hell

What until recently were small incursions of spring heat have turned Europe into hell

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London at 35 degrees in the month of May. We are talking about a record that would be exceptional in the middle of summer. France (“a country where much of its territory is low, soft terrain of little relief”) dangerously close to 40 and discovering how all those cities in the valleys They become “pans like Seville or Córdoba”. Central Europe, the Alps, the former Yugoslavia seeing how the thermometers have gone completely crazy. “Literally hundreds of May records have already been beaten“and the worst thing is that no symptoms are seen weakening on the horizon. The relevant question today may be why. What is happening? “It will never cease to surprise me to see a number (…) so extreme for the time and covering such a large record area,” said González Alemán a few hours ago. And no wonder: each of the little pink dots in the image below are historical heat records for May. This week, Europe has become hell and, despite years of warnings, no one really expected it. How is it possible? The explanation is simple. A powerful subtropical anticyclone has spread over Western Europe and is generating what It is often referred to as a “heat dome”. That is, a situation in which the air on the surface is not renewed, does not move and, as a consequence, warms up little by little. The following two maps show perfectly what this “heat dome” is and where it is affecting most intensely. What do they mean? The first image shows the size and extent of the anticyclone. Right now, much of Europe is cloudless. The second shows the intensity of the phenomenon. As Jeff Berardelli explainsany red dot represents a new record for May (and we are taking the record since 1950 as a reference). This has many names… “atmospheric blocks”, quasi-resonant amplification of planetary waves either persistence of “double jet” configurations about Eurasia. But the result is the same: the problem has stopped being the heat and is starting to be that today’s climatic extremes continue for days and days. “This is perhaps the most obvious sign of the new climate that has nothing to do with that of a few decades ago”. And what can we do? That’s a great question, because these heat waves (if, as they seem, they persist) will have a very clear consequence: Europe will have to change its real estate stock from “houses designed to keep the heat out” to “houses designed to keep it out.” We are facing one of the Image | Tropical TidBits In Xataka | The Gulf Stream is dying. Someone’s idea to solve it dates back to the 1950s: closing the Bering Strait

Perovskite is the “holy grail” of solar energy, but its industrial manufacturing was hell. This new technique changes everything at once

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Solar energy has a clear favorite to lead the future: tandem solar cells. The idea is brilliant and simple on paper, since if you combine traditional silicon with a top layer of revolutionary perovskite, you create a “super panel.” Perovskite swallows high-energy, short-wave light, and silicon finishes the job with longer waves. So the result is capturing much more solar spectrum and generating more electricity than with traditional plates. The valley of industrial death. The problem is that the photovoltaic industry had been banging its head against a wall for years. Perovskite was a wonder in the “Petri dish” of the laboratory, but manufacturing those very thin layers on a large scale, uniformly and quickly, was a true technical nightmare. Technology ran the risk of remaining an eternal promise, until a bridge built between Karlsruhe and Valencia showed that the problem was not the material, but the method. The 10 minute record. A team of researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany and the University of Valencia, supported by institutions in France and Argentina, has just published a historic milestone in the magazine Nature Energy. They have designed an ultra-fast, solvent-free vacuum process that deposits the layer of perovskite at a pace never seen before. They have managed to manufacture tandem cells with a very high efficiency of 24.3% and the conversion process lasts just 10 minutes. To understand why this turns the industry upside down, you have to look at the factory numbers. As Professor Ulrich Paetzold (KIT) explainsIn the industry, not only efficiency matters, but also that the process is robust and scalable. This new method achieves a deposition rate of 47 nanometers per minute, that is, a speed ten times greater than that of conventional thermal evaporation methods. In addition, it consumes very little material and allows sources to be reused, drastically reducing costs. The “magic” of sublimation. The technique is called Closed Space Sublimation (CSS). We could say that it is like a microscopic oven: the precursor materials evaporate and collide directly against the silicon cell, which is placed just a few millimeters away. There they react on site to form the structure of the perovskite almost magically. Sofía Chozas-Barrientos, researcher at the University of Valencia, emphasizes that this system It allows you to do without solvents and save a lot of time. However, the recipe needed to be refined. For the tandem to work, the perovskite The upper part must act as a spectral filter (have a wider bandgap), and this is achieved by adding bromine. The drama was that, when trying to introduce bromine, it literally vanished during the process. The solution, according to researcher Alexander Dierckswas to create a mixed organic source by mixing methylammonium iodide and methylammonium bromide in an exact ratio of 3 to 1. Thus they managed to retain the bromine and nail an ideal band efficiency of 1.64 eV. Ready for the real world. The point is that good solar panels are not smooth; They are full of textures (with micropyramid shapes) to better catch the light. And this CSS process has worked perfectly on smooth, nanostructured and microstructured silicon, without having to touch a single button in the machine’s settings. Microscopes confirmed impeccable coverage in all topographies. As Professor Henk Bolink summarizesfrom the University of Valencia, a process that only works on smooth laboratory surfaces is of no use in industry. The fact that this sublimation achieves uniform layers on textured silicon is what makes this advancement real, viable and marketable. The future, on the roofs. Closing the gap between the laboratory and the factory is the great challenge of our energy era. With this Spanish-German milestone, the mass production of tandem solar technology finally removes the “unviable” label. The perovskite revolution no longer has to wait decades; is ready to make the leap to factories and, very soon, to rooftops around the world. Image | Eurekalert Xataka | Where you see an old bullet from the 17th century, Germany sees a magnificent source of perovskite for solar panels

we have turned the ocean into an acoustic hell

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The ocean is no longer the silent paradise it used to be, as beneath the surface a constant cacophony of engines, propellers and giant ship hulls has created an “acoustic fog” that is suffocating marine life. and this It is creating a very serious problemespecially with the whales that are trying to raise their voices to be heard over the noise of the ships, but physically they can no longer scream. We have it close. To understand the magnitude of the problem, one does not have to go far, since in the Strait of Gibraltar itselfone of the busiest maritime highways on the planet, cetaceans are living on the edge. And here science is seeing that the pilot whales of the strait are “screaming” to communicate with their groups. However, the effort is in vain, since the data reveals that, no matter how much these whales try to raise their vocalizations, they barely manage to reach half the noise level generated by maritime traffic continuous. Simply put, the noise of merchant ships and ferries silences them and does not cut their communication links with others of their species. Why not stronger? It would be the most logical question that could come to mind, but the reality is that science points to the existence of an unbreakable physiological limit in their larynxes that makes it impossible for them to raise their ‘voice’ any higher. It must be taken into account that the vocal anatomy of these whales is perfectly adapted for the depths, but becomes ineffective to compete with the frequencies and volume of merchant ships that travel on the surface. In fact, below 100 meters of depth, their ability to compensate for environmental noise hits a biological wall, since maritime noise is masked in such a way that their vocalizations are completely disrupted. The danger of your instinct. Added to this physical limit is a behavioral problem, since evolution has prepared whales to deal with the natural noise of the ocean, but human noise is completely foreign to them. Studies here showed that while these animals know how to react to natural threats by adjusting their singing patterns, they do not have the instinct necessary to evade anthropogenic noise. They simply don’t process the sound of a freighter as a threat they must flee from or adapt to until it’s too late and the end is quite catastrophic. Its impact. It is not limited to the fact that they cannot “talk” to each other, but this sound masking forces the animals to abandon rich feeding areas for more impoverished but quiet areas. Furthermore, since males and females cannot communicate from kilometers away, the rates of encounters to reproduce fall. In the end, we are facing a problem that is serious, which has led institutions such as the Ministry for the Ecological Transition to monitor these hot spots of noise in the Mediterranean that are altering the behavior of fauna. And all because the whales here cannot adapt to the rhythm of our noise, so the solution is to make our boats ‘quiet’ so that they do not have a great impact on the fauna. Images | rawpixel.com on Magnific In Xataka | He dug a 60 cm pond in the garden and in a few weeks clutches of frog eggs appeared: from useless grass to nursery

China and Nvidia star in the “great technological divorce” of 2026. A bureaucratic hell that is erasing it from the market

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Talking about Nvidia is talking about artificial intelligence glue. The GPU giant has invested millions financing cocompanies like OpenAI or Anthropicbut along the way has not forgotten startups or to make purchases for strengthen your position in the market. The problem is that it is missing out on a potential $50 billion market: China. Because Nvidia is eager to enter China, but it is trapped between bureaucracy, the Trump Government, Xi Jinping’s Government, and the smuggling of its graphics cards. The great divorce. In a very short time, Nvidia has gone from dominating the Chinese GPU market for artificial intelligence to losing it completely. The restrictions of the Trump Administration and the intensification of the trade war between the powers left Nvidia out of the game. Either it would adapt its GPUs and create less capable versions of those it sold in the West or it would not be able to sell in China. For a time, Nvidia was selling the H20 to adapt to the new rules, but it is something that has taken its toll. As AI needs demanded more powerful GPUs and own chinese industry with Huawei, Cambricon and Moore Threads was developed, Nvidia was being left out of the game. Official quota. In the middle of last year, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang pressed Donald Trump to see reason: it was better for Nvidia to be able to enter China both to make money and to slow the accelerated development of the domestic industry, one that Western restrictions had given wings to. In the end, the US gave in previous tariffs of 25% and one condition: all GPU orders from Chinese companies to Nvidia would be reviewed one by one. There is a problem: the US body in charge of reviewing these export licenses has decreased by 20% in recent months, which is causing delays of months when it comes to fulfilling an order. From when a Chinese company asks for Nvidia GPUs until they are given an answer, the ‘chinese dragons‘They have already released some product. The result? Huang points out that Nvidia has gone from being a leader in China to have a 0% quotapainting the situation as a true drama and pointing directly to the strategies of both China and, above all, the United States as the cause of his company falling into the offside of the large Asian market. Furthermore, it is China itself that encourages its companies to, to the extent possible, use Chinese hardware that they is developing at accelerated rates. “Official” fee. But the fact that Huang claims that his market share in China is 0% does not mean that there are no GPUs for AI in China because it seems that there are H100, H200 and even B200 due to something very simple: smuggling. Despite the proprietary technological solutions they are developing, it is evident that a large part of the AI ​​industry is built with Nvidia GPUs and that implies that the tools are very well optimized for them. There are several occasions in which Nvidia AI chip smuggling networks have been reported, with modest seizures on occasions (just tens of millions of dollars) and somewhat larger seizures on others (hundreds of millions in a few months). Chinese companies obtain these chips through indirect routes from Hong Kong and Singapore and, although Nvidia tries to trace the origin, the clandestine flow and opaque chains make the task complex. trapped. Someone is lining their pockets and that someone is not Nvidia. And the problem is that Huang’s pressure had an effect, but the solution they gave him is not as agile as the market needs. Returning to the issue of bureaucracythe United States Office of Industry and Security, which is responsible for reviewing these export licenses, reduced its workforce by 19% in 2024. Specifically, those who develop standards linked to the semiconductor industry and review licenses have decreased by 20%. The result is an average of 76 days to resolve export requests, something that is extending so far this year and which is disastrous news for both Nvidia and others deeply involved in the AI ​​segment, such as AMD. From China, things are not much better, since companies must make it very clear why they need Nvidia AI chips and cannot meet their objectives using national alternatives. Jensen, almost excluded. In any case, it is evident that Huang does not like to be missing the AI ​​party in China, in the same way that he is going to miss the new trip of Donald Trump and other executives to a summit between Trump and Xi Jingping that will be held between the 13th and 15th of this month. Or so it seemed. This is an event in which conversations will focus on agriculture and commercial aviation, so a priori Jensen didn’t have much in mind. But of course, alongside Trump are CEOs like Elon Musk, Cristiano Amon or Tim Cook, among others. And, although it seemed that he was not invited, as we see in South China Morning PostIn a message from Trump on his social network, it was confirmed that Huang will finally accompany him on the trip. In the end, it’s about money. Jensen Huang doesn’t want China to have the best chips because He wants to save those for the United States.but it is a very large market in which Nvidia can offer chips strategically: it makes money while making companies opt for its product instead of that of the Chinese companies themselves. In Xataka | Nvidia’s superpower is not having money, it is making everyone work for it: Foxconn is the latest to join

50 years later, the Soviet fire of the “Gates to Hell” is going out. And it’s not good news

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In 1971, in the heart of the Karakum Desert, a group of Soviet engineers observed how the ground was sinking under his feet after a failed drilling. What came next was not an immediate evacuation or closure of the area, but rather an improvised decision that, according to who witnessed itseemed like a quick solution to a specific problem. That choice, taken almost as another technical procedure, would end up having consequences that no one at that time was able to anticipate. The eternal fire goes out. During more than half a centurythe Darvaza crater has burned relentlessly in the middle of the desert, becoming an almost permanent image of inexhaustible fire that seemed to defy any natural logic. However, the most recent data show a clear change: the intensity of the flames has fallen drastically in recent years, losing more than 7% of its strength. What for decades was a constant spectacle begins to weaken, altering the perception of a phenomenon that many considered eternal. The origin between legend and Soviet heritage. The birth of the crater is still shrouded in all kinds of stories and uncertainty, although the most widespread and feasible version points to the accident. during Soviet drilling in search of gas in the sixties or seventies. According to this theory, the ground collapsed when it reached a pocket of natural gas and the engineers they decided to set fire to the site to prevent the release of toxic gases, convinced that it would be extinguished in a short time. Thus, what was going to last weeks lasted for decadesfed by an underground network of gas that never stopped flowing, giving rise to one of the best-known anomalies of the energy legacy of the former Soviet Union. From remote curiosity to global icon. Over time, the crater went from being a geological oddity to becoming a almost mythical destiny for travelers and explorers, despite the difficulties in accessing Turkmenistan. Its image, a gigantic burning cavity in the middle of nowhere, has fueled so much adventure tourism like internal propagandato the point of being used by country leaders as a symbol of power or control. The experience of approaching the edge and feeling the direct heat of the fire has reinforced its reputation as a unique place in the world. The attempt at control and doubts about its decline. For its part, the Turkmen government has years trying to control emissions from the crater, and attributes part of the recent weakening to new drilling nearby plants intended to extract gas. However, the independent analyzes They suggest that the loss of intensity could have begun before these interventions, which opens the door to natural causes that are not yet fully understood. This nuance introduces a key and dangerous uncertainty: it is not clear whether the end of the phenomenon responds to human action or to a change in the geological system itself. The unexpected twist: less fire does not mean less problem. Yes, because although At first glance, the reduction of the flames could seem like good news from an environmental point of view, the reality it is more complex. Fire acts as a mechanism that transforms methane (much more powerful as a greenhouse gas) into carbon dioxide, reducing its impact in the short term. If the flames subside, more methane could be released directly into the atmospherewhich would make progressive shutdown a potentially bigger problem. A fragile balance that is still active. Despite its weakening, the crater remains activewith visible flames and constant emissions that remind us that the phenomenon has not disappeared. The huge amount of gas accumulated underground suggests that the fire will not be completely extinguished in the short term, maintaining that strange balance between natural spectacle, industrial legacy and environmental problem. Thus, half a century later, the symbol of eternal fire begins to change, although its disappearance does not necessarily imply a more favorable end for the rest of the planet. Image | Stefan Krasowski, Tormod Sandtorv In Xataka | China’s first pipeline network is 4,000 years old and something revolutionary: it was built without the need for kings or nobles In Xataka | About to close, this remote mine in the Polar Circle has found a 2 billion-year-old yellow diamond that weighs 158 carats

The traffic jams in Valencia are hell. And a bridge over the Turia aspires to resolve the chaos between the V-30 and the A-3

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Traffic jams for miles and with a regularity that seems almost infallible. Valencia has a problem with traffic jams and the connection between the V-30 and the A-3 is one of the hot spots every morning. They explain in The Provinces that the growth of the city leaves 800,000 residents inside… surrounded by 800,000 residents of the surrounding towns. With some infrastructure built decades ago For a much smaller number of residents, roads and the main Valencian roads are clogged with an assiduity that punishes the neighbors day after day. But of all the roads, V-30 is the most marked. The road has problems along its entire length. The new port terminal anticipates more complications looking to the future but other hot spots such as the connection with the A-3 is one of the critical steps usually indicated. To begin to alleviate the situation, the Ministry of Transport has given the green light to the construction of a remodeling of the link between both roads to facilitate traffic between the A-3 and the V-30. A new bridge to alleviate the situation The Ministry of Transport has published approval for the action on the link between V-30 and A-3, which includes a lane expansion and the construction of a new bridge. In total, nine structures will be affected, of which six are newly built. The project will have a budget of 56 million euros (VAT included) and will try to unclog an area that is constantly overwhelmed, especially during peak hours. The remodeling, They explain on the ministry’s websitewill have the following interventions: New planned structures: Bridge parallel to the existing one over the Turia riverbed that will also serve to bridge the crossing over the V-30. Underpass at the A-3 junction and the Puerto-Madrid branch (2 structures). Cycle-pedestrian underpass under the Valencia-Puerto branch. Cycle-pedestrian walkway over the Valencia-Barcelona branch. Existing drinking water pipe protection structure. Planned expansions on existing structures: Expansion of the underpass of 9 d’Octubre Avenue. Extension of the pedestrian walkway over the branches: Madrid-Barcelona, ​​Puerto-Madrid and the V-30 service road. Expansion of the pedestrian walkway over the A-3. In the case of the action on the A-3, the road will be expanded to four lanes towards Madrid. These lanes will be available to drivers from the interchange to the airport access. The objective is to facilitate the flow of traffic on a link that, right now, has become a bottleneck. in the diary Levant They explain that the situation is so complicated that, like a domino effect, the traffic jam usually extends to the V-31 highway as drivers try to find some other alternative route to the junction that forms there. In addition, the expansion of the lanes is also good news in order to save the high volume of trucks that begin their journey in the city port and take this road to begin their route to Madrid. Right now, the volume of cars is so high that the traffic jam is not only found on the A-3 towards Madrid. The branch from V-30 requires a long turn that reduces the speed of the cars. Between an A-3 with very dense traffic and slow access, the right lane of the V-30 ends up suffering all the punishment, being completely collapsed during rush hour. In addition, the residents of Xirivella, next to the road, will have acoustic screens and trees installed to reduce the sound of traffic and mitigate the visual impact of the structures. This was a demand that citizens had been demanding for some time and that had not been executed. Photo | Google Maps and Ministry of Transportation In Xataka | The great dream of Tres Cantos and Colmenar Viejo literally passes over El Pardo: “close” the M-50

Meta plans to cut 10% of its workforce in May. Its employees have been surviving a “28-day hell” for weeks

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When last week the news was leaked that Meta was going to lay off 10% of its staff (again), the company had no choice but to make its decision public through a statement before I’m ready for it. The director of human resources, Janella Gale, acknowledged the leak and confirmed what many already feared: around 10% of the workforce will receive their dismissal notice. next May 20. The problem is that no one knows yet which profiles or departments will be fired. As the employees themselves said, this wait is precisely what is hurting them the most. There is a date marked on the calendar, there are figures on the table (about 7,800 positions eliminated plus another 6,000 that will be left uncovered), but there are no names. And in that void, thousands of employees have been trying to work normally for weeks without knowing if they will continue to occupy that table next month. Four weeks in limbo. “Welcome to the 28 days of hell.” This is how a Meta employee summed up the situation in an internal forum, and the expression quickly spread through the company’s internal communication channels. As and as detailed Business Insiderthat same uncertainty is breathed in the publications of the employees in the Blind app, where anguish, black humor and unanswered questions are mixed about what criteria will determine who stays and who leaves. In Blindan employee asked how to find motivation to work during the next few weeks knowing that layoffs are a fact and we can only wait for the names to be given to make them effective. One response summed up the general mood: “I’m getting motivated to do things that I can put on my resume for my next job,” said a Meta employee. In Meta’s own internal forums, others claimed to be focused on demonstrating results quickly, before D-day arrives, in an attempt desperate to avoid dismissal. A state of anxiety that has already lasted since 2022. For many Meta workers, this round of layoffs is not an isolated surprise. Since 2022, the company has gone through several waves of cuts, and that has left its mark on the employees who kept their jobs when thousands (hundreds of thousands, actually) of colleagues were falling into the different rounds of dismissal that Meta has applied since 2022. One employee admitted to feeling more anguish about the possibility of surviving layoffs than about being fired, because those who stay know that they will have to take on a greater workload in an increasingly pressured company. This phenomenon, called survivor syndrome, It is more common than it seems and is fueled by that uncertainty of someone who faces a situation that they know and that they know will get worse, and that perhaps they will fall into the next round of layoffs. In fact, according to some comments in that application, some employees admit to having mentally disconnected from work, and there are even those who are considering maneuvering to be included on the layoff list and thus collect compensation. AI as a background to the cut. Another factor that contributes to undermining the morale of employees who must deal with “their 28-day hell” is that, in reality, these dismissals do not occur because they are doing their job poorly or because of the company’s financial problems, but rather because of a strategic bet that puts the AI as an absolute priority for the company. If there is only one dollar to spend, that dollar will be invested in AI. “We are doing this as part of our continuous effort to manage the company more efficiently and to compensate for the other investments we are making,” said Meta’s human resources manager in her statement. Goal plans to allocate between $115 billion and $135 billion in capital investment this year alone, double the capital that he destined in 2024 to this end, with artificial intelligence as the main destination of money. Mark Zuckerberg has been making it clear for months that AI is the absolute priority of the company, which leaves positions that are not aligned with the development of that technology in an increasingly complicated position. What awaits those who are fired. Meta cuts come at the same time as Microsoft announces early retirements volunteers for the first time in its 51-year history. This new strategy is raising alarm bells about whether AI-powered automation is starting to cause a structural labor crisis in the technology sector. According to the company’s statement, Meta employees who finally receive their dismissal letter on May 20 will receive compensation of 16 weeks of base salary plus two additional weeks for each year worked in the company. “We will also cover the cost of COBRA health insurance for US employees and their families for 18 months. Packages outside the United States will be similar, but will vary by country, as will local deadlines and processes,” states the internal Meta statement signed by Gale. In Xataka | “They blame AI for layoffs they would do anyway”: Sam Altman confirms that AI has been used as an excuse to lay off Image | Unsplash (Mariia Shalabaieva, Arif Riyanto)

“Hell is other people”

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The history of philosophy is full of round phrases that (in theory) synthesize the way of thinking of their authors. Also from ambiguous interpretations or directly wrong. Perhaps the clearest case is made by Jean-Paul Sartre, one of the icons of existentialism. Often his phrase “Hell is other people” It is understood in its most literal and stark sense, as if it were the misanthropic cry of someone tired of living in society. It’s not like that. Sartre himself was in charge of clarifying it. An unexpected hell. In Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) there was a double quality that does not always accompany the great philosophers. A deep look. And an ability to express complex theories in a clear, even engaging way. Hence, he expressed his way of seeing the world both in essays and in novels, scripts and plays. The phrase in question comes from one of the latter, ‘Huis Clos’from 1944, which is usually translated into Spanish as ‘In camera’. In it, the French philosopher presents us with three characters (one man, two women) trapped in a room. The interesting thing comes when we understand that the room in question is hell and the actors we see on stage represent condemned souls. The three of them expect the kind of torture they have read about and seen in pictures, but as time passes they realize that nothing happens. No devils with tridents or flames. No Dantesque scenes. Nothing remotely resembling ‘The Garden of Delights’ of Bosco. “L’enfer, c’est les autres”. Throughout the play, each of the three characters confesses their story and the sins they committed in life, weaving a frustrating love triangle. Towards the end of the performance, one of them, Garcin, utters what is perhaps the most resounding and certainly the most famous phrase, not only of the work itself, but of Sartre’s entire legacy: “I would never have believed it… Remember? The sulfur, the bonfire, the grill… Ah! What a joke. There is no need for grills, hell is the Others.” To be more precise, what Sartre wrote in the original, in French, was “L’enfer, c’est les autres”so there are those who have believed that the translation “Hell is the Other” better fits the author’s intention. Well, it’s pretty clear, isn’t it? Not so much, actually. If literature (art in general) has something good, it is that it can be discussed, but since practically the 1940s, readers and viewers of ‘Huis Clos’ have tended to interpret Garcin’s phrase in a way that is not entirely correct. Not so much because it is erroneous in itself but because it impoverishes the meaning that its author wanted to give it. We know that Sartre was an atheist, so it is not unreasonable to think that when he presents us with a personal hell, without torture, devils or rivers of lava, what he wants to suggest to us is that in reality our authentic condemnation is “the Other”, the obligation to understand each other with the people with whom we share our time, just like the prisoners of ‘Huis Clos’, right? “The executioner is each one for the other two”, comes to say at one point in the play one of the characters. “It has been misunderstood”. The truth is that the above is a simplistic approach. Of course, that is not the meaning that Satre wanted to give to his words. And we know this not because critics or academics dedicated to studying the work and life of the French author have suggested it. No. It was Sartre himself who, in 1964, years after premiering the work, he complained that his misinterpretation. “‘Hell is other people’ has always been misinterpreted. It has been thought that with that phrase I meant that our relationships with others are always poisoned, that they are invariably hellish relationships. But what I really mean is something totally different,” clarifies the philosopher. “I mean that if relationships with another person are distorted, flawed, then that other person can only be hell. Why? Because… when we think about ourselves, when we try to know ourselves… we use the knowledge that others have about us.” And what does that mean exactly? The fundamental thing is not so much how we deal with others or whether this is easy or complicated for us, but how we build our self-understanding. It is best understood with the metaphor of “mirrors”, a tool that is also very present in Sartre’s play. When we want to know what we are like physically, on the outside, it is easy for us: we resort to the reflection that the glass returns to us. But… How do we form our self-knowledge? “When we try to know ourselves, we use the knowledge that others have about us,” Sartre explains to uswho warns however that the ‘reflection’ we receive in that case is not like that of the crystals. “We are judged with the means that others have and have given us. In everything I say about myself, someone else’s judgment always enters. In everything I feel inside, another’s judgment enters. That does not mean at all that one cannot have relationships with other people. It only highlights the fundamental importance of all other people for each of us,” insist the philosopher Trapped characters. The three characters in ‘Huis Clos’ are trapped, but not (alone) in a closed room. Each one of them is a prisoner of the judgment that the rest have made of him in a complex relationship. That is his true punishment, his hell, not the monsters and flames that we see in Hieronymus Bosch’s paintings. Their penance is that the three characters are condemned to define themselves through the “distorting mirrors” of their companions, people who give them a negative reflection and in turn cause the same effect, adds Kirb Woodward.. Sartre himself poses this concept of the tyranny of “being for others” in another way in ‘Being and nothingness’: “By the mere appearance of the Other I see myself in … Read more

how the hell to census 1.4 billion people

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It doesn’t matter what you do, what sector you work in or the number of people you are in charge of. Your tasks will hardly be as complicated as the one the Government of India has just faced: censusing 1.4 billion people, more than triple of the population of the European Union. The mission is so titanic that it will require more than three million of technicians, a whole legion of censors who will visit around 640,000 villages and almost 10,000 towns and cities. The task is difficult, but it is key if New Delhi wants an updated ‘photo’ of the country that allows it to make decisions adapted to its economy and population. One census to rule them all. India is not just any country. In 2023 the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) estimated which had become the most populous nation on the planet, surpassing China. According to their calculations, that same year the (new) Asian giant far exceeded the 1.4 billion of inhabitants, almost three million more than the country led by Xi Jinping. Now New Delhi has proposed to go further and know in detail how that population is distributed. multiply by 3.1 the EU-wide registry. As? Creating him who, according to some analystswill be the most ambitious census of its kind. One figure: three million. Census of 1.4 billion people is imposing, but that is only one of the many figures that give an idea of ​​how enormous the task will be. There are others just as impressive. For example, a few days ago The New York Times needed that shaping the census will require an investment of around 1.2 billion dollars and mobilizing more than three million technicians. The vast majority will be civil servants and teachers. Such a legion of censors will have to travel from top to bottom of the most populous country in the world. To be more precise, it will be dedicated to covering 36 states and territories, 7,000 subdistricts, more than 9,700 cities and 640,000 villages And how will they do it? The million dollar question. Or rather, the 1.4 billion. It is known that from the outset the Government wants to divide the work into two phases. The first one started this month and will last until September, six months during which the technicians will dedicate themselves to preparing a complete list of homes and inhabitants. Its mission will be to record the size and characteristics of the households and whether, for example, they have access to services such as internet or sanitation. The second phase will start in 2027 and will focus on individuals. It will then be when the censors collect data from each person, documenting names, sexes, ages, marital status or educational and salary level, religion or other characteristics, such as whether they have migrated or have some degree of disability. The work is enormous, but the officials will have a new tool: an app that will make their work doubly easier. Not only will it save them from handling printed paper forms. Citizens themselves will be able to use it to provide their data. Then the censors will only have to check them. Is it something new? No. This is not (far from it) the first census carried out by the Indian authorities. The country has updated its records every 10 years since 1881, when it was still under British rule. I had previously done a try with a questionnaire that would allow you to collect basic indicators. Since then the census has been varying, adding and losing items depending on the concerns of each moment. For example, in 1901 the technicians added a section that sought to clarify what English proficiency existed in the country. A pending task. That tradition sustained since 1881 broke in 2021when COVID prevented updating the 2011 registry. Since then the task has been postponed for different reasons until reaching April 2026. Just because technicians have already started collecting data does not mean that we will know their conclusions soon. CNN precise that the final count will not be made public until next year. Only in the first phase, people who participate in the census must answer just over 30 questions. Why is it important? That the Indian Government is willing to deploy resources, hours of work and millions of dollars to improve its census is no coincidence. The State needs an updated ‘photo’ for such basic issues as designing policies and offering specific services and programs aimed at employment or rural areas. Right now the most detailed image you have is from 15 years agowhich has forced the authorities to use sampling. “This census is crucial: it is the definitive snapshot of India, capturing everything from caste and religion to jobs, education and services. It offers the most complete picture of how people live,” explains to the BBC Ashwini Deshpande, from Ashoka University. His comment slips a couple of keys: the census will not only update the rural, urban and peri-urban map, it will also help decide what parliamentary representation each territory should have and will give an idea of ​​the caste system, one of the points most controversial of the study. Image | Neelakshi Singh (Unsplash) In Xataka | China knows that its population is going to collapse but it already has a long-term plan to solve it. Of course, thanks to AI

the toxic hell of Tehran after the bombing of the worst fuel in the world

by

The water in emergency reserves is no longer transparent; It has turned a thick black. The city’s once passable streets are covered in a slippery, dark layer. “Night became morning and morning, with all the smoke, became night again,” said one astonished resident. These are not scenes from a dystopian movie, but the reality that describe The New York Times after the bombings on the oil infrastructure in Iran. The attacks have left Tehran residents facing a rain laden with oil and toxins that stains cars, roofs and hanging clothes. Faced with this unprecedented situation, the Iranian authorities and the Red Crescent have been forced to ask the more than 9 million inhabitants of the capital to lock themselves in their homes, with severe warnings for children, the elderly and pregnant women. What falls from the sky is no longer just water; It’s poison. A fog that reaches space. The constant military bombings against multiple fuel facilities in and around Tehran, such as the Shahran and Aqdasieh depots, have left a black scar. As detailed GuardianDays after the impacts, satellite images showed that the facilities were still burning, sending columns of dense smoke into the atmosphere. But the problem is aggravated by the type of fuel that burns. An exhaustive analysis of The New York Times reveals that the clouds They are extraordinarily toxic because Iran burns and stores large quantities of “mazut.” This is a very low quality residual fuel, the “bottom of the barrel” that remains after refining the oil, and which contains very high levels of sulfur. Although much of the world prohibits its use, Iran depends on it due to its aging refineries and international sanctions. And it started to rain black. When the facilities were blown up, smoke laden with soot, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen compounds rose to the skies. Why did it rain black? Akshay Deoras, scientist at the University of Reading consulted by Guardianand the magazine Nature They explain it with a clear metaphor: the raindrops acted like “sponges or magnets”, absorbing all the pollutants and oil suspended in the air before collapsing on the city. Furthermore, Tehran is a victim of its own geography. As the magazine explains NaturelThe city is surrounded by the Alborz mountains. This generates a phenomenon known as “thermal inversion,” where a layer of warm air traps cold, contaminated air near the ground, functioning as a lid that prevents toxicity from dispersing. The invisible enemy. The citizens they expressed thatAlmost instantly, they began to suffer headaches, eye and skin irritation, and severe breathing difficulties. The Iranian Red Crescent issued urgent alerts warning that the mixture of humidity and sulfur dioxide was generating acid rain, capable of causing chemical burns on the skin. However, the medical community’s real fear is long-term. This is the “invisible enemy” that Professor Armin Sorooshian talks about in The Conversation. Not only do explosions release petroleum smoke, but the ammunition itself contains heavy metals such as lead and mercury. Exposure to fine particles (PM2.5) that penetrate deep into the lungs brings with it a devastating legacy. As John Balmes, professor emeritus at the University of California, warns, in The New York Times: “Can you imagine a fire in an oil depot in Manhattan? That’s what we’re talking about.” Experts predict a future increase in cardiovascular disease, cognitive damage, DNA alterations and various types of cancer due to the carcinogens present, such as benzene. The threat also filters into what the population drinks and eats. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) have warned that spilled oil and toxic rain are contaminating groundwater, public canals and farmland, poisoning the food chain in a country already suffering from a severe drought. Beyond: ecocide. The magnitude of the disaster brings legal loopholes and massive collateral damage to the table. Iran has called the attacks “ecocide,” a term that makes sense when analyzing international law. The legal limbo that allows this horror. It may seem paradoxical, but bombing a fuel tank is not technically a chemical attack. Expert Alexandra R. Harrington explained it in detail in The Conversation: Although the Geneva Conventions prohibit destroying civil infrastructure, they do not specifically shield gasoline tanks or industrial products. Added to this is that international treaties on chemical weapons only punish the use of weapons manufactured expressly for this purpose. The result? A huge legal loophole that allows a refinery to explode and an entire city to be poisoned without having fired a single factory-made toxic missile. A black sea in the Gulf. The disaster is not only in the sky of Tehran. If we look towards the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, the war has turned the water into another ground zero after direct hits against oil tankers and desalination plants. Oil spills are already spreading across the sea, putting local fishing communities on the ropes and drowning coral reefs. Species that were already on the verge of extinction, like dugongsthey are now swimming in a death trap. The smoke that crossed half the world. The gigantic column of black smoke that was born in the Iranian deposits has not remained stagnant there. The currents have been dragged eastwarddrawing a dark line over Afghanistan and China until it sneaks into Russian airspace. The big fear now is that if all that accumulated soot falls on the high mountain ranges, it will act as a magnet for the sun and drastically accelerate the melting of the glaciers. The hidden climate bill. There is collateral damage that is hardly talked about and that Deutsche Welle has put on the table: The military machinery is an insatiable devourer of fossil fuels. Bombings and troop movements are injecting millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere in record time. The most frustrating thing about this situation is that the current climate agreements have a “fine print” that exempts countries from accounting for emissions derived from war in their official balance sheets. An indelible toxic legacy. Historically, … Read more

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