history

the mythical episode that changed the history of television

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On October 29, 1995, on the brink of Halloween, Fox aired a very special episode of the already very popular ‘The Simpsons‘. It was ‘Treehouse of Horror VI’, the sixth episodic special in the series, which has become an annual tradition. It’s been exactly thirty years since that, and the result was so visionary and revolutionary as was everything ‘The Simpsons’ did in the nineties. What was happening. In ‘Homer’Homer passes through a portal that transports him from his traditional 2D animated world to a strange 3D computer-generated universe. Quite a technical challenge unprecedented for the series and a true milestone in television animation, as it was one of the first visible incursions of CGI graphics in an animated series, which is doubly surprising because we are not talking about an experimental program, but rather one of the most watched series of the moment. For many viewers it was their first encounter with an aesthetic of this type: a pioneering work by the company Pacific Data Images (PDI), who with limited resources managed to create a few minutes of sequence that today are considered a benchmark. Why it is important. The segment not only attracted attention for its impressive technical innovation, but also for its characteristic humor. In short: it never stopped being a ‘The Simpsons’ sketch. The episode aired just a month before the premiere of ‘toy story‘, helping to mark that year as essential for CGI animation. How it was born. The original idea was conceived by series executive producer Bill Oakley, inspired by the episode ‘Little Girl Lost’ of the legendary ‘The Twilight Zone’. To carry out this vision, the pioneering computer animation studio Pacific Data Images (PDI) was contacted, but the economic and technical demands were very high: the budget assigned by Fox for the segment was extremely low, barely $6,000, but the real cost to make the four minutes planned exceeded hundreds of thousands of dollars. Hair and other problems. PDI decided to take on the project almost as a strategic investment to achieve visibility and prestige in the industry, which would later allow them greater commercial opportunities (as indeed happened with their subsequent link with DreamWorks, by whom they were acquired and with whom they collaborated on ‘Antz’ and ‘Shrek‘).The animation ended up being limited to just Homer and Bart, and a few minutes of footage. The PDI team had to reinvent the characters, creating three-dimensional models that preserved the essence of the original design. Significantly, Homer’s iconic hairstyle was among the biggest challenges, as it was difficult to replicate with the digital tools of the time. The production process required the coordination of the series’ traditional animators team and PDI specialists. And with easter eggs. The backgrounds and objects in the 3D world were designed for both a sense of strangeness and an urgent minimalism, and included easter eggs like the iconic Utah Teapota test standard in computer animation. And there were also references to the video game ‘Myst’. This setting sought to emphasize the feeling of being in an artificial dimension, leaving behind the familiarity of Springfield. As a total exhibition of the possibilities of 3D animation, a scene was included where Homer appears in the real world, filmed on Ventura Boulevard. It was another nod that sought to experiment with different styles and genres within a single special. The legacy. The positive response was immediate. It was the most watched fiction program of the week on Fox, with an audience of 22.9 million viewers, a very notable figure for an animated special. In addition, ‘Homer³’ received awards such as recognition at the Ottawa International Animation Festival, highlighting its innovative and artistic value. A milestone that, thirty years later, continues to amaze due to the daring and disruption it presented in a series that, at that time, no longer needed to prove anything. In Xataka | In 1997, a construction company had the crazy idea of ​​building the Simpsons’ house and putting it up for sale. It ended so-so

YouTube is ready to launch the largest video reconstruction project in history. And yes, it will use AI

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YouTube was born in 2005 and, since then, it has become the largest audiovisual archive in recent history. For years, millions of users uploaded videos in 240p or 480p because that was what the cameras, connections and devices of the moment allowed. This material does not lose value because it has low resolution: there are extraordinary pieces that continue to be a reference. But today the screens are better, the sound matters more and that difference is noticeable. So now comes an attempt to update that experience without erasing the past. An ocean of videos. The YouTube catalog is not large: it is huge. The figures published by electroiq put the total at around 4.3 billion videos in 2025, after a stage in which the Shorts format It pushed the increases to levels never seen before. About 800 million were added in 2023 alone. That momentum has tempered, in part because of controls on repetitive content and a lower craze for short clips, but the trend remains. If the current pace continues, the service could surpass 10 billion videos before 2030. YouTube begins to “reconstruct” its videos. YouTube has announced that will begin to automatically improve videos uploaded in resolutions between 240p and 720p, raising them to HD quality using artificial intelligence. The process does not delete the original files or modify the base video: it is an alternative version visible under the “super resolution” label. Creators will be able to decide if they want it to be applied and viewers will retain the option to view the content in its original resolution. It is a measure that seeks to modernize the archive without altering its authenticity. Lens: 4K. The roadmap is clear. After starting with videos below 1080p, YouTube wants automatic enhancement also reach 4K resolutions “in the short term,” according to its announcement. To support that jump, heavier uploads are already being tested with some creators and thumbnails will also be able to reach 4K, thanks to the extension of the file limit from 2 MB to 50 MB. Everything points to an attempt by the platform to ensure that both the content and its presentation are at the level of current panels. The audio also goes up a notch. The modernization of the catalog does not stop at the visual. YouTube has also introduced automatic audio enhancements that adjust the mix and maintain a more consistent volume between different scenes. These automatic improvements are grouped under the “Stable volume“, which the viewer can activate or deactivate according to their preference. With this, the company seeks to prevent sound jumps from breaking the experience, something common in old videos or recordings with basic equipment. It will not be for all videos. YouTube clarifies that these improvements will not be applied indiscriminately. They will only affect videos uploaded in low resolution that have not been previously remastered to 1080p or higher. Additionally, as we already mentioned, creators can decide from YouTube Studio whether they want the platform to apply visual or audio enhancements to their future uploads. It is a measure that seeks to avoid unwanted distortions and give room to those who prefer to keep their content exactly as it was published. If these enhancements are disabled for the channel, viewers may not be able to use features such as “Stable volume” or “Super resolution” on that content. Upscaling no longer lives on your TV. Many televisions include their own systems to improve the image, but YouTube’s approach is different. Instead of applying upscaling on the device, the platform does it in the cloud, allowing it to process millions of videos consistently without depending on the user’s hardware. Additionally, the viewer can choose between the original playback or the enhanced version from the quality menu, with an option visible and explicit in the interface. Catalog, discovery, legacy. For creators, this update has an immediate benefit: they don’t need to re-upload old videos to make them look better on current screens. The file remains intact and the enhancement is applied as an additional layer, respecting the original. This can help valuable pieces from years ago gain presence, without altering their essence. The viewer, for their part, receives a more homogeneous experience and the possibility of choosing how to view each content. Images | Xataka with Gemini 2.5 | CardMapr In Xataka | NVIDIA has risen to the top for its AI data centers. Your next big leap: cars

the first “drone” attack in history

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If the war in Ukraine has shown us anything, it is that the rules of the game have changed. The drones dominate the battlefield and they don’t have to be cutting-edge creations: commercial and recreational drones They can perform precision attacks. However, the technical and even psychological foundations were laid more than 175 years ago, when the Austro-Hungarian Empire carried out the first bombing with unmanned vehicles of history against Venice. In the mid-19th century, today’s Italy did not exist. The territories were fragmented into a series of kingdomss, but within the framework of the liberal revolutions of 1848, some of those kingdoms tried to become independent from the control of the Austrian Empire. That same year, Venice rebelled and proclaimed itself the ‘Republic of San Marco’. It was a symbol of resistance to Austrian rule and, evidently, the Empire was not going to let it pass. Led by Marshal Radetzkythe Empire carried out a siege of the city, but as you might already guess, Venice is not an easy city to attack due to the “natural” defenses of the canals. Yes, in a war of attrition, disease and famine would take their toll on the population, but the Austro-Hungarians were in a hurry. Faced with the impediment of bombing and attacking the city in a conventional way, someone came up with an idea as crazy as it is tempting: bomb it with drones. Well, with the drones of the time. The UAVs of the Austro-Hungarian Empire against Venice The key name in this story is Franz von Uchatius. He was an artillery lieutenant who was also an inventor. Nothing like what he proposed had ever been done and I would have loved to have been in the room when he presented his idea, but basically the plan was loading hot air balloons with explosivesand control them in some way so that they would release the bombs on the city. Specifically, what von Uchatius suggested was launch 200 balloons both from the ground and from the SMS Vulcano (which we could consider as the first aircraft carrier in history), each loaded with about 15 kilos of explosives and a detonation system based on continuous combustion fuses (coal and cotton with fat). Each of the ‘drones’ It would have an activation system using copper wires and, in the case of some prototypes, galvanic batteries. Remote control? The wind and a series of estimated flight calculations, as well as a very strong desire for each of the balloons to fall where they had to fall: on the city’s population. On July 12, 1849 began the deployment of Austro-Hungarian drones, the first time humanity experienced that remote aerial threat. Now, the result was very different from what the attacking forces expected. Military failure… BUT Although they did the calculations, the balloon-bombers had no real guidance: they were pushed randomly by the wind. And the result was devastating for both forces, as impossible as it may seem. The first thing is that few bombs hit the city and the material damage was practically non-existent. In fact, changes in the wind and failure in those calculations caused some of the explosions to affect the Austro-Hungarian forces. Basically, the balloons were unpredictable. But do not think that the Venetian population had reasons to rejoice about this, since, although we may intuit that they would rejoice to see how the weapons of the enemies “revealed” against them, the truth is that the Venetians added a new concern to those they already had: an unlikely attack. The possibility of being attacked from the sky by devices like this It shocked the population and, although it was not the reason why the city capitulated days later (most likely it was due to the desperation caused by the siege), it was surely another item to add to the list of concerns. Although useless militarily, it was the conceptual germ of an unmanned aerial attack, something that was also used in the war between the US and Spain of 1898, later it was continued exploring in the World War I (where chilling new ways to kill each other were invented) and perfected in the modern era. Although the use of balloons with dangerous cargo has not stopped being used, and an example of this is the balloons with excrement that are thrown between North and South Korea. With all that this implies at a security level, since a few months ago they were feces, but they could perfectly have been explosives. Images | Timetoast National Library of France In Xataka | Using aerial balloons to smuggle tobacco is common in Eastern Europe. And then the airports have a problem

For the first time in history there are mosquitoes in Iceland. And it was assumed that they couldn’t get there

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Iceland is being invaded. Not just for touristsbut because of something perhaps more undesirable: insects that had never been seen on the island. For the first time in their history, at least since records have been kept, Icelanders have encountered one of the bugs most undesirable and hated for all of us who have to sleep with the windows open in summer: mosquitoes. They have been few, but they can represent the advance of a full-fledged colonization. Unwanted guests. Bjorn Hjaltason is an amateur entomologist who was hunting for insects last week when he found something strange. On the wine-soaked rope he uses to catch moths and being able to observe it, three insects fell that have nothing to do with moths. They were mosquitoes, specifically two females and a male, but at first, Hjaltason described them as “some strange flies.” And as they count in BBCthe event was such that the local media opened with the news. Because yes, it is more serious than it may seem (and not because of the bites). Shelter. Iceland has remained one of the world’s mosquito-free bastions, one of only two mosquito-free havens. The other is Antarctica, and the reason is that these insects they don’t handle the cold well. Being cold-blooded, they need environmental heat to carry out their activity. When air temperatures are around 10º, their metabolism slows down so much that they become dysfunctional. Not only can they not fly, but they also cannot reproduce. In warmer climates, this is the time when they enter a kind of hibernation, looking for shelters in which to weather the storm until the heat returns. In Iceland it was not necessary because the average temperature was below 10º. BUT. Climate changethere is no more. Records from the Reykjavík observatory show that in the last 30 years there has been a gradual increase of temperatures, with average values ​​that have past from 2.4º to 4.1º. The average temperature has increased by 0.5º in the last decade, almost double of the planet average and there are areas that have broken all records. They are also occurring extreme episodeslike the 26.6º that in Córdoba would be pleasant and to go out with a jacket in the morning, but that in May of this year must have felt like real hell in Egilsstaoir. There were episodes like this before, but reports indicate that these events that were anomalies are becoming more common. You have to wait. Mosquitoes, of course, are at ease with those temperatures, but the big question is where they came from. Hjaltason found them in Kjós and speculates that they may have come on a freighter that landed at Grundartangi. The two cities are in western Iceland and the insect enthusiast points out that unusual ‘bugs’ usually come in those freighters. Another entomologist, Matthías Alfreodsson, to whom Hjaltason sent the mosquitoes confirmed that, although they belonged to a species that tolerates low temperatures somewhat better –Culiseta annulata-, they should not be in Iceland and we will have to wait until spring to check if the species has really established itself on the island. But Hjaltason is clear that if three of them went directly to his garden, “there will probably be more.” I feel sorry for you, fellow Icelanders. Images | Enzo Guidi In Xataka | The Japanese method to get rid of mosquitoes at home during the summer: katori senko

A 4.4 million-year-old ankle has turned the history of bipedalism and everything we knew about our ancestors upside down.

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The origin of human bipedalism, the ability to walk on two legs, is one of the great debates in science today. For decades, scientists have wondered what the last common ancestor we share with us was like. chimpanzees and its characteristics. Now an ankle bone has ended up giving us the key we were looking for to rethink everything what we knew about our ancestors. The study. Published in Communications Biology and as the protagonist a 4.4 million year old ankle bone that belonged to a Ardipithecus ramidus. a hominid which was discovered in Ethiopia and which gives us many data about the history of human evolution. And this is because the conclusion is surprising: the ankle of this ancient hominid has surprising similarities with those of modern chimpanzees and gorillas. Something that makes us think that humans evolve from an ancestor similar to African apes, which makes us wonder about how and why we began to walk upright. The great debate. He Ardipithecus ramidusor “Ardi”, is essential in this case. It lived 4.4 million years ago and already displayed hominid characteristics, but combined primitive features such as a prehensile, ape-like big toe with human-derived features in the pelvis and skull. This is what suggests right now that an “early form of bipedalism” was used. The key is in the morphology of the talus, which in Ardi resembles that of African apes more than that of any other fossil hominin analyzed. The objective in this case is to know how our ancestors moved on the surface, but they also climbed trees vertically. This suggests that it made use of both early bipedalism and skills typical of arboreal life, placing Ardi in an intermediate position between Australopithecus and the great apes. And this bone is the fundamental key to knowing how the evolution to bipedalism took place. The challenge. This finding broadly challenges the traditional model of human evolution, which assumed that the last common ancestor with chimpanzees was a generalist and arboreal ape, alien to terrestrial life and bipedalism. New evidence indicates that humans most likely evolved from an African ancestor specialized in vertical climbing and also had plantigrade terrestrial locomotion. That is, with the soles of the feet completely supported like current gorillas and chimpanzees. A true hybrid between the two automotive models. The authors maintain that several lineages (humans, chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas) share a past adapted to mixed life between trees and soil. The subsequent evolution of bipedalism would have been built on that basis, little by little modifying the anatomy and locomotor abilities to stop climbing trees and move on to what we now all use in our daily lives. Its implications. The morphometric data of the ankle of Ardipithecus demonstrate the presence of a structure designed to “push” when walking and improve balance, but without completely losing the ability to grip. The evolutionary process towards complete bipedalism was much more gradual and less linear than what had originally been proposed by experts. Furthermore, the most recent studies not only focus on the talus, but also on the metatarsus and pelvis, confirming that Ardi could walk upright during his short journeys and return to trees to climb and take shelter. This duality is key to understanding how our ancestors adapted to different environments and ecological pressures. What changes. The hybrid anatomy of Ardipithecus ramidus dismantles the chimpanzee ancestor myth, and presents a new branch on our human evolutionary tree. Far from being a rarity, Ardi represents an example of evolutionary transition and the complexities that may exist in the origins of our species. Thus, scientists propose abandoning this concept of a straight line in evolution and embracing an adaptive mosaic between different species. Images | Wikipedia Satya deep In Xataka | The skull that changes everything: a million-year-old fossil suggests that ‘Homo sapiens’ did not come from Africa

ChatGPT Atlas is here. It’s the biggest nightmare in the history of Google

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OpenAI has launched Atlas, your first browserand Alphabet has seen $150 billion in market capitalization evaporate in a matter of hours. Shares fell 4.8% shortly after the announcement, recovering slightly to close down 2.4%. The market reaction was no coincidence: Atlas is not (just) Chrome with a chatbot stuck on top, it is a browser designed from scratch around ChatGPT. Why is it important. For two decades, Google has controlled how we access the Internet through a lethal combination: Chrome as a gateway and Google Search as a mandatory destination. Atlas breaks that logic. If your browser has an AI assistant with memory that remembers your preferences, performs complex tasks for you, and directly answers your questions, the traditional search bar no longer makes sense. It is therefore not an incremental improvement, but rather a paradigm shift in the way we navigate. In detail. Atlas eliminates the address bar as the nerve center of the browser and replaces it with ChatGPT. Users can open a side panel in any window to summarize content, compare products, or analyze data without switching tabs. But the star functionality is the “agent mode“, currently reserved for paying subscribers: ChatGPT literally takes control of the mouse and keyboard, surf the web on your behalf, fill out forms, research travel options, add ingredients to the shopping cart. In yesterday’s demo, an OpenAI developer showed how the agent found a recipe and automatically purchased all the ingredients, a process that took several minutes but required no human intervention. “Browser memory” is another key piece. Atlas can remember what you’ve searched for before, what sites you’ve visited, and what projects you have in hand, using that data to suggest actions or automate routines it detects in your behavior. Everything is optional, but the message is clear: OpenAI wants Atlas to know you better than you know yourself. Nothing new with AI. The figures. OpenAI has 800 million weekly active ChatGPT users, double the number in February. Chrome has 3 billion and 71.9% global share. Google controls 90% of the search advertising market. Atlas sounds like a prelude to advertising coming to ChatGPT. Somehow they have to monetize the free users, who not only don’t pay OpenAI, but cost them money. And if OpenAI enters advertising, Google has the most to lose: it could be revenue that stops coming to them. Yes, but. Initial tests of ChatGPT agents have shown slow and imprecise results, where it is very effective to see the browser do tasks for us, but also much slower than if we take care of a few clicks. Plus, the hallucinations are still there. Google has a structural problem– Your business depends on people clicking on ads. If Atlas delivers direct answers without visiting web pages, Google loses. It has integrated Gemini into Chrome and added AI summaries to the results, but the basis of its model remains the same. Internet Explorer seemed invincible in 2007. Within five years, Chrome had surpassed it by offering something substantially better. The 150 billion drop in Alphabet’s capitalization is a sign that investors believe there is a chance that history could repeat itself. In Xataka | Privacy is dying since ChatGPT arrived. Now our obsession is for AI to know us as best as possible Featured image | Xataka with Mockuuups Studio

It is already the most delivered aircraft in history

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If you’ve ever taken a short or medium-haul flight in Europe, there’s a good chance you’ve traveled on an Airbus A320 or a Boeing 737. They are the two most common models in the continent’s airports, silent protagonists of millions of takeoffs each year. They have been operated by airlines of all types, from large national companies to the low cost companies that dominate the European market. Entire generations of passengers have flown on them, without knowing that they were part of a rivalry that has been in the air for almost four decades. For years, the A320 and 737 have been the heart of global air traffic. Their versatility made them the natural choice for airlines looking for a cost-effective aircraft capable of operating on both regional and medium-haul routes. In Europe, this combination of efficiency and size made them protagonists of the expansion of low cost and the growth of tourism. Their rivalry not only drove technical innovation, it also defined the economic balances between Boeing and Airbus on both sides of the Atlantic. A milestone that does not go unnoticed in Europe On October 7, Airbus reached a historic turning point. According to data from the British firm Cirium cited by Reutersthe European manufacturer surpassed Boeing in accumulated deliveries: 12,260 units of the A320 family since its entry into service in 1988. The record was materialized with the delivery of an A320neo to the Saudi airline Flynas, which became the 12,260th aircraft in the series. With this milestone, Airbus snatches from Boeing the title of most delivered aircraft in history, a recognition that the 737 had maintained for more than half a century. When we talk about “deliveries” in the aviation industry, we are not talking about orders or manufactured aircraft, but rather aircraft that have been completed, certified and officially transferred to an airline. It is the most tangible indicator of a manufacturer’s real activity, and also the one used by analysts like Cirium to establish comparisons. Airbus and Boeing have not publicly commented on the data, but industry sources agree that the count reflects a sustained trend: the A320 has been delivered at a higher rate than the 737 for years. The A320 was born with an idea that changed the game: carry the fly-by-wire to the single aisle plane. Launched in 1984 and operational since 1988, it consolidated a family with high communality that allowed training pilots and maintaining fleets with lower costs. Boeing, which had the historical lead with the 737, reacted after a contract from United Airlines in 1992 and evolved its range with the 737NG. Since then, the competition focused on who offered the most efficiency and flexibility to the airlines, rather than in visible advances for the passenger. The dominance of the 737 suffered after the MAX model accidents in 2018 and 2019which left more than 300 victims and forced production and service to be temporarily paralyzed. Those accidents triggered a reputational crisis that took Boeing years to stabilize. The company, now under the direction of Kelly Ortberg, is trying to regain the industrial pulse, but the halt in deliveries and regulatory reviews marked a before and after in its ability to compete against the sustained pace of Airbus. The dominance of the 737 suffered after the accidents of the MAX model in 2018 and 2019 Airbus is going through one of the busiest times in its history. With assembly lines in Toulouse, Hamburg, Mobile (USA) and Tianjin (China), the European manufacturer has progressively increased its capacity to respond to a demand of more than 7,000 earrings, according to Airbus. Its strategy is to increase the production rate up to 75 aircraft per month in the coming years. Boeing, still weighed down by delays and revisions to the MAX, maintains a lower flow, which consolidates Airbus’ industrial advantage in the most profitable segment of the market. Beyond the symbolic data, the leadership of the A320 has a direct translation into the European economy. Airbus coordinates a chain that distributes the workload between assembly lines in France and Germany and aerostructures and systems centers in Spain and the United Kingdom. In Spainspecialization in compounds, stabilizers and fuselage sections has consolidated a network of SMEs and large suppliers that export technology. Each increase in cadence implies more shifts, new certifications and medium-term contracts, a dynamic that supports qualified employment and knowledge transfer. At Boeing, the focus is on stabilizing the present before thinking about a successor for the 737. The company has accumulated considerable debt after years of crisis and faces technical limitations derived from current engines, which already operate close to their maximum efficiency. The managers have admitted that there will be no new development until there are clear advances in propulsion and materials. Meanwhile, the priority is to recover the pace of deliveries, reinforce manufacturing quality and maintain the confidence of the airlines. The pressure does not come only from the United States and Europe. China appears with COMAC and its C919 as a domestic alternative that aspires to gain traction outside its natural market, while Embraer debates whether to make the leap from regional jets to a larger capacity aircraft. None of this changes the board tomorrow, but it does mark a horizon in which Airbus and Boeing would no longer be alone in the single aisle. The A320 record does not mean that Airbus has definitively defeated Boeing, but rather that it has managed to prevail in a specific indicator: deliveries. The competition is still alive and the single aisle market It still has a lot of room for growth, especially in Asia. For the passenger, nothing will probably change in the short term: they will continue to board an A320 or a 737 depending on the airline. But behind each banknote there is an industrial story that explains how Europe has managed to balance the sky against its historic American rival. Images | Jan Rosolino | David Syphers In Xataka | The Comac C919 symbolizes China’s … Read more

OpenAI is building the biggest house of cards in history. Its “circular financing” aggravates the threat of the AI ​​bubble

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Yesterday OpenAI and Broadcom announced a collaboration agreement that will see both companies design and deploy 10 GW of custom AI chips over the course of four years. It’s a new episode of that unusual strategy that OpenAI has carried out and which is summarized in an increasingly disturbing concept: that of circular financing. Multimillion-dollar agreements. In recent weeks we have seen how OpenAI has reached new agreements worth billions of dollars with large companies in the semiconductor sector. Thus, we have: Circular financing. All these advertisements respond to a unique circular financing strategy in which chip companies (the suppliers) not only sell their products to an AI startup (customer), but also invest capital in that startup, which in turn uses that capital to buy more products from its investor. In reality, the supplier “does not invest” as such, because that money ends up going back into purchases of its products and services. It is in fact something similar to what OpenAI did with Microsoft when the latter invested $13 billion in it. Rather than investing them, it allowed him to use a kind of subscription for that amount to use his cloud, Azure, and its computing resources. It’s a win-win for some and for others. OpenAI wins. These agreements allow OpenAI to have guaranteed access to computing, something you need like eating. The startup spends billions a year and still not profitablebut thanks to this strategy he obtains a massive flow of capital. In the case of Broadcom, it also manages to collaborate in the design of customized chips for minimize future dependence on other partners (such as NVIDIA or AMD) and thus enjoy a lower total cost of ownership in the long term. And by signing with three different semiconductor suppliers, it encourages competition and improves its bargaining power. Bright. Suppliers win. The circular strategy also benefits NVIDIA, AMD and Broadcom. All of them gain a customer with almost unlimited demand, and can register immediate income from the sale of chips while the cost of the investment is amortized over time. NVIDIA also manages to maintain its dominant position, while AMD and Broadcom manage to expand in this market. If there are also actions involved, all of them are revalued and participating in each other is another element of interest in these financial operations. They reinforce and grow larger among themselves, and while they weaken all the others. A gigantic house of cards. But compared to that strategy, reality. And the reality is that this circular flow of capital is creating artificial demand in which the supplier pays itself. The systemic risk is enormous: if OpenAI fails or AI growth slows, the domino effect can significantly affect these vendors and their investors. We are facing a huge (and fragile) house of cards that, if it collapses, will have equally enormous consequences. The AI ​​bubbleif it really exists, continues to grow and grow. Total uncertainty. There is also absolute uncertainty about the promise of AI: will we really use it as much as these companies think we will? Will OpenAI be able to deliver on its promise and turn a profit in 2030? It is impossible to know. Finally, another problem: these circular agreements make these companies larger, but they make the entry of new competitors in both markets increasingly complicated. There are winners, but also losers. While all this is happening and the shares of these companies are skyrocketing, the reality is that there are also losers. The retail investor is blind to these events—and suspicions about cases of insider trading They are inevitable. And of course when talking about competition we are not talking about new competitors, but also current ones. Anthropic or Perplexity, with already established businesses, now finds it more difficult to compete. Google, Microsoft or Meta have plenty of infrastructure and economic resources, but they are still seeing how OpenAI is getting bigger and bigger without being able to prevent it. If successful, OpenAI may end up being above all of them, because it seeks the same thing that every company seeks even if it does not admit it: become a monopoly. Image | Xataka with Freepik – Gemini In Xataka | You thought you had an amazing connection on Tinder, but you were actually chatting with ChatGPT

the history of the first radar in Spain

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Do you know how many people died in 2024 in traffic accidents? 1,154. An “unaffordable” figure, in the words of Fernando Grande-Marlaska, Minister of the Interior who gave the press conference in which the data was made public. In total, 14 more people died than in 2023 and the number has been growing slowly since 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic significantly reduced displacement. In the last decade, Spain moves on the border of the 1,000 deaths but it cannot continue to lower this figure. Now imagine multiplying that number by four. And more or less we will have the number of deaths recorded in 1964. That year, in Spain there were 3,803 deaths recorded on the road. But in addition, 82,953 people were injured of varying severity. In total, 79,494 accidents were recorded. Of these, it is estimated that 31.63% of drivers were traveling at a “dangerous speed,” according to the Accident Statistical Yearbook. The time had come to take action. And those measures brought the first traffic radar seen in Spain. This was the first radar It is no coincidence that the DGT speaks of 1964 as the key year that ended up opening the door to the radars in Spain. That year, they point out on their websitethe magazine Black and White explained what a “cinemometer” was, about which they said that “this new device records the number of vehicles that pass a certain place on a road and at the same time indicates the speed they are traveling at.” However, it would not be until 1968 when the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard saw a device that they must have felt had come from the sky. Until then, agents used a system… let’s call it precarious. Before radars existed, Civil Guard cars had a speedometer in the right headlight. The driver would then approach the offending car and keep pace. From the passenger side, a photograph was taken showing the speed at which the vehicle was traveling and the offending car. It was in 1968, however, when radars made an appearance. After the first tests, the agents began to mount the equipment in the cars. The ones chosen were the Renault 10 and the Seat 124 that the Civil Guard used daily but they had to carry a luggage rack to be able to transport the enormous devices. These consisted of a radio system that, using microwaves, was capable of estimating the speed at which a vehicle was moving. This acted together with another device, known as photocontrolwho was in charge of taking the photograph so that there was evidence of the offending vehicle. At the end of the day, the film rolls from the camera had to be sent to the Traffic Headquarters to be developed and, later, printed. The time of taking, the date and the speed at which the vehicle was being driven at that time were recorded in the photograph. The system was not very different from the current one therefore. The devices also had other problems. They could only be used on completely flat ground. If this was not the case, the calibration began to make errors. In addition, they were heavy to transport and, obviously, could only be used when stationary. It was something like having to install a fixed radar every day. That made the management of fines was especially cumbersome. Every day, the agents who had to perform these functions had to travel to the indicated place. Once there, all the data related to the control had to be entered by hand. With each change of road, the agent covered himself with a black curtain to prevent any photos from being obscured by their change. Six hours after keeping the radar in operation, the agent had to spend another two hours writing reports about what happened. They explain on the DGT website that since the number of these devices was minimal and there was very little knowledge about them, the Civil Guard had to send its agents to France or Germany to recycle their knowledge. Those first radars began to spread from Madrid and Barcelona and little by little, already in the 70stheir number was expanding. The margin for committing an infraction was low since the radars could not detect vehicles traveling above 150 km/h. In those days, only a handful of cars could exceed this speed. What was said in those moments? Little thing. Things from a country that was experiencing a dictatorship in those days, so the dissenting voices tended to zero… at least in the media. In fact, the arrival of these devices was praised, pointing out The Vanguard that, now, drivers had to circulate “as it should be”. Photo | DGT In Xataka | 74,000 fines and counting: the most voracious radar in all of Spain is located in a specific point in Madrid

The most watched film in history on television is not a Hollywood success, but a classic from the most carpet-loving Spain

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You will have heard on more than one occasion that every time ‘Pretty Woman’ is broadcast on television, audiences skyrocket. Nowadays it is no longer so true: Telecinco broadcast it a couple of days ago and the result It wasn’t spectacular.. In any case, not even the film by Richard Gere and Julia Roberts has come to live up to what is the greatest milestone in television cinema: the most viewed film in history in Spain has nothing Hollywood about it. Neither cathete nor cathete. On January 14, 1992 (that is, with the private ones already at full capacity, but still unable to stand up to depending on the customs of the Spanish viewer), the broadcast on La 1 of ‘Cateto a port’ had an average audience of 10,078,000 viewers and a stratospheric share 60.5% (for comparison, the final of the last Copa del Rey, the most watched in years, it didn’t reach 50%and the daily program that exceeds 15% is rare). Tremendous landism. ‘Cateto a port’ is a 1970 Spanish comedy starring Alfredo Landa. In it, a simple young man, after multiple attempts to avoid military service in order to take care of his little brother, ends up joining the Navy, having to face multiple difficulties due to his lack of experience. The film uses simple humor for all audiences, contrasting the naive protagonist (the recruit Cañete, whose name will soon become iconic) and the highly regulated environment of the Navy. All seasoned, of course, with its mild military propaganda, showing the modernity and friendliness of the institutions. Why do you like ‘Cateto a port’? His conciliatory tone, so typical of the last years of the Franco dictatorship, guaranteed him notable box office success, and above all, as with other stars of the time such as Paco Martínez Soria, the favor of the public. Its comedy of manners with a very friendly tone makes ‘Cateto a port’ very digestible by audiences of all ages, just what brought ten million people to the television screen. The most aggressive landismo was yet to come, full of plots with Spanish boys chasing Swedish women among images of medium intensity eroticism. It would be inaugurated, precisely, that same 1970 with a film by the same director, ‘You will not desire the neighbor on the fifth floor’. Relative milestone. Of course, we are talking about an absolute record… since there have been measurements, something that started in Spain in 1986. In 1992, audiences had already atomized due to private ones, so it is possible to think that in the seventies and eighties, when the population’s primary entertainment was television, the audiences for other films (or even this one) could have been much larger. Before measuring with audiometers, The audience was measured through the General Media Study (EGM) since 1968, which used interviews to estimate consumption. Other successes. There are only four feature films registered that have exceeded 9 million on average: the humorous western by Clint Eastwood and Shirley McLaine ‘Two Mules and a Woman’, with 9,598,000; the tremendous ‘The Priest’s Son’ by Fernando Esteso, with 9,287,000 spectators; We were talking about ‘Pretty Woman’ and there it is, with 9,223,000 viewers; and finally, ‘Dirty Dancing’ with 9,110,000 viewers. Be careful, because they are all broadcasts from 1992 (with the exception of ‘Pretty Woman’, from 1994), which suggests that, despite the arrival of private broadcasts, there was a general increase in people watching television in the early nineties.

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