house

The race to put a humanoid robot in our house has begun. It’s an absurd race

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A robot that walks around the house picking up what we have left lying around, loads the dishwasher and even starts the washing machine. It is not a science fiction movie, it is the advertisement of the Figure 03 and it is not the only company interested in sell us the idea that soon we will all have a home robot. Detective Spooner doesn’t like this. Robots for everyone There are people convinced that in a few years Humanoid robots will be as common in homes as robot vacuum cleaners are now. One of those people is Elon Musk, who assured that In five or six years we will all be able to afford a personal robot. Peter Diamandis, well-known writer and “futurologist” predicts that the first humanoid robots will reach homes as early as 2026. It is not an obsession of the West, In China they are also obsessed with robotics, although from a different approach. The government wants robots to have transformed the industry by 2035, but it also contemplates creation of robots as accompaniment within the home. We do not know if this future will materialize or if humanoid robots will end up being an eccentricity for a few. Regardless of whether they succeed, These are the companies that want to make it possible. Figure AI Figure 03 Based in California, it is the company that has shown the most progress in creating a humanoid robot for the home. Its latest model, the Figure 03, is presented to us as a kind of robotic butler that does all the housework. Until now the previous models did not go much beyond the “wow” effect of the video, but this time it is different because Figure has a plan to mass produce them. The first year They hope to produce 12,000 robots a yearalmost nothing. Figure is the spearhead of robotics in the United States. Its valuation is 39,000 million dollars and among its investors are NVIDIA, Salesforce, Qualcomm, Intel, Microsoft and Jeff Bezos himself. At the moment it is not for sale nor do we know the price it will have. tesla Tesla Optimus Gen 2 No introduction needed. The first time we learned that Tesla wanted to make a humanoid robot it was in 2021. In 2022 they had a functional prototype and in 2023 they presented the Optimus Gen 2. Although we have not seen him doing household chores, they did show how he was capable of handling fragile objects like an egg. According to Musk, the Optimus will be cheaper than a car (between 20 and 30,000 dollars), but the reality is that we are in 2025 and The promise has not yet come true. Musk continues determined to build “an army of robots” and just showed your worry about who will control him. In Tesla’s latest earnings call, he stated that he wants to maintain strong influence over this hypothetical army. 1X Technologies Neo Gamma It is based in California, but it is a Norwegian company. 1x’s goal has been the home from the beginning and its goal is a robot that does cleaning, organizing and even running errands. A year ago they presented the Neo Beta robot and in February of this year they presented the Neo Gammaits most advanced model. It is capable of interacting with humans, can manipulate all types of objects, and is covered in soft materials. 1X’s plan is to start deploying its robots in homes this year, but in a pilot project. The company has been set as a goal manufacture 100,000 units in 2027 and “millions more in 2028”. We don’t know anything about how much it will cost, although 1X says it is “expected to be priced competitively within the home robotics market,” whatever that means. The company is valued at 10 billion dollars and between your most powerful investors There are OpenAI and EQT. Unitree Robotics Unitree H2 Based in Hangzhou, it is one of the companies that form the ‘Six Little Dragons’ and leader in robotics in China. We knew her for her quadruped robotsbut recently they have moved on to humanoid robots. Its most advanced model, the Unitree H2was announced just a few days ago and is capable of dancing and even doing kung-fu, but it is not as focused on the home as other proposals. In China, spectacular demonstrations of robots that dance or box have become very fashionable, but for the moment They are not showing practical applications for these humanoid robots. Of course, it is the only one that already has humanoid robots for sale and at very competitive prices. The Unitree G1 costs $16,000, but the Unitree H1 costs 131,000 euros. Deep Robotics DR02 It is also a Chinese company and part of the ‘Six Little Dragons’, which are the six most cutting-edge companies in the country in AI and robotics. Like Unitree, they also launched quadruped robots and recently switched to humanoids. Its focus is the creation of resilient models so that they can work in sectors such as industry, logistics or public services. Their latest model is the DR02, a robot resistant to water and dust and is designed to work outdoors. In the future the company also wants to expand to other areas such as the home. What is the point of a humanoid robot? There are other voices at the opposite end of these visionaries, such as that of Rodney Brooks, the co-founder of iRobot. Brooks believes that humanoid robots are a fantasy and they are a format that is anything but practical. Keeping such a robot standing requires a lot of energy and can be a huge risk if it falls. Furthermore, he states that Imitating the dexterity of a human hand is practically impossible. For Ehsan Saffari, robotics engineer, There is no point in making human-shaped robots. At least not if we want them to be efficient. To illustrate this, he gives a very good example: “Imagine that instead of building a … Read more

give you money to buy a house

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In a context in which the housing is one of the main actors of territorial inequality In Spain, some rural municipalities have decided to intervene by directly offering money to whoever is willing to move and buy. We are not facing a “return to the countryside”, but rather public programs with specific amounts designed to reverse decades of population loss and to reactivate areas where the demographic decline has already had visible consequences in services, economic activity and social structure. National panorama. It is estimated that more than 3,400 municipalities Spaniards have been at structural demographic risk for years. They occupy almost the entire interior territory, but they barely concentrate the 10% of the population. The cumulative output of inhabitants deteriorated schools, commerce and employment, which in turn accelerated emigration to large cities. That loop has been difficult to reverse with soft incentives. Hence, the novelty of the current moment is the leap to material incentives to try to generate real population movement in the opposite direction for the first time in decades. Urban crisis and opportunity. While the rental and purchase markets in capitals such as Madrid, Barcelona or Malaga have become directly prohibitive For average incomes, much of inland Spain has a inverse problem: abundance of empty houses, low demand and shrinking economic bases. Urban pressure and rural emptying are not separate phenomena, but rather two sides of the same territorial asymmetry. And that is where the logic of pay to move: displace population where there is idle capacity and alleviate, at least on the margin, the residential saturation of metropolitan areas. An idea that already we had seen beforenot only in Spain, also in Italy. The DIVA program. He DIVA plan in the north of Cáceres it is possibly the clearest and most quantified initiative. Offers up to 15,000 euros to people who move to the towns in the region and telework from there, yes, with a minimum registration obligation of 24 months (and 36 for full payment) and accredited continuity of remote work activity. The overall endowment amounts to 200 million and its stated goal is to attract about 200 new stable residents. It does not finance residential tourism or second homes: it requires effective permanence and sustained employment relationships over time. Castilla y León. Here the Board grants up to 2,000 euros to families who move to small municipalities and acquire housing there. The amount starts at 1,000 euros for units without children and goes up to 2,000. for families with minors. The aid is processed after registering and requires establishing residence effective in the municipality. The objective is to induce purchase and roots in localities that have been losing density for decades, reinforcing stable tenure as a mechanism of permanence. Valladolid. The Provincial Council guide the program to young people from 18 to 36 years old in towns with less than 20,000 inhabitants, with income limits of up to 33,600 euros per year. For purchase with a mortgage it covers up to 10 installments (maximum €4,000), and for rehabilitation it covers up to 80% of the technical fees also with a limit of €4,000. The design seeks to lower the initial financial entry barrier to rural property among profiles that, without incentive, would choose to remain in stressed metropolitan areas. Rioja. He Revive Plan grants between 20,000 and 40,000 euros to those who buy housing in municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants and occupy it as their habitual residence. The maximum amount is reserved for towns of up to 500 inhabitants where depopulation is more acute. The property cannot exceed 180,000 euros and it must be inhabited within a maximum period of time after the purchase, maintaining a minimum residence of five years. The incentive does not finance rotation: it requires roots measurable in time. Navarre. Navarre guide the help to those under 35 years of age who buy housing in towns with less than 5,000 inhabitants or in non-urban areas up to 20,000. The subsidy is calculated as a percentage of the price with limits per square meter, so that an 80 m² apartment below 153,827 euros can be partially subsidized. The final requirement is habitual residence. The program is not about subsidized rent, but rather about establishing ownership as a mechanism for demographic return. Conditions, intention and limits. All programs share or repeat two traits: They seek continuous residence, not opportunistic mobility, and subordinate the aid to documentary proof of real roots (registration, habitual use, periods of permanence and, in the case of Ambroz, effective teleworking). The design, as we said at the beginning, seeks to induce functional repopulationnot symbolic. Of course, its scope is limited in scale, but it represents a phase change: for the first time there is competition for population with direct incentives. In a country where the cities seem to be expelling the citizens for the cost, and the interior collapses due to vacuumpaying to move stops being an anecdote and becomes an instrument of territorial policy. Image | Diego Delso In Xataka | The pistachio has worked an unexpected wonder: generating thousands of jobs in the fields of Castilla-La Mancha In Xataka | In rural Salamanca someone has had an idea to revitalize the towns: give you the bar

House prices are so sky-high that a millionaire built a tree house and spent a fortune on it

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High housing prices have caused buy a house has become little less than a utopia for many people, especially the youngest. Todd Graves, a Louisiana millionaire who founded the fried chicken restaurant chain Raising Cane’sdecided to do something different and quite crazy: build a house on the top of a giant tree in the garden of his mansion in Baton Rouge. It is not a toy house, but a real house, with everything you expect to find in a conventional house, but looking at the entire landscape from above. A house, on a house, near another house The millionaire did not decide to build his peculiar house in the heights due to lack of space for his family. In fact, the Graves have built the house on a more than 30-meter live oak tree that is in the garden of their enormous mansion, and right next to the 465-square-meter guest house. As the businessman confessed in a recent interview with Forbesdecided to build a house 20 meters high in 2015, after seeing one of the television shows Treehouse Masters. In the show, a group of professionals are dedicated to build tree houses. However, Graves wasn’t interested in just any house: He asked the team to build a real house with three floors, a terrace, a dining room, a bedroom and even a bathroom with running water. For anyone who doesn’t have a checking account with millions of dollars in it, this sounds strange:why spend so much on something like that When can you have everything on dry land? Graves assures that he uses it to disconnect and have fun, which is like going back to childhood, but as an adult. “It’s fun to have magical things,” he said. A house to move into…if you can afford it The Graves tree house has a first level with a terrace of about 42 square meters to enjoy the outdoors equipped with a slide and another 37 square meters in a living room on the first floor, with everything what a house needs to be comfortable, including a bar counter and a bathroom with running water inside. In addition, for its construction they used wood from an old sewing factory and stained glass that they rescued after the Hurricane Katrina that devastated the area, which gives it a special touch and full of history. On the upper floor, a room invites you to relax and rest, with views that are beginning to be unsuitable for those with vertigo. However, the final climax puts it a viewpoint at the highest part of the construction from which you can see the entire landscape that surrounds the mansion from a height of 25 meters. In addition, it has a suspension bridge almost 21 meters long that connects with another viewpoint overlooking a nearby lake. The millionaire’s whim is truly spectacular, but to the same extent as its cost. Build all this infrastructure It cost $400,000 in 2015a sum that for a normal person is a fortune, but for Todd it represents only 0.002% of his immense fortune, estimated at more than 22 billion dollars, according to data of Forbes. A meeting point for celebrities Graves’ treehouse is not only a treat for his children and their friends to play in, but Graves uses it as a refuge to clear your mind and “improve your performance at Raising Cane’s.” For him, it is a space that combines fun, childhood nostalgia and creativity, even if it is an unnecessary luxury in the eyes of many. The peculiar construction has become a meeting point for some famous friends of the businessman. Rappers like Snoop Dogg and Nelly, and athletes like Shaquille O’Neal and NFL star Ja’Marr Chase have stopped by after appearing on the show.Treehouse Masters’. In fact, Shaquille O’neal liked the Graves treehouse so much that he commissioned a similar one for his home in Georgia from the same builders. On that occasion, the lack of a tree the size of the 100-foot Graves oak made the house a little more contained in terms of dimensions and height. The height already Shaq brings it as standard. In Xataka | A businessman built a mega mansion without permission: the neighbors have gotten the city council to demolish it Image | Raising Cane’s, Animal Planet

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

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

Einstein’s first violin had passed unnoticed. Until an auction house put it up for sale.

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Albert Einstein is one of the most outstanding figures of the 20th century, and that means that is surrounded by myths. He “everything is relative”, I wasn’t good at math or in studies in general are some of the most widespread, but if you have ever read that he was passionate about the violin, I have to tell you that that is true. And one of them is so special that just reached a million euros at auction. The interesting thing? What was a fluke?. Einstein started playing the violin from a very young age. His mother was the one who gave him the germ of love for music and that instrument, but although at first he was not enthusiastic about it, when he discovered Mozart… things changed. It makes sense if we think about the mathematical logic after the Amadeus sonatas, and the Austrian composer became a figure of admiration for Einstein. The German physicist continued to play, sometimes in chamber groups with renowned musicians, and stated that music was a source of inspiration and even comfort when he had to solve complex problems. There are conflicting opinions about his skill with the instrument, but the violin was for Einstein a means of escape and relaxation. The violin of relativity Throughout his life, it is believed that he owned a dozen violins and all of them were called “Lina”. It was something that was recorded somewhere on the back of the instrument and it was short for “violin.” And, logically, items like this usually end up in the hands of collectors or enthusiasts, who acquire them through auctions. For example, in 2018, one of his violins ended up selling for $516,500. Aside from belonging to the physicist, it was the violin that was made specifically for him when he arrived in the United States in 1933. The protagonist of this story, however, has ended up reaching the figure of 860,000 poundswhich amounts to one million euros. It is a new record because it is the most expensive violin ever auctioned for someone who was not a professional concert pianist. The bidding started at 150,000 pounds and the estimate She was extremely modest. the house Dominic Winter Auctioneers thought it would end up between £200,000 and £300,000, but it seems that buyers ended up valuing something important: it is believed that This violin was the first that Einstein bought when I feared 15 years. It was made in 1894 by the German luthier Anton Zunterer, something that can be read on the label on the back of the instrument, and was key during the authentication process. Composer Paul Wingfield, who has spent an entire career researching, among other things, Einstein’s musical life, spent six months meticulously researching correspondence, contemporary documents, testimonies and customs regulations until say that he was “as sure as anyone could be that this violin belonged to Einstein.” The curious thing? Which was the instrument that, it seems, accompanied the scientist during the most prolific years of his careerincluding the period in which he developed the famous theory of relativity. In 1932, Einstein was preparing to flee Germany due to the rise of nazism and the growth of anti-Semitism. He decided to give his violin to friend and physicist Max von Laue, who later, in 1952, gave it to Margarete Hommrich, an admirer of Einstein. The violin remained in Hommrich’s family for 70 years, until Margarete’s great-great-granddaughter decided to put it up for auction, reaching this impressive figure. Apart from being the first one he bought and the one who accompanied him during the formulation of the theory of relativity, what is really impressive, and what puts that million euros in context, is what we mentioned about it being the most expensive violin auctioned that has not been owned by a famous concert artist (that honor goes to the violin that was played during the sinking of the titanicthat reached 900,000 pounds) or one made by Stradivarius. These are unattainable, as reflected by the almost 16 million dollars of the ‘Lady Blunt’ of 1721 sold in 2011. Images | Dominic Winter Einstein playing the violin In Xataka | 100 years later, Einstein’s relativity will undergo its most demanding test: two atomic clocks in space

Encell has everything to house extraterrestrial life. And Europe is moving to discover it before anyone else

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When NASA’s Cassini probe sent the first images of the water vapor jet That world was not dead. It was on, and the content of an underground ocean was expelling to space. Since then, Each new satellite data He has reinforced an idea that excites astrobiologists: if there is a place beyond the earth where to look for life, it is there. Short. A new Cassini data analysis, collected almost twenty years ago, has reinforced the possibility of Encelado to meet all the conditions to house life. The European space agency is clear: Encell is already a central objective of its long -term exploration plan, and it is time to launch a mission to answer the big question at once. The ingredients for life. For life to exist as we know it, three things are needed: liquid water, energy and several basic chemical elements: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur. Once all seems to have them. We know that a global saltwater ocean is hidden under its icy cortex. The energy is provided by the friction of the tides that Saturn causes and, probably, Hydrothermal sources in the seabedsimilar to fumaroles that here are full of bacteria and more complex organisms, such as worms and snails. Promising news. Thanks to the brain speakers, who launch samples to space, Cassini was able to analyze the composition of their ocean. Although most of the essential elements had already been detected, including phosphorus, a new finding between probe data has re -raised enthusiasm. A study published in Nature Astronomy Analyzes a Cassini flight from 2008. The ship crossed the brain feathers at 18 km/s. That speed, which seemed like a problem, turned out to be useful: the impact broke the molecules in a way that allowed them to identify them better. The result has been the discovery of new complex organic molecules, such as aliphatic compounds, esters, ethers and other molecules with nitrogen and oxygen. On Earth, these molecules are linked to reactions that give rise to amino acids, the basic pieces of proteins. ESA plans. With such promising scenario, Europe does not want to be left behind. In his scientific road map Voyage 2050, Encesto is already the star destination for a future mission. The idea includes an orbiter and a landing module. The orbiter would fly over the brain feathers several times with more precise instruments than Cassini. The landing would pose near the “stripes of Tigre” of the South Pole, where the geysers emerge, to directly collect the newly fallen snow. It would be the first time that a probe analyzes a world with an active ocean, although it would not reach the surface until 2058. Europe is not alone in the race. The United States also has its proposal: the mission Alcamadus orbilandermarked as a maximum priority in the Survey decadal of 2023. Your plan is very similar: orbit first and then land. China, meanwhile, already works in nuclear technology for deep space probes and Enced is among its future goals. Image | POT In Xataka | If we want to find extraterrestrial life, we already know at what point in the space we must look for: the “Terminator”

make our house another subscription

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The new era of Google Home arrives. Google’s home automotic and domestic platform has the absolute protagonist of Gemini, which will now be integrated into speakers, smart screenscameras and bells connected to supervitaminate them. The problem? That now the hardware will not make much sense without a subscription to the associated services. Why is it important. Google is a company absolutely focused on offering software and especially services, but so far its monetization model was advertising. With ia we are attending an increasingly strong transition To another model: that of subscriptions. Your home as recurring income. Google is abandoning the “purchase the device and is already” to convert every corner of your home into a recurring income. Before the Google Home speakers joined the Google assistant and you could use them without paying a separate subscription. Now hardware is the excuse for subscription. Amazon proposes the same. The launch of this platform coincides with the renewal of the catalog of intelligent devices of the family of Amazon, who now nourish from New Alexa+ Assistant. Although this service is not yet available in Spain, the firm led by Andy Jassy wants to pursue exactly the same: you pay for the product, then pay for using it through a monthly subscription. He Timing It is no accident. Gemini’s arrival at the Google Home Family devices is an obvious way to monetize all the investment that the company is doing in its models and AI infrastructure. In addition, inference costs are there, and you have to begin to make them profitable. On the web we still have free accounts that give a lot of room for maneuver for light use: in these devices that margin seems to disappear. AI as segmentator. Google thus raises a new reality in which AI turns a product into something premium. This technology is the perfect excuse to segment markets and Offer first and second class experiences: With your product you will win many integers, without Ia you are anchored in the past. Subscription fatigue returns. This new Google subscription service adds to a world conquered absolutely for this model. Although the option is reasonable as a way to compensate both users and service suppliers, the problem is that There are so many subscriptions that the amount dedicated to paying them begins to be prohibitive. The ecosystem trap. And of course there is that power that these closed ecosystems have, which work very well but that take advantage of that dependence that we end up having to force us certain extras in the form of subscriptions. Once you have five Echo or Nest devices, change them for another platform becomes expensive. Careful. This could be a shot in the butt for Google. Forcing users to pay if they want to get the most out of their devices can stop the adoption of these solutions. Who will pay a subscription of 10 dollars and then use your speaker to ask you time or ask you to put your favorite artist’s last song? This type of service seems to be very oriented to “friquis” of home automation that will take advantage of those options … but those same enthusiasts They usually try to access those same options without payingfor example through Open Source solutions. Thread and Matter’s unknown. And meanwhile, we attend a situation in which Interoperable standards –Thread, Matter– They may not serve much. Subscriptions destroy that future theoretical they sold us, and fragment the market with these new payment walls. They may not do it so much if Gemini ends up being something like “the Android of the speakers.” However, it is still very soon to know how a market that had stagnated and that with AI can be very benefited. If you pay for those benefits, of course. In Xataka | Domotizing with sensors seemed good idea. After several days of testing, Ana has discovered what almost no one tells

The true city of the future is not in China, we have it next to the house: Benidorm

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In the province of Alicante between crows of calm waters and white villages such as Altea, that vertical colossus that we all know appears: Benidorm; for many an urban non -non -nonsense; For others, a continuous party on its crowded sea and the streets of English bars just some apples from the beach. I, who am Alicante, know the discussions it causes. We can spend hours regretting your skyline, your infinite blocks or tourist invasion. But, beyond prejudices, Benidorm is moving in an unexpected direction: to become an urban sustainability laboratory, capable of producing its own energy, reusing almost all the water that consumes and serves as a model to other cities that seek to survive the climatic crisis. Short. The BIPV system (photovoltaic integration in buildings) is not new, but the intervention presented by the solar company Earth takes another step. According to your own statementThe company will rehabilitate two residential buildings of 17 plants, Medical Club VI and VII, by integrating 1,200 m² of vertical photovoltaic glass integrated into ventilated facade. Beyond the aesthetic. These facades will act as an energy skin capable of generating about 190,000 kWh per year, which will reduce the energy demand of the houses around 35% and avoid the emission of more than 50 tons of CO₂ per year. “This project shows that energy rehabilitation can go far beyond efficiency: it can transform buildings into active renewable energy generators,” José Carlos Antón saidCEO of Solar Earth. In addition, the ventilated facade system provides thermal and acoustic insulation, reinforcing the comfort of the neighbors. The work has the support of the Ministry of Housing, the Generalitat Valenciana and a financing of 1.9 million euros of the Next Generation EU Plan. A city looking for more. Benidorm has been working on another critical resource for years: The water. In an increasingly frequent drought context in Spain, they place the city among the more efficient in water managementwith uses close to 95% compared to 75% in Spain and the EU and with Reuse for irrigation around 30%. The strategy has been clear: constant infrastructure investment, renewal of obsolete networks, digitalization and control in real time of consumption and leaks. In 2025, the City Council He even presented a regenerated water management plan that will save about 15 % of the drinking water consumed by the city. The first phase is already underway in the Poniente area, where regenerated water will be supplied to more than 6,000 homes. All for a broader strategy. The commitment to solar glass and water reuse is part of a broader strategy of urban sustainability. He Benidorm Plan 360within the tourist sustainability plans at destination, it includes projects such as climatic corridors, sustainable urban drainage systems or the measurement of the water footprint. There are also actions in energy efficiency, such as the renewal of public lighting with LED technology, and sustainable mobility plans. All this has earned Benidorm the recognition of “green pioneer” within the network of smart tourist destinations. A paradigm shift. For years, Benidorm has been a symbol of mass tourism and urban speculation. Under that facade, however, the city has learned to manage its resources as few. He did it with water and now he wants to do it with energy. The true city of the future is not being built in Chinese megalopolis or in the futuristic experiments of the Middle East, but a few kilometers from home, in front of the Mediterranean. And it’s called Benidorm. Image | Freepik and Unspash Xataka | Self -consumption takes another step in China: windows that produce electricity while still being windows

Welcome to Hangzhou, the house of the ‘Six Little Dragons’

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The Chinese city of Shenzhen is still one technological centers most prominent in the country. There they have their headquarters giants such as Huawei, Tencent or DJI. However, with the Boom of AI there is another city that is concentrating some of the most innovative companies of the moment and already stands like the new Chinese Valley Silicon. Welcome to Hangzhou. Alibaba. Jack Ma chose his hometown as the headquarters of the one who would become the Chinese giant of electronic commerce. Without knowing it, he put the seed of what Hangzhou is now. Alibaba attracted investors and encouraged the creation of a culture tech local; even former employees have formed other companies In the city. Alibaba Cloud Technology has also been key in the development of many AI startups. With Eight data centers In the region, Alibaba has made Hangzhou fertile land for the birth of numerous startups IA. The ‘Six Little Dragons’. This is how the group formed by the six most leading companies of the moment in China is nicknamed, all of them based in Hangzhou: University of Zhejiang. They call her the “Stanford of the East,”. Stanford University in California formed many of Silicon Valley’s outstanding figures and Zhejiang University is doing the same with the leaders of these companies. Deepseek, Manycore and Deep Robotics were covers by students of this university. According to SCMPuntil September 2024 the university had produced 102 Chinese startup executives. Government support. The city is home to numerous investment funds dedicated to incubating new technology companies and have very favorable policies that do not exist in other Chinese cities. They count on this SCMP video That students who want to form a company can get a loan of up to 500,000 Yuan (about 60,000 euros). If the company fails, the government covers up to 100,000 yuan and if it is more, up to 80% of the total loan. An example is that of Game Science, to whom the government paid the rental of the offices during the first three years and also helped them get the license to launch the game. Also the case of Brainco, a startup that as we said was based in Boston, but thanks to the incentives offered by the Chinese government, they managed to move to Hangzhou. Administrative efficiency. Another of the points where Hangzhou has stood out on other cities is its bureaucratic efficiency. Here was born Initiative called “A visit at most.” It means that if you have to do paperwork to set up a company or request some help, you just need to visit the administration once. It has worked so well that they are taking it to more cities. Return. The efforts to make Hangzhou a technological hub of reference are paying fruits. Official data indicates that Hangzhou’s technology industry It grew by 7.1% in 2024 and produced 630,000 million yuan (approximately 75,000 million euros), which is a third of the gross domestic product of the city. Image | Wikipedia In Xataka | China wants to win the AI race at all costs. The striking how you are doing it: creating another career among its cities

In Pinto and Sanxenxo they could not sign doctors, so they opted for a radical solution: “give them” a house

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The challenge brings them. In Pinto, a municipality located south of the Community of Madrid has long faced the complicated task of ensuring that their 56,000 inhabitants will meet a doctor when they go to their health center. The reason? Its outpatients are cataloged as “Difficult coverage”a handicap to which the shortage of specialists in family and community medicine nationwide and the cost of housing in the city (11.7 euros/m2), that (although it remains significantly below the prices of the capital) has seen how rents were more expensive 17.5% in a matter of one year. Given that panorama, the City Council of Pinto has opted for a radical measure: ‘give away’ floors to doctors who move to the municipality. It is nothing new. Before He already did For similar reasons another Galician town: Sanxenxo. What happened? That Pinto has opted for a radical measure to capture new doctors and guarantee health care in their health centers and PAC. So that the city squares are more attractive and the house does not involve a problem, the City Council will offer accommodation without cost to the doctors. Literally. The decision was announced by the mayor himself, Solomon Aguado (PP), At the end of Juneduring the debate on the state of the city. And how will it do it? Your idea is to offer up to six municipal ownership homes, apartments from one or two bedrooms in which doctors can settle for free. The agreement will be formalized through the bailment, a contract by which the City Council yields the enjoyment of the floor without cost for a certain time. Once that term is fulfilled the Consistory recovers the house. Except for last minute or unforeseen changes, the objective is that the measure is launched immediately, throughout The second half of the year. What result has you given? For now the offer seems to have aroused interest. Only a few hours after the announcement, in the City Council mailbox There were already applications of doctors from different areas of the country. And since then the drip of curricula has remained. Today The confidential account That Pinto has more than 40 candidates from the Balearic Islands, Galicia, Andalucía, Castilla-La Mancha, Canary Islands … and even countries such as Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador or Mexico. Their curricula will be transferred to the Community of Madrid to include them in the bag to which, periodically, vacancies available in the town are offered. How serious is the problem? The City Council of Pinto recalls that its health centers are considered “difficult to cover” and, although in recent years the shortage of doctors has softened, the situation in the city’s consultations remains without being the ideal. Hence you want to capture more doctors. The country remember how at its worst moment the town stayed No doctors in the emergency room and the template of its two health centers was reduced to minimum levels. Free housing is not the only claim to attract doctors to Pinto. In 2024 the regional government announced an incentive of 500 euros per month For professionals who work in “difficult coverage” centers, a complement that, as the Executive himself remembered, adds to other pluses already approved. Ayuso recently He influenced again In that line when announcing a salary increase of 280 euros for nurses who work in centers with the same consideration. Is it something new? No. In recent years Other municipalities They have launched to offer Free housing to cover certain services or even stop the depopulation. However, there is a specific town that already resorted to a formula similar to that of Pinto with the same purpose: Sanxenxo, a municipality of Las Rías Baixas of 18,000 neighbors What sees how its population multiplies exponentially During the summer months. Precisely for that reason, a few years ago his City Council He had an idea To ensure that your health care is reinforced from June to September: offer free housing to doctors. The measure was supported by an agreement signed by the Consistory and the Sergas (the Galician service of Saúde) and contemplated that the municipality took charge of the rental of four homes during the summer months. The idea was the same: free house for doctors willing to reinforce attention in the centers of the area, although in its case the offer was temporary, of June 1 and September 30. The initiative worked A timebut It was abandoned This summer. The reason? Sergas can already cover places with their own doctors. In Sanxenxo the M2 for rent reached in June the € 22.8almost 33% more than a year ago. Images | Pinto City Council, Luis Meléndez (UNSPLASH) and Wikipedia (Zarateman) In Xataka | There is a Spain in which housing is built faster than homes are formed. Nor is she getting rid of the price increase

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