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The wind industry has been dreaming for years of a turbine that can be assembled without concrete or machinery. France has said ‘hold my cubata’

July 2, 2026 by usatoday24

When we think about wind energy, the first thing that comes to mind is turbines with huge shovels that we usually see in the distance when driving on some highways in the country or the infographics of Chinese companies with XXL towers for marine plants. In France, a designer has decided to rethink those ideas and become a question: What if we could have a light, modular wind turbine that did not require complex (and very expensive) installations and was also recyclable and scalable, so it would be useful for both self-consumption and industry? The result is Wind to Watt. Wind power without megaprojects. we like them the megastructures. It’s no secret. That is why it is not strange that when we talk about wind (both onshore and offshore) the projects that resonate the most are those that involve huge turbines, gigantic towers and XL shovelslike the model of 153 meters and almost 90 tons devised by the Chinese company Dongfang Electric (DEC). In the sector, however, there are people who work with another approach: new modular wind turbines that make wind power popular at the domestic leveljust as it has been doing (for many years now) photovoltaics. Squaring the circle (wind). A few years ago the French designer Fabien Brun decided to move in that same direction, that of scalable wind power, asking itself some questions: Would it be possible to design a light, modular turbine, easy to transport, economical, recyclable and that also does not require complicated installations, such as concrete platforms capable of supporting large towers? They are not minor questions. Quite the opposite. They address some of the main challenges that wind power faces, such as how to make installations cheaper or what the hell to do with tons and tons of blades that reach the end of their useful life and are made with fiberglass, carbon, resins and other compounds that complicate their recycling. There are those who estimate that in 2030 only in Europe there will be more than 50,000 wind turbines that will have reached their useful life period, which is usually estimated at 20 years. The result: Wind to Watt. The result of those questions is Wind to Wattwhich is presented as “the first 1 kW wind turbine without the need for civil works, designed for mass production and global scalability.” Unlike conventional wind turbines, what Brun proposes is a light structure made of aluminum tubes and plastic canvas, which has two great advantages. First, it simplifies and speeds up assembly. Second, it prevents you from having to prepare concrete bases or alter the terrain before installing it. “Silent and minimal impact”. Those responsible for Wind to Watt also claim that by using tubes and tarpaulins it reduces costs, facilitates transportation and is manufactured with recyclable materials. They also argue that the generator can be adapted to any type of context, both on land and in marine parks, and that it does not generate noise pollution. “Its operation is silent and has minimal visual impact,” ditch from the company. What about power? The team ensures that their turbine is scalable and they offer six different models. The most basic and smallest measures 1×2 m, generates 0.3 kW and is designed primarily for residential use and self-consumption. The largest measures 10×20 m, has a power of 62.4 kW (more than 1,500 kWh/day) and those responsible assure that it serves to supply energy networks. Of course, in your catalog They include smaller models, 10.4 kW or 20.8 kW, theoretically designed for light industry or data centers. As far as prices are concerned, the company assures that the cost per kW installed is around 2,500 euros and its maintenance costs about 50 euros per year. According to the calculations of those responsible, it saves 500 euros per year and the investment is recovered after five years, a fifth of its useful life (25 years). What phase is it in? It still has a way to go to become a widespread solution, but those responsible defend the path they have already taken. “The company, which has been technically and commercially validated at an international level, is entering the industrialization and commercial structuring phase,” points out Brun, who insists that the turbine is designed “for mass production and global deployment without heavy infrastructure.” Their goal is to begin their pilot deployment this year. Images | Wind to Watt In Xataka | Renewable, coal or nuclear: where each country in the world gets its electricity from, in a detailed graph

For decades we climbed this New York skyscraper without knowing that the screws that held it in place could not hold.

June 16, 2026 by usatoday24

The situation was more or less like this. For two decades, hundreds of thousands of people entered and left the doors of one of the largest skyscraper in New York City. These people, many of them workers, went up and down in the elevator completely unaware of the critical failure that the building had, terrifying in architectural terms, and that no one took into account. Rarely in the history of urban planning in large cities has there been a similar situation. The story dates back to the beginning of the 20th centurywhen the Lutheran church of Saint Peter was located on land of 53rd Streetbetween Lexington Avenue and Third Avenue, in Midtown Manhattan. By 1960, the church community was experiencing serious financial problems, which led the city council to sell the land. The negotiations were not easy and lasted years. Mainly, because the church demanded the creation of a new building separate from the apartment block in which it could continue its activities. In the end the project was given the green light. The developer accepted the conditions, and Citi Bank commissioned Hugh Stubbins & Associates to design the skyscraper. William LeMessurier was in charge of engineering. The final project consisted of a skyscraper, a church, a public space below street level and landscaping. The most important element was, of course, the skyscraper. The plan marked 46 floors that were to be distinguished from the rest of the city by the polished and anodized aluminum of the façade. In addition, between the panels there were rows of windows. It didn’t really look complicated, at least not like the roof and base of the building. The happy roof Thus, in 1977 the skyscraper was completed. By then it had grown larger, with 59 floors and a total height of 279 meters. An architectural work that dazzled at first glance on the city skyline, a colossal tower where its 45-degree inclined top stood out. The top of the roof resembles an isosceles triangle. The original plan was to build terraces and apartments, but over time the architects decided to install huge solar panels. LeMessurier, a professor and graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, carried out a series of tests to verify their efficiency. It turned out that the energy converted by the installation was insufficient. Eventually, the idea of a small solar plant was abandoned. However, nothing like the base on which the building stood. Some “stilts,” as LeMessurier himself described, among which the then seventh largest skyscraper on the planet seemed to float. We are referring, of course, to those four gigantic pillars (34 meters each) that are located in the center of each side (rather than in the corners) of the base. It also had a single column in the center, in this case narrower, which housed the building’s elevator banks and provided additional strength to the frames. This design made room for the church under the northwest corner of the building, and gave the giant structure a brutal effectalmost as if he were levitating. In fact, it was exceptionally “light”, of only 25,000 tons (for reference, the Empire State Building was 60,000). The famous pillars The base became an architectural icon, as it made the space in the corners empty. LeMessurier had the weight of the skyscraper distributed to the exterior skeleton. Specifically, in a grid of triangular-shaped frames hidden under the façade. Interestingly, this structure was visible from the inside. The elements were not completely welded, but only fixed with bolted joints. Apparently, the steel frame designed in this way was intended to withstand perpendicular winds. According to the engineers, other types of wind should not pose a threat. Furthermore, municipal regulations did not require other air gusts to be taken into account in the design. The truth is that the architecture hid an important mechanism on the upper floors. The Citigroup Center had one of the first tuned mass dampers (TDM). It is a 360-ton concrete sphere embedded in oil. When vibrations from the ground or wind moved the building, the mechanism would oscillate in the opposite direction to the tilt of the building. The problems begin This swing was in turn balanced by hydraulic arms that support the sphere. With this solution, the skyscraper was able to “maintain balance.” As LeMessurier explained at the time, this piece was key, since its function was to cut the sway of the building in half by converting the kinetic energy of sway into friction. Once completed, the building was praised, but also the first doubts arrived. New York is not a major hurricane state, but it does have them from time to time. What would happen if, once every 50 years, the winds blew over 100 km/h? These winds can blow from different directions. The Citigroup Center opened in 1977 under the name Citicorp Center (which changed to Citigroup Center in 1998 following the merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group). But only a year after its inauguration it became clear that it could have a very serious defect structural. A year later, LeMessurier receives the call that no architect expects in life. It was Diane Hartleyan architecture student at the prestigious Princeton University who had studied the construction of the skyscraper for her thesis. The first of the calls was to ask him several technical questions about the design. Hartley’s professor had expressed doubts to him regarding the strength of a tilted skyscraper where the supporting columns were not at the corners. Hartley did some calculations of the building’s wind load. He then compared them with LeMessurier’s calculations and discovered that the construction engineers’ figures were incorrect. The student asked to be sent exact load calculations for different types of wind. Only received data related to perpendicular winds and guarantees on the solidity of the structure. What’s more, LeMessurier told him that the professor had no idea and that everything was in order. The geometry of the building’s frame worked perfectly with the pillars in such positions, … Read more

No bracelet could connect to an Android and an iPhone at the same time. The Xiaomi Smart Band 10 Pro: hold my cubata

May 28, 2026 by usatoday24

Xiaomi has just made the Smart Band 10 Pro official, along with the Xiaomi 17T, Xiaomi 17T Pro and the new TV S Mini LED. It promises to be one of the smart bracelets most advanced to date in the market wearables, cIt has a quality-price ratio that makes it especially attractive. It arrives in a single version in Spain and stands out, among other things, for its ability to connect simultaneously to an iPhone and a Xiaomi mobile. If you were thinking about renewing a smart bracelet or trying a Mi Smart Band for the first time, this caramelito It has a lot of war to fight in 2026. This is everything you need to know about Xiaomi’s most complete smart band. Technical data sheet of the Xiaomi Smart Band 10 Pro xiaomi smart band 10 pro dimensions and weight Standard: 46.18 x 33.35 x 9.7mm Ceramic: 43.96 × 33.36 × 9.7mm 21.6g (without strap) screen 1.74 inches AMOLED Resolution 480 x 336 pixels Peak brightness up to 2,000 nits Typical brightness of 1,500 nits 60Hz refresh rate Sensors heart rate sensor Accelerometer Gyroscope Compass Ambient light sensor GNSS connection Battery 350mAh Autonomy Up to 21 days duration connectivity Bluetooth 5.4 Android 8 and above iOS 14 and above Endurance 5ATM compatibility Android 8.0 or higher iOS 14 or higher PRICE 79.99 euros More and more smartwatches, less and less Band With the Xiaomi Smart Band 10the traditional “pill” format was maintained, in a compact device that clearly refers to its name, Smart Band. With the Pro version, things change quite a bit. Its 1.74-inch screen raises the resolution to 480 x 336 pixels, with a maximum brightness higher than that of many mid-range phones. Nothing less than 2,000 peak nits and 1,500 nits of HBM brightness, one screen. 2,000 nits of peak brightness, 1,500 nits in HBM, 2.5D curvature… The Smart Band 10 Pro smells like a high-end smartwatch more than an inexpensive bracelet The screen has a very slightly curved glass, with a 2.5D effect that does not curve the panel itself, but rather the glass that covers it. The technology is AMOLEDand in this version Xiaomi boasts of having more than 200 watchfaces to customize it. one step further Xiaomi has taken the health measurements of this bracelet very seriously, for which it wanted to collaborate with Clueone of the most relevant applications when it comes to tracking the menstrual cycle in women. By purchasing the Mi Band 10 Pro, we will have three free months of Clue Plus subscriptionfor advanced cycle measurement, fertility predictions, pregnancy monitoring, etc. Xiaomi has improved the measurement sensors physically, in addition to refining the algorithms to be more precise in information related to sports and health Beyond this novelty, we are looking at a bracelet that updates its PPG module – (the set of sensors and LEDs that measure the data) – to promise a 98.2% heart rate accuracy. It has more than 150 sports modes, including track recording for runners, and improved functions for cyclists. Sleep measurement It will now show trend reports in the app, it promises to be much more precise and, in terms of autonomy, in the best conditions it promises up to 21 days. The battery is 350mAhand still uses the magnetic charger system through pins. However, what is most striking about this bracelet is a possibility that we had not seen to date. When connected to a Xiaomi smartphone, the Xiaomi Smart Band 10 Pro allows notification synchronization and simultaneous pairing with an iPhone, which makes it possible to receive calls, messages and alerts from both devices on a single bracelet. The main limitation is that, yes or yes, we need a Xiaomi mobile to achieve this simultaneous synchronization, we cannot use another Android device. Versions and price of the Xiaomi Smart Band 10 Pro As Xiaomi usually does, the price of the Mi Band 10 Pro will be quite groundbreaking. Specifically, 79.99 euros and is available in various colors. Xiaomi Smart Band 10 Pro It will be available in colors: black, silver and pinkwith a selling price of 79.99 euros. In Xataka | It is the latest activity bracelet launched by Xiaomi: it has a battery for up to three weeks and costs less than 35 euros

The Bernabéu can now hold concerts again. The question is whether anyone will want to do it.

May 13, 2026 by usatoday24

Real Madrid has not held concerts at the Bernabéu for more than a year and a half. This week, the Provincial Court of Madrid has filed the criminal case that weighed on the club due to the noise of the shows in the summer of 2024. But the stadium has been hosting events for months but not live music, and no one in the promotion industry has the intention of re-signing a contract that, from now on, has all the criminal responsibility for the matter. What is this about? In the spring of 2024, the newly renovated Bernabéu began hosting large-format concerts. From the first events with Taylor Swiftresidents of the Chamartín district complained about the noise levels, which sometimes exceeded 85 decibels, when the municipal ordinance sets the ceiling at 53. As the problems persisted, a few months later the club suspended its entire musical agenda to undertake acoustic improvement works. Experts already warned that soundproofing the stadium would be almost impossibleand in mid-2025, Real Madrid definitively canceled the concerts. Meanwhile, the Association of Neighbors Affected by the Bernabéu filed a complaint for environmental crime, alleging that the club rented the stadium to concert promoters even though it knew that the facility lacked the necessary acoustic insulation. What the car says. The 3rd Section of the Provincial Court upheld the appeals presented by the club and agreed to the free dismissal of the process (that is, the case is filed and reopening it is ruled out). According to the court, Real Madrid Estadio SL limited itself to renting the venue; he did not organize the concerts, manage the sound system or make decisions about volume or technical production. The Court concludes that those who “promote, organize, develop and execute each show” They are the promoter companies that are the transferees of the stadium.and that they are the ones obliged to respect the decibel limits set by the Municipal Ordinance for Protection against Noise Pollution of 2011. In other words, the owner of the stadium has no legal or contractual duty to monitor acoustic emissions once the venue has been transferred. What the neighbors say. The Association of Neighbors Affected by the Bernabéu affirms that the ruling “doesn’t change anything”in their opinion the concerts are still illegal, and they are going to file an appeal. The resolution, they claim, does not determine that the concerts are legal or that they can be held, it only exempts Real Madrid from criminal liability. The acoustic problem that gave rise to everything is still there. Besides, there is a parallel judicial path: The Superior Court of Justice of Madrid has another case open related to the licenses and authorizations of the events, considering an appeal by the neighborhood association against administrative decisions. In the hands of the promoters. The order clears of responsibilities, but it does not solve the problem: any promoter that signs a concert at the Bernabéu now assumes, alone, the criminal risk from which the club now escapes. And it is not an attractive panorama: during the 2024 concerts, The Madrid City Council imposed 24 sanction acts with a cumulative amount greater than 2.6 million euros. Real Madrid’s measures, first canceling the concert schedule and later acoustic improvement works, make it clear that the club is very aware of the difficulties of giving concerts. Which promoter is going to assume responsibility for the fines? And now what? And now nothing. Real Madrid celebrates the judicial victory in its statement, but it will be difficult for it to find promoters willing to organize concerts in a stadium with such a sanctioning record, assuming the criminal risk alone. Meanwhile, on the other side of Madrid, the Riyadh Air Metropolitano can boast an impeccable track record: since its inauguration in 2018, the Atlético stadium has held more than 50 concerts without a single acoustic violation or a neighborhood complaint. The secret: the Metropolitano was built in the San Blas-Canillejas district, but far from the residential fabric. Sometimes it is not about ambition, but rather respecting some ordinance or other. In Xataka | Real Madrid invested 1,000 million euros in the Bernabéu to host concerts: at the moment it has tennis

Samsung and Apple brought ultra-thin mobile phones to the market with little battery life. China’s response: hold my tank

January 30, 2026 by usatoday24

Samsung was the first, and Apple followed a few months later. The introduction of increasingly thinner mobile phones on the market did not meet any specific need, beyond reducing weight and thickness. Betting on this format, at least with the proposals of Western manufacturers, brought with it sacrifices both in camera and autonomy. In China they are clear that There is no need to sacrifice one thing or the other.. The Honor Magic8 Pro Air. Recently, Honor presented the Magic 8 Pro Air in China. The surname already tells us where the shots are going. It is a mobile phone of only 6.1mm It has the best MediaTek processor It has a 5,500mAh battery It has a triple camera system (wide angle, wide angle and telephoto). It turns out that it was possible. There are a few millimeters of difference between the Honor Magic8 Pro Air and its direct rivals, the iPhone Air and Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge. But the numbers speak for themselves. Honor magic8 Pro air iphone air samsung galaxy s25 edge dimensions 150.5 x 71.9 156.2×74.7x 158.2 x 75.6 thickness 6.1mm 5.6mm 5.8mm battery 5,500mAh Si/C 3.149mah Li-Ion 3,900mAh Li-ion camera system 50MP, 1/1.3″, OIS 64 MP, /1.2″, OIS 50MP 48 MP 1/1.56″ OIS shift sensor 200 MP, 1/1.3″, OIS 12MP,1/2.55″ The Honor device is 0.3mm thicker than an S25 edge and 0.5mm thicker than the iPhone Air. To give you context, there is a guitar pick difference and a 75% higher energy density in the case of the Chinese mobile. An outrage. Furthermore, China has shown that it is not necessary to give up a single camera to opt for this format. And when we talk about flagships, this point is key. The 10K club. Beyond demonstrating that in ultra-thin mobile phones, silicon-carbon technologies allow energy densities that were impossible until a few years ago, the “10K club” is adding more and more participants. Chinese phones with normal thickness or even less than usual with 10,000mAh batteries. The last one to join the club was Realme P4 Powerthe first mobile phone in the world with a 10,001mAh battery. These are figures that double the usual standard in the rest of the ranges. The answer? There is neither nor is it expected in the short term. China has been ahead in the race to deploy silicon-carbon batteries, one that is not so easy to get into. Such high density batteries require: Greater regulations at the transport level, especially in the European Union. Much higher prices, as Xiaomi advanced. A durability risk not yet proven. Moving towards silicon entails important changes that traditional manufacturers, accustomed to a conservative and slow strategy, are not yet willing to take on. Image | Honor In Xataka | The 80/20 rule seemed like the holy grail for cell phone batteries. It’s not as infallible as it seems.

Getting hold of Venezuela’s immense oil reserves seems like a “bargain.” It’s actually an engineering nightmare.

January 5, 2026 by usatoday24

The geopolitical board has been blown up with the establishment of the “Donroe Doctrine.” According to energy analyst Javier Blasthis movement seeks to consolidate an energy empire from Alaska to Patagonia to control 40% of world production. Trump has not hesitated, making it clear that his objective is oil, recovering “stolen” assets and executing a lightning reconstruction led by American oil companies. However, Washington’s optimism clashes with technical reality. Analysts consulted by The Wall Street Journal They warn that there will not be an immediate miracle in the wells. In fact, the market has stopped fearing shortages and has begun to discount a future saturation of crude oil that is already pushing prices down. It’s not “black gold”, it’s asphalt. The narrative of easy success collides with geology. Venezuela It has 303,000 million barrels of proven reserves, but the vast majority is located in the Orinoco Belt and is extra-heavy crude oil. Unlike light oil, it is viscous, dense and does not flow naturally; It is more like tar than fuel. Added to the geological complexity is an alarming degradation of quality. A Reuters investigationbased on internal PDVSA documents, reveals that refiners in India (Reliance) and China (CNPC) have canceled orders or demanded drastic discounts because the crude oil arrives “dirty”, with excessive levels of water, salt and metals. These impurities corrode distillation towers and refining equipment, making processing an expensive and risky process. According to the researcher Luisa Palaciosthe country does not even produce the diluents (gasoline) necessary to transport this crude oil through pipelines, which forces it to depend on imports or inefficient mixtures. Low profitability. Despite the magnitude of the reserves, Venezuelan oil is far from being a profitable business. Its current low profitability is based on three critical pillars that any investor must consider. First of all, geology works against us. According to Forbesextracting this heavy crude oil requires massive and constant technical investment in steam injection and “upgrading” plants to transform the bitumen into a marketable product. Without this expensive technology, the resource is simply inaccessible. Added to this are the structural discounts in the market. As Al Jazeera explainsDue to its high density and sulfur content, this crude oil always trades below markers such as Brent or WTI. With a barrel that could fall to 50-60 dollars in 2026, the profit margin for Venezuela would be reduced to a minimum. The bottleneck: logistics. As an analysis in Bloomberg points outthe infrastructure is literally in ruins because loading a supertanker now requires five days, compared to just one day seven years ago. The collapse is such that the state oil company itself has gone so far as to dismantle oil pipelines to sell them for scrap, while key complexes such as Paraguaná are dying due to lack of maintenance. The rescue recipe. Venezuela dreams of the 4 million barrels per day that marked its rise in the 70s, but the financial reality is a bucket of cold water. Francisco Monaldi, director of energy policy at Rice University, calculates that the energy rescue demands 10 billion dollars a year for an entire decade. A goal as ambitious as it is expensive. However, money is not everything when human capital is lacking. CBCNews remember that In 2003, 23,000 skilled professionals were laid off, many of whom ended up in the Canadian tar sands. Without this talent, American cutting-edge technology has no hands to operate it. Furthermore, giants such as ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips will not move a single drill until legal certainty is guaranteed and settlements are made. billionaire debts of the expropriations of the Chávez era. But why Venezuela if Canada already exists? If crude oil is so “bad” and expensive, why Trump’s interest? The key is a necessary technical symbiosis. Gulf Coast refineries (Texas and Louisiana) They are like “stomachs” Designed for heavy food. Ironically, the oil that the US extracts through fracking is “too good” (too light). To optimize your plants and produce diesel, they need to mix its light crude oil with Venezuela’s heavy crude oil. Rory Johnston and Lino Carrillo they explain thatAlthough Canada’s crude oil is identical to Venezuelan crude, the latter has an unbeatable advantage: it is three days away by ship and has access to deep waters, while Canada suffers from “geographic confinement” due to saturated oil pipelines. Furthermore, by controlling this flow, the US cuts off the supply to “teapot” (independent refiners) of China, which until now bought Venezuelan crude at a discount, thus eliminating a competitive advantage for Beijing. There was a small pulse. Behind Trump’s mobilization, as the New York Times emphasizesChevron has positioned itself as a key player in the entire equation. This desire to go after Venezuelais also explained because it had a single major oil company that has maintained its presence in the country since 1923, surviving nationalizations and crises while competitors such as ExxonMobil left the board. There is a hidden treasure. Beyond oil, Venezuela is a “gas station” that wastes its own product. Luisa Palacios and The Kobeissi Letter The 200 billion cubic feet of natural gas stand out (the largest reserve in the region). Due to pure technical negligence, PDVSA today burns or vents an amount of gas equivalent to the consumption of all of Colombia, losing 1 billion dollars annually in smoke. Added to this is the potential of Mining Bow with critical minerals (nickel, coltan, bauxite) essential for the defense and technology industry. The paradox of the “gas station without hoses.” Trump has taken control of the largest reserve on the planet, but he has found himself with a facility that has no hoses, whose electrical grid is collapsing and whose fuel requires intensive processing so as not to destroy the engines. Although the flow of exports can be redirected quickly from China to the US in a matter of months—benefiting refineries in Texas and Louisiana—the actual reconstruction of the sector is a long-term project. The real battle has not been the capture of Maduro, but the management … Read more

In the 15th century Mallorca was a great manufacturer of nautical charts. Now that has allowed him to get hold of a treasure

December 26, 2025 by usatoday24

When almost six centuries ago the cartographer Pere Rossell created a detailed nautical chart of the Mediterranean, its purpose was to help sailors negotiate the winding coasts of North Africa and the Tyrrhenian, Ionian and Black Seas, a vast expanse of water crisscrossed with trade routes. What Rossell probably did not imagine is that in 2025 that Portulan letter full of annotations, lines and the occasional illustration would end up becoming a treasure in itself. One for which the Consell de Mallorca has paid 700,000 euros. The goal: bring him back home. A map, a treasure. That there are maps (and codices) that are worth more than many treasures is nothing new. He reminded us a few years ago an atlas supposedly consulted by Christopher Columbus on his first trip to America that ended up sold for several million euros. And we has remembered again now the Consell de Mallorca, although with a much more modest outlay. The island government has just paid 700,000 euros by a nautical chart prepared in the mid-15th century by one of the most important (and prolific) cartographers on the island at that time: Pere Rossellpart of the Mallorcan cartographic schoolwhich in turn connects with one of the eras of greatest splendor of the region in the preparation of nautical charts. From the workshops of Mallorca came plans so precious that they were in demand from Flanders to Alexandria. The Mediterranean on paper. The Majorcan press assures that the objective of the Consell is to expose the document in the Mallorca Museumbut the truth is that you don’t have to wait that long to enjoy its details, colors and annotations. At least if we don’t mind doing it through a screen. Sotheby’s, the firm in charge of the auction, includes a description and a detailed gallery of images on your websitewhich recalls that the plan was drawn up at the end of the 1440s, is written in Latin and Catalan and shows the Mediterranean and Black Seas in great detail. In the work Rossell reviewed dozens and dozens of place names and multiple navigation routes. As a cherry on top, it included shields, flags and details of nine cities with their fortifications. “Part of our identity”. Sotheby’s also stated that the plan has been valued by between 700,000 and one million of pounds. Mallorca Diary precise that the starting price was 600,000, around 687,000 euros, the amount that the island Government has decided to disburse through a direct purchase. The effort is more than justified for the Consell. Its head of Culture, Antònia Roca, celebrated a few days ago that portulano returns to Mallorca after spending several centuries outside the land where it was made, around the year 1447. “We acquired one of the most important jewels of maritime navigation and our historical heritage and we want to share it with the citizens.” A jewel that comes home. Roca is not the only one who thinks this way. A few weeks ago, prestigious historians such as María Barceló, emeritus professor of Medieval History, they claimed to local institutions to take advantage of the Sotheby’s auction to enrich the island’s heritage with a unique piece. Among other reasons, they alleged that no Majorcan public institution has one of the 15th century letters that came from the island’s School of Cartography. “They are the first who should act, they have the moral obligation to acquire it. We must recover the cultural heritage of this land dispersed throughout the world,” the expert insisted. Days later the Consell seemed to take note. Is it so valuable? Beyond its heritage value, Sotheby’s highlights the peculiarity of the nautical chart within Rossell’s legacy: the work that the Consell has just acquired is “the oldest of the ten navigation maps signed by Rossell”, one of the great exponents of the Mallorcan school. The plan was probably drawn up as a commission from the powerful Florentine Martelli family, in whose archive it was preserved for more than five centuries, until almost the 1970s, when it appears in the book dealer’s catalogue. Kenneth Nebenzahl. In the 80s it passed into the hands of the Pritzker couple and now (after a stop at the Sotheby’s auction house) it returns to Mallorca. Works of art…practical. Pere Rossell’s nautical chart is relevant for another reason. In his day there were ordinary plans in which practical criteria predominated and were basically designed for use on board ships, so they were sparse in decorations and ornaments. Then there were luxury portulans, meticulously decorated objects that usually ended up in palaces. As explains Ramón J. Pujadeshead of research at the Barcelona History Museum, The Worldthe work acquired by the Consell is halfway between both categories. They are premium nautical charts, designed for navigation but that do not give up aesthetics or becoming a status symbol. Images | Shoteby’s and Wikipedia In Xataka | Someone has created abstract works of art with one of the most unique forms of engineering: highway “knots”

When asked if AI is a bubble about to burst, big technology companies have just responded: hold my cap

October 30, 2025 by usatoday24

The AI race is about computing power and data centers the size of entire cities. And that doesn’t exactly come cheap. Big Tech is spending indecent amounts of money so as not to be left behind in AI and the fear that everything is a bubble flies over the environment. That doesn’t seem to stop them. Microsoft, Google and Meta have announced that they are increasing their planned spending on AI. what’s happening. Microsoft, Google and Meta have just presented their results for the last quarter and there are two pieces of news. The good thing is that all three have managed to increase their income. The not-so-good news is that they have sent a message to their worried investors: they are going to spend even more money than they planned on data centers and AI infrastructure. More wood. That AI is a bonfire of money we already knew it. Now we know it’s going to get even bigger. Meta had planned that Capex (capital expenditures) for 2025 would be $66 billion. Now they just said that The total will be between 70 and 72,000 million. And not only that, next year it will be even bigger. For its part, Alphabet (Google) had planned a Capex of 75,000 million, but they confirm that They will spend between 91 and 93 billion dollars. Finally, Microsoft has not given the annual data, but in this quarter They have spent 34.9 billion dollars5,000 million more than planned. In 2026 they expect spending to be even higher. Planned CAPEX REVISED CAPEX goal 66 billion 70-72 billion +24% GOOGLE 75 billion 91-93 billion +23% microsoft 30,000 million (quarterly) 34.9 billion (quarterly) +23% Also more income. Don’t panic, or at least not too much. All three have achieved record profits in this period. Meta earned 51.24 billion, Google 102.3 billion and Microsoft 70.1 billion, an increase of 26%, 16% and 13% more than the same period last year. All three assume that the numbers will continue to grow, and that is precisely what Those who warn of a bubble are not so clear. It’s not AI, it’s the cloud. In the case of Microsoft and Alphabet, the main vector of revenue growth is their cloud business, a trend that It started in the previous quarter and has continued to increase. Google Cloud generated 34% more revenue thanks to growth in “core products, AI infrastructure, and generative AI solutions.” In the case of Microsoft, its cloud services brought in 26.8 billion, 33% more than last year. And I published it. Meta is building data centers like there’s no tomorrow, but it doesn’t have a cloud business. Mete has something else: Facebook and Instagram. Its income comes largely from advertising and Zuckerberg assures that the good numbers come precisely because They are applying AI to improve their advertising systems. Not so fast, Zuck. Although Meta is the one that has increased its income the most compared to last year (26%), its shares have fallen 8% after announcing that it would continue to increase spending on AI. It seems that investors have quite a few doubts about their latest decisions, such as spend a million to create your superintelligence team or the plan to spend $600 billion in data centers. Image | Pixabay In Xataka | OpenAI is burning money like there is no tomorrow. The question is how long can he last like this?

For decades a silent boom has been taking hold in many regions of China: Christianity

October 11, 2025 by usatoday24

The recent history of Christianity in China is anything but simple. First for the Cultural Revolution and more recently, with Xi Jinping at the helm of the Communist Party, for repression against the unofficial churches. However, despite this troubled chronicle, experts tend to agree on something: in recent decades the Christian faith has expanded with force for the country. So much so that it already clearly dominates certain regions and there is who considers that in no time China will be “the largest Christian nation in the world.” How many Christians are there in China? The question is quite simple. Answer it, not so much. The China General Social Survey shows that between 2010 and 2018 the percentage of Chinese adults who identify as Christians (Catholic and Protestant) it was around 2%a percentage that can be found in essays about the matter. However, there is a quick search to find authors which differ significantly from that estimate, placing it at 3%, 7% or even 9% of the total population, which also includes children. In 2020 The Economist pointed that only Protestants make up 3% of the country’s population, although there are studies that suggest the real figure could be much higher if unregistered clandestine churches are taken into account. The reality is that it is not easy to have a precise figure. The reasons are multiple: the control of information by Beijing, the diversity of sources and methods in making calculations or even the “linguistic and conceptual differences between religion in East Asia and other regions”, such as warns Pew Research. How many believers are we talking about? The answer is again the same: it depends on the source. Although given the large size of China (1.4 billion inhabitants) even the most conservative calculations would leave a census of tens of millions. How many? Years ago, a Peking University study spoke of 40 millionWorld Population Review raises the estimate to 49.2 million and Visual Capitalist has even gone further, placing the figure close to 72 million. Is there more data? Yes. Other sources speak of some 20 million of adults, 60 million if the global population is taken into account, or even 100 million. Although its considerable disparitythe data lends itself to two clear readings. The first is the enormous weight of Protestants in the Chinese Christian community (some studies claim that represent 90% thanks to your great expansion). The second is that it is not necessary to resort to the most optimistic calculations to verify that China already surpasses (by far) the number of Christians in countries like Germany, France or Spain and would even be a handful of millions of believers in Italy if both Catholic and Protestant Christians are taken into account. How are they distributed throughout the country? A few years ago Reuters produced a map based on the studies of Professor Fenggang Yang, from Purdue University, which shows the dominant confession in the different regions of China. The plan reflects that Buddhism prevails in most of the southern and southwestern regions while other areas such as Xinjiang or Gansu are Muslim. Catholicism and especially Protestantism shine on the eastern flank. Even in Zhejiang areadespite the challenges that believers have encountered there. And what is the evolution? A quick Google search shows there are experts convinced that Christianity will continue to expand strongly in China and even place it among the countries in which the religion is experiencing greater growth, especially if we talk about Protestantism. In 2016 Professor Yang predicted that in 2030 the Asian giant will be “the largest Christian country in the world” despite its enormous Buddhist and Muslim population, among other confessions. “If we use an average annual growth rate of 7%, there will be more than 224 million Protestants in China by 2030,” the expert reflectedwho specifies that they would represent 16% of the population. “If we add Catholics, it would take even less time for China to become the largest Christian nation.” Does everyone have the same opinion? No, not everyone is so optimistic. In 2023 Pew Research published a study which suggests that, although Christianity expanded during the 80s and 90s (between 1982 and 1997 its faithful base went from six to 14 million), in recent years it has shown signs of “stabilizing.” As proof, they are based on official data that reflect that the percentage of Christian adults has barely changed between 2010 and 2018, without the pandemic having altered that picture. Still, Pew Research recognize that, in general, “survey-based estimates of China’s Christian population could be conservative,” as there are believers who choose not to reveal their faith “for fear of negative social or economic consequences,” especially if they belong to an unregistered church. Images | Gary Todd (Flickr) and Visual Capitalist (Pallavi Rao) In Xataka | China faces a bigger problem than the birth rate crisis: its young people are too busy to form couples

The remake of ‘Hold it as you can’ has worked very well at the box office. Excellent news for an almost dead genre: comedy

August 5, 2025 by usatoday24

The new version of ‘Hold it as you can are not exactly a rarity: in a cinematographic panorama absolutely full of sequelae and remakesa new version of a 1988 classic is not a precisely revolutionary decision. Something more surprising sounds, however, that we are talking about REBOOT of a mythical comedy, which returns to the gender to the rooms through the big door. AGARRATE IT 2025. We all know ‘hold it as you can’: A trilogy of police comedies that the Zaz trio rolled after ‘lands as you can’, and that made Leslie Nielsen late and throbbing star of the surreal chufla. His success unleashed all kinds of imitations, some more fortunate than others (and in Spain, many of them with the “… as you can” by the title), and now enjoy a new installment with Lian Neeson and Pamela Anderson. And all respecting the original canon: destroying parody of the thriller codes, and prominence of a star not known for its comic roles and that puts an unexpected and devastating vision on the table. Well, it has worked. It has not become the number one of the box office (it was possibly either its intention, it remains behind ‘The fantastic 4’ and ‘bad types 2’), but he has had a great start in the United States: 17 million dollars, plus 11.5 million in the countries where it has premiered (Spain does not reach August 22). A budget of 42 million is estimated, so it is an excellent starting point, in a film that can grow and stay in the rooms if your mouth works. And there are reasons to believe that mouth mouth could be activated, because also against any forecast, the film is collecting very good opinions: an a- In Cinemascore and a 90% in Rotten Tomatoes They corroborate it. Long live comedy. This box office triumph is more than a punctual success: it is a success for a genre that had not enjoyed something like that for many years. In fact, Neeson himself ironized about it in An ad that has been seen as the promotion of the filmand in which he claimed different comedies (all from Paramount, producer of this new version): ‘The reporter’, ‘Out of wave’, ‘Hot Rod’, ‘Superdetective in Hollywood’, ‘Rock School’, ‘The Truman Show’, ‘Zoolander’ and others. The web Savecomedy.org Refer to the web where you can buy tickets for the new ‘hold it as you can’. Comedy is a serious thing. Although the video is a joke, the question is very serious. Because the study comedy, with great stars, has not died at all. But Yes has done it in the rooms: Being a genre where the show is not the priority, to a large extent it has been relegated to streaming, or shyly enters combination with other genres to Abrise step towards the rooms. ‘Lilo and Stitch‘It’s family cinema,’ Novocaina ‘is action cinema,’Mickey 17‘, science fiction, and’A Minecraft movie‘, an adventure fantasy. Except for some other very punctual example, such as ‘Bridget Jones: crazy with him’ or ‘somewhat pregnant’, which do not stand out especially at the box office, the case of ‘holding it out as you can’, a pure and adulteration comedy, it is a rarity. Much more that is successful. There are no stars. It is a pity that actors that we previously identified with comedy, such as Will Ferrell, Melissa McCarthy or Adam Sandler have been recycling or directly disappearing from the map (or, in the case of Sandler, taking refuge in the streamingwhere he obtains very juicy dividends). Will we see a resurgence of those times in which ‘Porky’s’ (in the eighties), ‘American Pie’ (in the nineties) or ‘Virgin at forty’ (in the two thousandsses) they generated trends, made authors and distribute emerged and unleashed a wave of copies? Hold it as you can get it in his day, Maybe your reboot can work again. Header | Paramount In Xataka | The figures suggest that the domain of blockbusters in Hollywood is not over. In fact, it will go worse

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