini-simulation of the German Oktoberfest. But, suddenly, your suspicions are activated when you realize that this space is not exactly the resort of tranquility that you had been promised, but rather the gloomy place where very harsh events have taken place, crimes against humanity whose trail goes beyond the town or Chile itself. That’s what could have happened to any of the attendees. Villa Bavariaformerly known as Colonia Dignidad (the name changed in 2005 at the suggestion of arms dealer Gerhard Mertins) and the nerve center of one of the black spots in the history of South America that welcomed the Nazis after the Second World War. Since 2012, an activities program and the hotel have offered enjoyable experiences for “anyone” who wants to visit the town, thus trying to renew the public’s vision of this ancient community. Founded by Germans mobilized there at the end of the 50s, among the historical landmarks of Colonia Dignidadnow Villa Baviera, have germinated a sectarian organization from which it was very difficult to escape, having in its history reports of forced labor for both children and adults, having a leader (Paul Schäfer) accused of having raped dozens of children and having served as a detention and torture center for the DINA during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. From the shadiest cult to a renewed holiday paradise From Villa Baviera’s own website They don’t hide it. They know that sooner or later people will discover the center’s past: “we lived through painful moments that to this day cannot be forgotten. As a way of looking to the future, we opened ourselves to the community and currently anyone is welcome to share our lifestyle.” They defend themselves, establishing themselves, whether willingly or not, as one of the most twisted places to practice the so-called dark tourism. From an area populated by faithful to their cult, restricted and harassed by the leader of the colony Paul Schäfernow a dream place of everything that represents the folkloric supremacy of the Aryan race. Thus, between Chileans and former Germans who lived that dark past and who are now adultsthis tourist spot is organized, in which deluxe rooms have been added and jacuzzis but the wire fences that once protected the camp from possible escapes have not been removed. In these streets where they now drink mugs of beer and eat bratwurst Josef Mengele would have walkedand under the subsoil they found on more than one occasion what the local police of the Maule Region defined as the “largest private arsenal” ever found in Chile. Semi-automatics, rocket launchers, grenades, explosive material, chemical elements, camouflaged weapons and a tank. All this was in Colonia Dignidad. In 2005. And everything that revolves around Villa Baviera is just one of the multiple traces that the national-socialist regime left in Latin America from the 40smoment by which they would organize the ratlines (escape networks for the Nazis, who could settle with new identities, money and property in various countries) and would provide them with either new jobs alongside dictatorial regimes or an indefinite retirement from work. We have seen that Schäfer supported Pinochet from this location, but there is more than a pedophile paramedic in the ranks of infamous German soldiers who later hid on the other side of the pond. According to the Wiesenthal Center, about 300 war criminals and thousands of collaborators from the Third Reich arrived in Argentina at the end of the Second World War. According to the Commission to Clarify the Activities of Nazism in Argentina (Ceana), the list is closer to 200. Philippe Aziz writes in the book War Criminalsthe following: “Argentina was the most inviolable refuge of the Nazis. Recent and serious documents have formally established that Martin Bormann had extremely important funds (gold, foreign currencies, stock securities and company shares) transferred by plane, from November (1944) to March (1945). CIA agents even managed to identify in (1953), the names of the aviators who carried out these flights, the banks and the numbers of these “Unfortunately, the US government has until today opposed the publicity of these investigations that could provide interesting revelations about the famous Nazi treasure.” The Nazi Latin America dreamed of by Martin Bormann And yes, that was Bormann, Head of the Chancellery and Director of the NSDAP since almost its beginning, intimate of Adolf Hitler from his position as Private Secretary to the Führer. Bormann was one of the main defenders of the persecution of Christian churches and favored the poor treatment and enslavement of Jews and Slavs in the areas conquered by Germany during World War II. One of the greatest theorists of the regime and those responsible for crimes against humanity, no matter how much he tried to negotiate peace with the British in ’41. Most likely is that he died in the vicinity of the Führerbunker shortly after Hitler’s suicide, where remains resembling Bornmann’s body were found. But several Nazi hunters have believed they saw him in different American locations, among them, Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguaywhere, as we have seen, he had sent funds. Bormann could have been the first of the beneficiaries of ODESSA, that secret institution intended to find refuge to prominent Nazi leaders. These are some of the other great Nazi criminals in history who, following what Bormann designed, ended up in South America: Erich Priebke Erich Priebke He murdered, along with Herbert Kappler, 335 Italians and 75 Jews in ’44. But for him, this execution is nothing more than the product of a war in which they found themselves, a reprisal that would give a lesson to the GAP partisans who in the Rome area murdered 31 Nazi police days before. The person responsible for the Ardentine Graves Massacre He went to Argentina and lived in Bariloche, a … Read more

The Golden Age of television is over. Specifically, when Netflix assumed it was the second screen in your preferences

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There’s a note that Netflix executives have been writing on the scripts they receive for years: “this is not enough second screen“. That is to say, it is not “second screen” enough, that the scene forces the viewer to pay attention. Apparently, paying attention to the series is now a problem. And although This has been talked about for months.it is now that it is being named. The problem is cataloged. And above all, it raises a vital question: is television ceasing to be creativity and innovation and becoming, once again, background noise? Origins. One of the triggers for this conversation was an article published in December 2024 in the literary magazine ‘n+1’. Its author collected the testimonies of several scriptwriters who had worked for Netflix: A common note from the platform’s executives was to ask the characters to announce out loud what they were doing, so that viewers who had the series playing in the background could follow the thread without having to look at the screen. The article went viral a year or so ago, and gave a name to something that many suspected: Netflix not only tolerated its users being distracted from what was seen on the screen, but also designed its content to encourage that distraction. Second screen. If we look at previous studies on Netflix’s footprint in fictional narrative, we can name the phenomenon: researcher Daphne Rena Idiz had published a study called ‘Local Production for Global Platforms: How Netflix Shapes European Production Cultures’, in which it described how Netflix internally labeled certain series as “second-screen shows” and developed them accordingly. One of their interviewees, for example, explained that the platform had even asked them that, if a character was sad, they expressly said so while crying and violins playing in the background. The logic. Another producer interviewed by Idiz related that Netflix had literally told them: “what you have to know about your audience is that they will watch the series while doing something else and talking to their friends, so you have to show and tell, you have to say a lot more than you would normally say.” And all this is pure commercial logic: what matters is not that the user pays attention to the screen (that’s how traditional advertising worked), but that they do not cancel their subscription. The content should not be boring, but it should not require effort either. When a study in January 2025 made it clear that 91% of Americans looked at their cell phones from time to time while watching a series, it is clear that Netflix is ​​not going against the current. Whether it is part of the problem or its true germ, it is obvious that Netflix is ​​fully riding this wave. More precedents. None of this is new: already during the actors’ strike of 2023, the first steps in this direction began to be detected. Actress and director Justine Bateman declared in a podcast who had spoken with showrunners that they received notes from the platforms telling them that their content “was not sufficiently second screen“, and proposed a term for that: “visual muzak“, television as elevator music. Even earlier, in November 2020, writer Kyle Chayka had coined the concept of “ambient TV“ to describe a sliver of Netflix’s catalog (‘Emily in Paris’ was its prime example) that it defined as content that “you don’t need to follow closely to enjoy, but that is seductive enough to capture your attention if you decide to watch it for a moment.” The proportions. From Serialized They explained that the data collected through Big Data had even determined which was the perfect series, and that it fits with these content decisions that we have seen: the perfect genre is a procedural (doctors, firefighters, detectives, lawyers), it must include a twist or hook visual every eight minutes, a proportion of 70% plot and 30% character development, and the aforementioned explanatory dialogues so as not to get lost. On the contrary. There are those who deny all these visions of work at Netflix which, let’s not forget, do not come from official sources. In this articlethree scriptwriters who had written for the platform claimed to have not received instructions of that type. Screenwriter Danny Brocklehurst, known for his adaptations of Harlan Coben, stated that no one had pressured him to simplify his work or adapt it for distracted viewers. Idiz herself warned in her study that it is advisable not to generalize, since Netflix operates in more than 190 countries with very different production teams and cultures. Something old, something new. The soap operas, the sitcoms of the eighties, the reality shows They have been designed for decades with the partially distracted viewer in mind. It is not new to create content that works in the background, but it is striking to do so when the platforms of streaming Current ones, preceded by the cable era where brands like HBO were born, are sold to us as quality alternatives to conventional television. The Golden Age of Television did not refer to ‘The Price is Right’, but if ‘The Sopranos’ were produced now, it would need a spin every eight minutes. In Xataka | In 2023, watching Netflix without ads cost 7.99 euros/month. Today its cheapest plan with ads costs 8.99 euros/month

2,500 years ago Athens suffered an epidemic that marked the end of its golden age. Science is determined to know what caused it

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“Words are insufficient when trying to describe this disease. As for his suffering, it seemed almost beyond what is humanly bearable.” Although the news about the hantavirus They make it sound even scarier, that commentIn reality, it is more than 2,000 years old. The chronicler Thucydides wrote it in his ‘History of the Peloponnesian War’ to give an idea of ​​the terrible plague that devastated Athens around 430 BC, an ailment that he himself suffered and took the lives of some 75,000 people. For centuries that epidemic has been remembered as the ‘plague of Athens’although we don’t actually know exactly what caused it. Now a group of Greek researchers have shed some more light on that dark episode. Epidemic detectives. In a hyperconnected world, in which people are capable of traveling thousands of kilometers in a few hours and it comes with blocking a remote strait of the Middle East to put the world economy in check, the specter of pandemics seems more present, but the truth is that humanity takes centuries dealing with him. Before the COVID pandemic, we had, for example, the 1918 flu or the disastrous Black Deathwhich devastated Europe between 1346 and 1353 and (by some estimates) reached 60% case fatality rates in some regions. Long before any of them, in the times of Classical Greece, another equally devastating epidemic was recorded: the plague of Athens. Thanks to authors like Thucydideswho in addition to being a chronicler suffered it himself, today we can learn in detail how that outbreak developed and experienced, which left tens of thousands of dead. The episode was important not only because of its death toll: between 75,000 and 100,000 in the four years that elapsed from 430 to 426 BC One of the deceased was Periclesa historical leader of Athens. In fact, experts usually agree that the plague precipitated the decline of the Athenian Golden Age and its death toll facilitated its final defeat in the war against Sparta. The great unknown. Despite this historical value, the Athenian plague remains shrouded in unknowns. We know when it developed, we know where it developed and there is even evidence suggesting that the initial outbreak occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, spread to Egypt and Libya and then passed to Athens via Piraeus. What is not clear is what exactly caused the plague and why it was so disastrous. And Thucydides was in charge of describing all its symptoms. Now a team from the University of Athens (NKUA) have wanted to clear up this mystery by analyzing the symptoms described by the chronicler and comparing it with that of known ailments. The result they have published it in the magazine AMHA. A pulse on history. If it is difficult to track a viral outbreak in 2026, the task becomes daunting when we are talking about one of the first known epidemics in human history. To face such a challenge, Dr. Dimosthenis Papadimitrakis and his colleagues had an idea: they looked at the symptoms described by Thucydides and other sources, They selected 17 diseases known that more or less fit that symptomatology and created a “metric system” with different scores to determine which of them best fit the epidemic that hit Athens 2,400 years ago. “The most terrible thing, despair”. Whether due to his zeal as a chronicler or because he himself suffered from the disease, Thucydides detailed the symptoms suffered by those who contracted the Athenian plague: migraines, high fever, redness and inflammation of the eyes, bad breath, sneezing, cough and profound gastrointestinal discomfort, such as nausea, vomiting, spasms and painful diarrhea. Over time, rashes, pustules and ulcers appeared on the patient’s skin, especially in the abdomen area. Those who could not stand the disease died after seven or nine days, after experiencing intense burning that led them to take off their clothes or even immerse themselves in cold water. “Gangrene of the extremities and eyes was common among both survivors and victims,” detail experts, who remember that it was not unusual for patients who survived the plague to do so with amnesia. “The most terrible thing was the despair into which people fell when they realized that they had contracted the plague. They immediately adopted an attitude of absolute hopelessness and, by giving in in this way, they lost their capacity for resistance,” Thucydides reflects. “Words are insufficient when trying to give a general image of the illness.” Ruling out candidates. With that starting point, Papadimitrakis and his colleagues developed a list of diseases that the Athenians of 2,400 years ago could have contracted and that coincided to a greater or lesser extent with the symptoms described by Thucydides. They came up with 17 potential ‘candidates’, including cholera, measles, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, Ebola, malaria, smallpox, bubonic plague, ergotism or Lassa fever. Then with that chart on the table, two questions were asked: Which of those diseases caused rashes and gangrene? How many are transmitted between humans? And what historical evidence is there for each of these ailments? Thanks to this analysis they reached a series of conclusions, although the team warns that they are only hypotheses based on probability, not firm and unquestionable truths. “The plague of Athens presents difficulties in identifying the causal agent due to several factors. The main source of information is the accounts of Thucydides, but his lack of medical knowledge and the lapse of up to 20 years between the events and their documentation can lead to erroneous interpretations,” the authors explain. “Furthermore, the inability to isolate or culture the responsible microorganism poses a major obstacle. Even if preserved bodies of plague victims were discovered, the microbes would have decomposed over time.” And what is the conclusion? That of the diseases analyzed, the one with the most votes is typhoid fever. “It appears to meet most of the criteria, so it is considered the most likely agent,” summary the researchers. Furthermore, in a necropolis from the time of the epidemic, remains of the bacteria that trigger this disease … Read more

Science has a new magic number (and a golden rule about how to give them)

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One of the mantras that has been repeated on numerous occasions is that yes or yes you have to take 10,000 steps a day in order to enjoy good health. Our activity bracelets are partly to blame, since they even give us prizes for reaching this goal or remind us that we have not managed to reach it. But this number was born as a marketing strategy in Japan in the 60s and now science is making more and more nuances with respect to this figure to give more importance to how it works. The study. The most recent evidence we have in this regard is found published in the prestigious magazine The Lancet in July 2025, which combined 57 studies and analyzed 31 different cohorts of people in order to reach the most robust conclusion possible. The results. In short, we can affirm that the mantra of taking 10,000 steps is more than dismantled, since already reaching 7,000 steps a day means having 47% less mortality from any cause, and 25% less risk of suffering from cardiovascular disease compared to those who only take 2,000 steps a day on average. This is what different reference organizations in the world of cardiology also point out, such as the American College of Cardiology, who claim that the health benefit follows a curve in which the biggest drop in mortality risk occurs before reaching 10,000 stepssetting the new goal at 7,000-8,000 steps per day. It’s not worth the walk. For many, all the steps on the physical activity counter are the same, whether they are the first ones in the morning to go to the bathroom or the ones we take while window shopping at the mall. But the reality is that they are not ‘productive’ steps, since to reach these 7,000 steps that do not ensure a reduction in mortality, the intensity of the walk matters much more than the number. How to get here. Here Harvard Health sums it up perfectly aim that walking becomes a moderate aerobic exercise only when we increase the intensity until we notice a higher pulse and more demanding breathing. To get an idea, if we are here, we can put ourselves in the situation where we can still speak, but only in short phrases. If we want to have a figure on the table, we can stick to reaching 100 steps per minute, which can be around 4.5 km per hour if we also want to do it on a treadmill in the gym. It’s important. Doing these steps daily is important, since it has been shown that adequate walking speed is directly linked to a significant reduction in cases of heart attack, stroke and heart failure, especially in people who already suffer from hypertension. Images | Drazen Zigic in Magnific In Xataka | Tell me how fast you walk at 45 and I’ll tell you how your brain ages: The science behind the ‘sixth vital sign’

The price of meat is through the roof. An industry has a golden opportunity: artificial meat

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It is becoming more and more expensive to buy meat in the supermarket. In the midst of widespread inflation, the meat section has stood out and its products are among those that have increased the most. Among beef producers, the trend has been rising for years. According to Eurostat datathe price of live calves rises or falls between 2013 and 2019. But starting this year the rise is continuous. In Spain, for example, 100 kilos of live animal go from costing 226.25 euros in 2019 to having a price of 369 euros in 2023. Another reference: the average price in the EU The price at which producers sold male beef in January 2025 was 570 euros per 100 kilos. A year later, last January, the cost had jumped to 717.11 euros per 100 kilos, an increase of 25.5%. This rise in prices, especially of beef, coincides with a few years in which the artificial meat has progressed. The techniques to obtain a similar texture and achieve flavors and aromas have improved. Production methods have been polished and some companies have gained economies of scale. As a result, your product would have become cheaper. It is the case of Novameat. Giuseppe Sconti, its founder and CEO, says that his company is now capable of producing artificial meat at a much lower price than a few years before. Born in Barcelona in 2018, the startup uses yellow pea protein for its product and has launched its own factory. “We buy a primary ingredient and transform it to have a block of textured protein, which large producers can then mix with minced meat or hamburgers,” he explains. It is no longer about sausages or a hamburger made with plant-based meat. It is an approach that does not aim to create a final product for sale to the public. That’s easier gain scale in production, as long as there are clients to sell it to later, of course. Sconti adds another factor to the decrease in costs. “When we buy our base ingredient in large quantities we can get it at a lower price. In addition, we have diversified the places from which we can get the protein. Now we can get it from Europe, but also from America.” The Novameat facilities. Cheaper raw materials also help. Justo Pedroche Jiménez, senior scientist at the Fat Institute, belonging to the CSIC, has been working with vegetable protein for two decades in research aimed at the food sector. He claims that the diversity of plant protein has increased. “Nowadays we work with a lot of plant raw materials.” He says that before, soy was mainly used as an alternative to animal protein, but now his team is researching lentils, chickpeaslupins, broad beans, even chia and quinoa, among others. “And the more companies there are that work on this, the more competition there is and the more different products on the market, all of this, in the end, leads to lower prices,” he adds. At the exit of the bubble But artificial meat has its own ghosts. It experienced a peak, it became almost a fashion, associated with veganism and healthy habits, and then some of the best-known brands in the sector fell sharply. In response to an email sent by Xataka, Jaime Martín, partner and CEO of the consulting firm Lantern, specialized in the food sector, is skeptical about the phenomenon of meat based on vegetable protein. For him it was a bubble and it is a sector that is devastated. Although he points out that the prices of this type of product are going down in some countries. “It becomes cheaper in countries where there is already a relevant size of consumers, such as Holland or Germany, and a determined commitment by the private label to promote the category.” The two big names in artificial meat, Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, chain several years of decline. The losses accumulate, so much so that the first collapsed on the stock market in a spectacular way, while the second saw its valuation shrink in an equally bloody way. There have been bankruptcies, such as that of the British Meatless Farm, which went into bankruptcy more than two years ago. Perhaps the most symbolic thing was that in 2024 McDonald’s, which had promoted a hamburger made with this type of alternative meat, discontinued its sale. There was no place in his letter for McPlant. For Pedroche, positive conclusions can be drawn from everything that has happened. “These companies made a risky bet on a product, perhaps a little sophisticated, for a very specific population niche, but I think that knowledge of vegetables has been created. Now it has stabilized. It is not decreasing but rather there are more and more people who risk, let’s say, trying this type of products that are closely linked to health,” reflects the CSIC researcher. Vegetable protein meatballs. “There has been a bubble that has burst. The question is whether the protein diversification that had already begun will continue. The alternative protein, as it had been defined, in finished products, had created a lot of hype,” says Sconti, referring to the well-known brands that sold packaged products, such as hamburgers and sausages. He talks about them as a commercial proposal, perhaps the most striking in the entire artificial meat sector, but not the only one. “I am optimistic. I think that protein diversification is not going to end. It is going to be like the Internet, when the dotcom bubble burst and then there was consolidation. And now the Internet is much bigger than in the year 2000.” An example of this consolidation would be the movements of the Brazilian JBS, the world’s largest producer of traditional meat. In 2021 acquired the Dutch company specialized in alternative meat Vivera, and last year bought The Vegetarian Butcherthe alternative protein division of Unilever. He has merged both to boost its presence in the European market. The outlook for the sector is encouraging. according to … Read more

Thousands of workers were needed to build the colossal Golden Gate. Just to maintain it you need 200 people

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There are few symbols as recognizable of the United States as the golden gatethat colossal orange bridge inaugurated in 1937 that crosses the San Francisco Bay. And no wonder: 1,280 meters of bridge hanging on two 227-meter-high towers with 600 thousand rivets each. It enters through the eyes and also, it also sounds. The subject of countless photographs and an extra in numerous films and series, it is also the place chosen by many people. to end his life. The colossal construction of the Golden Gate. When the Golden Gate opened almost a century ago, it was considered an architectural landmark that combined engineering and modernity. And no wonder: the work lasted more than four years, cost more than 35 million dollars (from the 1930s) and the construction techniques were cutting-edge. However, they faced challenges such as the turbulent currents, the hurricane winds and the dense fog in the area. Not to mention its proximity with the San Andreas and Hayward fault. One of the solutions was to make the structure of the Golden Gate something dynamic and not rigid, which allows it to better deal with wind and tide (literal). In addition, it is designed so that the two towers absorb the tension generated by the passage of vehicles through the suspension cables. One of those towers had to be built in the middle of the open ocean, something exceptional at the time. High turnover and a lot of security. Although its construction is carefully documented and there is an extensive graphic archive, there is no record of how many people worked on its construction beyond the fact that there were 10 contractors with their respective subcontractors, there was a lot of turnover (note: we were in the context of the Great Depression) and that at the peak of the work there were hundreds of men working, with critical roles such as structuralists, divers, spinners to weave the cables and painters and riveters. Unfortunately, 11 people died during this imposing construction. And this despite the fact that its chief engineer, Joseph Strauss, stood out for its commitment to job security: They installed a safety net under the bridge that would save those 19 workers who became part of the Halfway-to-Hell club (halfway to hell). 200 people for maintenance. Although the exact figure is unknown precisely due to the turnover and number of contractors, there are estimates which point to figures between 4,000 and 8,000 workers who participated directly in the construction between 1933 and 1937, which seems plausible. What is most striking is that for its maintenance about 200 workers are needed among engineering professionals, metal workers, painters, mechanics, electricians, communications technicians, street and garden maintenance, among others. The maintenance team. In the age of AI and automation, San Francisco Bridge Maintenance pulls trades with a multidisciplinary team led by a captain who oversees patrol activities 24 hours a day. As a curiosity, since 1937 there have been 11 captains. As a summary, these are the main positions and their functions: Painters and metal workers. They work at height and in confined spaces. They are responsible for painting, sandblasting old paint, and repairing corroded steel and rivets. Structural Engineers: They carry out visual and sensor inspections of each of the thousands of rivets and cables, in addition to ensuring the operation of the machinery. Safety and Traffic: With a flow of 100,000 vehicles daily, accidents and breakdowns are the order of the day. It is a 24/7 operational service to avoid collapsing the city. Why so many people. As we have seen in the previous point, maintenance logistics is specialized and has a certain complexity being at altitude, it requires always being available and the environment is aggressive. Paint the Golden Gate It has its own, hence it has its own section within the bridge website. To begin with, it is not painted every so often, but rather it is painted continuously and in parts. And maintenance is selective and based on priority: it is a battle against corrosion. The combination of the humidity of the Pacific and its high salinity is a ticking time bomb for steel. Although they chose the International Orange tone because of how well it integrates with the environment and its visibility, this paint protects the steel from UV rays and humidity. On the other hand, inspections of its expansion joints and seismic dampers are frequent to ensure that it can flex without breaking due to vibrations and earthquakes. In Xataka | More than 2,000 people had committed suicide at the Golden Gate. The solution has been as simple as it is shocking for those who throw In Xataka | In 1976 Boston built its most amazing skyscraper. Until its windows became lethal guillotines Cover | Photo of Maarten van den Heuvel in Unsplash

Going to the mountains to go hiking is increasingly popular in Spain. And those who are suffering are the golden eagles

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Go on the weekend to take a route through the countryside It is a plan that can be very playful and, above all, healthy for us humans. But… What happens to the native fauna of the area? This is a question that It’s starting to resonate a lot on the internet.by focusing on the impact that our presence in the mountains can have on the most emblematic species of Spain such as the golden eagle or the partridge that have begun to have a lesser presence. A technological solution. The main idea that was in mind was that the animals were crashing into the hikers and causing great damage to their presence on the mountain. But to solve this mystery, biologists chose to put a GPS device on the eagles to monitor what they were doing. And the reality is that they are not crashing into us, but rather they are fleeing. The result. In this way, when it is confirmed that we do not have any type of collision with the eagles that could respond to their change in behavior, we have to go where they go when we humans are in the mountains. The University of Valencia in 2019 led this investigationdetecting that without a doubt there is a “weekend effect.” This effect can be seen in telemetry data which shows that during Saturdays and Sundays, the eagles are forced to modify their hunting routes. All this to avoid humans who, among other things, may be scaring away their targets on the ground. A greater expense. When these birds have to go to other areas to look for food because of hikers, they have to cover a longer distance than they are normally used to. This only means greater physiological stress and energy expenditure that can compromise their reproduction or survival, even if they never touch a human. But in addition, this translates into a situation known as ‘Landscape of Fear’, where the animal perceives the human not as a physical obstacle, but as a potential predator, which triggers its stress and cortisol levels, affecting its ability to breed. The real threats. To understand the real danger that these birds are in, we must look at the different mortality statistics in Spain. In this case, although a sedentary lifestyle causes great discomfort to the animals, the causes of death are much more industrial and violent. According to the studies collected, such as those of the GER-EA projectthe main cause of death is collision with power lines and electrocution. This is followed by poisoning and shooting, with 13 and 8% respectively. But what is clear is that humans are not a direct cause of death due to collisions with us when we are sedentary in the countryside. Distinction matters. Stating that eagles collide with hikers may sound spectacular, but it diverts attention from the real problem that we can solve as mountain users. The study in Ecology and Evolution (2025) and data from Ecologists in Action They point out that the problem is Yontrusion into breeding areas. Climbing, off-road vehicles and off-road hiking near the nests cause the adults to abandon the nest or the chicks, leaving them exposed to the cold or predators. Images | Mathew Schwartz In Xataka | Japan has been looking at its bears in fear for months due to a record wave of attacks. Now he looks at them with something else: gluttony

Parking lots were the goose that laid the golden eggs for bricks in Spain. Until someone created the tomb of Las Teresitas

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The history of the mamotreto The Theresies in Tenerife is not an exception, but one more chapter of a long tradition of shot attempts on the Spanish coastwhere for decades the brick advanced on beaches, marshes and cliffs in the heat of express reclassifications, opaque agreements and the promise of a tourist development that almost never arrived as had been announced. This was his story. Great balls with sea views. From Marbella to The Algarrobicopassing through ghost housing estates, illegal hotels and maritime fronts converted into political currency, the coast has been one of the great scenes of speculation, and each new case reminds us of the extent to which the conflict between public interest and private ambition has marked the transformation (and often the degradation) of the coastal landscape in Spain. A symbol that was born crooked. He mamotreto of Las Teresitas It began to raise suspicions long before it became a court case on the island of Tenerife because it appeared where it shouldn’t and how it shouldn’t, emerging without explanation in full maritime-terrestrial public domain, without visible signs and without anyone clearly knowing what was being built in front of the beach or under what legal protection. It was the persistent gaze of neighbors as Lola Schneider the one that set off the first alarms and turned that concrete skeleton into something more than an ugly work: into physical proof that a project was being carried out on the beach front that seemed to be ahead of the law and urban planning logic. Change the beach. Behind the mamotreto was the ambition to transform Las Teresitas into a large urban beach of European reference, with a plan signed by Dominique Perrault which promised to bury parking lots, create open squares and reorganize access to the sea. On paper, the visible mass was supposed to be buried and become an invisible infrastructure at the service of public space, but the partial execution and the breakdown of the balance between administrations turned that promise into an abandoned, gray and dominant structure that ended up being just the opposite of what the project claimed to pursue. The ball The construction of the parking lot was inserted in the heart of the so-called great ball from Las Teresitasoccupying easements and land in the public domain without the mandatory authorizations from Costas and with substantial modifications to the original project. Subsequent rulings made it clear that this was not a minor defect or a forgotten procedure, but rather a a global breach of the urban planning regulations, with works started without legal support while, in parallel, the City Council had purchased the beach front land for more than 52 million of euros in an operation that was already under judicial scrutiny. Justice arrives. The stoppage of works in 2007 marked the point of no return and paved the way to the investigation of the Environmental Prosecutor’s Office, prompted by environmental and neighborhood complaints. The judicial process ended with sentences for urban prevarication and crimes against territorial planning, confirmed by the Court, which established unambiguously that the mamotreto was built without valid authorization and on protected land, dismantling any subsequent attempt to reduce the problem to a simple question of partial legalization. The political and criminal cost. Not only that. The sentences reached to former councilors, technicians and senior officials, some of whom have already fully served their prison and disqualification sentences, while others remain banned from holding public office until the end of the decade. The case was thus established as another branch of the great Las Teresitas scandal, with clear criminal responsibilities and an express obligation to restitute the damage caused, which included the demolition of the building at the expense of the convicted. The demolition In 2017, a horrible mass that had remained in front of the beach for years was physically put to an end. The arrival of heavy machinery to the beach and the visible start of the demolition They marked the material end of a story that had continued for more than a decade. The destruction of concrete, carried out in compliance with a final sentence and after years of delays, it symbolized the closing of a cycle in which the mamotreto went from urban promise to abandoned ruin and, finally, to rubble, returning to the landscape a beach that had been kidnapped by the failure of a “plotazo.” One more. If you like, even though the mamotreto physically disappeared and the sentences were fulfilled, its history remains as permanent warning (one more) about the limits of uncontrolled urbanism, the fragility of the public domain in the face of political and economic interests and the price that a city can pay when projects are imposed on legality. The Theresies of Tenerife recovered space and horizon, but the mamotreto was placed in that monstrous row that is part of the collective memory of the Canary Islands and Spain: that of the emblems of how one should not build a city or, of course, manage its natural heritage. Image | CARLOS TEIXIDOR CADENAS In Xataka | Añaza’s mamotreto: the megahotel abandoned on the coast of Tenerife for 40 years that was never finished In Xataka | The Canary Islands face the irremediable dilemma of limiting tourism. Starting by charging to climb Teide

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