history

He is the most important programmer in all of history. And he has also ended up using AI to program

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Linus Torvalds, Linux kernel creatorhe found himself with some free time this Christmas, so he wanted to dedicate it to a personal project that he had on the shelf: an application capable of generating digital audio effects that he called AudioNoise. The curious thing is not that he started programming on his own, but rather what he ended up doing with part of that application. Linus tries Vibe coding. This project has a description on GitHub that holds a surprise. In the last paragraph of it he indicates that “Also keep in mind that the Python visualization tool was basically written using vibe-coding. I know more about analog filters (which isn’t saying much) than I do Python. I started with my typical “Google it and copy what I see” way of programming, but then I cut out the middleman (myself) and used Google Antigravity to create the audio sample viewer.” The best programmer programs like any other. The statement is surprisingly sincere and honest from the one who He is probably the most important programmer in all of history.. Admitting that your typical way of programming is “search on Google and copy what I see” is already curious, but part of programming precisely consists of looking for solutions from others and copying or adapting them into your own projects. AI can help. The other (big surprise) comes of course when he indicates that the visualization tool for his project was not programmed by him, but rather by the Google tool, Antigravity. This integrated development environment (IDE) allows you to work directly with Gemini 3 in different versions and even with Claude Sonnet and Opus 4.5, and despite having been released a few months ago, it is becoming one of the favorite tools of veteran developers but also of those who are beginning to make their ideas a reality without having too much knowledge. Let them tell it to me. This viewer has been programmed by Linus Torvalds. Or rather, Antigravity controlled by Linus Torvalds. testing. At Xataka we were curious to test what that viewer did, so we cloned the GitHub repositorywe asked Claude Code to explain how the project works and after a couple of quick changes we were able to test it with a small audio file. What the project does is implement digital audio effects (there are ‘phaser’, ‘echo’, ‘flanger’, ‘fm’ and ‘discont’) and then, if one wants, apply visualization. That visualization compares the original audio with the processed audio to see how the effect modifies the waveform. Subsurface Capture Linus’ other projects. Although Linus Torvalds is the person most responsible for the Linux kernel evolutionit is already common to see him develop some parallel and totally independent projects. Last Christmas he already created his own guitar pedal softwareand in 2011 began the development of Subsurfacean application to record and plan scuba dives, an activity to which he is very fond. The current GitHub repository is maintained by various developers among which stands out Dirk Hohndel, who was one of the first developers of the Linux kernel along with Linus Torvalds. AI is a tool. In a recent participation on the Linus Tech Tips YouTube channelLinus Torvalds talked about how he saw the world of AI. In your opinion: “AI will be a tool, and it will make people more productive. I think vibe coding is great for getting people to start programming. I think (the code it generates) is going to be horrible to maintain… so I don’t think programmers will go away. You’ll still want to have people who know how to maintain the output.” And it works for personal projects. That speech precisely aligns with this small “experiment” that he has used in that personal project: at the moment for projects of this type using tools like Antigravity can be a great idea, although it certainly does not seem so for larger projects in production. Thus, it does not seem likely that AI could be used to modify Linux code… at the moment. That, of course, may change in the future, but as Torvalds says, these types of developments will require notable (and probably human) oversight to validate that everything has been done correctly. Image | TED Conference In Xataka | Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds had been rivals for 30 years. The funny thing is that they just met and took a selfie

It was the second worst value on the IBEX 35 in 2025, but it achieved its best portability data in history

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Telefónica has closed its busy 2025 with two opposite faces: in bag plummeted 11% and ended up as the second worst value on the IBEX 35, only ahead of Puig. But on the street he won the battle: captured almost 200,000 mobile lines of the competition, its best historical record in portability. Why it is important. This contradiction explains well how the market no longer rewards only commercial success. Investors demand financial visibility, robust cash flow and a clear roadmap. Telefónica has achieved the first, but with the change of presidency a year is still in process of the rest. The turning point. Everything changed on November 4th. At his Capital Market Day, in which he took the opportunity to Publish your five-year strategic planthe operator announced a dividend cut in half (from 0.30 to 0.15 euros per share) and cash projections lower than expected. Investors immediately punished it: less dividend, less cash and little clarity about some operations. The backdrop. The stock market punishment contrasts with Telefónica’s best commercial year in a long time. The sum of Movistar and O2 portability quintupled in 2024 and consolidated the leadership of the leading telecom in the premium segment of the Spanish mobile market. Digi led the total market with 783,000 net lines, dominating the low cost. MásOrange lost 513,000 mobile customers, its worst result. Vodafone Spain gave up 435,000 lines, even with the sum of Finetwork. Telefónica’s commercial success is explained by a pincer strategy: Digi sweeps through increasingly cheaper rates, so Movistar and O2 have entrenched themselves in the highest value segments, where customers pay more and remain loyal. But that victory has not translated into stock market metrics. Only Puig has had a worse 2025 on the IBEX than the telecom company. Yes, but. The theory of “IBEX dogs” suggests that 2026 should be a better year for Telefónica. The most punished values ​​usually recover the following year and the analyst consensus sets a target price of 4.04 euros per share, 16% above current levels. Besides, The IBEX 35 has closed its best year since 1993. The index closed with a revaluation of 49%, driven mainly by banks and their record results. And now what. Telefónica faces 2026 with a more austere discourse on balance sheet and debt. The key is no longer in the strategic announcement, but in its execution. The market has discounted the dividend cut and what remains is to demonstrate that the new remuneration policy, linked to cash flow, is sustainable over time. For now, the year starts with an ERE that will cost 2,500 million euros and will save about 600 annually starting in 2028. Will that be enough to convince investors without sacrificing the commercial capacity that has allowed them to gain customers again? In Xataka | Telefónica has gone from 67,000 workers in 1997 to 25,000 today. And his plan is clear: go even lower Featured image | Telephone

More than 40 years later, many still believe that the best advertisement in history was made by Apple

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In a few days there will be an anniversary that may be celebrated in some way by those most veteran or sentimental Apple fans: that of the broadcast of an advertisement so mythical that it has its own name (and what a name): ‘1984’, the first Macintosh advertisement. But not because he gets older does he become forgotten, quite the opposite. To put ourselves a little in context, the kings of consumer computing They were IBM (even with MS-DOS as the operating system), so the launch of a computer designed for easy use and a friendlier graphical interface needed a good presentation. We had to try to break a trend and beat a rival that takes the form of Big Brother in the popular spot, which we will remember now before talking about the curiosities about it. Choosing the moment The Super Bowl is an American sporting event whose millionaire audience has caused the price of a 30-second ad during the broadcast to reach the 3.4 and 4 million euros. It is the grand final of the NFL (the national football league) and also the focus of attention of which brand is the one that has invested a good pinch in starring in those seconds. It is not surprising then that the eighteenth edition of this final (that is, the one in 1984) was the moment chosen by Apple to present an advertisement that broke quite a bit with the usual and that, as we will now see, had notable figures behind the cameras. In fact, as on NPR they remember was repeatedly voted the best ad of all time when it doesn’t even show the product. The cast and the figures In the advertisement we see that the protagonists are, on the one hand, a group of people with similar features and in some way uniformed (the proletarians), and on the other hand, the athlete who ends the broadcast to which they attend (played by Anya Major). And Fred Goldberg, an account executive at the Chiat/Day advertising agency who acted as a liaison between Steve Jobs and the creatives of the ad, spoke about the cast in a book about his experience in advertising. that they remembered on CNN. The executive comments that around 75% of these actors were skinhead and “pretty unpleasant beings,” in Goldberg’s own words. He adds that there were fights and altercations and that the security personnel went with police dogs to control them and that they even harassed the leading actress. There were a total of 200 (uncontrollable) extras. The filming lasted three days (which apparently caused a lot of trouble) and they charged a total of $10,000. The official issue and the previous VIP pass The advertisement was broadcast publicly on January 22, 1984 in the Los Angeles Raiders’ final against the Washington Redskins, in which the former won 38-9 at Tampa Stadium. Although it was not strictly the first time it was broadcast, since Goldberg also says that it was previously shown to evaluate it for the contests. At that time the leaks and leaks They were not as much the order of the day as is the case today with mobile phones, but a lot of care was taken regarding the prior pass condition in petit committee so that there weren’t any. This pass was made at midnight in Twin Falls (Idaho, USA), in the KMVT studios, and the only feedback What he had was that of a television station worker, who called the agency asking what that was. In fact, in Mental Floss They spoke with Tom Frank, the person in charge of making that first showing on December 31, 1983 (after 00:00) of a 60-second version of the spot. Frank explained that he understood the choice of that small station at that time due to the small audience and that he is unaware of the fact that an incorrect date for this screening was revealed to the press, in addition to curious facts such as that they also broadcast the spot “Lemmings” (lesser known) and that he is not personally a user of Apple products. The teachers behind the cameras The announcement had to be somewhat shocking because it was the presentation of the Macintosh, considered the first personal computer with a simple user interface interaction and aimed at a more general (non-specialized) audience. And to create it not only did it have to have a striking theme, it also had to get the best staff. Not in vain was it counted on Ridley Scott for direction, who had directed films like ‘Alien’ and ‘Blade Runner’ a few years before (in 1979 and 1982 respectively). And if you have seen the second one, the advertisement will probably have reminded you of it since it has a futuristic appearance (for the moment) like said production. According to Goldberg, Steve Jobs was very enthusiastic when he was presented with this idea for a spot based on the dystopian novel ‘1984’ by George Orwell. “He (Steve Jobs) was the kind of person who, when you show him something, has a visceral reaction. He was totally into it, he really liked it” Fred Goldberg, Chiat/Day For the executive, that futuristic appearance was very appropriate for the effect they wanted to cause with the advertisement. What we see in it is a group of proletarians with shaved heads who attend to the broadcast of a message by a kind of Big Brother, in which the anniversary of “the Information Purification Directives” is celebrated, until the protagonist enters and destroys everything. The message is the following (we put the original and the translation into Spanish): “Today, we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives. We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology—where each worker may bloom, secure from the pests purveying contradictory truths. Our Unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth. We are one people, … Read more

In 2010, the owner of a Ferrari missed a radar in Switzerland at 137 km/h. He took home the most expensive fine in history

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The fine for speeding highest ever recorded did not come from a German road or a French motorway. It arose in Switzerland, and they gave it to the driver of a Ferrari Testarossa. The most curious thing is that they did not put it in for pushing the power of this 90’s classic to the limit since it was traveling at 137 km/h. The result was a fine of more than 247,000 euros, an amount that officially appears in the Guinness World Records as the biggest fine for speeding. A record fine. The highest speeding fine officially recorded was imposed in Switzerland in January 2010. A court in the canton of St. Gallen sentenced the driver of a Ferrari Testarossa to pay about $290,000 (more than 247,000 euros at the exchange rate) after being detected by radar traveling at 137 km/h in a section limited to 80 km/h. The amount of the fine was not arbitrary. In Switzerland, judges do not set fines based on rigid tables according to the infraction, but rather based on the real impact they must have on each driver’s pocket. A system designed so that everyone hurts equally. Swiss legislation contemplates a model of fines proportional to the driver’s income, instead of establishing a table of fixed amounts as happens in Spain. This applies an equivalence factor with respect to economic capacity, making the sanctions truly have a deterrent nature. A fine of 200 euros for a person who charges a salary of 16,000 euros It can be a compelling reason for you to take your foot off the accelerator when you don’t play. But that same figure is insignificant for someone with a net worth of several million euros. Sanctions in Switzerland are at another level. In the case of the driver of the Testarossa, the sanction was triggered because the driver declared assets that exceeded 22 million dollars and accumulated a record for similar violations. For the Swiss authorities, the fine should reflect not only the risk committed, but also the economic impact it should generate. The 2010 record is not an isolated case. According to collects the local newspaper 24hourslast August a billionaire resident in Lausanne was fined 90,000 Swiss francs (about 96,500 euros) after exceeding the 50 km/h limit on the road while traveling at 77 km/h. Although the violation was not extreme, the final calculation was, and was justified by evaluating income, assets, and family circumstances. 96,000 euros for exceeding the speed limit by 27 km/h. Switzerland is not the only country that applies it. Finland shares a sanctioning philosophy similar to that applied in Switzerland. There are also fines calculated according to income, with precedents that have exceeded 120,000 euros. One of the best known cases It is that of a businessman who was traveling at 82 km/h in an area limited to 50 km/h and ended up facing a fine of 120,000 euros due to his level of income. In Austria, for example, a millionaire They took away his driving license and the Bugatti Veyron was immediately seized for traveling at 123 km/h in an area limited to 60 km/h. Spain will never come close to these figures. The Spanish traffic legislation is located at the opposite extreme. The fines depend exclusively on the margin exceeded over the speed limit, not on the financial capacity of the offender. Thus, the case of the Finnish driver fined 120,000 euros, in Spain would be resolved with a fine of 400 euros and four points less on the driving license. In fact, you would even have a 50% discount on the fine if you pay it in the first few days. In Spain, the most serious sanctions are penalized with a maximum of 600 euros and the withdrawal of six points on the license, without there being a link between the sanctions and the level of income. This implies that someone with high purchasing powermay consider the cost of the infringement to be minimal, thus losing its deterrent nature. In Xataka | The DGT allows legal circulation at 150 km/h without being an emergency vehicle. The secret: a sign Image | Unsplash (Noah Boyer)

the graph that reviews the history of civilizations from 4,000 years ago

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that the world is divided into blocks or powers It’s nothing new. What we live today is the foundation of what we will live in a few centuries, just as our society has been shaped by the empires that preceded us. For example, the Greeks laid the foundations of Western civilization and The Romans laid the foundations of today’s roads. But… what was happening in other parts of the world while Socrates or Philip II did his things? That’s where this graph comes into play, which is great for simplifying the life of empires and their influence throughout history. Simplifying empires. At Xataka we have already seen some graphics that seek to put visual order in the history of humanity. There is some tremendously elaborate and others that, being similar to the one you have on these lines, They are still somewhat complex because of the amount of information they show. The one we show you is a work of the Michigan Geographic Alliance created as a tool on which to work. It’s called the World GeoHistogram and it combines geography and time into a unified visual framework that clearly shows the rise and fall of empires. History is not a zero-sum game in which, when one falls, another immediately arises. It is somewhat more complicated, but precisely this graph allows us to appreciate in a very visual way not only the empires that follow one another, but also those that occur in parallel and with which they may come into conflict. It is organized in a very simple way, with lines that are “roads” that represent each of the world’s territories, and one of the first conflicts we see is with Greece, Persia and Alexander the Great. Fleeting expansion. It is a perfect example of how two great empires develop in unison. The Greeks and Persians had expansionist desires, but there came a point, with Alexander the Great, when these ambitions clashed with those of the neighboring empire. We can see how the blue spot of Greece grows rapidly through North Africa, the Middle East and Asia, encountering the Persians. It was a fleeting expansion that lasted only a few years and we can see that, after its influence, Greece did not return to what it was, giving way to other empires such as the Roman. But speaking of expansions, a notable one is that of the Mongols, who made the same movement as Alexander, but from East Asia to the Middle East and even part of Europe. In its expansion, it collided with other civilizations, but there came a point where they simply vanished and the Middle Ages began. Parallel powers. The caliphates, the Sassanids or the Byzantines also expanded their power for centuries, while in Europe the Celts or Vikings conquered territory, but were not an empire as such. Now, in the Late Middle Ages, things began to move in Europe. After years of empires like the Holy Roman Empire, France, Holland, Portugal, England and Spain They began to flourish as powers, and all with the same objective: to obtain land. This European imperialism is shown perfectly in the graph, where we can see that they moved throughout all the territories. In some they had more or less influence, but they were there for a long period of time until it was cut short with the world wars. However, this “European empire” developed in parallel to another also of colossal size: the Ottoman Empire. It also perfectly reflects how America had empires that were succeeding one anotherlike the Olmecs, Mayans or Aztecs… until they were nipped in the bud with colonization. Long lasting. We haven’t talked about China and Japan because the ambition was… different. Japan, until the arrival of the Meiji, developed on its island. He had contact with the Mongols and the Mingbut it was not until the aforementioned Meiji and the first Sino-Japanese war when they began to be interested in other territories. Before the Second World Warthat ambition was consolidated in China, but also in territories of Oceania and, like the European empires, it was nipped in the bud after the Second World War. In China things were different. By population and organization, China is the only empire (oversimplifying) that has existed for more than 2,500 years. They have gone through different eras (Qin, Han, Tang, Ming or Qing), but almost always focused on their territory, without those expansionist desires of the Mongols or the overseas conquest of the Europeans, Ottomans and Romans. After World War II, the world was divided into two large blocks, led by the United States and the Soviet Union. But the end of the Cold war and the fall of the USSR marked the United States as a hegemonic power. And, in recent decades, China has emerged as another great pole of power It’s not perfect. Like the graph, I have excessively compressed the information, since, as I said, history is not a zero sum, but a set of elements that take time and are highly complex. In fact, the graph itself, although very visual, has some limitations. For example, societies that do not fit the “big empire” model are left out. Those without centralized states, written records or expansive territorial control, such as indigenous American or sub-Saharan cultures, are not represented. But, despite that, it is a great graph that allows you to follow a narrative with empires from before 3,000 BC to the present day. Images | Visual Capitalist, Michigan Geographic Alliance In Xataka | The Allies took the beaches of Normandy by force. Before them, a Spanish spy paved the way

Spotify has suffered the largest music theft in history. One that confirms that most of their catalog is never heard

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Anna’s Archive was already known by literature lovers, who turned to this repository to be able to access books of all kinds without having to pay for them. Now they want to achieve the same thing with music, and they have taken a colossal and disturbing step: stealing practically the entire Spotify catalog. What is Anna’s Archive. Anna’s Archive project appeared on the scene in late 2022, shortly after legal pressure managed to knock down the Z-Library platformone of the largest websites for downloading free books. The platform works as a metasearch engine that allows you to find books and then download them. Anna’s Archive does not host these files—which, according to the project, exempts it from legal responsibility—and links to different anonymous download providers, which is where users can obtain them. Until now the platform focused on books, but that has changed. The biggest music theft in history. In a post published on his blog official this weekend, those responsible for Anna’s Archive indicated that they have made “a backup copy” of Spotify that includes both metadata and music files. Not only that: it is indicated that they are distributing all this information through torrent files, and the total download takes up 300 TB of data “grouped by popularity.” 86 million songs. They call it the first music “preservation archive” in history and it has 86 million music files. Although that figure is only 37% of the songs in Spotify’s entire catalog, according to Anna’s Archive they account for 99.6% of listening on Spotify. And here there are two important things: on the one hand, music as such. And on the other hand, the metadata that surrounds that music, and that offers very interesting information about Spotify’s music catalog. The top 10,000 popularity. Thus, at Anna’s Archive they wanted to organize that archive based on “popularity”, a metric that they use in Spotify to order the songs that are listened to the most and how recent those plays are. Those responsible for Anna’s Archive have compiled a gigantic list with the 10,000 most popular songs according to this metric. Lady Gaga, Bad Bunny and Billie Eilish occupy the top three positions, for example. This graph reveals how song popularity demonstrates the long tail phenomenon. Only 62 songs exceed 90 points. Three out of four songs are not heard. By grouping songs by popularity, the metadata reveals and confirms the traditional long tail phenomenon. More than 70% of the songs in the Spotify catalog are barely listened to (less than 1,000 plays), and there are so many that are popular or that they had to cut the gigantic file (it would have been 700 TB) to end that representation of 99.6% of songs that have minimal popularity on Spotify. That does not mean that they are better or worse, be careful: it just means that they have been heard more or less on the platform. We all hear (more or less) the same thing. Most listens come to songs with popularity between 50 and 80, and here comes an expected figure: of the 86 million songs, only 210,000 exceed 50 popularity (0.1%). Or what is the same: almost everyone basically listens to a very small set of songs compared to the size of the catalog. How much is each song listened to? Those responsible for Anna’s Archive claim that it is possible to estimate the total number of views per song thanks to popularity. They gave the example of the first three: ‘Die with a smile’ (Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars), 3,075 million views ‘Birds of a feather’ (Billie Eilish): 3,137 million views ‘DtMF’ (Bad Bunny): 1,124 million views Between the three of them they accumulate as many listens as the songs that are between number 20 and number 100 million have. Once again, the long tail in action. Analysis everywhere. These metadata are very useful, and Anna’s Archive has produced a unique report in which they reveal conclusions based on the data collected. Thus, you can confirm how the most common length of songs is around 3:30 minutes, how there are numerous duplicates per song (licenses, versions, etc.), which ones are the most popular genres between artists or how most of the songs on Spotify are singles, and not part of an album. These metadata are a true treasure for market researchers. Downloading (for now) only in large torrents. At Anna’s Archive they have not published almost any of the torrents so far, but they have already indicated how they will offer those 300 TB. First, the metadata in a 200 GB file, which is already being shared by about 200 people. Then the music in various batches organized by popularity. Finally, some additional metadata and content like album art designs. Time will tell if those 86 million songs end up being available on some type of platform that links them to download individually. At Anna’s Archive that does not seem to be the intention, at least for now, and at the moment the metasearch engine focuses strictly on books. What Spotify says. As they point out in TorrentFreakthose responsible for Spotify have launched an investigation, and as a result have “identified and deactivated the accounts of malicious users who were participating in illegal scraping activities.” They have also implemented new measures to prevent these types of attacks and “are monitoring suspicious behavior.” Image | Sumeet B In Xataka | The chaos of streaming is causing a phenomenon that we thought was in recession: downloads are increasing

In 1932 Hedy Lamarr performed the first nude in film history. And then he went to invent WiFi

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Throughout its 85 years Hedy Lamarr He dedicated himself to chaining lives. First there was Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, the name her parents gave her when she was born in Vienna in 1914, and with which she became a gifted child and a pioneering actress: the first to appear naked from head to toe and fake an orgasm in a commercial film. For a few years she was also Mandl’s Lady, his wife and “slave” (as she herself would later define that stage). by the Viennese Fritz Mandla jealous, controlling and tyrannical magnate, who provided weapons to Hitler and Mussolini. Towards the end of the 1930s, in Hollywood, she became Hedy Lamarr, the name with which producer Louis B. Mayer baptized her and with which she would rise to fame. Already a diva of the cinema, she was the engineer Lamarr, who dedicated her nights to cultivating her side of inventor and managed to develop a key technology for the subsequent development of wireless communication of mobile phones, GPS or WiFi technology. Already in the last years of her life she had to assume the saddest role: she secluded herself in her mansion in Florida, obsessed with operating rooms, kleptomaniac and hooked on pills. How to improve WiFi at home The life in three acts of a woman who passed through the world as if she were playing her best and most demanding Hollywood role. Lamarr won the title of “most beautiful woman” of golden cinema and (already at the end of his days), when his technological contributions were echoed, he obtained numerous recognitions from the scientific community: the Pioner Award, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), or the Viktor Kaplan medal from the Austrian Association of Inventors and Patent Holders, among others. The date of his birth, November 9, has become International Inventor’s Day. Act one: the first nude in cinema The future Hedy Lamarr was born in Vienna, in 1914, with the name Edwig Eva Maria Kiesler. Theirs was a Jewish family, cultured and wealthy. His father was a prosperous banker from Lemberg and his mother, a pianist from Budapest raised Catholic. Since she was a child, she received a careful education that soon revealed her prodigious intelligence. It is said that when he was only five years old he satisfied his scientific curiosity by gutting musical boxes that he would then put back together piece by piece. Kiesler began his engineering career, but abandoned it to dedicate himself to his other great vocation: acting. In 1932, at only 19 years old, he starred in his first bombshell: Ecstasy, a film by Gustav Machaty in which she broke molds by appearing on screen as God brought her into the world and faking an orgasm. That bravery was met with the anger of his family, the indignation of a good part of the prudish society of the time, and even provoked the wrath of the Vatican. The sensual and intelligent Viennese woman fascinated Fritz Mandl14 years older than her. The tycoon got Kiesler’s parents They approved the wedding and the couple walked down the aisle in 1933. Mandl, an arms businessman who worked with the Nazis, soon showed himself to be a sexist tyrant. In a fit of jealousy he tried to buy all the tapes of Ecstasy so that no one could see Kiesler’s scenes, and he even prohibited her from bathing or undressing if he was not in front of her. He also forced her to accompany him to his business meals. Fed up with that slavery, in 1937 the young woman he pulled his wits to escape: He hired a maid who looked like him, sedated her, dressed like her and managed to evade the surveillance of his confinement. She sold her jewelry and set sail for the United States after stopping in London. “He had played at keeping me prisoner. I played at escaping. He lost,” she would later relate. This first act of her life closes with a thrilling escape while Mandl’s thugs are hot on her heels to force her to return to her golden cage. Second act: the great diva of Hollywood Destiny awaited Kiesler around the corner. Specifically, on the ship he boarded to travel to North America. There he met Louis B. Mayer, the famous producer, who showed off his unfailing eye for celluloid. He offered her a job and renamed her Hedy Lamarr, a peculiar tribute to the actress Bárbara La Marrwhose life had been taken prematurely by tuberculosis and nephritis just a decade earlier. In Hollywood, Lamarr deployed all his talent in front of the cameras, she won the title of “most beautiful woman” and fulfilled the role of femme fatal. He acted in Algiers, Lady of Tropics, Comrade…And dozens of other titles. He shared the bill with some of the brightest stars in Hollywood and they say that the creators of snow white and catwoman They were inspired by her stunning beauty. The most famous role he played was that of Delilah in Samson and Delilah. Her fame could have been much greater if Lamarr or those who advised her had had more aim when choosing roles. He rejected the main characters in two bombshells that would go down in cinema history: Casablanca (!) and Dying lightwhich together had almost twenty Oscar nominations. Throughout his career, Lamarr produced his own films. In his private life, he had six marriages that ended in as many divorces. She ended her days retired in Florida, a kleptomaniac, obsessed with cosmetic surgery, succumbing to drugs and starring in notorious scandals. She died at the dawn of the new century: on January 19, 2000. “She was a victim of the system,” comments one of her sons in one of the documentaries filmed about her. Proof of how little society knew how to value her is the anecdote that happened to her when, during the Second World War, she offered her collaboration to the United States as a brilliant engineer. The answer … Read more

It is the springboard to becoming the first billionaire in history

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The Delaware Supreme Court has taken a historic turn in a legal battle that has lasted for years: it has definitively approved Elon Musk’s compensation package that was approved in 2018, originally valued at $56 billion. This decision puts an end to the judicial dispute that led to the fiscal change of Tesla from Delaware to Texas. The unanimous ruling of the five judges of Delaware’s highest court considers that canceling the salary package left Musk without any compensation between 2018 and 2024 for his work as CEO of Tesla since You are not assigned a fixed salary in the company. Adjusted for Tesla’s current stock price, which hit all-time highs this week, the value of the stock package you will receive amounts to about $139 billion. The origin of the judicial conflict. The entire judicial mess over Musk’s salary bonus began in January 2024, when Judge Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery annulled the CEO’s compensation package after a complaint from a group of shareholders, arguing that the billion-dollar remuneration was excessive and unfair to shareholders. McCormick determined that Tesla’s board of directors had not properly informed shareholders about the bonus and that board members lacked sufficient independence from Musk. This first unfavorable ruling caused an immediate reaction and forceful from the CEO of Tesla. Tesla’s board of directors organized a second vote among shareholders in June 2024 to reaffirm its CEO’s bonus, which was approved with 63% of the votes, although McCormick rejected again this maneuver in December 2024. The Supreme Court endorses it. The Delaware Supreme Court determined that McCormick’s decision contained several errors and that complete termination of the salary package was an inappropriate penalty. The judges unanimously concluded that voiding the payment had left Musk without any financial compensation for his time and effort during a six-year period as CEO. Although the high court reinstated compensation to the CEO, it has also imposed on Musk the symbolic payment of an additional dollar and ordered him to pay legal fees, recognizing certain problematic aspects of the original process. The decision marks the closing of a legal battle that has lasted almost two years and that has kept one of the most ambitious executive compensation packages in US business history on hold…at least until the arrival of Musk’s new salary bonus, estimated at a billion dollars. The conditions met by Musk. The compensation package approved in 2018 consisted of stock options equivalent to approximately 303 million Tesla shares, which represented about 12% of the company’s total equity at the time. The bonus was structured into 12 tranches of stock options that would only be unlocked if Tesla reached a series of milestones in market capitalization, revenue and profits over the next 10 years. At the time of the plan in 2018, Tesla had a market valuation of approximately $59 billion and was facing serious production and cash flow problems. Musk managed to exceed all established objectives in just five of the ten years planned. In June 2024, when shareholders voted a second time to reaffirm the package, the value of the 303 million stock options to which Musk was entitled had already reached $48.2 billion, with a price of $182. However, in December 2025, with Tesla trading near $481 and a market capitalization around $1.6 trillion, the value of the restored package skyrockets to approximately $139 billion. A historic boost to Musk’s fortune. With the restoration of this salary bonus, Elon Musk’s personal fortune has skyrocketed to over $749 billion, establishing him not only as the richest man in the world, but as the first person in modern history to get this close to $1 trillion. This figure represents almost triple the fortune of the second richest person on the planet: the Google co-founder Larry Page, whose assets are estimated at 252,000 million dollars. Musk is the millionaire best positioned to become the first billionaire in history in the short term, especially if SpaceX goes public in 2026 and the projected valuation of $1.5 trillion is reached. Musk’s stake in SpaceX could exceed an additional $625 billion, which, added to his other investments, could bring his total assets closer to $952 billion. In Xataka | “Work will be optional”: Elon Musk has gone from being a fervent supporter of 996 to believing in universal basic income Image | Flickr (Gage Skidmore), Unsplash (Andreas Rasmussen)

For Google, 2025 could have been a terrifying year. It’s going to end up being one of the best in its history

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It’s not how it starts but how it ends. If Google is having a Christmas dinner, that might be a good phrase to sum up what your year has been like as you raise your glass in a toast. And the Mountain View-based company began 2025 with several dark clouds on the horizon that threatened both its present and its hegemony for the future. But of course, it seems Google still has some time left. Google entered 2025 knowing that it had three major legal battles ahead that could end up amputating precious members like Chrome or its advertising business, with OpenAI in the rearview mirror in the AI ​​race and a troublesome new US president to adapt to. However, Google has not only emerged victorious, but has also managed to maintain the status quo of your structure (for now) and has emerged as the most cutting-edge AI company there is. And furthermore, the accounts come out: is breaking profit records. What has Google done to change its 2025 like this? Being in Google’s shoes in January of this year was not easy. Going through the courts was inevitable and the consequences were potentially devastating for their main sources of income. Declared a monopoly, there were possibilities before it such as the forced sale of Chrome. He also had to give explanations for anti-competitive practices in advertising and his battle with Epic Games It could have resulted in the drastic reduction of commissions in the Play Store on Android, opening the doors to other payment methods and third-party stores. Facing the Justice Department of Trump’s new era was not the best of scenarios either: it is not the first time that the new US president is critical of Google. AI has made them leave their comfort zone. After years of dominating with its combination of Google and Chrome, today the focus has been on artificial intelligence and here it could not be left out, among other things, because it is disrupting its search business. ChatGPT launched a new long-distance race, that of AI, where it started behind technologically speaking and has had to face new and old rivals: the veterans Microsoft and Meta, but also OpenAI and Anthropic. Billions of investment in R&D&I and data centers just to try to keep up. Google has made a huge bet with AI in every way with the hope that it ends up: 1. being profitable. 2. being one of the companies that survive to benefit from it. Because AI is in this phase of filming and expansion and is anything but profitable. And he is risking everything, even cannibalizing his goose that lays the golden eggs: his search business. However, its position is privileged: it has enormous economic muscle, an entire ecosystem and sectors where it leads. This 2025 the wolf was coming for Google, but it was not like that: You have avoided the sale of Chrome. Yes, the judge ruled that Google was a search monopoly, but he did not uphold the Justice Department’s most critical move. The DOJ defended that separating Google from its browser would eliminate one of the company’s great ways to attract users and direct them to its search engine. And be careful, because there was no shortage of buyers. The judge considered that this operation would be “incredibly complex and very risky.” It also allowed Google to continue paying Apple to ensure the prominent presence of its search products. But it did not emerge unscathed: the ruling requires it to share data with competitors (once, not continuously) and to limit exclusive contracts. The future of your advertising business is an unknown. Google yes lost its other big antitrust trial and here the DOJ wants to force you to sell your advertising exchange market and your Ad Manager tool. However, the judge’s predisposition seems to indicate that there will be an agreement that brings a change in behavior before touching the structure of Google, a slower process that could be delayed longer with an appeal from the company licensed by Sundar Pichai. Your (eternal) dispute with Epic. Google lost the case two years ago and this summer it was defeated again… and appealed again. Of course, along the way it has had to allow alternative payment methods and list alternative app stores. As in the previous case, Google hopes to soften the measures: for now it has already negotiated with Epic to reduce commissions and add a new category of registered app stores. Furthermore, it will do so globally. This is decided next month and if it goes ahead, Android will change but Google will still have control. It is not trivial, considering that a new operating system for PC based on Android will arrive in 2026. With Trump, a clean slate. The Mountain View company has had to use diplomacy and open its wallet. It should be remembered that after the capitol incident, Google banned Trump’s account from YouTube. Well, the president of the United States sued them and this year the soap opera has come to an end with YouTube paying 22 million dollars to close the agreement. On the other hand, Google was among the big tech companies that financially supported at the inauguration of the current president of the United States. If Google has had to defend itself in court, in technology it has gone on the attack. We could talk about the advances of the Pixel (which there have been), but the hardware It is not the company’s priority at all. Google has had a fantastic year in AI both in data and in story. Because with AI it is not enough to be the best, you also have to lead the conversation. Its video generator Veo 3 took over social networks, Nano Banana (and later, its Pro version) has starred in trends such as become a Stranger Things character either in an action figure. But it’s not just fashion: it’s that its video models, images and, ultimately, Gemini 3 … Read more

They found a cube-shaped skull in Tamaulipas and thought it was a migrant. Science has turned history upside down

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Modern archeology has just thrown us one of those pieces of the puzzle that forces us to rewrite, in part, what we knew about different ancient cultures of northern Mesoamerica. Something obligatory, since a team from the National Institute of Anthropology and History has identified a find in Tamaulipas that is as unusual as it is fascinating: a skull with an intentional deformation in the shape of a “cube”. “Parallelepiped” deformation. The discovery took place in the archaeological zone of Balcón de Montezuma, in the Sierra Madre Oriental. As detailed in the official INAH bulletinthe remains belong to an adult man over forty years old who lived during the Classic period between 400 and 900 AD Although the most surprising thing may seem given the curious deformation of the skull, for anthropologists the real news was in a modification of the “erect tabular” type. in its “parallelepiped” variant. How did it come to this? To have a skull with this peculiar shape, it is suggested that the ancient settlers of that area had to use wood compression devices such as slats. These would be applied to the back of the head (the occipital bone) and the forehead to restrict the natural growth of bones from childhood. Because it is precisely when they are malleable to adjust them to what you were looking for. Who was it? This is where hypotheses begin to emerge. Anthropologists point out that this type of deformation is more typical of the Mesoamerican southeast. But these bones have been found in the northern area. So the question was clear: Was this man a foreigner who came to the north? The answer, thanks to the analyzes of strontium isotopesit’s a resounding no. The conclusion that has been reached is that the bones belonged to a local man who was born and raised in the Sierra Madre Occidental area. And this is something that changes the narrative completely: we are not facing a migrant, but rather evidence of cultural adoption. Because. The fact that a local inhabitant decided (or his parents decided for him when they were very young) that the skull had to be modified with a technique that involved two splints makes sense. The hypotheses initially point to the membership in a local eliteand this modification could be a distinctive sign to indicate that they were in a higher stratum than the rest of the inhabitants. But it is also something that can suggest a cultural connection, since there was a great flow of ideas and aesthetic fashions that was much more fluid than previously thought between different cities in the area. That is why it may be that having a skull like this was an indication of beauty or it was simply ‘viral’ at that time. Its importance. Until now, archeology had recorded cranial deformations in the area, but they were generally more inclined backwards. The appearance of this more elongated upward shape is something that had not been recorded before in this area. This is something that a priori will help discard the old idea that the northern areas were culturally isolated. On the contrary, this “cubic skull” is physical proof that the northern border of Mesoamerica was fully integrated into the ritual and aesthetic dynamics of the rest of the subcontinent. Images | Chelms Varthoumlien In Xataka | If Spain believes it has a problem with droughts, it is because it does not know what led the Mayans to collapse: 150 extreme years

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