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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)

Setting up a smart home is a nightmare. The solution is Huawei is to set it up for them

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The promise of the smart home where everything works automatically without a problem sounded great, but the reality is that it is still a real chaos of incompatibilities and most annoying bugs. Even if we have all the devices from the same brand, there is still the part of assembling them, hiding cables… Huawei has the solution, although it doesn’t exactly come cheap. The complete pack They count in Panda Daily that Huawei has launched an offer of smart-home solutions that come in various packages with different devices and at various prices. The packages are designed to be installed in new construction homes and also for installation in already built homes. With these options, Huawei seeks to offer a comprehensive solution under the umbrella of your HarmonyOS system. In total they offer six packs, three for new construction homes and three for existing homes. The cheapest is the ‘starter pack’ for already built houses and costs 1,200 euros in exchange and includes the control hub and some essential functions such as lighting, air conditioning and curtain control. The most expensive packages are those installed in newly built homes. The most basic costs more than 3,500 euros in exchange and has WiFi 7 connectivity throughout the house, control of lights, curtains, air conditioning, smoke sensor for the kitchen and smart lock. The premium package goes up to almost 12,000 euros and adds features such as AI cameras, ambient lighting strips, and speakers throughout the house. All packs include installation and Huawei is committed to completing it in just 24 hours in the case of existing homes. The announcement is only for China, where Huawei had already launched similar solutions in the past. The chaos of home automation In Spain there are solutions provided by installation companies, but We do not find similar proposals through brands with smart-home devices such as Samsung or Xiaomi. Typically, we are the users who buy the devices and install them at home ourselves. Mounting cameras and lights is quite simple, but if we want deeper automation, for example controlling blinds or blinds, things get complicated and many times we have to go to an installer. Then there is the issue of compatibility. In my house I have two cameras, several lights, a robot vacuum cleaner and an automatic cat feeder. It’s not much, the problem is that each thing works with a different app and, although I can bring everything together in Google Home, the reality is that there are devices that it does not recognize, others that are deconfigured if the WiFi goes down and in general it is quite cumbersome. The standards like matter They promised to unify this chaos, but to this day it still hasn’t taken off. This same year they analyzed the topic in XDA Developerswhere they criticized that there are still many devices that do not support it and those that do sometimes lose functions compared to native integrations, as happens with Philips Hue. Returning to Huawei’s proposal, I don’t think the solution should be to buy a package worth several thousand euros and tie ourselves to a brand forever. However, the fact that it sounds like a much more convenient option than its alternatives It says a lot about the state of the connected home landscape. Image | Huawei In Xataka | Home automation and leaving for a month: Ana Boria has put all her efforts to the test just before the expected trip

A dog was lost in 2021 in the United States. Five years later it has appeared 3,700 kilometers from his home

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In recent years we have seen how the algorithm has taken over Christmasand Netflix to the head of the film industry competes to offer the most emotional miracle of the year, stories designed to reconcile us with chance, hope and those impossible endings. But this time, the story that best fits that mold does not come from a script or a streaming platform, but from real life, far from the screens and without special effects. The loss. The story has been collected by US media this weekend. Apparently, during almost five yearsPatricia Orozco lived with an unanswered question. Since Choco, the dachshund mix dog that he had adopted in 2016, disappeared in May 2021, his memory remained present in our daily lives. The uncertainty was constant: if he was still alive, if someone cared for him, if he had suffered. After months of posters, calls to shelters and no clues, the disappearance turned into mourning and a silent renunciation of having a dog again, as if accepting another company meant admitting that Choco would not return. The impossible message. Everything changed with an unexpected message from a microchip company. Choco had appeared, but not near Sacramento, where Orozco lived, but rather more than 3,700 kilometersin Lincoln, Michigan. At first, the woman thought it was Lincoln, California, just half an hour from her home. Surprise turned to disbelief when he realized that his dog had crossed practically the entire United States without anyone knowing how or when. Choco had been found tied to a fence in front of to a shelterand the photos confirmed what seemed like a mistake: it was him. The problem of bringing him back. The initial joy gave way to logistical anguish. With two small children, one of them barely four months old, Orozco saw no way to travel to pick him up. A message on social networks It activated an unexpected chain of solidarity. Volunteers, protectors and anonymous people began to look for solutions, from affordable flights to km donations (miles in USA). The possibility of someone traveling in his place took shape when Penny Scotta volunteer accustomed to complicated rescues, offered to make the trip. Orozco with his dog Choco, almost five years after he disappeared from his home in May 2021 A silent journey. The Washington Post told that Choco’s return was a small aerial odyssey. Scott flew from California to Detroit with stops and delays, picked up the dog thanks to the help of local volunteers and crossed the country again with the. A missed connection forced him to spend almost fourteen hours at the Chicago airport, where Choco, calm and docile, walked on his leash among travelers without a single complaint. For those who accompanied him, that behavior seemed to confirm that, despite everything, he was still the same calm and affectionate dog. The mystery of time. In the background of this most “Christmas” story, the great question: Nobody knows how the hell Choco ended up in Michigan or who he lived with during that time. The only thing that is clear is that he traveled through an entire country, far from the sunny climate that he had always known and that, according to its ownerI hated to leave. Now, at eleven years old, the dog had aged, but he had not lost his curious and affectionate character, the same one that led him to run away every time he found an open door. Return home. Finally, on December 3rd Choco came back to Sacramento. The reunion was immediate and left no doubt: when he got out of the car, he walked directly towards Patricia, as if he had never left. The same home from which he escaped years ago became his refuge again, yes, now withwith more precautions: a double door and the determination not to repeat history. For Orozco, the moment was unreal, a mixture of disbelief and relief that he still finds difficult to assimilate. A network and an idea. Beyond the happy ending, the story left a clear lesson. The microchip was the key piece that allowed us to close a circle that seemed broken forever, but so was the network of people who, without knowing each other, decided to act. Rescuers, donors and volunteers demonstrated that even after years and thousands of kilometers, a loss can be transformed into a reunion. For Patricia Orozco, there are not enough words to describe it: what happened, insistcan only be called “Christmas miracle”. A story with a happy ending that could be perpetuated on the big screen. The story of Choco and Orozco has all the ingredients to make the next Christmas list… in the home of the algorithms. Image | PexelsHelping Paws and Claws In Xataka | In 2019, Iberia lost a dog before flying. Now the European Justice says that it is worth the same as a suitcase In Xataka | The science behind your dog being able to find you 12 years after being lost

There are more than 900 retailers trying to sell you home electricity. And now Spain has begun the great purge

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Spain has a world record that is difficult to justify; it is the country with the most registered electricity suppliers. For years, the official list exceeded 900 companiesalthough more than half never had real activity. A “ghost market” that generated confusion, operational risks and an opacity inappropriate for a strategic sector. Now, for the first time, the Government has decided to put things in order. In the last twelve months, the first disqualifications have begun to cascade and everything indicates that the registry will undergo a massive purge. A total screening. The latest report from the CNMC confirmed what the sector intuited for a long time. Of a census of more than 900 marketers, only 416 companies had clients and purchased energy effectively. The rest—hundreds of societies—remained in a kind of permanent pause, registered but without activity. And the law is clear about this. Both the Royal Decree 1955/2000 as Law 24/2013 They allow the Ministry to withdraw the authorization of any marketing company that spends a year without operating or that fails to comply with its economic and technical obligations. According to information that El Periódico has had access tothe Ministry for the Ecological Transition has disabled some 40 marketing companies in the last year, the majority without clients or without energy purchases for more than twelve months. Cleaning is based on systematic application of article 74a legal mechanism that had been underused for years. A process that has come into action. The process is already observed in the Official State Gazette itself, where It was published in October the disqualification of Virtual Power Plant & Smart Energy SL for not presenting the required guarantees to the market operator. The resolution also ordered the automatic transfer of its clients to a Reference Marketer, in accordance with Law 24/2013. Similar cases also appear in CNMC files, as INF/DE/368/23where it was documented that a marketing company accumulated non-payments, insufficient guarantees and zero energy acquired to supply its clients. It worked only on paper. What does this mean for the market and the consumer? Although it may seem like a technical matter, the purge directly affects citizens. According to Rate and Electricitythe elimination of ghost marketers implies: less risk of a company going bankrupt overnight, more control over small operators without real solvency, more security and continuity of supply, since the regulations require customers to be automatically transferred to a Reference Marketer if their supplier fails. And, finally, a less opaque market with a lower risk of fraud. This is a systemic problem: some of these small firms accumulated non-payments to Red Eléctrica (REE) and the Iberian Market Operator (OMIE), generating costs that ended up absorbing the entire electrical system. Others promised unviable prices and, unable to buy energy on the daily market, simply disappeared. But, is it so easy to open a marketing company? Spain is the only European country where a prior administrative license is not required to operate as an electricity marketer. Opening a company of this type is relatively simple: it is enough to present to MITECO a communication of start of activity accompanied by a responsible declaration of compliance with the requirements, according to the official file of the Ministry itself. Before, yes, the interested party must accredit before REE and OMIE its technical and economic capacity: present financial guarantees, demonstrate that you will be able to buy energy on the market and have computer systems to communicate daily with the system operator. According to the consulting firm Audynforsystemthis accreditation is the true operational filter, but it has not prevented the proliferation of small local or merely registered marketers. How does debugging continue? The objective is not to reduce the number of marketing companies per se, but to eliminate: those that have never operated, those that do not meet guarantees, those that default on payments or generate risks to the system. According to Expansion416 marketing companies are still active, 335 have already been deregistered in recent years and 137 are under investigation for inactivity. The CNMC and MITECO will continue to apply article 74 of RD 1955/2000 to automatically disqualify those who have not been active for a year. Furthermore, recent resolutions show that who breaches guarantees or non-payments will be disqualified, with mandatory transfer of clients. THE message is unequivocal, there will be fewer marketers, but more reliable ones. It starts to get organized. For years, no one hit the brakes. Now, with defaults, regulatory tensions and an electrical system hit by unprecedented volatilities, the Government has decided to put things in order. The paradox is evident, while Europe tries to attract more competition, Spain has had to do just the opposite: reduce a hypertrophied market that never reflected real activity. Ongoing purging is not just administrative cleanup. It is an attempt to rebuild trust in a sector that needs stability to face the country’s great energy challenges: electrification, storage, digital networks and renewable transition. Image | freepik Xataka | 2026 has not yet started but it has already managed to produce the first bad news: the light goes up

how to do it online or from your mobile without leaving home

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Let’s tell you how to buy your 2025 Christmas Lottery ticket. We are already in December, and there is very little left for one of the most popular draws in the country. It is not that the prize is very big, the winner takes 400,000 euros, but that there are many stones and smaller prizes, which means that many people can take a pinch. We will divide this article into two parts. First we are going to tell you the best options to buy your tenth online through the browser, and then we will tell you what you have available to do it through your mobile with an app. Where to buy Christmas Lottery online in 2025 Now we are going to tell you the best alternatives to buy your Lottery ticket over the Internet, directly from your browser. For this we will use reliable pages where you can make the purchase safely. Lottery official website The best alternative to buying your lottery ticket online is use the official website of State Lotteries and Betting. To do so, you have to enter the page loteriasyapuestas.esand inside it go to the Christmas Lottery section. Once on this page, all you have to do is choose the number you want to play and continue with the purchase process. In addition, when you enter a specific number you will also be able to know what administration has itso you can buy it physically if you prefer. YourLotero Another good alternative is the website YourLotero. It is a service that centralizes lottery administrations, and where in addition to searching for numbers you can also buy them online or in an administration and have them sent to your house. But if you buy it online, you can collect the smaller prizes on the website. You just have to enter web.tulotero.esand choose that you want to play the Christmas Lottery. Once inside you can choose if you want to buy the digital number, have it sent to your home or pick it up. Then you choose whether you want a random number or a specific one, and complete the purchase process. Other administrations And you also have the option of buying your tenth directly at some of the main administrations in the country. For example, you can enter Doña Manolita’s online store or that of The Golden Witchalthough those from other administrations may also be useful to you. Here, many large administrations will allow you to buy the number you want and receive it at your home. You can explore the administrations you want and see the options each of them offer. Buy Christmas Lottery 2025 with your mobile Now we are going to tell you the processes that you can follow to buy the Christmas Lottery with your mobileso that you don’t need to sit at the computer, and you can do it from anywhere. State Lottery App The first option is again download the State Lottery and Betting app. Links to the app are available on the page loteriasyapuestas.es/es/appselae. But there is a peculiarity, it is that the Android version is downloaded as a APK fileand you will have to install it manually. But once you are inside, you have to choose to play the National Lottery, and choose the Christmas draw. The app is like the web, and it will allow you to search for numbers and buy them to always carry on your mobile, being able to see later if it was your turn or not. TuLotero App Again, the best alternative for your mobile is the TuLotero appwhich is what I use personally. You can look for digital numbers or buy physical ones, and it is available on Google Play for Android, in the AppGallery from Huawei or in the App Store of iPhone or iPad. When you enter it, you will have to choose the Christmas Lottery draw. Here, you can choose between entering a random tenth or selecting one manually. By doing it manually, you will be able to write it down and even choose which administration to buy it from digitally. You can also choose to have it sent to your home. Other options The other two best alternatives They are again the same as through the browser, applications of specific administrations. On the one hand, The Golden Witch has her own app available for Android and iOS. There is also another option called Your Lottery that allows you to play the State Lottery and Betting draws. In this last case, its version for Android It is also an APK, while the iOS one is downloaded directly from the App Store. In Xataka Basics | Christmas Lottery 2025: how to know which administration has a specific number

If the question is why we buy a home in Spain, mortgages have the answer: to invest

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In the middle of the debate on the weight of speculation in the Spanish real estate market and with the Catalan Government immersed in the debate Regarding whether or not it should put limits on the purchase of housing for investment purposes, the sector has come across data that adds even more fuel to the fire. According to a study carried out by the Financial Users Association (Asufin), the 47.7% of the mortgages signed are aimed at acquiring homes for investment purposes. That is to say, the idea of ​​those who take mortgages is not to convert houses into homes, but to put their savings in a safe security in search of good returns. What does the study say? The report by Asufin is just that, a report with its biases and limitations prepared based on a survey with 1,301 interviewees and data from different official sources, but it still offers an interesting ‘photo’. And a resounding conclusion: among those who go to the bank in search of financing to buy a home, there are many more people with an investment mentality than there are families looking for a home in which to settle. What figures do you use? The study concludes that only 15.9% of the new mortgage holders will convert the home into their first residence. Another 18.5% are looking for credit to get a second home that they will dedicate to personal use and 17.9% intend to change their usual residence. The photo is completed with the 47.7% that we mentioned before: buyers who knock on the doors of banks in search of credit to purchase a second home as an investment. The size of this last percentage is not surprising if we take into account that the price per residential square meter has been climbing for years (both in the purchase and rental markets) and there are those who estimate that buying an apartment for rent offers returns of more than 6% (either even older), significantly above what more traditional investments guarantee. Why do we buy houses? Asufin’s study has given rise to another interpretation that shows us more clearly what percentage of buyers go to the real estate market with an investment mentality, not in search of a home. If what we are talking about is the reasons that lead buyers to consider requesting a loan, investment is the main motivation 65%. The data shows that brick is still seen as a refuge value. And so, recognizes the associationleads to “the cycle of buying to rent or saving value to sell more expensively continuing to significantly stress the market.” It’s actually nothing new. Previous studies Asufin itself already reflected that more mortgages are requested to invest than to buy homes. Does the report say anything else? Yes. It confirms the low flow of new housing entering the market, that today the cheapest option is fixed mortgages and that foreign buyers they account for a total of 14%although the data varies depending on the region and the market segment we are talking about. For example, in the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands they account for almost 30%, while there are half a dozen autonomous communities in which foreigners do not even reach 4%. Another interesting reading is that credits take up a considerable part of the finances of Spanish households. To be more precise, the average mortgage payments are already They represent 35% of salaries, a percentage that rises to 40% if we talk about the segment of young buyers, between 25 and 35 years old. However, the Asufin data show a slight change in trend, with a clear decline in the percentage of buyers who go into debt to buy second homes for investment purposes. Although they continue to represent an important part of the pie (47.7%), at the beginning of the year they represented 56.2%. Image | Ján Jakub Naništa (Unsplash) In Xataka | Buying a house is already an impossible mission for many young Spaniards. So his parents donate it to him

the questions you have sent us (and their answers) about this projector for your home

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Watching a movie like in the cinema without spending a fortune on a giant TV is possible with devices such as projectors, such as the newHisense M2 Pro. We have been testing it for several days, and now we bring you a video with all the answers to the questions that you have been sending us about it to our Instagram profile. Hisense M2 Pro Q&A We start the video by answering questions that have to do with its design and the little things it has on the outside. Its design is minimalist and premium looking, and its dimensions are 193x218x230mm, a fairly modest size for a projector with these characteristics. The projector has a standard thread for put it on any type of tripodand you can also put it on the ceiling. Its operating system is exactly the same as what you can find on Hisense televisions. As for connectors, it has an HDMI (eARC) and a USB, which should be enough for any situation. It also has a slot in its base that allows it to be easily picked up and carried to any room. Its weight is 3.9 kilos, it has a 4K resolution with 60 Hz but in 2K it offers 240Hz, and if you don’t have a projection screen you can also use it on the wall. And offering 2K at 240Hz and its good refresh rate means you can use it to play without problem. Then, in the video we talk about its internal components, its AI technologies to improve the image, and all the internal details. We also talk to you about their screen ranges and their maximum projected distance or their brightness. We also tell you how to send content from your mobile phone or use it with streaming platforms, in addition to telling you the functions of its remote control or what its keys are like. And we ended up talking about its sound and whether what the projector offers is enough, the truth is that it is incredible how good it is and how surprising it is. But the best thing is that you watch the full video to see all the answers we give to the questions you have sent us. This content is a collaboration and sponsorship between Xataka and the brand, but there is no agreement on the script or the selection of the topics. The editorial content is created entirely by Xataka.

The largest telescope in the northern hemisphere is looking for a home. And the Canary Islands have just taken the lead

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Spain is getting closer to having in its territory the most powerful telescope on the entire planet, the Teinta Meter Telescope (TMT). Its location may finally be the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands, which for many years has been the emergency ‘plan B’, in case the original idea of ​​having it in the United States failed. And in the end, due to a large set of triggers, La Palma is gaining a lot of strength. A change of direction. He original use of the TMT was intended Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii. But it is a plan that was paralyzed due to the rejection of the native communities, who consider this a sacred place. Although it is not only the ‘fault’ of the natives, but also of the cuts that the Trump administration has made intended for research and science in general. Given this situation, Spain has offered to host the project in La Palma as announced by the TMT International Observatory LLC on your website. In this case, he thanks the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities for the offer made of commit to invest 400 million euros to install this telescope at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory. The next steps are focused on developing together with the Ministry a “detailed roadmap towards the possible realization of the TMT at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory”, with the aim of this project moving forward at this location. The importance of La Palma. The Roque de los Muchachos Observatory already houses world-renowned facilities such as the Canary Islands Great Telescope (GTC), which is the largest optical and near-infrared telescope on the planet. In addition, it participates in new generation projects such as the Cherenkov telescopes, dedicated to observing high-energy gamma rays. And this is something that the Minister of Science herself, Diana Morant, wanted to remember, who through from your X account has celebrated this advance as the necessary step to turn “the Canarian sky into the main observatory in the northern hemisphere.” Why it is important. The TMT is not just any project: its construction involves some of the most influential scientific organizations on the planet, such as the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) or the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), which represents more than 40 academic entities from around the world. Beyond this, we are also talking about the TMT being one of the three reference telescopes globally along with the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) in Chile or the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) being developed in the Atacama Desert. Its 30-meter diameter mirror, made up of 492 hexagonal segments, will make it a key tool for exploring exoplanets, black holes, dark matter and the formation of the first galaxies, with a resolution ten times higher than that of Hubble. Political impact. Beyond the astronomical potential, hosting the TMT would mean a leap in scale for Spain in its presence in international research, reinforcing the role of the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC) as a strategic partner in global scientific projects and attracting talent and technological investment. Images | Alin Corneliu In Xataka | Which telescope to buy to enjoy the nights and stars: 20 telescopes, binoculars, gadgets, accessories and more

The connected home is chaos. IKEA’s solution is 21 new devices compatible with Matter

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IKEA has been wanting to be the protagonist of the connected home for years. In its catalog we have motorized blinds, door sensorswater leak detectors… The problem was getting everything to work cohesively and without friction. It is just what IKEA wants to change and to do so it has completely renewed its range of smart devices. with a total of 21 products, all compatible with Matter. Goal: full compatibility The promise of the connected home sounds great on paper, but the reality is that, if you have many devices at home, friction between them is the order of the day and in the end it is a chaos of different apps and hubs to be able to control them all. In statements to Wiredthe director of home electronics at IKEA confessed to having “more than 100 smart devices at home, but I also have like 10 different hubs. I hate it.” IKEA has been launching connected devices for many years and has a fairly large offering, but this launch is the recognition that Their offer was quite chaotic. For example, the first light bulbs and their controllers are compatible with the Zigbee standard, but later they launched the hub DIRECT Matter compatible. What they are looking for with this renewal of their offer is to get closer to that total compatibility and for everything to work with everything. To achieve this they have chosen mattera standard that was launched in 2022 and is present in devices from the main home automation platforms such as Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Samsung Smartthings or Apple HomeKit. Despite many devices already integrate itthere is still the problem that many older devices do not offer itbut it is undoubtedly a step in the right direction to solve this chaos. Lights, sensors and more IKEA’s new home automation range consists of a total of 21 products grouped into three large categories: lighting, sensors and control. First of all we have a new range of light bulbs called KAJPLATS. It consists of eleven different models. They will be dimmable and will also come in various shades of white, warm and colored light. In the case of sensors, there will be five models aimed at different use cases. They are the following: MYGGSPRAY: a motion sensor for both indoor and outdoor use. It is designed so that lights turn on automatically. MYGGBETT: It is a sensor to detect door or window openings and allows you to configure notifications. TIMMERFLOTE: to measure the temperature and humidity inside the home. ALPSTUGA: is the new sensor that measures air quality using CO2, temperature and humidity measurements. KLIPBOK: to detect water leaks. You can notify us with a beep or with a mobile notification Finally, BILRESA will be your new remote controls to control lights and GRILLPLATS will be the new smart plug. They will be available from December at prices yet to be confirmed, although IKEA claims they will be more affordable. Images | IKEA In Xataka | There is a new fever among the ultra-rich: fed up with technology, they want houses that are as “dumb” as possible

In Galicia some parents educated their young son at home. Now they are condemned for “irresponsible unschooling”

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He homeschooling It’s news. And it is on account of a sentence issued by a court in Vigo that has decided to impose a fine of just over 2,000 euros (with severe reproach included) on parents who decided to educate their nine-year-old son at home, removing the little one from the school in which he was enrolled for the 2024-2025 academic year. The ruling is interesting not so much for its consequences (the penalty is not high: 1,080 euros per parent) as for its arguments and because it differs from other rulings on the same topic that yes they were acquittal. One moment,homeschooling? The term may seem strange, but it is not new. In fact, it connects with a movement that started in the US in the 70s. He homeschooling It is neither more nor less than an educational option that advocates educating children at home, far from conventional classrooms and schools. Often focusing educational responsibility on parents and those who practice it stand out above all its ability to adapt to the needs of each child, its personalization and flexibility of schedules, content and spaces. How many people practice it? Hard to know. In Spain it is estimated that there are between 2,000 and 4,000 families unschoolers. If we talk about the United States, there are calculations that indicate that 3% of students between five and 17 years old receive training at home. The variety of data is explained by the lack of censuses (case of Spain) and above all because the practice does not have the same lace in all countries. To better understand the regulatory differences, it is good to take a look at the web of Homeschooling. There are nations that clearly prohibit it, others that protect it and then there are cases like Spain, where there are those who consider that home education moves in “a legal ‘gray area’”. Swampy terrain. That is why sentences like the one just handed down by a judge in Galicia arouse so much interest, especially because not all cases end in the same way. What have they judged in Vigo? What the Criminal Court number 1 of Vigo has ruled on is a very specific case: some parents from Gondomar (in Pontevedra) who decided to take their nine-year-old son out of the public school in which he was enrolled last year to educate him at home. The ruling recalls that, despite the Educational Inspection’s resolution denying deschooling and the warning from the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office, the parents continued with their plans, betting on homeschooling and a personal itinerary. The boy attended an academy for two hours a week, but the bulk of his education depended on the program decided by his parents. And what does the sentence say? The fundamental and key of the sentence, as precise Vigo Lighthouseis the educational bet chosen by parents. The ruling speaks of “flagrant deficiencies”, an educational project that “does not meet the minimum requirements” and “irresponsible unschooling” that compromises the child’s “academic progress” and, ultimately, will condition his life. “In this case, the education provided directly and almost exclusively by the parents, basically based on their own personal criteria and ideas, without an alternative educational method to the minimally solvent official one and without some evaluative objectivity, represents irresponsible unschooling,” the judge warns in his sentence, disclosed by Lighthouse and with a resounding tone. “There is negligence in education and failures in basic care duties.” Why is it important? Where you put the focus. The sentence focuses mainly on these shortcomings and the “irresponsibility” of the child’s family. In fact the ruling insists in which the parents did not even resort to an “alternative external educational system to the official one” and selected the subjects based on “their own criteria”, without any other reference. In practice this translated into training that, in the judge’s opinion“does not meet the minimum requirements established in the regulatory framework of compulsory education.” The minor participated in activities such as bicycle outings, excursions to the forest, sailing with a jet ski, collecting chestnuts or cooking, but he received “basic” skills in fields such as mathematics or language. For example, his parents did not teach him geometry. The expert who was in charge of examining the case in fact noted a “confusion” between the family routine and the school routine and also pointed out the “privatization of socialization” of the child. Does it explain anything else? Yes. The ruling conveys an interesting message. He explains that “home education may not be criminally reprehensible,” but it must meet a series of requirements, guaranteeing that the child will receive “sufficient” training thanks to an educational system that must be “responsible and competent.” In fact, this is not the first ruling issued by the Vigo court on the subject: at the beginning of 2024 spoke about another case involving parents who educated their son at home throughout the 2021-22 academic year. The Prosecutor’s Office found a crime of “family abandonment” (the same one that has been tried now) and requested five months in prison for the parents and six months of disqualification for parental authority. What was the result? On that occasion the judge acquitted them. Although he homeschooling was underlying in both cases, the judge noted clear differences in both cases. In the 2021-2022 report, it concluded that the parents did not show “carelessness” or “carelessness” and carried out “responsible unschooling.” The little boy continued to be educated with official books, he attended various extracurricular activities and the homeschooling It only really lasted one course. In fact, a year later the minor was already attending another center again, where he continued training “with absolute regularity” and obtained good grades. Is it legal or not legal? Europa Press assures that the ruling of the Court of Vigo warns that the homeschooling It is not a legal option in our country and it is “unquestionable” that parents who do not send their children to school violate an obligation contained in the … Read more

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