Hidden

There is a luxury development in Madrid that has been “hidden” for years and is stealing the spotlight from La Finca and La Moraleja

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If we think about luxury developments in Madrid, names like La Finca or La Moraleja probably come to mind. However, there is a new player on the Madrid luxury real estate board, one that has gone unnoticed for decades and has recently become fashionable among the richest. Low profile. Álamos de Bularas is an urbanization that has been standing since the 1980s, but has gone unnoticed in the shadow of more high-profile names such as its neighbor La Finca. Its strong point is precisely that: combining luxury and exclusivity with a lower profile and less media noise than other areas. But just because it is not the most famous urbanization does not mean that it does not offer high-level luxury; a search on housing portals most popular returns us a few properties that border and even exceed 4 million euros. Tranquility is what is most sought after. Like other luxury developments such as La Finca, Somosaguas or Monte Alina, our protagonist is located in Pozuelo de Alarcón (which by the way is the richest municipality in all of Spain) specifically in the northwest area. Álamos de Bulara is a fairly small urbanization, located next to Monte del Pilar, a forested area of ​​about 800 hectares. Access is closed and has private security. The location factor. In statements to the AD Magazinethe head of the Ketier real estate agency highlights that location is a key factor for more and more buyers to look at Álamos de Bularas. The urbanization is very well connected, with access to both the M40 and the A6, allowing its residents to be in the center of Madrid in less than half an hour and in the center of Pozuelo in just 10 minutes. In addition, it is very close to some prestigious private schools and sports clubs. The new refuge for VIPs. The housing crisis is also impacting how and where the wealthiest shop. We were recently talking about luxury apartments in Madrid were so expensivewhich urbanizations like La Moraleja or La Finca were becoming more “affordable” options“for the great fortunes. According to a Colliers report A year ago, the square meter in neighborhoods such as Salamanca or Chamberí reached peaks that exceeded 27,000 euros per square meter. This has caused many buyers to seek residence in peripheral areas, where demand has increased. In Xataka | The rich neighborhoods of Madrid and Barcelona have changed their accent: millionaires from the US and Mexico invest their fortunes in Spain Image | Max Vakhtbovych, Pexels

that is on the hidden side of the Moon

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Just as it happens when you want to see a shower of stars or meteorites, to observe the universe well you have to flee from civilization. If you are looking for an elevated place, all the better. That explains why there are large observatories in the Atacama desert in Chile, in the Roque de los Muchachos from La Palma or the Square Kilometer Array in Australia and South Africa: deserts, volcanic peaks or remote plains are ideal candidates. That on Earth. Astronomer Jack Burns, whose career began in the late 1970s in the Very Large Array of New Mexicohas spent his entire professional life defending that the next big jump is the Moon. Time is proving him right. The Earth is not enough. Clear skies, a dry atmosphere (humidity distorts signals), and getting away from humanity’s electromagnetic noise are essential to having a good observatory. But as Burns has seen firsthand, even in an environment as privileged as that of the VLA, there are insurmountable limits to knowing more about the origin of the universe for two reasons: Earth’s ionosphere blocks much of that low-frequency spectrum. There is still electromagnetic pollution from humanity, for example electrical, telecommunications, radar infrastructures… that mask the signal. The problem of signs of the beginning of the universe. The most abundant element in the universe is neutral hydrogen, but while in the laboratory it emits at 21 centimeters of wavelength, if the signal arrives from the dark ages traveling through the universe, it reaches the Earth stretched to a range that cannot be heard well. From Earth. These radio signals from the cosmic dark ages, a period of between 200 and 400 million years that It started “only” 380,000 years after the Big Bangare really weak and reach frequencies below 50 MHz (very low), so it is difficult to capture them from Earth. Hajor. Wikimedia CC BY-SA 3.0 The solution is on the far side of the moon. The far side of the moon is probably one of the quietest places in the inner Solar system as the mass of the satellite serves as a kind of natural shield that blocks terrestrial and solar signals. When it’s night on the moon (a night that can last up to 14 Earth days), it is possible to achieve almost complete electromagnetic silence: without direct solar radiation and without interference from the Earth. Ideal for listening to the cosmos. Why is it important. Hearing about the dark cosmic age sounds abstract, but being able to observe them would be useful to better specify the models that explain how the first stars and galaxies were formed, not to mention the advances it would allow in the observation of dark matter, dark energy or gravitational waves. In addition, it opens the doors for the moon to become a permanent scientific platform for humanity. This is the LuSEE-Night radio telescope. It’s time for presentations: Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment – Night It is the radio telescope designed to take advantage of that silence. It operates in a range from 0.1 to 50 MHz with the goal of mapping the first low-frequency sky and potentially capturing those first signs of the dark ages. Technically, it had to overcome contradictory demands: it was required to have high sensitivity to detect the weakest signals and, at the same time, high resistance to deal with a hostile lunar environment with large thermal variations. This minimizes its own noise so as not to dirty the listening and with the ability to communicate with the Earth. A winding path. The program has been full of disappointments: in 2024, the first American lunar landing in 50 years, the Odysseus module, landed poorly and broke a leg. It only had time to transmit two hours of data, enough time to at least confirm that the hardware was working. In March 2025, Firefly’s Blue Ghost 1 achieved the first successful private lunar landing and now LuSEE-Night will travel on its successor, Blue Ghost 2, which will land on the far side of the moon without anyone on Earth being able to see it. What comes next. If LuSEE-Night is successful, the roadmap is ambitious: develop FarViewa colossal lunar interferometer on a larger scale that would allow the study of the dark ages with a precision hitherto impossible. The project would begin assembly in the 2030s and would have initial funding from NASA. In Xataka | The hidden side of the Moon is no longer a mystery. A NASA camera is to blame In Xataka | The far side of the Moon hid an icy secret. We finally know why it is so different from what we see Cover | NASA/Firefly Aerospace

After “skincare”, the new cosmetic fever focuses on one of the most hidden corners of the body: the scalp

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For years the message was simple: maintain good hydration and, please, do not go to sleep without removing your makeup. Then we immersed ourselves and fell in love with a new trend: the skincare and his feared ten steps exported from South Korea. Now, in 2026, when it seems that we already have the keys to a good routine integrated, and our pulse does not tremble when deciding whether the serum goes before or after the moisturizing cream, a new task arises. In the midst of a fever to optimize health, the focus moves a few centimeters higher: the scalp. The ten-step routine falls short It is increasingly common to find yourself in cities or, failing that, on TikTok, with centers of hair spa Japanese inspired. Cranial massage, activation of energy points, water jets and hair diagnosisall seasoned with an environment that offers an experience of absolute relaxation. With a proposal this striking, it is not surprising that these treatments have become the new object of desire. beauty. But, as happens with almost everything that promises well-being and succeeds on social networks, an inevitable question arises: are we facing a new gesture to care for our well-being based on science or a new fashion without much sense? This “instagrammable” fusion of hair care with moments of relaxation was born in Asia but the franchise Japanese Head Spathanks to viral videos, has awakened the desire of thousands of users and has managed to adapt the treatment to the European public; especially when emphasizing the relaxation and well-being part. (Unsplash) Aída García, the promoter of the business, discovered the technique at a fair in Miami, but also through TikTok videos, mostly from accounts in Saudi Arabia, where many users wondered when something like this would arrive in Spain. It was then that it detected this gap in the market and decided to take the step, currently having more than 25 centers spread throughout the national territory. “It seems easy, but behind it there are years of experience, an incredible team and a very strong focus on marketing; for example, TikTok has been key because every time we upload a video, our agenda fills up” Aida Garcia, promoter of Japanese Head Spa It is clear that the virality and striking nature of the treatment is what attracts so many users, helping the proliferation of these establishments. Not in vain, these types of centers top the list of trends in spas and wellness, with a 233% increase in searches in 2025 compared to the previous year according to the report SpaSeekers. But there is undoubtedly another compelling reason for this growth. And it is that in a day to day where they prevail the rush and frenetic paceany help to lower the revs is welcome: “They come here from girls who give it to their mothers because they have seen it on TikTok, women aged 30-40 who come accompanied by their partners or grandmothers with their granddaughters. Nowadays, when we have cortisol through the roof and we are going a mile an hour, everyone needs to stop, that is why a hair spa treatment is super giftable,” explains García. This trend around the globe has meant that the endless skincare routines with ingredients such as hyaluronic acid or niacinamide are also transferred to scalp care. As an example, the term “scalp serum” recorded, for much of 2025, a monthly average of more than 910,000 results on social networks such as Instagram or TikTok; assuming an increase of 77% compared to the previous year. Furthermore, if we focus on the global market, sales of products and treatments dedicated to the scalp grew by 4.2% in 2024 and the trend continued to increase in 2025, the year in which articles intended for this area of ​​the body reached 9.6 billion of dollars. (Unsplash) South Korea is not far behind in this trend, honoring its deep cult of beauty. What’s more, the debate about hair loss has transcended the merely aesthetic and has become a public policy issue thanks to the South Korean president and his proposal to cover baldness treatments by the national health insurance. According to Lee, for many young people the problem has stopped being aesthetic and has become “a survival question“On the other hand, when it comes to the viral, there are many spa centers in the country in which famous and influencers enjoy those 15 or 18 steps which includes the Head Spa treatment promising to cleanse, revitalize and balance the scalp. Indeed, the entire experience of this ritual, if we focus on its relaxation aspect, is something positive and can benefit us. However, it is when it comes to hair diagnosis and the avalanche of products with active ingredients where we have to put the brakes on and be more cautious. There are no shortcuts to healthy hair The truth is that although these spas claim that in general they are treatments suitable for all types of hair and scalp, they always urge people with specific conditions such as psoriasis to consult with a dermatologist first. And that’s what we have done, although to satisfy all our doubts: “People have a profound lack of knowledge about health in general, and about the aesthetics and health of the skin and hair in particular, it is something that I see a lot in consultation, that false sense of information. Sometimes they make cherry-picking and they do not know how to relate the concepts, which in the end is the most important thing,” says Dr. Silvia Berjón, a specialist in trichology. The Glowmour Clinic doctor agrees with the sensory and well-being benefits that these treatments provide. Emphasizing “the value of human contact and the release of oxytocin that can cause this relaxation process.” Furthermore, from its focus on longevity medicine emphasizes that not only healthy habits influence a longer and fuller life but, as supported by science, “also activities that nourish emotionally and help reduce stress”, such as these types of rituals. Even … Read more

While the whole world looks at oil, Venezuela’s true treasure is hidden in the basements of London: its gold

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Perhaps the great treasure of Venezuela not oil. In fact, since the United States attacked Caracasa series of theories have begun to be heard loudly that have a common denominator: the greatest Venezuelan loot is thousands of kilometers from the nation, under the soil of the capital of the United Kingdom. The gold trapped in London. Yes, under the streets of the cityin the vaults of the Bank of England, remain immobilized about 31 tons of gold belonging to Venezuela, an asset that in 2020 was valued around 1.4 billion pounds and that today it is worth much more after the strong rebound of the metal price. The capture of Nicolás Maduro for the United States has returned This issue is brought to the international forefront, reopening a question that has been without a clear answer for years: who really has the right to control these reserves. Although global attention often focuses on Venezuelan oil, gold represents about 15% of the country’s foreign reserves and has become a key piece of a political, legal and geopolitical pulse that far transcends Caracas. Recognition and blocking. The origin of the blockage dates back to 2018after a disputed presidential election and the tightening of sanctions promoted by Trump during his first term. The United Kingdom, along with dozens of countries, stopped recognizing Maduro as legitimate president and, under pressure from the Venezuelan opposition, refused to authorize the repatriation of the gold, alleging the risk that it would be used to prop up an authoritarian regime or directly diverted. Added to this, as later revealed former national security advisor John Bolton, an express request from Washington for London to maintain the blockade, which placed the British central bank and the Government at the center of a battle that mixed international law, sanctions and diplomacy. Bank of England A judicial labyrinth. In 2020, Caracas went to court British to claim the gold, arguing that they needed those funds to deal with the pandemic. However, the process became complicated when Juan Guaidó, then recognized by London As interim president, he also claimed ownership of the reserves. The litigation led to a legal tangle about who the Bank of England should obey, a question that remains unresolved even after Guaidó lost international recognition. The result is a legal limbo in which the gold remains immobilized, without any of the parties being able to dispose of it. Piracy accusations. From the Chavista environment, the retention of gold was denounced as an act of “piracy”an accusation made at the time by Delcy Rodríguez, which was later marred by the scandal known as Delcygate following his alleged secret trip to Madrid in 2020 despite an EU entry ban and the alleged sale of Venezuelan bullion. Although Rodríguez has adopted a more conciliatory tone After the fall of Maduro, offering cooperation to the United States, the British position remains firm: Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper has reiterated that London maintains political pressure because it considers it key to force a democratic transition, even underlining the formal independence of the Bank of England in the management of assets. The dangerous precedent. The Venezuelan case is not an exception, but rather part of a trend increasingly controversial: the immobilization of sovereign reserves in a context of growing geopolitical confrontation. We have told it: after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Western countries froze about 300,000 million of dollars from the Russian central bank, largely deposited in Eurocleara measure that has generated tensions with Moscow and has revived the debate about the security of keeping assets abroad. Historically, these sanctions have been rare but not unprecedented, from the Soviet confiscation of Romanian gold in 1918 to blockades of countries like Iran or North Korea in the second half of the 20th century. Global distrust. Thus, the climate of uncertainty is leading many countries to rethink where do you keep your reservesdriving repatriation movements and fueling the recent gold rally as an active refuge. For analysts and central banks, the Venezuelan episode is a clear warning of how politics can interfere with assets that were traditionally considered untouchable. While the Bank of England remains officially silent (and many ingots), Venezuelan gold remains buried under London, converted into a symbol of an increasingly international financial order. more fragile and politicized. Image | Bank of England, Eluveitie In Xataka | The mission in Caracas revealed that the best kept secret in the US is not a drone: it is called DAP and you will not see it in the movies In Xataka | The attack on Venezuela has recovered an uncomfortable truth: that it would not have happened to North Korea for a very simple reason

wells, drought and the hidden side of the avocado

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Avocado is undoubtedly a very delicious food and also in high demand for its good macros, which has led to an increase in its production. This proliferation in its cultivation seems to bring good news for our land (especially because it sells well), but on the Costa del Sol and the Tropical Coast of Malaga and Granada the great environmental impacts are already seen which is generating such as the plowing of the slopes and a large water consumption that aggravates the drought already typical of southern Spain. A great consumption. To put figures, More than 20,000 hectares are now dedicated to avocados in these provinceswith some 5,000 hectares converted from dry land to irrigated land, with dubious legality behind it, which has also caused the appearance up to 250 illegal wells in 2023. This expansion, which represents 30% of the Andalusian avocado area (about 9,400 hectares in total), has replaced traditional crops with hypertensive tropical crops despite the climate crisis. All to opt for a crop that can undoubtedly give a great economic return. Environmentalism. A recent complaint made through Along with this complaint, which points to the serious environmental problems that are being experienced, different images are shown that undoubtedly speak for themselves to understand how this crop is affecting the geography. Publication in X by Santiago M. Barajas | Via X What we are seeing is not just agriculture; It is an industrial transformation of the landscape that is pushing the water and geological resources of Malaga and Granada to the limit. This is how avocado and mango have gone from being “green gold” to becoming an environmental time bomb. Destruction engineering. Traditionally, agriculture in these areas was adapted to the natural orography of the land. But now, the model that has been imposed, driven by the very high profitability of the tropical fruit, does the opposite: adapt the orography to the crop by force. According to Ecologists in Action and confirm various edaphic studiesthe implementation of these crops requires heavy machinery to break slopes. The process eliminates the original vegetation cover to create artificial terraces. The result? A severe degradation of the soil in its surface horizons. A problem with storms. With this degradation, what is caused is the elimination of natural vegetation, which produces a “sealing” of the soil and consequently the appearance of cracks that nullify its biological functions. The problem arises when torrential rains appear (increasingly more frequent in the Mediterranean), which causes the water to not filter and run away, dragging nutrients and causing massive erosion. This is something that translates into the use of more fertilizers by farmers, which end up contaminating the subsoil. In short, we are facing a vicious cycle of chemical and physical degradation. An infinite thirst. The avocado is a fruit that fits perfectly in the rainforest, but has now been transplanted in an area with a semi-arid Mediterranean climate. An ideal place for traditional dryland crops such as olive or almond trees that can survive on what falls from the sky. But avocado or mango in a hypertensive model demand about 7,500 cubic meters of water per hectare per year. These demands Added to the large number of plantations that exist, as we have commented previously, it leads to great water tension that we have seen reflected in the La Viñuela reservoir, which has reached only 7% of its capacity in 2023, and which has reached La Axarquía in Malaga. to a critical situation. And this deficit is not solved with rain, but with drilling machines that open wells in the area. In this way, the direct consequence is clear: overexploitation of aquifers and their salinization due to marine intrusion. An escalated problem. This avocado bubble does not stop increasing in our country. Given the collapse that has been experienced in Malagathe model has been replicated in Cádiz, Hueva or Murcia, which in the end are regions that already suffer their own water stress due to not receiving much rainfall throughout the year. But not only has he been emigrating from the provinces, but he has also escalated to the judicial field, where the prosecution points it is already being investigated a possible environmental crime with damage to the public water domain valued at 10 million euros and the illegal theft of up to 26 cubic hectometers of water. And in many of these regions citizens have had to suffer supply cuts due to this shortage, while this agricultural model continued to demand A solution. What is proposed In this case it is the ordered de-escalation of these crops. To achieve this, the goal is to stop new irrigation talks and close illegal wells. The problem is that it faces a very important leg of the economy of some of these provinces, against the change in the landscapes of the region. In Xataka | Andalusia has become a hostile land for the avocado. So an unexpected region is taking over: Galicia

The chaos that AI has generated in personnel hiring has revealed a type of hidden talent: “invisible developers”

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For years it has been repeated that to have a good work in technology It was necessary to cultivate a good public personal brand and maintain an updated and complete professional profile. However, more and more voices within the technology sector are dismantling that idea, ensuring that many of the most valued developers They don’t do any of that. They are not going to apply to dozens of job offers or optimize their visibility. “Invisible developers” are simply brilliant at their job. This invisibility is something that was put on the table Gergely Oroszengineer, analyst and author of ‘The Software Engineer’s Guidebook’ in a recent message in his X profile, in which he pointed out that this profile of “invisible developers” flies under the radar “the only way to find them is through references and specific searches”, assured the expert Candidates with AI have broken everything. The increase in responses generated by AI to job offers has completely broken the hiring system. They explained it perfectly from the Manfred technological employment platform, where a few years ago they received between 20 and 50 applications a day for each job offer, and now they receive more than 500. Various recruiters they explained on Reddit that this saturation of applications lowers the average quality of the applications and makes it difficult to detect real talent through this route. The situation is so extreme that, as Orosz indicated in an analysis from the tech job market posted on his blog, “many companies hire most engineers through contacts and referrals.” Internal recommendations matter more than ever. In this saturated scenario in which true talent goes unnoticed, word of mouth has become the most reliable hiring filter. It is estimated that around 80% of existing job offers are not made public and are filled internally or through references and recommendations from the employees themselves. In fact, many companies use referral incentives among their employees so that, when a vacancy opens, they recommend their former colleagues and acquaintances as candidates. As Orosz details in his analysis, recruiters increasingly look for candidates more among the pages of their agenda than among the applications that come to them. The myth of the hypervisible developer. Public attention usually focuses on profiles with a lot of activity on networks or with highly visible projects. However, different examples and testimonies reveal the rising trend of “invisible developers”: brilliant workers at their job with little or no activity on their public profiles. A clear example is found in the message published by Max Spero, co-founder of the AI ​​company Pangram, in which he compares the GitHub contribution profile of an unemployed 22-year-old developer, full of activity and contributions, and that of a prominent Google engineer, with a practically empty history. In response to that post, Konstantin K, a software developer from San Francisco, confirmed Spero’s message. “The top 1% of engineers I’ve worked with over the past 10 years didn’t have GitHub, LinkedIn or LeetCode, they don’t speak at conferences or publish podcasts. But they built systems that no one else can,” he wrote. Trust networks between colleagues. Other testimonialsamong which Orosz is also foundreinforce this idea of ​​”invisible developers” and agree that the most effective way to open job doors in the future is to be valuable to colleagues in the present. “From the outside you cannot know how good an engineer this person is until you ask former colleagues. There are many cases like this,” wrote Orosz in X. Even academic research suggest that internal networks—those formed by real collaborations, not superficial digital connections—have a direct impact on career opportunities. In other words, the professional prestige that these “invisible” employees generate within the teams in which they participate weighs more than any public presence and their colleagues become their guarantors to obtain a job in the future. Real contact in a digital setting. It is still paradoxical that, faced with the saturation of digital channels and the implementation of AI-based systems, the technology sector is returning to a classic model: relying on real recommendations to reduce uncertainty. Research reveals that recruiters prefer to spend time on references validated by employees or former colleagues, rather than analyzing hundreds of clone resumes generated with AI. In Xataka | Job interviews have always been a game of cunning: AI is just taking things to another level Image | Unsplash (Vitaly Gariev)

an AI that decides when to shoot has hidden where it is least expected

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In recent months, Ukraine has seen technological leaps that until very recently were more typical of the realm of science fiction. Of the machines capturing and taking prisoners went to drones attacking on his own in a matter of weeks or even the arrival of a “general AI” capable of converting soldiers in “invisibles”. The latest: a kind of cross between Terminator and Predator. From improvised anti-aircraft weapon to autonomous system. Yes, Ukraine has turned urgency into advanced military engineering by developing what they have called like Predatoran automated machine gun turret initially created for the Magura naval drones could face Russian helicopters and fighters that They patrolled the Black Seaa space where air pressure on Ukrainian operations increased after the success of unmanned attacks against the Russian Fleet. The Predator debuted in combat end of 2024when its sensors and target acquisition capabilities allowed two helicopters to be shot down using missiles fired from other naval drones, and months later it helped shoot down a Russian Su-30, demonstrating that an unmanned explosive vehicle could also provide anti-aircraft cover. A twist. Once the success of the machine was seen, Ukraine decided to “hide it” where it would be a surprise to the enemy. It turns out that integrating this turret into a maritime platform was a complex challenge which made it necessary to guarantee stability in adverse conditions, precision in a moving hull and compatibility with guidance processes that combine optical sensors, artificial intelligence and gyroscopic systems. The Predator turret equipped on a small tracked vehicle Naval technology adapted for drone warfare. Thus, although it was born for the sea, recent tests of the Predator have confirmed its usefulness in the dominant theater of modern warfare: the FPV drone combat loaded with explosives, responsible for a growing share of Ukrainian losses on the ground. With 7.62mm ammunition, optical sensors, gyroscopic stabilization and automatic detection alerts, the system can be mounted on track vehicles or in the bed of a pick-up, shooting on the move and following minimum targets of just a few centimeters at 100 meters. And more. Artificial intelligence allows the turret identify threats and present options to the operator, who maintains the final decision to avoid fratricidal fires, while the new versions incorporate laser rangefinders and precision improvements adapted to drones controlled by radio frequency or fiber optics. From Ukraine to NATO. The rapid industrialization of the Predator (more than thirty units built and a plan to produce a hundred a month in less than half a year, with a unit cost of less than $100,000 for the Ukrainian forces) makes this system one of the most agile developments of the Ukrainian military complex. In fact, its success has awakened the NATO interestwhich invited the company to an Innovation Challenge and put the system to the test at an evaluation event in France, where the manufacturer presented it remotely as a modular and immediately deployable solution to threats that evolve with weeks, not years, of margin. Additionally, UGV Robotics plans a larger caliber model, the Apex Predatorwith .50 ammunition and the ability to intervene against heavier aerial threats, aiming to turn these turrets into an exportable standard for Western allies. The new paradigm of Ukrainian defense. The story of this turret illustrates how Ukraine is integrating naval and land capabilities into the same combat ecosystem automation basedmodular sensors and systems capable of operating on unmanned platforms, a strategy driven by constant pressure from Russian drones and the need to protect both infantry and exposed vehicles. In this context, a design conceived so that an explosive drone would not be shot down from the air is now transformed into a ground defense against cheap and lethal swarms, making the Predator a symbol of Ukraine’s shift towards a distributed, adaptive defense focused on neutralizing asymmetric threats before they reach their objective. Image | UGV Robotics In Xataka | It’s not that the war in Ukraine has been gamified, it’s that there are now “hero points” to exchange for exclusive weapons In Xataka | In the midst of rearmament, Europe has realized an unimportant detail: it does not have enough bullets

Stephen Hawking left a hidden treasure that has just been discovered. The problem is that it is in the form of floppy disks

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The Cambridge University Library houses several historical treasures including letters from Isaac Newton and notebooks from Charles Darwin. Now they will take care also of manage 113 boxes with documents and memories of the physical Stephen Hawkingbut in those boxes they also found a surprise turned into a challenge: floppy disks. Lots of them. Computer pioneer. The famous physicist was an early user of those first computers in which data was stored on floppy disks. When he suffered from ALS this was a very important resource to be able to communicate and work, and now those disks that have just been discovered could contain all kinds of revealing data about Hawking’s life and work. Future Nostalgia. That’s what it’s called the project of the University of Cambridge and its library that precisely tries to safeguard all that information that in the past ended up being stored on floppy disks. Recovering such data is not easy when so much time has passed, and this project tries to educate about the best ways to preserve said information and transfer or recover it from those floppy disks. A format with an expiration date. Although one would think that floppy disks are a more secure way to store data than paper and ink, this physical medium also has clear disadvantages. The iron oxide covering the thin layer of plastic can degrade and lose its magnetic capabilities, meaning data could be lost forever. Each floppy disk is a world. With old books there are not too many problems when it comes to retrieving the information: you open them and read them (if you understand the language, of course). With floppy disks you need the hardware to be able to read them—a compatible disk drive—and also figure out how they are formatted. Leontien Talboom, responsible for this project, explained How to also clean those floppy disks was complex and there were various methods that they were exploring. These included the use of hand soap or isopropyl alcohol. Hawking used both a PC and a Mac. The disks arrived at the project in two batches. The first, with five and a quarter (5.25 inch) disks formatted on an MS-DOS based PC. The second, with three and a half disks, somewhat more recent and that were still used on an old Mac. According to Talboom, they are mainly talks that Hawking gave: “from a technical point of view they are really interesting because his talks were so big that he had to divide them into several floppy disks.” I wrote to speak. Hawking’s illness left him unable to speak for himself, so for years he used various voice synthesizers to express his ideas. Precisely for this reason he wrote so much on the computer and saved those documents on disk: this allowed him to use them later so that his synthesized voice could read said documents. Different discs, different readers. Although 5.25″ and especially 3.5″ discs were the most widespread, other formats were also seen such as eight inch discs which for example were used in the Churchill Archives Centre. Chris Knowles, one of the Future Nostalgia participants, explained how he bought a player for these discs on eBay. “It was a miracle that it worked,” but that allowed him to recover the information from those disks. Forgotten formats. They have also received some three-inch floppy disks, a much less widespread and peculiar format that had some success in the United Kingdom before the 3.5″ format was clearly imposed. To recover them, they ended up using an old reader manufactured by Amstrad that they had to modify to bring it back to life. And then there’s the software problem.. The information recovered from these disks can also pose another challenge: that it was created with software that was abandoned and even ended up disappearing. Some disks, for example, had documents written with a missing word processor called Diamond Word. That’s where a kind of “translation” comes into play to convert those files into something readable in the current era. Safeguarding our past. This work demonstrates how critical it is to try to protect and recover information from these old formats. Many of those floppy disks are 40 or 50 years old, and as Knowles says, “old emails and work calendars may not look like historical documents. They might seem banal. But they’re what Newton’s or Darwin’s letters would have looked like 200 years ago. Now they are fascinating documents that open a window to the past.” In Xataka | The 20 most important personal computers in the history of technology

Hidden for 43 years, this Mercedes-Benz 500 SL is the closest thing to a toy preserved in its packaging: it still smells new

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Who They collect toys and dolls They know that preserving a piece in its original case for decades is a precious achievement, a symbol of care and respect for the history of the object that also increases substantially its value. Now, imagine that same experience, but with a car. It is something much more difficult to achieve because, if only to give yourself the pleasure of drive it from time to timeand compensate the money that has been paid for it, it is easy and understandable for the vehicle owner to fall into temptation. However, that is precisely what SL Shop, a workshop specialized in repair and restoration of Mercedes-Benz and They tell it on their blog. The most surprising thing – and what makes this find so unusual – is that the owner’s intention was never to drive it, but rather to preserve it intact as it left the factory and without the slightest wear. If cars were sold in a blister pack like toys, this would be the equivalent. The dream piece for any collector It is common for a legendary car stored in a barn to appear from time to time. under decades of dust and rust. However, this Mercedes-Benz 500 SL R107 from 1982 has been discovered after 43 years carefully stored in a private garage in the United Kingdom, with just 68 kilometers on the odometer and in an absolutely pristine state of conservation. It has only traveled the 42 miles that were done on it at the factory and at the dealership before delivery. It is a true time capsule on wheels, which seems to have just rolled off the assembly line a few days ago. Sam Bailey, founder of The SL Shop, a classic Mercedes specialist who took delivery of the vehicle, said: “This 500 SL is the truest reflection of the original R107 plans.” In fact, as he himself acknowledges in a video they have uploaded to his YouTube channel, the car It even keeps the smell of new. “You could almost bottle it. It’s just heaven,” Bailey said. This example was purchased with all the original extras available on November 30, 1982 by a local watchmaker, who decided never to register this Mercedes-Benz 500 SL. In fact, even the delivery of the vehicle it was done in a truckso it didn’t even travel the distance between the dealership and the owner’s home. Since then, the 500 SL has been in storage under controlled temperature and humidity conditionsavoiding any deterioration. The Blue Green Metallic paint remains intact and rust-free, and the original dealer stickers are still attached, something very rare to find on collector cars. The car shows amazing conservation details: Waxoyl protective wax still covers the engine and exhaust, while the Michelin XWX tires remain. without having traveled even a kilometer. The interior preserves the leather, the original woods and even the authentic smell of the 80s. Among the factory options it has air conditioning, heated seats, ABS and metallic paint, valued in 1982 at more than 2,746 euros. The car has all its original elements and is in an impeccable state of conservation except for one detail. The Mercedes-Benz badge on the hood is not the original: it is a faithful reproduction that was made by the owner in solid silver. It was put up for sale: it will never be sold As Bailey tells it, he learned of the existence of this gem more than fifteen years ago, when during an exhibition, its owner approached them to tell them the story of his little automobile treasure. When Bailey asked if he would be willing to sell it, the owner responded with a firm no. But life takes many turns. In August 2025, Bailey received a call from the owner of the 500 SL offering it for sale. Knowing its history, the businessman has decided to buy it and He has promised to never sell it. To maintain the legacy of its first owner, the 500 SL will remain in an exhibition space open to the public and air-conditioned for conservation, where it will serve as a reference for future restorations. After all, there is no other car like this outside the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. That makes it a collector’s piece with incalculable value. The Mercedes-Benz 500 SL R107 was at the time the pinnacle of luxury and power German, with a 5.0-liter V8 engine that delivered 240 horsepower and a four-speed automatic transmission. Its design, technology and comfort rivaled sports cars from brands such as Ferrari and Maserati, but with an outstanding reputation. for its reliability. This model is recognized as a symbol of German engineering from the early 80s, capable of combining performance, elegance and durability, values ​​that are evident in this unique example, practically new after more than four decades hidden so that four decades later, whoever has the privilege of being able to sit inside, can smell the new smell of the first day. In Xataka | One of the largest collections of cars in the world has an unlikely origin: the shift system of fishmongers Image | SL Shop

If you have installed iOS 26 and you do not like the new transparent design, you just have to press this hidden button on the settings

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iOS 26 has not only brought an important change in the name, It also comes with the largest redesign of the iPhone for years. The interface Liquid Glass is characterized by being full of transparencies, Something that not to everyone will convince him. Liquid Glass cannot be deactivated, but there are ways for your iPhone to have a design almost like before. Goodbye to transparencies in iOS 26 As the saying says, for tastes: colors. There will be those who are delighted with Liquid Glass, but one thing is true: The readability of some elements is harmed With so much transparency. I no longer talk about Transparent icons do not find appsbut of menus and controls that overlap and do not finish seeing well. If you are in my team, this option is for you. The magic button to get rid of transparencies. The button we are talking about is’Reduce Transparency ‘ And it does just what his name says. To activate it you simply have to go into adjustments – Accessibility – screen and text size and disable it. The result will be that the translucent effect will be reduced, causing the elements to distinguish much better. Let’s look at a couple of examples: The APP photos controls look fatal when we see an image or full screen. The APP photos is a good example that transparency is not always better. Looking at this full -screen image, the buttons look much less clear with activated transparency. In addition, the effect is changing as we move the photo, causing the background to move and dizzy even more. The control center is much more readable. The control center also benefits from this option, but above all Where I have noticed is in the notification panel (in the cover photo). Here we have many small texts and we usually slide to see all notifications, making everything move and cost us more to read. If you want to improve the readability a little more about the option ‘Increase contrast’ It is just below. If you active, the effect is minimized Glow And everything looks flatter. And finally, if you don’t like Liquid Glass, there is plenty of saying that Do not activate transparent icons, Better to leave it in the ‘by omission’ mode. Two extras: Telephone and Safari The redesign also reaches system applications and, again, It is not for everyone. The good news is that they allow us Go back and have the design before. One of them is the safari browser. Safari has a new design, but we can return to the old if we want. By default, when IOS IOS 26 will activate the new compact design that the search bar and two buttons have on the sides. If you go to settings – Safari you can choose whether to keep the re -but without the compact design or on the contrary Return to classic design with the top bar and the buttons below. The telephone app also has a new design. In the case of the telephone app, when opening it asks if we want to try the new design. As in Safari, The interface is more compact And it offers us less tabs at the bottom, in addition to eliminating the “calls/losses” coach from the top. If you do not convince you, you can click on the top button to the right and return to the classic design. Images | Amparo Babyloni, Xataka In Xataka | iPhone Air: so absurdly fine that Apple has had to completely redesign

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