ground

re-drill the ground

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Just four years ago, the ghost that walked the halls of Brussels wore an ushanka and spoke Russian. The invasion of Ukraine in 2022 caused an energy trauma that Europe swore not to repeat, launching into a frantic race to cut ties with Gazprom. Today, the anguish has returned, but the fear no longer looks to the East, but to the West. Europe is experiencing a painful déjà vu: fleeing dependence on Moscow, the continent has fallen into the arms from Washington, and the hug begins to suffocate. this winter is not giving up. Gas storage levels in Europe have fallen to their lowest point since that 2022 crisis, standing at around 44% at the end of January, an alarming figure when compared to the average of 58% over the last decade. according to data from the Financial Times. The complacency of the markets contrasts with the physical reality explained by Ron Bousso in Reuters– Underground caverns become dangerously empty and strategic vulnerability is exposed. The return of the “Old Kings”: Drill again. This market apathy in the face of empty warehouses has a technical explanation: the inverted pricing structure (backwardation). Right now, future gas is trading cheaper than current gas, which eliminates the economic incentive to save fuel: no company wants to buy at a high price today to have an asset that will be worth less in the summer. Faced with this market failure and the precarious supply, Europe has decided to stop waiting and dust off the drills. What five years ago was a climate taboo is today a national security priority. Oil and gas exploration has returned to the European agenda with force. Claudio Descalzi, CEO of the Italian energy giant Eni, has given voice to this paradigm shift. As explained for a report in the Financial TimesEurope must abandon the “ideological” approach that stopped domestic investments in fossil fuels. For the manager, the refusal to exploit its own resources has not saved the planet, it has simply forced Europe to buy that same energy abroad, at higher prices and from competitors who now use the supply as a political weapon. This vision aligns with what financial analysts already detect: pragmatism prevails over idealism. Simon Edelsten investment expert columnistargues that the “net zero investment bubble” has already burst. Governments and fund managers, which previously penalized any fossil asset, are making a 180-degree turn. “The rate at which fossil fuels are replaced depends more on their price than on government decrees,” says Edelsten, recalling that, without cheap alternatives, the world continues burning gas. The dependency trap. The European diversification strategy had its own name: the United States. At the start of this year, the data already reflects that Washington has supplied 60% of all the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) that the European Union imported, consolidating its dominant position. However, this solution has become a major geopolitical problem due to the president’s rhetoric about the purchase of greenland and threats to impose tariffs. “The risk is not that the United States will cut off supplies tomorrow,” analysts cited by the New York Times warn“the risk is that he uses his dominant position to pressure or condition.” Unlike Russia, Washington does not need to turn off the tap; It is enough to play with tariffs or prioritize other markets. Furthermore, Europe has stopped buying cheap gas by pipeline to buy the most expensive gas on the market: American LNG, hindering the competitiveness of its industry. No easy plan B. The search for alternatives is desperate but fruitless, as detailed in Bloomberg. The EU is looking towards Qatar, but military tensions between the US and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz put that route at risk. Norway, for its part, is already producing at the limit of its capacity. The question that hovers above is inevitable: why not cover that gap with renewables? The short answer is that infrastructure and technology are not keeping pace with politics. The wind sector, once the great hope, has been the great victim of the bursting of the green bubble. Leading companies such as Ørsted or Vestas have seen their shares plummet and their debt skyrocket because the windiest places are already exploited. Although solar energy resists storms better thanks to improvements in the efficiency of the panels, as Edelsten highlightsits intermittency makes it incapable on its own of covering winter demand peaks. Even in the best renewable deployment scenario, gas is not going away. Consulting reports like McKinsey They project that global gas demand will increase by 26% until 2050. The reason It’s technical: Renewables need a backup, a “bodyguard” that keeps the electrical grid stable when there is no sun or wind. The energy transition, paradoxically, has turned gas into a permanent strategic pillar. Emergency engineering and the Spanish wall. Faced with the impossibility of bringing gas by land from the East, Europe has turned to the sea. The emergency solution have been the FSRU (Floating Storage and Regasification Units), gigantic ships that act as “mobile plugs” to process liquefied gas. Its rent is around $155,000 a day, a price that Europe gladly pays to avoid a blackout. However, the gas hits a physical wall when it reaches land. Spain illustrates this European dysfunction perfectly: it has the regasification plants and the gas on its coasts, but it lacks the pipelines (interconnections) to send it to the north of the continent. With an export capacity to France limited to 8,500 million cubic meters per year, the Iberian Peninsula remains an energy islandunable to alleviate Germany or Central Europe’s thirst for gas. A “hyperactive” market and the shadow of Russia. Gas is no longer a simple commodity to become a high-speed financial asset. Today it operates 22 hours a day, with hedge funds and algorithms reacting in milliseconds to any global news. This “financialization” has brought extreme volatility: a late-night headline about Iran can alter the price of heating in Berlin before dawn. And while Europe watches the stock charts, Russia continues … Read more

a maneuver that aims to cut ground on Google’s Gemini 3

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In the race to lead the development of artificial intelligence, the pace has become a succession of linked movements. GPT-5.1 arrived on November 12an update aimed at polishing the experience and keeping users satisfied. Just a few days later, on November 18, Google responded with Gemini 3an evolution of its star model that left very good feelings among those who began to try it. As a result of that launch, rumors began to circulate: the startup led by Sam Altman had activated a supposed “code red” when seeing how its direct rival was taking advantage. And this seems to be the first result of that internal movement. Not even a month has passed since the previous update of its flagship model and GPT-5.2 is here. The promise here is to solve some known problems, decrease latency and gain reasoning. An evolution within the 5 series. GPT-5.2 appears as a version designed to boost knowledge work, with advances in coding, vision, document analysis and multi-step projects. OpenAI incorporates it as the direct evolution of GPT-5.1, not as a generational leap. According to the company, the update improves the management of long contexts, reduces errors and increases the ability to coordinate tools. More differentiated layers of use. In GPT-5.2, the three usual variants are somewhat more differentiated in their use, not because of new functions, but because of the way in which they integrate the improvements announced by OpenAI. Thinking absorbs much of the progress in reasoning, handling large documents, and coordinating tools. Pro raises the bar in specialized tasks, especially in code and technical calculations. Instant, for its part, benefits from more stable explanations and a reduction in errors. The result is a clearer separation between everyday tasks, complex jobs and expert needs. A visible improvement in multiple evaluations. OpenAI presents figures that show GPT-5.2 ahead of GPT-5.1 in very different areas, from scientific reasoning to programming and knowledge tasks. In GDPvalthe assessment that measures well-specified jobs in 44 occupations, the model achieves 70.9% wins or draws against human professionals. In GPQA Diamond It rises to 92.4% and in AIME 2025 it achieves 100%. The trend is repeated in technical tests such as FrontierMath either ARC-AGIwhere performance is also increased compared to the previous version. The improvements are seen when moving from figures to day-to-day tasks. In internal evaluations of financial analysts’ own work, such as three-state modeling or leveraged buyout simulations, Thinking raises its average score from 59.1% to 68.4%. The company also promises advances in generating spreadsheets and presentations with a clearer structure. In addition, companies such as Notion, Box, Shopify or Harvey, according to OpenAI, have observed improvements in long-range reasoning and in the use of tools in their own workflows. If these results are consolidated in real environments, they could reduce manual work in processes that require precision and consistency. A more stable environment for developers. GPT-5.2 Thinking, they say, achieves higher performance in demanding software tests, especially those that evaluate the ability to apply complete and consistent changes in real projects. The company indicates that the model better coordinates sequences of steps, something that is reflected in internal evaluations and feedback from platforms such as Windsurf or Charlie Labs. Fewer errors in sight. OpenAI claims that GPT-5.2 Thinking reduces the frequency of responses with errors by around 30% relative to GPT-5.1. This is an improvement that they associate with more stable reasoning and a greater ability to detect errors before generating the final response. The company also points out advances in the management of sensitive situations, such as conversations linked to emotional distress or mental health. Although he remembers that the model is still imperfect, he maintains that these adjustments contribute to a more reliable experience in everyday use. Where you can use GPT-5.2 today. OpenAI indicates that GPT-5.2 will begin rolling out to ChatGPT for paid plans, including PlusPro, Go, Business and Enterprise. In the API, GPT-5.2 Thinking is available as gpt-5.2 and the Instant version appears as gpt-5.2-chat-latest. The company has also promised to keep GPT-5.1 for three months on ChatGPT before removing it from paid plans. In terms of pricing, GPT-5.2 stands at $1.75 per million input tokens and $14 per million output tokens, more expensive than GPT-5.1, although OpenAI maintains that its greater efficiency reduces the final cost in demanding tasks. Images | OpenAI In Xataka | OpenAI knows that it needs to continue generating memes and virals. That’s why she’s willing to pay Disney a lot of money for her content.

the target is on the ground

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The tensions between Venezuela and the United States have entered a acceleration phase which reminds, by its form and its atmosphere, of something very different from any other operation against drug trafficking and more so in the moments prior to a major crisis. Certainly not an ordinary diplomatic dispute. An oil tanker and the arrival of a battalion predict a scenario of conflict. Venezuela, the US and a shadow. The tanker seizure off the Venezuelan coast (justified from Washington as a legal act against sanctioned crude oil trafficking and denounced by Caracas as “international piracy”) has functioned as a starting shot for a spiral that had been brewing since months ago. That said, the real turning point, the one that marks a qualitative leap in the US position, is the arrival in Puerto Rico of a contingent almost complete EA-18G Growlersairplanes electronic warfare without equivalents in the region and whose presence is rarely associated with simple training or routine deterrence missions. Venezuela, going through its own political earthquakes following the disputed 2024 election and domestic and international pressure against Maduro, now finds itself staring at a board on which American moves, for the first time since the 1962 crisis, suggest something more than a message: suggest preparation. The Growler as an omen. They were counting this morning on TWZ that the EA-18G Growler deployed in the reactivated base of Roosevelt Roads, in Puerto Rico, are a first-order technical and doctrinal indicator. They are not planes of symbolic presence nor devices suitable for anti-drug patrols. Its mission is different: penetrate the enemy electromagnetic spectrum, suppress air defenses, blind radars, cut communications and open corridors for deeper operations. In an environment like Venezuela, where Russian defense systems of different origin (including Buk-M2, Pechora-2M and S-300VM) make up a complex network, the presence of Growlers is the logical prelude to any action that seeks neutralize anti-aircraft capabilities and prepare the space for precision attacks, insertion of special forces or rescues in hostile territory. And much more. The analysts also recalled that the mixture of ALQ-99 pods and the new NGJ-MBcapable of updating software and modulating AESA antennas to counter evolving threats, indicates that what is deployed in the Caribbean is not an improvised reinforcement, but rather a specialized cell in modern electronic warfare. The region, accustomed to sporadic naval deployments or exercises, had not seen such an unequivocal sign of operational readiness since the most tense years of the Cold War. The hit of the tanker. The boarding operation of the oil tanker Skipper (with Navy helicopters dropping equipment on its deck, official footage released almost in real time and Trump statements qualifying it as the largest seizure ever made) is not an isolated event. It is a global political message that combines judicial pressure with military demonstration. Venezuela interprets it as a direct attack and a violation of its sovereignty, and Washington exposes it as part of a international sanctions network against Venezuelan and Iranian oil. In both cases, the effect is clear: the tacit containment threshold that existed until now has been broken. For Maduro, who urges the population to become “warriors”, the episode serves as a narrative tool to reinforce its internal legitimacy and denounce the American desire to appropriate the country’s resources. For the United States, the message is the opposite: the era of tolerance for sanctioned oil networks is over, and any maritime intermediation will be treated as a legitimate objective. In other words, the clash is frontal, symbolic and strategic. Aerial choreography. The recent flights of F/A-18 Super Hornets and EA-18G Growlers circling over the Gulf of Venezuela complete the new military landscape. They were not timid raids or simple patrols: they reached less than 20 nautical miles from the coast and acted with flight patterns designed to test, provoke and record reactions. The F/A-18 operated with the RHINO callsignwhile the Growler, under the name GRIZZLY2carried out loops aimed at capturing signals, searching for active radars and mapping possible defense nodes. They told the BBC experts like Greg Bagwell, which is a classic intelligence operation prior to an intervention scenario or, at the very least, a warning that the United States can degrade Venezuelan defenses at will. Venezuela, aware that every electronic emission, every activated radar and every radio response can be recorded, analyzed and exploited, faces simultaneous psychological and technical pressure: any movement reveals useful information for an adversary that dominates the electromagnetic spectrum. Massive deployment. Plus: presence in the Caribbean from USS Gerald R. Fordthe largest aircraft carrier in the world, along with B-52 and B-1 strategic bombers that they have skirted the coast Venezuela in recent months, composes a military device that cannot be interpreted as mere symbolic deterrence. As we countthe reactivation of Roosevelt Roads (closed since 2004) and its use for F-35 operations confirms that the American return to the Caribbean responds to a longer-term strategic design. with some 15,000 troops deployedspecial forces in rotation, ships of various types and capacities and a constant flow of tactical aircraft, the US military structure in the region increasingly resembles a prepared platform for multiple options: from specific attacks to prolonged pressure operations, including the total interdiction of Venezuelan oil trade. The political factor. There is no doubt, military tension is intertwined with a internal political crisis in Venezuela that has further eroded the legitimacy of the regime. While Maduro denounces attacks and invoke resistancethe awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to María Corina Machado It symbolizes the international recognition of the Venezuelan opposition and its demand for democratic transition. The United States, for its part, maintains a reward on Maduro 50 million dollarshas intensified accusations of links with the Cartel de los Soles and has multiplied lethal operations against vessels supposedly linked to drug trafficking. In this climate, any additional steps (such as a total oil blockadedescribed by analysts as an act of war) could precipitate an unexpected reconfiguration of the internal and regional balance. A game where the United States affirms that … Read more

China does not want to give up ground as the world’s factory. Their plan involves deploying a legion of industrial robots with AI

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For years, looking at the label of any device, garment or charger has been almost a formality. The answer used to be the same: “Made in China“. That phrase became silent proof that the Asian giant had managed to establish itself as the factory of the world. From American brand mobile phones to small components of European appliances, much of what we use every day has come from Chinese production lines. But that reality is beginning to change. China’s industrial leadership is no longer sustained solely by abundant labor and low costs, and the model that dominated the last decades needs to be transformed. The shift is not only economic, but also social. Fewer and fewer young Chinese want to work in factoriesa phenomenon that in the United States follows similar patterns: physical jobs, long hours and little professional projection. In both cases, the industry is no longer synonymous with progress for many and is perceived more as a destiny from which one tries to escape. Even so, both China and the United States consider that manufacturing remains strategic, either to maintain global influence or to reduce dependence on foreign countries. Everything indicates that none of them are trying to recover the model of the past, but rather to build a new one based on automation and artificial intelligence. Robots and factories to avoid losing “Made in China” When the Chinese Vice Minister of Industry, Zhang Yunming, said that Adopting artificial intelligence is a necessary and not optional task, I was not speaking only in technological terms. He was referring to protecting one of the country’s great assets: its manufacturing industry, which represents around 25% of the national economy, well above the world average. China remains the world’s largest producer, but it can no longer rely solely on volume or labor. The challenge now is to maintain that leadership by manufacturing with fewer people and more artificial intelligence. In this context, China is responding decisively. The pace at which it is deploying industrial robots is unmatched. Last year alone it installed 295,000 units, almost nine times more than the United States and more than the rest of the world combined. according to the International Federation of Robotics. In some facilities there is already talk of “dark factories”, operations so automated that the plants can operate with minimal human intervention. The Wall Street Journal mentions the Baosteel caseone of the largest steel plants in the country, where workers only intervene every half hour, when before they did so every three minutes. Automation no longer consists only of mechanical arms that repeat movements, but of connected plants, capable of making decisions. The aforementioned newspaper points out how Midea uses an AI system that coordinates robots, sensors and virtual agents to detect failures, assign tasks and adjust processes without human intervention. In the textile industry, Bosideng uses AI models developed with Zhejiang University to conceptualize and design garments, reduce development times and cut costs. This type of solutions not only speeds up production, it also generates a competitive advantage over Western manufacturers that implement changes more slowly. Where China’s industrial ambition is also clearly seen is in the ports. In Tianjin, a fleet of autonomous trucks moves containers without visible human presencewhile artificial intelligence optimizes variables such as ship arrival times and crane capacity. The system, called OptVerse AI Solver, has compressed planning tasks that previously took 24 hours to about ten minutes. PortGPT, a system developed together with Huawei to analyze images and monitor security operations, has also been deployed. The American discourse is based on the idea of ​​sovereignty: manufacturing more within the country to depend less on the outside. The Trump administration has raised that strategy through tariffs on China, Vietnam and other Asian economieswith the aim of attract factories and rebuild supply chains. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick maintains that automation is not incompatible with employmentbut it can generate better-paid technical professions. In an interview he stated that “it is time to train people for the jobs of the future, not for those of the past,” and defended that these factories could support families for several generations. One of the differences between the two models is clearly seen in the ports. While China has deployed autonomous trucks, AI-based planning systems, and tools like PortGPT without significant union opposition, in the United States automation is subject to collective bargaining. The International Longshoremen’s Association and port operators they agreed to veto new automated terminals until the end of 2030, also limiting the use of artificial intelligence in administrative tasks. For unions, automation means losing jobs and bargaining power. For China, it is a national strategy. China wants to continue being the world’s factory, but not exactly the same. It is no longer about cheap labor, but about factories capable of producing more with fewer people and with more artificial intelligence. The United States seeks its own path, with more work conditions and a different rhythmbut with the same objective of not depending on the outside. What is at stake is not just where it is manufactured, but how. And it is possible that, in a few years, the label we find will not only be “Made in China”, but a different form of manufacturing where robots will no longer be accessories, but protagonists. Images | Homa Appliances | Xataka with Gemini 3 In Xataka | Nexperia China has been trying to contact the Dutch headquarters for days. The only response has been absolute silence

We believed that nothing would surpass the Russian robot that ended up on the ground. Until they made one dance in front of Putin

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When it seemed that the humanoid robotics board was dominated by the United States and China, with proposals such as Neo from 1X startup or the Unitree G1 —which even starred in a moment at the Xataka NordVPN 2025 Awards—, Russia decided to make a move with AIDOL, presented as “the country’s first domestic anthropomorphic robot with AI.” The problem was that its debut did not exactly show technological stability: the robot began to wobble, lost its balance and ended up falling face down in front of the cameras. All this with the music of ‘Rocky’ playing in the background. The scene went viral in a matter of hours, overshadowing any technological message that the manufacturer intended to convey. The explanations came quicklybut the public conversation was filled with parodies and memes. In a context where every step in robotics is also measured in terms of reputation, Russia needed a response that showed more than just a failed prototype. Green, the technological replica of Russia. Now, the images arriving from Moscow show a project of a very different nature. Green is an AI-powered humanoid robot that, according to its creators“can move independently and interact with targets in real space.” All development, from mechanical design and electronics to GigaChat-based artificial intelligence, has been carried out by Sberthe country’s largest bank and an increasingly visible player in the Russian technological ecosystem. The humanoid that danced in front of Putin. His debut was very different from that of AIDOL: Green was presented at the conference Artificial Intelligence Journey 2025where he spoke a few words and then, as we can see on YouTubedanced in front of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. “My name is Green. I am the first humanoid Russian robot that has embodied artificial intelligence. This means that I am not just a program on a screen, but a physical embodiment of technology. I was created by Sber engineers,” the robot said before beginning its demonstration. According to Sber, Green incorporates more than a hundred motors and a large number of sensors, allowing it to maintain balance even during rapid and coordinated movements. This time, the presentation did not only seek to surprise, but rather to convey control, stability and a more mature image of the Russian commitment to humanoid robotics. What it means for AI to become embodied The idea of ​​embodied artificial intelligence, according to Sber, goes beyond running models on a screen. It is not just about responding to what a user writes, but about interpreting the environment through sensors, cameras and microphones, processing that information in real time and physically acting. It means providing technology with perception, movement and the ability to make decisions in real situations. That approach proposes a model where hardware is built around artificial intelligence, and not the other way around. What is Russia looking for with humanoid robots? It remains to be seen whether humanoid robots will end up integrating into everyday life, as anticipated by Elon Musk and other figures in the sector. But, should that scenario materialize, Russia wants to ensure that it will have models developed within its borders. Its strategy aims to build technological sovereignty not only in the hardware of the automata, but also in the AI ​​models that drive them and in the infrastructure necessary to train and execute them. For now, there is no information on whether Green will ever become a commercial product or how much it might cost. It is still a technological demonstration and not a robot designed for the market. It is also not easy to place Russia within the global race for humanoids, because there is still no clear data on their real development, their autonomy or their possible applications. What it does seem is that, for the moment, the United States and China are setting the pace in this industry, with more consolidated and visible projects. Images | Kremlin In Xataka | Satya Nadella made the world love Microsoft again. AI is making people hate it again

When the sky throws lightning, but the rain never reaches the ground

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These are not your feelings: this summer’s storms have been more brutal and destructive than ever. AND AEMET data says so. But to understand it well, we have to go one step further: we have to understand what is perhaps one of the key elements of the current enormous problem, dry storms. What are dry storms Luis Marina a storm It is, in essence, a crash, an impact, a violent ‘argument’ between two air masses with different temperatures and pressures. The warm, humid air rises quickly and this generates atmospheric disturbances accompanied by electrical discharges (lightning and thunder), strong winds and precipitation of rain, snow or hail. However, sometimes, even though the storm does contain moisture in the upper levels of the atmosphere, it’s not raining. There are lightning bolts, there are angry winds, there are clouds of great vertical development; but there is no precipitation that reaches the ground. We call that dry storm. Characteristics of dry storms As we said, the main characteristic of this type of storm is electrical activity (lightning and thunder) without significant precipitation on the surface. However, explaining the process and its characteristics is a little more complicated: It’s not that it doesn’t rain, it’s that the precipitation evaporates before hitting the ground. This occurs because these droplets pass through a layer of very warm and dry air. It is what is known, in technical terms, ‘virga’. For obvious reasons, it usually forms in arid, desert environments or during extreme heat waves. If the air in contact with the ground is exceptionally dry, the probability of evaporation in the fall increases. None of this has to do with its electrical activity, which is a lot. If these types of storms attract attention for something, it is the amount of thunder and lightning that develop. And if they are worrying for anything, it is because of the downward gusts of wind (caused by this rain evaporation process) that very dangerously increase the risk of fires. How a dry storm forms In reality, there is nothing strange about dry storms. They are, for all intents and purposes, normal storms. The “strange” thing is what happens on the ground: high temperatures and low humidity that favor the evaporation of rain. This simplifies things because the process is identical to that of any conventional thunderstorm: unstable air, sufficient humidity at high and mid levels, and a rising mechanism (intense heat, in this case). Everything else, including precipitation generation, is very similar. Relationship between dry storms and fires Max Larochelle Let’s not beat around the bush: the relationship between dry storms and wildfires is direct and dangerous. In fact, these types of storms are one of the main causes (unintentional) of fires. What’s more, due to the meteorological conditions that characterize them (dryness, heat, etc…), these types of events also facilitate the rapid spread of fire. You don’t have to be very imaginative: electrical activity without precipitation, low humidity, very high temperatures and strong (and gusty) winds are the perfect recipe for a macrofire. How to detect a dry storm A dry storm can be sensed by the presence of electrical activity without significant rain on land. But, as with almost everything in meteorology, to have an overview you need lightning detectors, weather radars (especially Doppler) and satellites. Consequences of dry storms David Moum The main consequences of this type of storm are also the most dangerous: fires. Its structural characteristics entail a high risk of forest fire (the combination of intense electrical activity and lack of rain) and, if that were not enough, promote the rapid spread of fire. Not in vain, the atmospheric conditions associated with dry storms (high temperatures, low relative humidity and strong gusts of wind) create a favorable environment for an incipient fire to spread at high speed and become uncontrollable. The main consequence of dry storms is, in short, to verify again and again that we do not have enough capacity for stop today’s fires. Image | NICOLA In Xataka | What are sixth generation fires: the megafires that create their own weather

The PC had been gaining ground on consoles for years. Steam Machine is directly a meteorite to extinguish them

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What has been rumored around Valve for a long time has happened. No no ‘Half Life 3‘, but the return of Steam Machines. It was something that had been circulating for a while, but yesterday seemed like the day and Valve did not disappoint. They presented a new Steam Controller (with looks better than the first), the Steam Frame glasses and the cherry on top for many: its new Steam Machine. Its appearance is that of a Xbox Series Xbut flatter, and it is not only that it has all the external appearance of being a console, but that it aims to be the device that, finally, presents the PC as a serious threat to the console segment. Your argument? Which has the ease of use of a console, but also the versatility of a PC. We are not going to go into detail about its characteristics because we have already told everything there is to know about the inside of the Steam Machine and it is already estimated that its performance would be similar to that of a PS5. What I am going to do is theorize about why Valve’s new console can be the meteorite for consoles. And for Windows PCs. Now the Steam Machine can work. We have seen it on Steam Deck This thing about Steam Machines is nothing new. Not only the Steam Deck is a “Steam machine”, but because Steam Machines already existed a decade ago. At the end of 2013, Valve presented Steam OSa hybrid system between Linux and Steam focused on video games. It was green, but they wanted it to be the heart of the, also recently presentedSteam Machines. In their day, these first machines They were nothing more than pre-assembled computers thanks to the Valve partnership with brands such as Dell, Asus, Gigabyte or AlienWare. They had Steam OSthey were powerful, the hardware could be upgraded and… they didn’t make sense. Its high price, that at the time ‘gaming’ in Linux was not so developed and that to buy a PC like this, you would assemble one piece by piece, meant that Steam Machines did not take off. The fronts will be customizable In fact, all Steam hardware stumbled, from computers to the curious Steam Controller, to a steam link that was liquidated on Steam next to the command. It didn’t catch on, but Valve continued developing the idea and things were different with the Steam Deck. Following the Switch model, the Steam Deck was portable, but it could also output images to a television. It runs the games very well, it has generated a great community and it does not have Windows, but Linux and Steam OS have been its great strength. What didn’t work a decade ago works now thanks to Steam putting a lot of effort into making everything playable on the Deck: from native Linux games to Windows games that they run perfectly with something called Proton. Broadly speaking, it is a “translator” of Windows instructions so that Linux understands them and, thus, can run its games. Plus, everything is easy, intuitive, and if you just want to play, you don’t have to do weird things with the Deck. Bringing that concept from a laptop to a desktop PC was the natural step, and the new Steam Machine has something that the previous ones didn’t have. absolute support from Valve. The ecosystem That is, the company wanted the previous ones to work, but Steam OS was not mature nor did they have control over what the hardware companies did. The new Steam Machine IS from Steam, and that means that they have optimized software and hardware to make it work perfectly. It is something similar to what Apple does or what Sony and Microsoft do with AMD– PC-like components, but tweaked and tuned to meet your console needs. It seems that Valve is going with everything, which is what it did not do 10 years ago Valve itself has confirmed that they are currently fine-tuning some components, such as the GPU, with AMD. The TDP of the discrete GPU is 100W, but they have confessed who are working in a range between 100 and 130 together with the hardware company. That total control was something they didn’t have in the past, and something that didn’t happen years ago was that the components lasted as long. Like it more or less, the arrival of artificial intelligence tools in video games is showing that obsolete hardware (like the Steam Deck) can stay fresh thanks to image reconstruction tools and frame generation. When the Steam Machine arrives in early 2026your hardware will not be cutting edge (in fact, the GPU is based on RDNA3not in RDNA 4), but those AI tools are what gives valve confidence that everything will run smoothly. 4K60 thanks to FSR. Point directly to the living room It is exactly the same philosophy as a console: Closed hardware. Components adjusted by the system designer. Operating system optimized for those components. Direct support from the company that releases the hardware. And, as I said, Valve now has a reputation for supporting gaming hardware, something it has been demonstrating for years with the Steam Deck. The Steam Machine is a threat to consoles, Xbox and… the PC That’s why a Steam Machine that didn’t work in 2015 can work in 2026but there is something else: the market itself. Although consoles continue to have a high share (Sony has confirmed that a PS5 that is having a fairly weak generation in launches It has already sold more than 80 million units), things are very different now. No more big exclusives: everything comes out on PC. Excluding a Nintendo that, with nintendo switch 2 and its intellectual properties, it goes at its own pace, of course. Xbox launches its games directly on computers and consoles (in fact, it is already more third than first, becoming a heavyweight within PlayStation’s own video games) and Sony has been releasing its … Read more

In Asturias someone paid 37,000 euros for the most expensive cheese on the planet. Then he fell to the ground

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There are expensive cheeses, very expensive cheeses and then there are the cheeses that are sold by the whopping 14,800 euros per kiloas they just checked in Asturias. There, in the town of Arenas, they just proclaimed the most expensive cheese on the planet, a piece of 2.5 kilos with Denomination of Protected Origin of Cabrales that, after the Plant of the judges, has reached neither more nor less than 37,000 euros On a bid. Shortly after the auction was on the ground. Don’t say cheese, di cabrales. Asturias is known for many things. By Your cider, Your houndsits beaches, its mountainous places and also (and rightly) for its cheese. The Cabrales is one of the gastronomic icons of the Principality and to claim it Arenas de Cabrales has celebrated every summer, for decades, A contest which usually arouses interest both inside and outside the region. The appointment is not famous just by giving visibility to Dop Cabrales. The contest arrives accompanied by a bid for the best cheeses in which amounts of infarction are reached, assumable only by privileged pockets. Offer are so high in fact that they have managed to make a place several times in the pages of the Guinness book. It has happened Other editions. And it has happened again in this. A figure: 37,000 euros. The Arenas de Cabrales appointment is divided into several parts. First the jury decides which of the title aspiring cheeses is the best, it has a more attractive aspect and offers better flavor and aroma. Then that same piece goes to auction and businesses interested in taking her to her pantries pujo for her at the crossroads worthy of the Sotheby’s house. In this edition (the 53rd already) the starting price was € 3,000 and participated near a dozen hoteliers from different parts of Asturias (Gijón, Oviedo and Castrillón) and Madrid. The winner was Iván Suárez, owner of El Llagar de Colloto, in Oviedo. It didn’t have it easy. Last year Suarez had already taken home winning cheese by 36,000 eurosa figure that this year exceeded slaughtering. A Madrid cider house matched the figure, another Gijonesa rose the bid to 36,500 and the owner of El Llagar de Colloto ended up setting up the dispute when lifting his palette to offer the whopping of 37,000 for a piece of about 2.5 kg. Himself I calculated which came out at € 14,800/kg. Records at full speed. The truth is that Cabrales accumulates records at more speed than the Guinness organization is capable of digesting them. New Spain remember that this will be the fourth consecutive world plusmarca of Asturian cheese and if you consult The web From the Guinness World Records you will find the curious chance that just two months ago those responsible echoed that the most expensive cheese on the planet is a cabrales auctioned in Asturias for 36,000 euros. It is not a mistake. It is simply the brand that the DOP reached in 2024. It has already been outdated. Does Cabrales cheese have a roof? That is The question That some media have been made in recent days, especially if you take into account the speed with which the offers have grown by the winner of the Arenas contest. The Europa Press agency remember That the winner of this edition already disbursed 14,300 euros in 2018, 20,500 in 2019, 30,000 in 2023 and 36,000 last year, a figure that has been pulverized by the 37,000 of 2025. In the price, however it goes more than the value of the product. The bid is also a huge advertising showcase, both for the Dop Cabrales and for the winning hotelier. Of headlines and anecdotes. “The head of having the most expensive cheese in the world is what leads to this. In the end if the cheese had cost 20,000 euros instead of 37,000 because yes, it would have been the winning cheese of the contest, but we would not have worldwide news, we would not open the news, nor would we have international recognition, which is what we all look for, Suárez confesses to The voice of Asturias. Interestingly this year he has monopolized holders by Another reasonmore anecdotal … and juicy. After winning the bid the Ovetense hotelier rose to collect the piece proud and when he lifted his arms to show the tray the cheese drained and finished falling to the ground. An anecdote that the businessman was taken with humor. The cheese, he explained, will divide it into three parts: For his father, for him and his family and for his clients. In cave already 1,500 meters. Record prices and anecdotes apart, the main protagonist of the contest was the cheese that elaborated the winning piece: Ángel Díaz Herrero, by Tielve. Its representative, Encarna Bada, remembers that the cheese is made with cow’s milk and mature for several months at 1,500 meters of altitude in the Los Mazos cave. “It is the coldest cave, it has little cheese and matures more slowly. It is the caves that give the flavor to the cabrales, because factors such as moisture, temperature and height influence it,” Explain. The task is not simple. Bada acknowledges that going up and down with cheese pieces is arduous work because to the area “They don’t even get cars” To transport them in fact they have to resort to horses. What there is no doubt is that your technique and know how to do work: last year The same cheese managed to win the coveted first position of the contest and, incidentally, settle his name in the Guinness. Images | Wikipedia and Javier Lastras (Flickr) In Xataka | Russia is becoming a teacher in the elaboration of European cheeses. And it is due to the sanctions of the West

Europe has perfected missiles for decades. His new weapon is designed to sacrifice before touching the ground

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Europe has been betting on precision missiles. He Taurushe Meteor or the Aster 30 They are a good example of this: expensive systemscomplex and refined to the millimeter, designed to get it. But the war has changed. It is no longer enough to have better missiles In it Aeronautical Hall of Paris, MBDA has presented Your answer. It is not a drone to show off, nor a weapon for surgical missions. The One Way Effector does not return, does not shoot: it is made to fall. And in that act, fulfill your mission. His role is to saturate. Fly in mass, force reactions, shoot alerts. Overwhelm the enemy based on volume. It does not seek to go unnoticed. Seeks to force you to react The One Way Effector does not fit at all in the best known categories. It is not a cruise missile, although it travels hundreds of kilometers. It is not a recognition drone, because is not designed to return. It is an disposable aerial ammunition, propelled by a small turbophah, whose mission is one: wear defenses. The approach reminds of the Shahed-136 Iranian that have redefined the Ukrainian front: Waves of cheap ammunition against very expensive interceptors. But MBDA has taken the idea one step further: greater speed, greater difficulty of interception and an explosive load would be enough to not be able to ignore it. Because that is logic. If the drone impacts, he has fulfilled. And if they demolish it, also: the enemy has had to spend a missile, activate a radar or turn on an alarm. The system is designed to operate in Salvas. We do not talk about one or two drones, but of tens thrown simultaneously from the ground or from the back of a vehicle. Each unit Follow your route via GPS guidancewithout the need for communication between them or coordination algorithms. They move in a group, enough to saturate the enemy response. Conceptual image of the One Way Effector It reaches speeds close to 400 km/Hy transports a 36 kg eye, equivalent to that of an artillery projectile of 155 millimeters. Has an estimated scope of 500 kilometers And a cost that MBDA describes as “a fraction of a cruise missile.” It is not stealthy, nor does it intend: its effectiveness happens to be visible, for forcing the enemy to act. If no one reacts, the drone arrives. And if someone does, it is exposed. The idea is that each defensive shot destined to demolish a position. Each lost interceptor reduces the response capacity. That is the game. The One Way Effector is not an experiment or an exotic prototype. MBDA wanted it to be, from the first day, a chain manufacturing product. To achieve this, he has signed an alliance with the French automobile sector that allows you to produce even 1,000 units per month. A Taurus missile To climb that production, the design has been simplified to the extreme. Body of compound material, commercial pieces, modular construction. No terminal guidance sensors or technologies difficult to maintain. His great asset is the volume. This does not mean that Europe is renouncing its precision arsenal. On the contrary: One Way Effector does not replace Taurus or the meteor or Aster 30. Is designed to accompany themto open their way. Taurus is a cruise missile that travels hundreds of kilometers and seeks to penetrate defensive layers with precision. The meteor dominates the Aire-Aire combat with its reach of more than 100 kilometers and its ability to correct real-time trajectory. Aster 30 protects airspace as part of a high efficiency antimisile system. But there is a common point: all are scarce and extremely expensive. Each launch is a strategic decision. The One Way Effector, on the other hand, is intended for the opposite: to be launched without hesitation. If the deadlines are met, the first test flight It will take place between October and November, and Production will start in 2027 With the first operational units. Images | MBDA | Saab In Xataka | Russia recalled a threat that appears in the war between Iran and Israel: the possibility of a nuclear disaster

Switch 2 is important for Nintendo, but also for a nvidia that does not want to lose ground against AMD

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Nintendo Switch 2 It’s here. When a new generation of consoles arrives, beyond New games and experiences that allows, there is a substantive issue that may not interest all users so much, but it is of vital importance for the technology industry: Who signs the processor. We don’t know Switch 2’s heart beyond what the tests of their first games suggest. AND, Although it is evident that it is powerfulwe will have to wait to see how developers thoroughly squeeze their chip designed by NVIDIA and manufactured by Samsung. It is evident that the console is important for a Nintendo who saw that switch sales began to waverbut just as important for that NVIDIA that signs a processing unit with which, now, it comes back to the battle horse in the hybrid console segment. Nvidia returns to load When a company leads, what you want is to have even more part of the cake. Nvidia dominates The world of PC video games With iron hand and, although AMD is doing things well with its latest generations, the singing voice continues to take the company led by Jensen Huang. That battle against AMD on the PC is very unequal, but In the field of consoles, history tells us something else. Both were linked decades ago to video games on platforms dedicated with ATI (before being part of AMD) designing the GPU of Game Cube, Wii and Xbox 360 and Nvidia taking care of the GPU of the Original Xbox and of PS3. With the jump to the next generation, Nvidia got out of the equation and left the free ground for an AMD that did not succeed with her GPU, either with her CPU, but with her APU. It was his technology that convinced Sony and Microsoft for all their consoles from Xbox One and PS4 From now on. Nvidia, however, returned in 2017 with His tegra chip and a new alliance with Nintendo for Switch launch. It was not the most advanced at the time, that Tegra showed that the technology was ready To be able to create platforms that offered such experience with desktop power, but in portable format. And they have not gone wrong or Nintendo … neither Nvidia by extension. 152 million units and up. However, things have changed because Nvidia is no longer alone in this and AMD, along with Valve with Steam Deckshowed that its image reconstruction technology, Photograms generation and its power/consumption relationship could overcome what Nvidia offered with switch. Thus, we have seen AMD heart on PC consolidated as impressive as the Lenovo Legion Go or the Asus Rog Allyand it is a segment in which Intel, with a first failed proposal with the MSI Claw and a much more solid second with MSI Claw 8 AI+shows that you also have something to say. Nvidia has remained away from those PC consolidated for a reason: They didn’t have a CPU. Now, earlier this year, and after months of rumors, Nvidia presented Project Digits. It is a desktop computer for AI whose CPU is designed by NVIDIA: Graceof 20 cores, which although it is still ARM and arrived a few years ago, is now consolidated with digits as a blow to the table to a market that was dominated by Intel and AMD. Nvidia’s commitment is still far from the average user, and even further from the players, but although they are not possible to create processors that compete against Intel and the AMD Ryzen, on desktop PC, that renewed alliance with Nintendo to create Switch 2 can be, if sales accompany, the impulse that they lacked to finish deciding and being The third player in the battle of the PC consolidated. Your proposal? Beyond gross power, artificial intelligence nuclei for Push the hardware Beyond the possible until now. But of course, they would have to develop a X86 processor. Or that or throwing into the pool and marking an adventure with a valve that is already trying to stem Compatible with ARM. Although, of course, all this would be nothing if Nvidia, which money does not lack, would have signed an exclusive contract with Nintendo for this type of hardware. Whatever happens, Jensen Huang seems like engaged With Nintendo’s vision, and they may not end up getting into mud with Intel and AMD as the third company in discord, precisely, because with Switch 2 and their AI -based technology already have more than enough reasons to say an “EY, which in this segment we also have much to say at the power level”. After all, no matter how veteran the first switch was very obsolete that his heart was, I kept selling like hot bread Although the rest of hybrid systems offer much more as far as gross power is concerned. Images | Xataka, Ifixit In Xataka | I have played the ‘Nintendo Switch 2 Welcomme Tour’ thinking that it was a payment manual. It turns out that it is a science museum

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