greatest

the last film directed by one of the greatest masters in the history of cinema

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Clint Eastwood turned 96 on May 31. And a bit of coincidence, with a statement from his son, jazz musician Kyle Eastwood (saying that “he’s retired now, but I’ve been very lucky to be able to work with him on quite a few films”), we’ve learned that Eastwood is no longer going to make any more films. There have been no official statements, but the retirement of the person responsible for ‘Unforgiven’ or ‘The Pale Rider’ leaves us with a filmography full of great films, of all genres and intensities. Let’s celebrate by remembering the last of them, ‘Jury Nº 2‘, released in 2024 and which you can see in Movistar Plus and HBO Max. ‘Jury No. 2’ is a judicial thriller with a moral dilemma on board, as Eastwood likes them: Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) is called to serve on a jury in a high-profile murder case, and discovers that he himself could be more involved in the crime than he thought. The cast is completed with a veritable array of heavyweights such as Toni Collette, JK Simmons and Kiefer Sutherland. The film is Eastwood’s fortieth as a director. ‘Jury No. 2’ was conceived originally as a direct streaming premiere. The change to a limited theatrical release It arrived after some internal passes that yielded very favorable opinionsbut he barely received advertising coverage from the studio, which was said to have resented the author for the poor box office results of ‘Cry Macho’. It was finally released, as was later learned, not only out of respect for the director’s advanced age, but in recognition of his 50-year relationship with Warner Bros. This stimulating thriller closes an absolutely exemplary career, always halfway between popular genres and auteur cinema, since the time of his international fame aboard some of Sergio Leone’s most significant titles. Between those first successes and his recognition by critics starting with ‘Unforgiven’ in 1992, there was the creation of milestones such as Dirty Harry and a series of absolutely superb westerns and thrillers, often directed by himself. He has spent this entire century praised by critics and the public thanks to films like ‘Million Dollar Baby’ or ‘Mystic River’. In Xataka | Rafa Nadal won 22 Grand Slams and lost 18 more due to injury: the documentary that explores those last ones arrives on Netflix today

The greatest Japanese military taboo after the Second World War has just been blown up. China and North Korea are to blame

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In 1945, Japan emerged from World War II with a new Constitution that, in practice, prevented him have again offensive aircraft carrier. Eight decades later, one of its largest ships is once again preparing to operate fighter jets from the deck alongside the US Marines. Japan leaves its historical limits behind. Japan is entering a military phase that for decades avoided describing openly. He “Kaga”officially classified as a helicopter destroyer, will operate in June F-35B stealth fighters of the US Marine Corps in joint exercises that definitively bring the country closer to a light aircraft carrier capability. The gesture is much more important than it seems because it breaks a deeply rooted political and historical barrier since World War II: the idea that Japan should strictly limit its offensive capabilities. Tokyo continues to avoid the term “aircraft carrier,” but operational reality is beginning to look more and more like classic shipborne aviation. The Kaga and a return. The transformation of the “Kaga” and its twin “Izumo” It has been underway for years, but now it is entering the truly decisive phase: operate fighter aircraft fifth generation from deck in real conditions. The planned exercises with the US F-35B will include “cross-deck” maneuvers, where Marine aircraft take off and land from a Japanese ship. all this requires modifications depth in the deck, thermal resistance to withstand vertical landings and new coordinated procedures between pilots, sailors and technical personnel. Although Japan has placed the F-35Bs under the control of its Air Force and not the Navy, the practice brings the country enormously closer to having fully functional small aircraft carriers. A US Marine Corps F-35B lands aboard Kaga during training exercises in 2024 China and North Korea behind. The great driver of this transformation is the deterioration of the strategic environment in the Indo-Pacific. China multiply your pressure naval around Taiwan and the East China Sea as North Korea maintains a constant capacity of military destabilization. In this context, Tokyo needs to disperse its air capacity and reduce dependence on vulnerable ground bases. There the F-35B enters: a fighter capable of taking off over very short distances or landing vertically from relatively small decks. For Japan, this offers enormous flexibility in an archipelago full of islands and long sea distances. Each converted ship expands the number of platforms from which the country can project air power. USA as accelerator. The direct involvement of the US Marine Corps makes clear the extent to which Washington is acting as an accelerator of Japanese military transformation. The Marines already made the first historic landings on the “Izumo” in 2021 and since then they have accompanied practically all phases of the program. The “Kaga” even traveled to the United States for specific tests with F-35B and has already operated alongside British and American aircraft linked to the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales. More than simple maneuvers, these exercises serve to integrate allied doctrines, logistics and procedures in a possible regional crisis scenario. The Indo-Pacific is filling up. The change also reflects a broader trend: the proliferation light aircraft carrier and ships capable of operating F-35Bs throughout the US allied network. United Kingdom, Italy, South Korea and potentially Spain sfollow similar paths to maintain embarked aviation without the need for gigantic nuclear supercarriers. He F-35B It has thus become the centerpiece of a new generation of medium navies capable of projecting air power from relatively compact platforms. Japan fits that model perfectly, especially in a scenario where war in the Pacific could force aircraft, ammunition and fuel to be dispersed across multiple moving points. The real test begins now. Until now, much of the Japanese program had still been experimental or symbolic. The real test begins with regular operations, long deployments and the ability to sustain stealth fighters on deck for weeks. That is where it will be measured if the “Kaga” It definitively ceases to be a “helicopter destroyer” to become, in practice, a a light aircraft carrier fully operational. And there, too, the most profound change is perceived: Japan is gradually leaving behind the defensive military culture to adapt to an increasingly Indo-Pacific more militarizedcompetitive and unpredictable. Image | hunini In Xataka | Japan has just crossed a line unprecedented since World War II: China has responded with supersonic missiles In Xataka | Japan has made a historic decision in the face of US uncertainty: deploy missiles that reach North Korea and China

Your main competitor in chip manufacturing is your greatest ally

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Approximately 30% of Intel chips It is manufactured outside of its semiconductor plants. And most of these ICs are produced by TSMC. This Taiwanese company is the largest chip manufacturer on the planetand therefore it is also Intel’s main competitor in the market for custom semiconductor manufacturing for third parties. Despite this, Intel is deeply dependent on TSMC. Currently, the latter company manufactures Intel’s most advanced integrated circuits in those nodes where the company led by Lip-Bu Tan has not yet reached optimal wafer performance. The CEO of Intel has confirmed recently that his company is also outsourcing the production of those chips that have frequent demand peaks, and which, therefore, is not able to manufacture in sufficient quantities to satisfy the needs of its customers. TSMC is producing Intel’s entire Lunar Lake line, and most of Arrow Lake as well. In addition, Intel is one of the first clients of this Taiwanese company with access to 2nm node latest generation. In fact, TSMC has already started production testing of the compute tile of Nova Lake at its Hsinchu plant, and large-scale manufacturing should begin before the end of 2026. During Intel’s latest financial results presentation, Tan confirmed something indisputable: TSMC is an essential partner of your company. TSMC also depends on Intel Intel’s current dependence on TSMC is a consequence of the delay accumulated for years in the development of its manufacturing nodes, before the arrival of Lip-Bu Tan. In fact, the delays in the jump to 10 nmand later the 7nmcontributed to TSMC overtaking Intel from a technological point of view. In addition, dependence on Intel is also based on the need to cover short-term demand. The dependence on Intel is based on the need to cover short-term demand This scenario clearly reflects that Intel and TSMC are competitors. But they are also partners. In fact, few people know that Intel sells chip manufacturing equipment to TSMC. Pat Gelsinger confirmed itthe former CEO of Intel, at the end of 2024 during a meeting with his investors: “TSMC is an impressive company. They serve their customers well, and they serve us well. Lunar Lake would not exist without TSMC (…) But we also supply them with some of our advanced equipment. “It is a complex relationship that is important for Intel, for TSMC and for the entire industry,” Gelsinger explained. It is clear that the former CEO of Intel wanted to convey positivity with this statement, and, to the extent possible, defend his management. We all know how it ended. Be that as it may, there is no doubt about one thing: Intel’s dependence on TSMC is not temporary; It is structural. It is the result of years of technological delays, is maintained by TSMC’s superiority in mature advanced nodes and has been consolidated as part of a strategy that prioritizes flexibility over in-house production. Image | Xataka In Xataka | Bad news for Intel and Europe: construction of Germany chip factory will be delayed until 2029 or 2030 In Xataka | TSMC promised them very happy with their new factory in Arizona. I wasn’t aware of the nightmare I was facing.

More than 2,000 years ago, people were already taking to the grave the greatest “bestseller” of all time: the ‘Iliad’

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No matter how many centuries pass or where they dig their shovels, the soil of Egypt remains a box of surprises for historians. Just checked it a team of archaeologists who have found a surprise when exploring an ancient necropolis from the Roman era of Al-Bahansalocated almost 200 km from Cairo. In addition to mummies, vessels with ashes and amulets, the researchers located one of the largest bestsellers of all time: the ‘Iliad’. The question is… What was he doing there? In a place in Minia… The news has taken care of advance it the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities of Egypt, which gives an idea of ​​the relevance that the country gives to the discovery. An archaeological campaign led by doctors Maite Mascort and Esther Ponce has discovered mummies and funerary offerings in a necropolis from the Roman era of Al-Bahansa (Minia), the ancient Oxyrhynchus. The site is not exactly new. In fact, the Government speaks of two parts of the necropolis: number 65 and number 67, a Ptolemaic burial. located in 2024. The tombs were also not spared from grave robbers, who once damaged the coffins and probably took valuables with them. Still, the Spanish-Egyptian mission has made interesting discoveries. To the other world with Homer. Perhaps the most fascinating is the one found inside one of the mummies from the Roman period. When examining the body, the archaeologists extracted a papyrus with a fragment of the ‘Iliad’, the universal work attributed to Homer. To be more precise, they identified the passage ‘Catalogue of Ships’from the second book of the Greek epic and which describes part of the Achaean forces deployed in the Troy campaign. “This discovery adds a literary and historically significant dimension to the site,” they celebrate from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism. Gold leaf and decorated linen. It was not the only surprise that archaeologists got when exploring the tomb no.65. The necropolis preserved several mummies from the Roman era carefully wrapped in linen decorated with geometric motifs. Even the polychrome wooden coffins and the fragments of gold leaf that were attached to some of the corpses are preserved. Tongues of gold and copper. It was not the only thing that the archaeologists found. When exploring the hypogeum, the researchers located three languages made with gold and a fourth made with copper next to the mummies that were still preserved in the funerary chamber. These were probably mortuary amulets that were placed in the mouths of the deceased to facilitate their journey to the Hereafter. Why is it important? Beyond how curious they may be, the findings are valuable for two main reasons. To begin with, as has been responsible for highlighting the head of Archeology and Tourism, Sharif Fathi, confirm the wealth and enormous diversity that accumulated in the Egyptian civilization over the centuries, including the Ptolemaic era and the domination of Rome. Furthermore, the mummies and other vestiges offer a valuable clue about the funerary practices used in Al-Bahansa in Greek and Roman times. Vessels with ashes. When exploring the east of tomb No. 67, from the Ptolemaic period, the archaeologists found a ditch with three limestone chambers in which they were still preserved. historical treasures. For example, in one of the rooms they located a stone slab and a vessel with charred remains that seem to belong to an adult, in addition to the bones of a baby and the head of a feline. All carefully wrapped in fabrics. In the second chamber there was also a container with the remains of cremated people and an animal of the same species. Statues representing the god were located in the surroundings. Harpocrates and even a figurine of the god Cupid. Images | Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (Facebook) In Xataka | We just discovered that a semi-legendary Nile king really existed thanks to a 17th century document found in trash

For decades, the “Galicia” octopus has been the greatest guarantee of quality. The United Kingdom wants to take it away

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The Galician octopus may be the most famous, but for some time now, talking about the most precious cephalopod in the country’s gastronomy requires looking beyond the Rías Baixas. In fact, it forces us to take a leap of hundreds of kilometers and look at the other side of the English Channel, on the southern coast of the United Kingdom. There the English fishermen have encountered a curious octopus invasion which at first they viewed with suspicion (they have been dedicated to capturing other species for generations), but each time it awakens greater interest in London. The question is how can it affect that to Galicia, a land that has turned octopus into a ‘religion’ (in addition to a big business) and that in recent years has encountered the opposite panorama: a fall in the capture of cephalopods. What has happened? That the octopus map is changing. And although we still don’t know for sure how deep (and stable) that transformation will be, it has been clear enough to generate expectation in Galicia, a land closely linked to the cephalopod from a cultural and economic point of view. To understand it, we have to go back to 2025, when fishermen who fish on the southern coasts of the United Kingdom encountered an unexpected picture: in the pots that have been installed for generations to hunt crabs and lobsters, they began to appear empty shells…a clue to the presence of octopuses. Click on the image to go to the tweet. Why is it so strange? Because the ports in the north of the peninsula are used to large unloadings of octopus, but things change when we talk about Newlyn or Brixham, in England. There the boats that go out to fish hope to collect sole, turbot, crabs or lobsters. A few months ago, however, the fishermen encountered an unexpected (and apparently inexplicable) invasion of Octopus vulgariscephalopods that usually live in the Mediterranean or other areas of the Atlantic, such as the Galician coast. It was not a one-off boom. Nor something anecdotal. The phenomenon was so surprising that it even caught the attention of Stephen Castle, a reporter for The New York Timeswho in September traveled to Brixham to talk to sailors and operators. In a chronicle about what he saw there, he talks about fishermen ecstatic to see how their turnover skyrocketed thanks to new catches, auctions of tons of merchandise and veterans of the sector recognizing that it was the first time they had captured the species in their waters in more than 40 years. This is good news, right? Depends. Castle chatted with fishermen who rub their hands when they see the tentacles wriggling in their nets, but also with others who frustratedly tell how octopuses boycott the pots with which they capture shellfish. They are not the only ones who are not enthusiastic about the new plague. “I recently visited the fishing industry in Plummouth and was informed that there was an unusual abundance of octopuses in the south west. The Ministry of Environment and Food understands that the proliferation is affecting shellfish pot fishing and causing concern in the fishing sector in the area,” warned in May last year the Labor MP Daniel Zeichner. And why not take advantage of it? That is the question that the British authorities seem to have asked themselves, who have decided that the cephalopod invasion may be something more: an opportunity. At the beginning of the year Vigo Lighthouse revealed who in London want to promote a formal, regulated and industrial fishery of the octopus vulgaris. In short: make a virtue of necessity and equip yourself with a strategy to gain a foothold in a market that moves billions of euros. Proof that the United Kingdom they are very serious with the octopus is that the Marine Biological Association (MBA) and the Marine Management Organization (MMO), two departments linked to the Government, “are considering how best to collaborate with the EU to learn from existing octopus fisheries.” a few days ago The Voice of Galicia even reported that the country is already looking at the markets of the rest of Europe and Morocco. It makes sense if we take into account that the change on the English coast, with an octopus boom that in turn reduces the population of other traditional species, already affected to the Christmas campaign. Do they have that many octopuses? Yes. In September, after speaking with the manager of a market, Castle talked about the sale of up to 48 tons of octopus in a single day. Official MMO data shows that last year a total of about 1,900 tons of octopus, especially in Brixham and Dartmouth. It is an exceptional fact. First, because it exponentially multiplies the discrete cephalopod capture data recorded so far. Second, because it surpasses the 1,200 t handled in the markets of Galicia. There is sources which indicate that total sales in the UK markets would be much higher. Data from the Xunta on the sale (blue) and price (yellow) of octopus in the markets of Galicia. Is it something new? Yes. And no. It is not the first time that English fishermen have found octopuses wrapped in their nets and pots. Vigo Lighthouse remember that in Devon and Cornwall sailors already encountered similar situations in the late 19th and mid-20th centuries, when the regional press came to speak of “a perfect plague” of “disgusting beasts” that “almost ruined” the sector. On this occasion there are signs that suggest that it will not be something temporary. Experts such as Seteve Simpson, from the University of Bristol, slide that climate change is “a likely factor” in explaining the increase in octopuses in southern England. “Our waters are warming, so our little island of Britain is becoming increasingly favorable for octopus populations,” he theorizes. There are clues that suggest he is not wrong. In Plymouth there are fishermen who recognize that they not only encounter adult specimens when fishing. They also see … Read more

After 10 years in prison for not revealing where 500 gold coins are, the world’s greatest treasure hunter is now free to go after them

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Right off the bat, the name of Tommy Thompson It may not sound familiar to you at all. Besides ocean engineer and inventor, he is one of the greatest treasure hunters in the world, a profession that inevitably evokes Indiana Jones and a life of cinema. And well, Thompson has it: a few days ago he was released from prison after serving 10 years of his sentence. The crime? Do not reveal where 500 gold coins from a famous sunken ship are (among other things). The discovery. In 1988 Tommy Thompson and his team, the Columbus-America Discovery Group, they found the remains of the steamboat SS Central America at a depth of 8,000 feet in the Atlantic, about 200 miles east of Charleston, South Carolina. To achieve this, they used Bayesian search theory and a remotely operated vehicle. The SS Central America was known as the “Gold Ship” for something: how much gold it transported. How much? good question. The gold ship. To give some context, it was the time of the gold rush and the mission of the ship was to transport that valuable metal from the new San Francisco Mint to increase the reserves for the banks of the eastern United States. He never did. On September 3, 1857, while operating on the Panama route, it sank off the coast of South Carolina when it was involved in a category 2 hurricane. The ship carried 477 passengers, 101 crew members and much, much gold. In fact, its sinking was one of the triggers for the panic of 1857. I don’t have the accounts. Gary Kinder spent a decade studying the event to write his “Ship of Gold”, where details which was carrying 3 tons of gold and possibly a similar amount of passengers (undisclosed and therefore unquantifiable) and it was also rumored that there was another 15 tons of gold in a secret army shipment. However, a US Department of Defense document declassified in 1971 reported that the official cargo was 11.2 tons of gold (not including personal or secret gold). The American naval history magazine, the closest source to the discovery, It does not give a figure in weight but a value: The gold consigned to New York banks was equivalent to 40 million dollars at the time. In general, the figure of 30,000 pounds of gold (about 14,000 kg) is also relatively widespread. But what was on the boat is one thing and what they found is another. Or they said find. Bob Evans, chief scientist of the expedition (and another one that followed in 2014). from the hand of Odyssey), account for the Seattle Times that in 1988 they found two tons of gold. The legal conflict. Much of that gold was later sold to a trading company for about $50 million. as reported by Reuters. But according to those 161 investors who financed $12.7 million for the expedition, they never reaped the benefits. So In 2005 they filed a lawsuit for breach of contract and concealment of assets. Thompson first secluded himself in Florida, then disappeared and lived under a false identity. He was finally arrested in 2015. The case reached a dead end: the judge in the case ordered him to reveal the whereabouts of 500 missing gold coins, but the engineer He claimed not to know where they are. He was declared in contempt, which is why he has served a decade in prison. The liberation. Today Tommy Thompson is 73 years old and a few days ago regained his freedom because, according to the judge, keeping him imprisoned does not work. CBS News picks up the opinion of civil law experts who explain that it is very unusual for a sentence for civil contempt to last so long. He has neither revealed where the coins are nor has he settled the debt with his investors. Meanwhile, the treasure of the SS Central America continues to feed the myth: in 2022 was auctioned one of the largest bars on the ship, 866 ounces (almost 27 kg), reaching a price of 2.16 million dollars. In Xataka | I dedicate myself to digging with a metal detector and I have more than 4 million followers on YouTube In Xataka | A man from Osaka left 21 gold bars at the doors of City Hall. I only had one requirement: renew the pipes Cover | Olga ga and Zlaťáky.cz

The search for the greatest threat to the US has begun

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In 1999, during the Kosovo wara single American stealth bomber was able to traverse one of the most defended airspaces in Europe and attack strategic targets without being detected until after impact. Since then, every time one of these devices takes off for a real mission, experts assume that the target is not so much on the surface, but hidden where almost nothing else can reach it. A conflict over missiles. The war between United States, Israel and Iran has entered a phase in which the prominence is not given to fighters or frigates, but to long-range projectiles. Tehran has one of the largest ballistic arsenals from the Middle East, with thousands of missiles capable of reaching Israel and a good part of the Gulf, in addition to drones and cruise missiles that complement its offensive capacity. Although it lacks modern aviation and its air defenses have been weakened, its missile muscle It compensates for these shortcomings and has become the axis of its response strategy. This dynamic fits into what many analysts describe as a “war of salvos”where the objective is not to conquer territory, but to neutralize the volume of fire of the adversary before it manages to overwhelm one’s own defenses. The underground cities. To protect that arsenal, Iran has for years built underground complexes excavated in mountains at great depth, authentic missile cities capable of storing, protecting and in some cases launching projectiles directly from the inside. These facilities, scattered throughout the country and even located hundreds of meters underground, house models such as the Shahab-3he Sejil or the Khorramshahrwith ranges of up to 2,000 kilometers. Their compartmentalized tunnelsreinforced entrances and hidden launch systems are designed to resist conventional bombing and preserve firing capability even under attack. That is, as long as these bases remain operational, Iran retains the possibility of maintaining the exchange of salvos and maintaining pressure on Israel and US bases in the region. The arrival of the B-2s. The entry into combat of stealth bombers B-2 Spirit changes the nature of the air campaign. These platforms, capable of flying from the US mainland and penetrating contested airspace thanks to their low detectability, are designed to attack targets that no other aircraft can destroy with the same probability of success. Its ability to transport multiple penetration bombsincluding specialized ammunition against bunkers, makes them ideal tools for hitting buried infrastructure. Therefore, the arrival of the B-2s can only mean that the systematic search for Tehran’s greatest threat, those cities underground filled with missiles. It is not about punishing visible targets, but about disabling the core that sustains Iran’s missile capacity. Seal instead of raze. They counted the TWZ analysts that completely destroying these enclaves would be extremely complex for Washington due to their compartmentalized design, but there is another way: seal their access and neutralize their launching points. Collapsing entrances, disabling openings in the ceiling where missiles are fired, or destroying internal ramps can turn these bases into useless traps. From the air, this requires precision, detailed intelligence, and munitions capable of penetrating rock and concrete before detonating. That is where the figure of the B-2 appears, which with its combination of stealth and massive load of guided and penetrating bombs aims to be the appropriate instrument for the task. Between intelligence and resistance. If you will also, the success of this phase will possibly depend less on the volume of bombs dropped and more on the quality of the information. Accurately locating entrances, galleries and drop zones requires real-time intelligence and constant surveillance to prevent Iranian forces from reopening damaged access points. While some facilities already show signs of collapse in satellite images, Tehran’s ability to keep firing indicates that part of its underground network remains intact. The war has moved underground: the outcome will depend on whether stealth bombers manage to turn those missile cities into sealed caverns or whether Iran manages to keep the heart of its arsenal open long enough to sustain the all-out war. Image | Kate T., Planet Lab In Xataka | The US and Israel are attacking Iranian military sites. Iran is attacking something more delicate: the international image of the UAE In Xataka | 80 million barrels of crude oil paralyzed in the sea: this is the Hormuz “swarm” that threatens to break the $100 barrier

“The greatest obstacle in life is the wait for tomorrow and the loss of today”

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Neither war, nor hunger, nor love. Nor hate, friendship or illness. If there is something that has really bothered us humans throughout the centuries, it is the passage of time. We all (from the richest to the most miserable) come into the world with our days scheduled. Sooner or later we run out of rope without anyone being able to prevent it. It’s that simple. In fact (and for cruel ironic as it may sound) that is one of the very few certainties that we can embrace during our existence, be it more or less extensive: there is no life without death. It’s nothing new. Centuries ago philosophers realized that, in a way, as our lives progress so does our death. If time is short must be valuable (just as happens with precious metals or gems) and everything valuable always brings a challenge. How the hell do you manage it? How to get the most out of it? What’s more, why try to get ‘the most out of it’? Are those who insist on making something of their time happier? useful and helpful Who do you see spending your days lying on the beach? Seneca to the rescue A few centuries ago, around the year 55 AD, there was a Latin philosopher (born in Cordubawhat is now Córdoba and then acted as the capital of Hispania Ulterior) who raised these same questions. His name was Lucius Anneeus Seneca and the answers he found were captured in works such as ‘De brevitate vitae’a text dedicated to a certain Paulino (his father-in-law or brother-in-law) in which he outlines a series of advice. One of the most famous can often be seen in the anthologies of aphorisms: “The biggest obstacle in life is the wait for tomorrow and the loss of today“. The phrase connects with the old maxim of tempus fugit (“time flies”), although there is more to it than may seem at first glance. In it, Seneca addresses one of the most complicated challenges for those who have set out to ensure that time does not slip through their fingers: the balance between the present and the future. A present that is our only certain reality and a tomorrow that will in turn be conditioned by what we do today. In other words, do we bet everything on the present or is it wiser to condition it with tomorrow in mind? They were interesting questions in Rome in the first century AD and they remain so today, twenty centuries later, in procrastination times in which the equation becomes even more complicated. At the end of the day, procrastinating is nothing more than setting traps in time management: deferring, postponing, delaying the moment in which we must carry out a task that (usually) will be beneficial for our future. Seneca’s starting point is as suggestive as it is challenging. Our time may be limited, but that doesn’t mean life is necessarily short. If it seems that way, it is because we ourselves favor it by facing it in the wrong way. And that doesn’t just happen by lying on the couch with your cell phone to kill the hours abandoned to the pleasure of the infinite scroll. For Seneca, the outlook is not much better if we obsess over tasks that make us believe that we do not have enough hours in the day, but in reality they are unimportant. “We don’t have a shortage of time, what happens is that we lose a lot. Life is long enough and to do the most important things it has been generously given to us, if all of it is used well.” “But if it is scattered in ostentation and carelessness, where it is not spent on anything good, when at last the inevitable final trance comes upon us, we realize that a life has passed that we did not know was happening.” “It is like this: we do not receive a short life, but rather we make it short“, concludes the Stoic thinker, who died in 65 AD, aged about 70. The complete reflection that Seneca dedicates to Paulinus and from which the phrase we previously cited about “the loss of today” is extracted is more devastating because it warns of how easy it is to give in to the mirage that we are taking advantage of time. Here we reproduce specifically the translation made by Francisco Socas Gavilán for the version of the Virtual Library of Andalusia. “Can there be anything more stupid than the attitude of some, I mean those men who presume to be far-sighted? They are engaged in too many tasks to be able to live better, they equip life by spending life, their thoughts direct them to the distance. But, of course, the greatest waste of life is procrastination: it cancels each day that is presented, it hides the present while promising what lies ahead.” “The greatest hindrance to living is the expectation that depends on tomorrow and loses what is today. You dispose of what is in the hands of luck, you abandon what is in yours. Where do you look? Where do you orient yourself? All future things remain uncertain: live immediately.” Seneca’s work resonates strongly twenty centuries later because, as remember Socasnot only tells us about death and the passage of time, but also about “life as a positive realization within a limited scope.” “Even though men can’t stop complaining about the brevity of lifethey alone are the real culprits of shortening it with their laziness and vices. “We waste time and do not consider it the greatest and only good,” duck. “The solution will be neither hyperactivity nor laziness, because those who are very busy, always thinking about tomorrow, do not take advantage of their time and are soon surprised by old age, while in idleness passions and amusements rob us of our intimate peace,” comments Socas after remembering Seneca’s words. “The idle fear death more. The busy will not be able to … Read more

Italy’s greatest fortune was forged in scarcity to become your forbidden pleasure: Nutella

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Mayans, Olmecs and Aztecs They knew how to appreciate the value of cocoa, and that is why they used it as currency to buy goods and services long before Christopher Columbus. make those lands yours just by reaching them by boat more than 500 years ago. In fact, chocolate has become a “guilty pleasure” these days. so widespreadwe are (yes, I include myself) causing global shortages. Precisely, cocoa is the main ingredient of a product that made two brothers extremely rich in ruined post-World War II Italy: the Ferreros. From that scarcity emerged an empire with $19 billion in annual revenue and a presence in more than 170 countries. The challenge: create a chocolate bar without cocoa In the middle of World War II, Italy suffered an extreme shortage of many things, but especially cocoa, a problem that had already hit Europe during the time of Napoleon. As and as explained in The Green CompassIn 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte became involved in a geopolitical and commercial battle with his enemy the United Kingdom. This caused the volume of trade to reduce considerably, causing a shortage of overseas products. One of them was cocoa, of course. Given the shortage of the main ingredient, a master chocolatier from Turin He came up with the brilliant idea of ​​mixing the little chocolate he had left with a dough made from hazelnuts that were abundant in the area. In this way, it could offer a delicacy with a certain chocolate flavor, but using less cocoa in its production. This is how the gianduia or gianduja. Almost a century and a half later, in 1946, the brothers Pietro and Giovanni Ferrero They found themselves in the same cocoa shortage situation than his Turin colleague. If it had worked before, why wouldn’t it work a second time? Cioccolateria Ferrero in Alba The Ferrero brothers revived the old recipe for hazelnut paste with sugar and cocoa to survive, creating a spreadable bar that would lay the foundations for a product that today sweetens breakfasts and snacks around the world. ​This hazelnut paste and little cocoa saved the Cioccolateria Ferrero that Pietro ran in Alba, south of Turin and in the heart of the Piedmontese countryside. The product, in the form chocolate bar that could be rolled and spread on the bread that mothers gave to their hungry children quickly sold out in local stores. Giandidot by Ferrero Faced with unexpected success, Pietro and his brother Giovanni soon formalized their business, founding a company called Ferrero SpA and opening a small factory in Alba. While Giovanni focused on distribution, Pietro focused on overseeing the manufacturing of his flagship product. However, Pietro died in 1949 of a heart attack. His son Michele, who was 24 years old at the time, took over from his father at the head of the factory. Ferrero factory workers on a company bus Michele was not a businessman like his uncle Giovanni, nor did he have a university degree, but he did he had inherited his father’s creativityto whom affectionately They called “the scientist” and he was willing to improve the recipe for the product that was making them rich. In 1949, Michele made some changes to the formula of the gianduja to make it creamier and easier to spread. With this change, the Ferreros could differentiate themselves from other confectioners who also produced the traditional Piedmontese sweet. The “Supercrema” had just been born. According to what is collected in the book ‘Nutella World‘, the success of the Supercrema was such that the brand soon had the second largest fleet of trucks, only behind that of the army. In 1947, the company barely had a dozen distribution trucks, in 1950 they already had 154 and by 1960 there were more than 1,624 delivery trucks for their company. cocoa cream with hazelnuts. Ferrero Supercream Ad ​Birth of a star product: Nutella In 1964, a change in product labeling legislation banned the use of superlatives in brand names. That forced the Ferreros to change the name of their Supercrema. Given the success of Supercrema, the Ferreros were already thinking about the internationalization of the brand, so they used the English name of its main ingredient “Nut” and, after trying variants such as Nutsy, Nussly, Nutosa and Nutina, they finally decided to use the Latin suffix “-ella” to maintain its Italian roots. Nutella was born and its iconic glass jar with a wide mouth and flattened body. Its smooth texture and addictive flavor made it an immediate success throughout Europe, but Michele continued trying different recipes. The consolidation of Ferrero as the empire it is today occurred with the Kindergarten release in 1968, the “unexpected” Tic Tac mint candies in 1969 and Ferrero Rocher in 1982, coinciding with the opening of factories in several countries. Today, Ferrero generates $19 billion annually, maintains secret formulas and operates in 170 countries without being listed on the stock market. Ferrero established itself as world leader in hazelnut creamseven having its own World Nutella Day since 2007: February 5. Michele Ferrero died in 2015 at 89 years old, leaving a fortune estimated at more than 26.5 billion dollars which made him the richest man in Italy, but he had also continued to manage a large empire as a family business in which the relatives of his employees were hired. As and how I collected The Spanish“Hiring children of employees strengthened the bond of the community and united many of its men and women to the company throughout their working lives,” noted Salvatore Giannella, biographer of the businessman and author of ‘Michele Ferrero, share values ​​to create value’. Giovanni Ferrero, grandson of Pietro Ferrero, inherited the empire of cocoa and hazelnut cream, increasing the family heritage up to 40.8 billion dollars. In Xataka | Jeff Bezos asked his parents for their life savings to found Amazon. They only asked him one question: “What is the Internet? Image | Unsplash (Marko Blažević), Flickr (Spiegelneuronen) Ferrero

Its greatest advantage is not having its own model

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Meta ended its 2025 by announcing the purchase of manus for more than 2,000 million dollars. It says a lot that it is a company that coordinates and directs other people’s models. Why is it important. Manus reached 100 million in annual recurring revenue without training a single model. Use Claude and Alibaba models to do the heavy lifting. Its differentiation is not in the intelligence of the model but in the execution: planning complex tasks, invoking tools, iterating on results, delivering finished work… a purely agentic model that achieved its little viral moment at the beginning of the year. OpenAI, Google and company focus on announcing models that fight to get tenths in the benchmarksbut Manus simply makes money by selling that ability to direct other people’s models. The backdrop. In ranking like those of Chatbot Arena We have been seeing the same pattern for a year: every time one model is crowned the best, another surpasses it in a few weeks. None manages to make a lasting difference and there is no great difference. moatnot even the capillarity and recognition of OpenAI, or the distribution capacity of Google. Yes, but. Yeah the models are commoditizing and they are increasingly interchangeable, where is the business? Meta just gave his answer: at the application layer. In who controls the distribution where people actually use AI. Meta spends $70 billion a year (and counting) on ​​AI infrastructure, but Meta AI It is not curdling and Flame 4 punctured. It lacks what Manus has proven to have: a proven ability to turn models into products that people pay to use. The threat. Meta is facing a distribution problem: Google has Android, Google Search, Gmail, Google Docs… Microsoft has Windows and its suite of productivity, in addition to being ubiquitous in companies. Apple controls the iPhone and the Mac. And Meta has social and messaging platforms, but its track record in corporate products is disastrous. Workplace never took off and closed. Their reputation with business data isn’t exactly great. Buying technology is easy, but whether companies trust Meta as a provider of work tools is another story. Chinese arbitration. Chinese AI startups are clearly undervalued: The Chinese number one is worth less than 1% of the American one with comparable technical capacity, and the penetration of OpenAI justifies the distance, but not at that level. Benchmark Capital saw these figures and he put in 75 million in May at a valuation of 500 million. a few months later goes for more than 2,000 million. The new manual. Manus has just shown that there is a viable route for Chinese AI startups: turn to cheap and well-trained Chinese talent, develop a product designed for global markets (and not just Chinese) from day one, raise Western capital, move the legal headquarters outside of China (in this case, Singapore), and achieve a “clean exit.” Other Chinese startups can now be expected to follow a similar path, and the Chinese authorities are aware of this… and are not happy with the idea, according to the wall Street Journal. They see it as a leak of technology developed with local engineers. And now what. Meta will integrate Manus into Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. But the real message goes further: in AI, as happened with the Internet, the infrastructure becomes commodity and the business is in the digital “last mile”, where technology touches the user. Meta just paid 2.5 billion to not forget that lesson. In Xataka | Mark Zuckerberg is giving a radical change to Meta’s AI strategy. And that’s what happens when you lose a Nobel Prize winner. Featured image | Manus, Xataka with Mockuuups Studio

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