ideas

the crazy ideas of Real Madrid’s crazy elections

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On June 7, Real Madrid will hold its first presidential elections with more than one candidate since 2006. The club’s Electoral Board validated on May 24 the candidacy of Enrique Riquelme, a 37-year-old businessman from Alicante and president of the Cox energy group. Florentino Pérez will compete for the presidency for the first time since he won in the second round against Ramón Calderón two decades ago. If there are already things that sound strange in these lines alone, wait until you know the details. You have to be rich. The statutes of Real Madrid have a series of requirements to qualify for the presidency of the club: being Spanish, proving at least twenty years as a member and, above all, presenting a bank guarantee equivalent to fifteen percent of the club’s annual budget. When Florentino was re-elected without opposition in 2021, the limit already required mobilizing more than 150 million in guarantees. Since then, the budget has grown steadily. In fact, Pérez was proclaimed president in 2009, 2013, 2017 and 2021 without any other candidate passing that procedure. Four consecutive terms, four re-elections without rival. Riquelme got it. Riquelme obtained the requirement of 180 million that was requested this year, but just barely: he gathered the guarantee just a few hours before the deadline closed. In an open letter prior to the process, the candidate had asked to extend the period for submitting candidatures and proposed “a broader process that encourages the real participation of partners.” Florentino’s response it was direct: “I don’t know that man. When they called them in 2000, I didn’t ask for more time, I showed up and won.” Riquelme, by the way, already had tried to run in the 2021 elections and withdrew his candidacy, alleging exactly the same thing, that the summer electoral calendar prevented him from preparing a worthy campaign. The 85 hectares. The true core of these elections is on an 85-hectare plot of land north of Madrid, in Valdebebas, which the club has owned since it gave up its old sports city in the Cinco Torres area so that the City Council could build other types of infrastructure. The ground is currently qualified for sports use only and is worth around five times more than it was worth before the requalification was put on the table. What Florentino wants to do. In May 2025, Florentino Pérez presented his project for that land: the Madrid Innovation District. He did it in the board room of the sports city, with the president of the Community, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and the mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida sitting next to him. None of the three answered questions from the media. The club published a presentation video about which little more is known than what Ayuso mentioned in his speech: 8.5 billion euros of private investment, 25,000 jobs and the ambition to turn the enclave into “one of the main technological poles in southern Europe.” The project plans to attract artificial intelligence companies, big databiotechnology, audiovisual production and e-sports, and university areas will be built in the space. You have to requalify. The municipal reclassification necessary to make the project possible was planned for approval during the first half of 2026. But the early elections for the club’s presidency, called before that process was completed, also served to allow Florentino to reach the decisive moment of the urban negotiation with the renewed mandate and without internal dissension. And then Riquelme landed. Other ideas for that floor. This May 27, Riquelme presented his project for those same hectares: the City of the Partner. The plan consists of three spaces: first, a social and sports campus with preferential access for members and clubs; then, a premium category hotel with reduced rates for traveling fans; finally, a multipurpose pavilion with 15,000 seats for basketball and concerts, which the candidate justifies as an alternative to the Canceled events at the Santiago Bernabéu. The project figures are striking. More than 745,000 square meters of total surface area, with more than 100,000 square meters built and more than 350,000 of outdoor spaces. 11 soccer fields, 41 paddle tennis and tennis courts, 6 basketball courts, an aquatic center, a central club of 22,000 square meters, an auditorium and an agora for 25,000 people. Riquelme also proposes expanding the Alfredo Di Stéfano stadium to 20,000 spectators for the women’s team. Other measures. Not everything is going to be bricks: other proposals from Riquelme are to reduce the membership fees by half as long as the team does not win a Champions League and to raffle 10,000 new season tickets among current members before a notary. There is also an original proposal that the member who gives up his seat at a match will receive 70% of the sale price in cash within seven days, instead of the deferred discount on the annual fee that currently applies. Money doesn’t grow on trees. What Riquelme has not clarified is where the money comes from to raise all this. The Madison Innovation District of Florentino depends on the investment of large private companies that have not yet signed anything public, but the City of the Partner depends on something equally imprecise. Riquelme says he has been developing the project since 2021, although financing details have not been made public until now. Florentino unleashed. The day Florentino called the elections, last May 12, he also gave the most talked about press conference of the season. Pérez accused journalists of acting “in the shadows” to provoke a change in the board, assured that Barcelona had stolen seven league titles from him and ruled out having considered resignation while simultaneously calling for early elections. By presenting his own candidacy days later, was more specific regarding Riquelme: He stated that the businessman’s candidacy “is orchestrated by those who made the most sinister stage of the club.” On June 7, the conflict is resolved at the polls. The reclassification of Valdebebas, meanwhile, has no date. Whoever wins the elections will inherit … Read more

a millionaire is looking for ideas because money has not given him happiness

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Some people think that the only thing you need to be happy is a checking account whose balance looks like a phone number. This is a fact confirmed by science. Others, on the other hand, cannot even use all the money in the world to achieve happiness. This is the case of Vinay Hiremath, a 34-year-old engineer of Indian origin living in the US who became a millionaire in a short time. but he doesn’t know what to do with his life to be happy. So he didn’t hesitate to make it public. from your personal page to see if anyone would give him ideas about what he could do with his life. “I know. It’s an absolutely otherworldly situation,” the millionaire wrote. Millionaire with all the time in the world Hiremath co-founded the startup Loom in 2015 alongside Shahed Khan and Joe Thomas. The company developed software that allowed screenshots and video capture in third-party applications. At its height, the pandemic meant that we all suddenly needed record meetings and taking screenshots of video calls, so the company’s valuation skyrocketed. In 2023, Atlassian purchased the company he had founded for $975 million, of which Hiremath would receive $60 million as a compensation salary package. for leaving the company. After formalizing the purchase, the young millionaire found himself with a fortune in your pocket and all the time in the world to spend it on things that made him happy. That was the first disappointment. “I have infinite freedom, but I don’t know what to do with it and, honestly, I’m not the most optimistic person about life,” Hiremath said on his blog. The first weeks were spent meeting with entrepreneurs and robotics experts in the hope of finding an exciting idea with which to get involved and help it grow as he had already done with his own company a few years ago. It was useless since none of the proposals inspired him. “I began to realize that what I really wanted was to look like Elon (Musk), and that is incredibly embarrassing. It hurts me to even write this,” the millionaire acknowledged. Since he didn’t know what to do with his money, thought that perhaps it would be a good idea to give a good part of his fortune to his parents so that they could retire earlier. He also tried to have fun traveling the worldand he did that accompanied by his girlfriend for six months. Unfortunately, that didn’t work either and, not only did it not make Hiremath’s life make sense, but he ended up breaking up with his girlfriend after “two years of unconditional love.” “We started arguing frequently and I knew it wasn’t her fault, it was mine.” It’s not what you have, it’s what you do After his romantic breakup, the millionaire understood that nothing he did would make him feel fulfilled if he did not first do an introspection exercise: he needed to “face himself completely.” Founding the company had made him feel fulfilled and, suddenly finding himself without a purposeleft him disoriented and without a vital goal to pursue. Hoping to find himself, he left Himalayan climbing without prior preparation and without any experience. On the verge of hypoxia lack of oxygendecided that his “inner self” was definitely not going to be in the peaks of the Himalayas, so he came to his senses and returned home, but not before climbing two of the peaks of that mountain range. “I completed the two summits I had planned and I realized again how important it is for me to do difficult things. It is the heart of my life and I don’t understand 100% why, but it probably has something to do with the fact that I didn’t have the best childhood,” said the millionaire in his writing. Upon returning home and telling his friends about the conclusions he had come to while hanging from a rappelling rope in the Himalayas, his friends joked that “I should work for Elon and Vivek at DOGE and help America get out of its current crisis and not pay its own debt. So I contacted some people and they accepted me.” For a month, the millionaire was talking to the army of candidates to be part of the new “extragovernmental” department“which created, with more pain than gloryElon Musk. “I learned about the power of urgency and having an undeniable mission. I didn’t read it somewhere, I experienced it.” However, the young millionaire also realized that That wasn’t going to be his battle.. “After four intense and intoxicating weeks, I canceled my plans to move to Washington and embark on a journey to save our government with some of the smartest people I have ever met. And I booked a one-way ticket to Hawaii,” Hiremath said. After a journey through the desert of the human condition, the engineer has “learned to accept that I am happy learning physics.” However, that was not going to be his destiny either. As a restless engineer, Hiremath has found a purpose. Recovering one of the thoughts that went viral from his blog, the young millionaire has managed to “lay the foundations of my basic principles and be able to start a company that manufactures things in the real world.” He has discovered a new passion developing sensors and automation for startup Specterwhich is responsible for implementing “physical intelligence” to control the security data in public and strategic facilities. In the end, happiness was in something as humble as a weld of tin in a silicon circuit. He who has more is not richerbut who needs it least. In Xataka | If the question is whether money brings happiness, a Harvard expert answers: it’s not having money, it’s what you do with it Image | Unsplash (Danka & Peter, Clark Tibbs) A version of this article was published in January 2025.

When the fathers of quantum physics discovered the fundamental ideas of reality, they discovered that a Jesuit had already been there 200 years before.

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The story is a classic of popular science: 200 years before the birth of quantum physics, the Jesuit Ruđer Bošković advanced the central ideas of 20th century physics: field theory, the uncertainty principle and even dark energy. Furthermore, he did it alone. What Bošković did, as Héctor Farrés points outit’s incredible. Not only is it real and important, but it is beyond doubt (Heisenberg himself lor recognized in 58), but what he didn’t do too. The latter is, in fact, the most interesting. What Bošković knew. In 1758, the Jesuit (who was one of the great mathematicians of the time and had even helped fix the dome of St. Peter’s) published in Vienna ‘Philosophiae naturalis theoria redacts ad unicam legem virium in natura existentium‘. In this book he developed ideas that he had already presented almost 15 years earlier in Rome: that matter was not made of extended solid corpuscles (as Newtonian physics maintained), nor of inextended metaphysical monads (as Leibniz thought). For Bošković, matter is essentially composed of dimensionless points that only exist as points of force. In essence, Bošković believed that Newton’s inverse square law was a ‘limiting case’ (for planetary bodies) of a different equation that governed the relationship of all things in nature. Just this idea that scale is important, that the behavior of forces could change radically depending on it, deserves to go down in the history of physics. Because? Because it is the piece that helps us stop understanding matter as impenetrable ‘bodies’ and allows us to understand that impenetrability as an effect: it was giving mathematical entity to atomism. And the most interesting thing is that his later influence is real. It is documented, come on: there is a chain of readings that takes us from these ideas to those of William Rowan Hamiltonthe most direct precursor of quantum mechanics. Apparently, Werner Heisenberg, he of the uncertainty principle, he even said in 1958 that “the remarkable concept that forces are repulsive at small distances and must be attractive at greater distances has played a decisive role in modern atomic physics. (…) Bohr’s quantum theory of the atom can be precisely related to this concept, and the study of the atomic nucleus during the last thirty years has taught us that the particles that constitute the nucleus, protons and neutrons, are bound together by precisely such a force.” However, one should not exaggerate either. As Borges said when talking about Kafka, authors create their own precursors. That is, as Heisenberg himself said, Bošković’s work “contains numerous ideas that have only achieved full expression in modern physics in the last fifty years.” They were brilliant intuitions that are fully understood in the light of quantum physics, but not seeds that logically contained all the physics of the 20th century within them. A very common mistake. Too common, in fact. We don’t usually approach history from what we already know and there, of course, the similarities shine in the middle of the night. The reality is that what we see are usually ‘pareidolias’: things that say more about us and the functioning of our brain than about what happened in the past. Image | Xataka In Xataka | One of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century already identified the problem of Generation Z: “Not tolerating boredom”

As far as we know, the agency that supervises AI in Spain is not supervising anything. What it does have is an Ideas Laboratory

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The Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence (AESIA) is close to completing its first year of operational life. This organization has activated several initiatives with results that are still difficult to specify, but one thing is clear: supervise, what is said to supervise, does not seem to be supervising anything. The danger, once again, is to continue the European drift: it is good to try to avoid the risks imposed by AI, but what Europe and Spain need is something else. Neither supervises nor sanctions. The great paradox of the agency with official headquarters in A Coruña is that, after months of operation, it has not yet exercised its theoretical sanctioning power nor has it audited a single critical algorithm of Big Tech. For now, its work has focused on “early access” to the regulations. The eternal criticism. Although the European AI Law already allows systems that violate fundamental rights to be banned from February 2025, the AESIA has not opened a single relevant file. Alberto Gago, its director, recently declared in El País that “We are sure that no prohibited AI operates in Spain.” The work is currently very different: it is limited to pedagogy and accompaniment, leaving the work of regulatory “bite” for a future that at the moment seems far from coming. Meanwhile, the real AI market continues to be defined by companies from the US or China, which do not stop releasing new models with practically no regulatory restrictions, while Spanish and European companies have the yoke of a regulation on their heads that threatens to block them before they can even launch projects of this type. At the moment he only writes manuals. In fact, she has now become a free legal consultant for a dozen companies from a “regulatory sandbox” recently created. This initiative, which boasts of being one year ahead of the mandatory deadlines of the European AI Law, wants to act as a controlled space where companies can test their AI systems. Of the 200 applications, 12 projects were selected, but the result of this effort consists of the writing technical guides that help companies comply with these regulations. The sandbox also raises doubts regarding things such as its duration, which is one year and may be too long for how fast this segment moves. A civic center as a temporary headquarters. AESIA should already be using the facilities of the La Terraza building, but said location continues under a concession from RTVE and this It does not theoretically end until 2034. It is difficult to project an image of international technological sovereignty when the agency’s main office operates from the Casa Veeduríaa shared space with neighborhood activities. This provisional headquarters coexists with neighborhood workshops and association meetingsfar from the massive data centers it aims to oversee. The image of a cutting-edge regulator working among this type of activities is probably not the most appropriate in terms of its operational credibility. Thirty professionals against the billion dollars of Big Tech investment. There is a worrying disproportion between the ambition of the government narrative and, for example, the actual staff currently available at AESIA. During the launch announcement, 80 highly specialized employees were promised, but the figures August 2025 indicate that there are barely 30 professionals on staff covering all areas. The work seems mammoth if an organization like this wants to supervise all the models that will come into operation in our country. Currently on their official website they appear two calls to cover permanent and temporary positions, in addition to six calls for officials. The Ideas Laboratory. Last April got started this “multidisciplinary faculty” to anticipate ethical challenges regarding gender, minors and misinformation. Although the topics are vital, the purely academic format clashes with the extreme speed at which the AI ​​industry moves. It is especially peculiar that the organism emits Christmas toy recommendations as global corporations redefine geopolitical power through massive language models that now threaten even unbalance the pillars of the economy. Good intentions are of little use. There is an evident mismatch between the philosophical mission of this laboratory and the technical reality. Although this citizen pedagogical work is interestingly necessary, it should not be the main function or the greatest achievement of a high-level technical supervision agency. The AESIA is behaving more like a citizen service department than as an organization capable of analyzing how the algorithms that grant us credit or diagnose diseases work. ALIA, a compromising example. We have a first worrying case with ALIAthe AI ​​model developed at the BSC. This model has been certified by AESIA, which indicates that it complies with the regulations. However the boot and evolution of said model continues to be erratic and worrying, although it is true that the resources available to the project are very far from those of startups in the US or China. The rigor of the certification is debatable and calls into question whether AESIA will have the capacity to oversee the most advanced AI models. In Xataka | This is not a normal update: MareNostrum 5 will spend 129 million euros to become the Spanish AI supercomputer

While Spain does everything possible to preserve the Iberian wolf, one group has very different ideas: ranchers

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A few days ago, a six-year-old Iberian wolf named Raksha traveled from the Basabrere center in Lezaun (Navarra) to the Jerez de la Frontera Zoobotanical Center. A trip that aims enrich the captive breeding program started in 1995 in order to guarantee the conservation of the species. The problem is that it is being done at a time when ranchers are fighting against the presence of the wolf due to the damage it is causing. Wolf x-ray. To understand the conflict, you first have to look at the numbers. According to the last national censusSpain has 333 stable herds, which translates into about 1,600 to 1,700 individuals, and it is good news because it marks an increase of 12% compared to the previous census. Here the vast majority is concentrated north of the Duero River, although a clear trend of expansion is observed towards the south and east of the peninsula. The problem is that we are still quite far from reaching the 500 herds that can guarantee good genetic variability that allows them to survive. That is why the Government maintains until this March the classification of the wolf’s conservation status as “unfavorable.” The war in the countryside. If science is telling us that there is a need for wolves, livestock farmers affirm that there are plenty of them, and they see this due to the increase in attacks on livestock that has forced the State to inject 20 million euros annually for prevention measures with fences or mastiff dogs, as well as to compensate financially. However, organizations such as WWF denounce that management by the autonomous communities is deficient, with a lack of transparency and little progress compared to what is set out in the 2022 National Strategy. Lots of criticism. But these measures seem to be not enough for some, such as the Popular Party, which points out that in the province of Lugo, where more than 1,400 affected animals were registered, much more still needs to be done. The Xunta de Galicia itself also points out that right now the winners do not have state funds to be able to face these attacks. Although the tension is undoubtedly placed right now on the temporary inclusion of the wolf in the List of Wild Species under Special Protection Regime (LESPRE). Under this legal umbrella, any action of capture, disturbance, sale or destruction of the species’ habitat is prohibited. A legal pulse. If we look back, a few months ago various amendments and regulatory changes They allowed a partial departure of the wolf from LESPRE, authorizing controls based on hunting to mitigate economic damage. But in February 2026 a ruling from the Supreme Court turned the situation around 180 degreessince it tightened the requirements to authorize these extractions, obligatorily prioritizing non-lethal alternatives and drastically limiting hunting. This sentence has acted like gasoline in regions of northern Spain where ranchers report significant attacks on their animals, and that is why the autonomous communities threaten to report the Spanish government to the European Union for not acting on the regulation of this species. But what is clear is that the crossroads of the Iberian wolf in 2026 is the perfect reflection of a coexistence problem. While Raksha and other specimens in captivity ensure the genetic lifeline of the species, in the offices and meadows of northern Spain the formula that allows the wolf to howl without the rural world starting to tremble has not yet been found. Images | Arturo de Frias Marques In Xataka | We have managed to make the dire wolves return after 10,000 years of being extinct. The problem is that “come back” may not be the right word.

These ideas show that they still make sense

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There was a time when USB drives were almost essential. We always carried one with us to move files between computers or save them for a while without depending on the Internet. That scenario has completely changed. Today the focus is on mobile phones and cloud storage, which leaves many pendrives forgotten in a drawer. The question is inevitable: if we meet one again, is it worth giving it a second life? In a new video published on the Xataka YouTube channel We try to answer precisely that question. Ana Boria reviews different ways to recover the usefulness of this peripheral that has apparently been outdated by the passage of time. And the interesting thing is that several of the proposals it raises go beyond the most obvious uses that we all have in mind. Tricks to take advantage of our USB drives One of the first ideas points to something as everyday as it is necessary: ​​freeing up space on phones with little internal memory. “Well, if you have a pendrive and an adapter like this, you can use it to transfer all the photos, videos and files you want, to free up space on your mobile without having to erase your memories,” explains Ana, who also details what type of adapter should be used to do it in a simple and practical way. The video also covers more familiar functions, such as using a USB drive to install Windows, with instructions on how to create the installation media, and other less common functions, such as using portable applications. “It is very useful if you have to use other people’s equipment from time to time or you cannot happily install programs,” our colleague points out from her own experience. There is even room for proposals designed for more technical profiles. Ana shows different possibilities to execute operating systems in Live USB modea common practice in several Linux distributions. And on Windows? There are also alternatives, and the video mentions specific tools that allow you to achieve this without too much complication. “I also want to tell you about a very interesting option, but one that has its nuances… We can use our USB memory as a physical key for two-step verification.” With this idea, Ana enters the field of digital security and puts on the table a less known, but especially useful, use for this type of device. The review continues with other tricks that show that that forgotten pendrive can still have a journey. The video is now available on Xataka’s YouTube channeland the invitation remains open: tell us in the comments if you knew of any of these uses or if they were already part of your daily life. Images | Xataka In Xataka | We put Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube Music to the test: music streaming has changed and there is no longer an obvious winner

Seven great ideas to give technology as a gift (for less than 100 euros) this Valentine’s Day

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I have a budget of 100 euros, what can I give to a person? techie? Fortunately, today we can find countless things. Some more original than others, but in any case good gifts. For this same reason, today we are going to give seven interesting ideas under 100 euros. Huawei Watch Fit 3 by 79 eurosa great smartwatch to keep better control over physical activities. Elgato Stream Deck Neo by 84.99 eurosa very practical device for playing computer games and even for productivity. Xiaomi Redmi Buds 6 Pro by 59.90 eurosgood Bluetooth headphones with noise cancellation. Woxter Scriba 195 S by 67.99 euros When you add to cart, a small eReader to devour books anywhere. Fire TV Stick 4K Select by 35.99 eurosa great device for old televisions. Chilly’s Series 2 by 38 eurosa thermal coffee cup with Biocote technology for the most coffee lovers. Kodak photo frame by 51.28 eurosa digital photo frame that also plays music. Huawei Watch Fit 3 For the price of 79 euros that he has right now Huawei Watch Fit 3It is a great gift if your partner wants a smartwatch with many sports functions. Specifically, the version with gray strap I find it the most interesting (it’s the one I have) because it’s not like the traditional ones, which often break from use. The screen looks great even outdoors and the rotating crown is a success. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Elgato Stream Deck Neo If your partner loves computer games or wants a device to improve productivity, the Elgato Stream Deck Neo is on sale right now for 84.99 euros. It includes eight fully customizable macro keys, plus a screen on the bottom side. The configuration options it offers are very varied, whether you want to play or work. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Xiaomi Redmi Buds 6 Pro Given so many models, which Bluetooth headphones to buy? The Redmi Buds 6 Pro from Xiaomi have a very good quality-price ratio, especially now that they are on sale for 59.90 euros. Have noise cancellationtheir battery is up to 36 hours and they are quite comfortable to use even for hours. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Woxter Scriba 195 S If your partner usually travels a lot by train, subway or bus and wants to spend time reading, there is no need to spend a lot of money to have an eReader or digital book reader. He Woxter Scriba 195 S It is perfect to carry in your pocket thanks to its 4.7-inch screen. It is controlled through the keypad and comes with 4 GB of storage, which can store many digital books. Its price at MediaMarkt is 79.99 euros, but when you add it to the cart it remains at 67.99 euros. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Fire TV Stick 4K Select If you have an old television at home and you want to use it more, a good gift for your partner or for both of you is the Fire TV Stick 4K Select. Right now it is on sale for 35.99 euros and offers 4K resolution. Furthermore, thanks to its operating system You can download streaming apps like Netflix. It also incorporates Alexa and comes with a remote control with direct access to some applications. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Chilly’s Series 2 Although it is somewhat less technological, for coffee lovers the Chilly’s Series 2 It can be very attractive. By 38 eurosit is a thermal coffee cup that, according to the brand, can stay warm for four hours. It comes with a mechanism to close it hermetically, the mouthpiece is designed to be soft to the touch and has Biocote anti-microbial technology that eliminates bad odors. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Kodak photo frame Finally, if you want to go more for the classic, this photo frame Kodak costs 51.28 euros and it is ideal to remember moments as a couple. It is a digital frame with a 10.1-inch screen that allows you to change photographs, but it can also play videos and music. It includes a remote control, allows you to rotate the image and add photos, videos and files via an SD card. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Jose GarciaHuawei, Stream Deck, Xiaomi, Woxter, Amazon, Chilly’s, Kodak In Xataka | The best smartwatches (2026): their analyzes and videos are here In Xataka | Best eBooks. Which eBook to buy and 11 recommended models

In 1901, a Spanish man had one of the ideas of the century: invent the remote control before television

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Televisions change, technologies change, but there are interactions that last despite the passage of years, decades and even centuries. An example of this is the remote controller, which has historically allowed us to interact with devices from a distance, although what we currently know is very different from the first concept of remote control. Although televisions did not become more common in the last decades of the 20th century, the concept of the remote controller appeared much earlier. Specifically, in 1901. And a fact that you may not know is that one of the pioneers of the remote control was a Spaniard, the engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo. The controller anticipated the televisions The history of the remote control dates back, as we said, to the first years of the last century. In 1903, the inventor, mathematician and engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo (1852-1936) conceived, built and patented the first remote control in history. He called it Telekino, and as one might thinkIt is far from the controls for televisionsand other devices we see now. Miniaturization was not a reality until much later and the Telekino took up an entire table. Telekino in Abra. Image: Torresquevedo.org Of course, the Telekino was not created with the idea of ​​controlling televisions remotely, which in reality did not become a reality almost until the incorporation of the cathode ray tube (withthe pushfrom Telefunken and other manufacturers). The idea was to control airships without anyone being in danger in the tests, but finally he tried it with boats as they recalled in the written edition ofThe Countryin 2007, when the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) recognized the invention by including it in its official list of milestones in the history of engineering. It was the first time that a Spanish creation became part of this list, in which we find inventions by Benjamin Franklin, Alessandro Volta and Guglielmo Marconi among others. Telekino, as you may have deduced, comes fromTV(from ancient Greek, “far”, meaning “at a distance”, “remotely”) andkinein(also from the Greek, “movement”), by the way. IEEE Recognition Plaque. Image: YouTube We already talked about Telekino inXatakaprecisely because of this historical recognition, also to remember that at the time it was not highly praised. In fact, Torres Quevedo himself would abandon the project as he did not receive sufficient support. The valuable legacy of Torres Quevedo One of the prototypes of the Telekino is located in the Torres-Quevedo Museum, in the Higher Technical School of Civil, Canal and Port Engineers of the Polytechnic University of Madrid. And thanks to a short (virtual) visit to that museum for the centenary of one of the Spanish engineer’s inventions we can discover more of them, also very relevant. Torres Quevedo is credited with nothing more and nothing less than the first Spanish airship, as well as the first ferry suitable for transporting people (or in other words, an open cable car for people). The invention was patented in 1887, and it would not be until 30 years later when it materialized, being launched on Mount Ulía in San Sebastián in 1907. Compensation also came in the form of international export, since the system reached neither more nor less thanto Niagara Falls. Thus, the callSpanish AerocarIt continues to operate today in the well-known region and celebrated its centenary in 2016, having completed more than 10 million transports without recording incidents. Torres Quevedo was also a precursor of modern computing with his Ajedrecista, considered the first chess computer game, and the electromechanical arithmometer, a calculator accompanied by a typewriter, a precursor to digital calculators. In Xataka | In 1925, procrastination was already a problem and someone found the definitive solution: the isolation helmet. In Xataka | We have been fascinated for years by the geniuses who come up with revolutionary innovations out of thin air. It’s always been smoke (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news In 1901, a Spanish man had one of the ideas of the century: invent the remote control before television was originally published in Xataka by Anna Marti .

five great gift ideas for the Three Wise Men

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If you still don’t have the gifts of the Three Wise Men and you are looking for inspiration to hit the nail on the head, El Corte Inglés has a section called Geek Universe with ideas to give and take. Therefore, in this article we are going to review some board games, audio devices and also kitchen devices. The K-Pop Warriors ‘The K-Pop Warriors‘have enjoyed (and continue to do so) enormous popularity on the Netflix platform, managing to reach millions of views and breaking records. It is not surprising that the platform launched a karaoke for the little ones, or not so little ones, in the house, although if we prefer to have the physical soundtrack we can opt for vinyl of ‘Las Guerreras K-Pop’ which is available at El Corte Inglés. If you prefer, it is also CD available. The K-Pop Warriors – Vinyl The price could vary. We earn commission from these links DeLorean replica For the most nostalgic there is also a large assortment of products related to movies, being the DeLorean replica one of the coolest. This is the car of ‘back to the future‘ in 1/24 scale which has a good level of detail. It is manufactured by the Welly brand and has dimensions of 17 cm wide, 7 cm high and 6 cm long. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links One Piece Monopoly ‘One Piece‘ has amassed a good audience during the long years in which both the manga and the anime have been (and are) on the air. The Mugiwara (Straw Hats) have made the leap into the field of board games with an adaptation of the Monopoly in One Piece edition. Includes figures of almost the entire crew and both the cards, the board and the coins are personalized. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Iron Man speaker If you liked the first phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (UCM), and especially those related to the character played by Robert Downey Jr., El Corte Inglés has a curious Iron Man Bluetooth speaker which has a pretty cool design. Incorporates Bluetooth, NFC and 3.5 mm Jack connectivityits battery offers a range of approximately 4 or 5 hours and has a hands-free function. Iron Man Bluetooth Speaker The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Pokémon waffle maker If you are passionate about waffles and want to make them with very different designs, El Corte Inglés has a practical waffle maker or waffle machine to prepare them Pokémon style. In this case, the waffle maker has a design of the iconic Pokéball from the series and the video games, but it is also allows you to prepare waffles with the same Pokéball design. In addition, it has non-stick treatment and its dimensions are 10 x 20 x 25 centimeters. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | El Corte Inglés and Compradicción (header), Sony and Netflix, Welly, Monopoly, Ekids, Uncanny Brands In Xataka | Five board and card games to spend a family Christmas with games for between 2 and 18 players In Xataka | Best Bluetooth speakers in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and six recommended models

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