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We knew that olive trees were very old trees, what we did not imagine was that they reached 4,000 years of age.

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The olive tree is undoubtedly one of the most iconic trees in the Mediterranean basin. Olive groves have populated the fields of southern Europe and the Levant since time immemorial, but such is the longevity of this species that the history of some of these trees also dates back to, at least, antiquity. An example of this is the Vouves olive treelocated on the Greek island of Crete. Conservative estimates put it on this tree about 2,000 years. This would imply that in his life he could be a silent witness to events such as the division of the Roman Empire, the fall of Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire and, of course, the birth of contemporary Greece. The most extensive estimates estimate that this tree could reach 4,000 years old. This would not only make it a contemporary of figures such as Pythagoras, Aristotle or Alexander the Great but would also imply that this plant was born in Minoan Crete and was Witness the collapse of the Late Bronze Ageone of the most intriguing events that occurred at the dawn of history as we understand it. But perhaps the most surprising detail of all this is that the Vouves olive tree continues to bear fruit. This has led many to ask, how is this possible? What makes this specimen and its species in general so long-lived? The olive tree (Olea europaea) has a life expectancy that, although it does not reach millennia, does exceed several centuries. It is estimated that the life expectancy of trees of this species around five centuriesalthough there is some debate about it. In this sense, a study published in 2021 in the magazine Dendrochronologyestimated that the majority of “monumental olive trees” had maximum ages ranging between 300 and 500 years. Estimating the age of an olive tree is difficult. We noted at the beginning that estimates of the age of this ancient tree ranged between 2,000 and 4,000 years, a very wide range precisely because of the difficulty involved in calculating the age of these trees. Dendrochronology is based on using the growth rings of tree trunks to estimate their age: how many rings, how many years. Counting rings in a felled specimen is simple, but doing it in a living tree and doing it in an olive tree is another story. The trunks of the olive trees grow irregularly, which implies an apparently chaotic pattern in the rings inside, making counting especially difficult, as I pointed out. a study published in 2013 in the magazine PLOS One. Its curious growth could be related to its longevity. According to Scott Travers, a biologist at Rutgers University, in an article for Forbesone of the “secrets” behind longevity of these trees is in vegetative or clonal reproduction. That is, in the fact that this tree is made up of various cuttings that start from the same root. This, adds Travers, allows this type of plants to survive extreme conditions, including fires, cuts and similar incidents. Another survival trick Travers continues explainingis in the biochemistry of the tree, which offers mechanisms that allow it to repair damaged tissues, as well as defend itself against pathogenic organisms. The same oil that we humans use is used by the tree that gives it to us through its fruits. The elderly around us Spain also has ancient olive trees, although if we want to find a tree that competes in age with the Vouves olive tree, we have to go to Portugal. It would be an olive tree located in Abrantesin the center of Portugal. According to a study carried out by the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), Mouchao would be the tree that would hold this record with an age that would be around 3,350 years old. Spain also has ancient olive trees and among them all stands out. Arion’s Fargea tree that we can find in the province of Tarragona. The estimated age of this olive tree It is more than 1,700 years old. This implies that this ancient tree would have been planted in the time of Emperor Constantine I. Olive trees are not the only ancient tree species in our environment. Cedars, sequoias and even Canarian dragon trees can also reach ages that would make the biblical Methuselah pale. Olive trees are trees with a long life expectancy but they do not usually fill the lists of the longest living trees on the planet. The two longest-lived non-cloned trees known are two pines called Prometheus and Methuselahwhose ages are estimated to be over 4,000 years old. Both belong (or belonged in the case of Prometheus) to the species Pinus longaevathe “long-lived pine” so this fact is not entirely surprising. When Prometheus was cut, the botanists who analyzed it counted more than 4,800 rings, so they estimated its age to be about 4,900 years. Estimates indicate that Methuselah has also surpassed by decades the 4,800 year old mark. If we include clonal organisms we can find older trees. For example, the Pando forestconsidered the largest living organism on the planet, composed of thousands of cuttings from the same clonal tree, could have about 80,000 years old according to some estimates. In Xataka | A retiree planted a tree in 2003 in one of the most dangerous areas of Sao Paulo. Today it is an amazing “jungle” of the city In Xataka | We have found the oldest tree in the EU and it has been installed for 1,500 years in a very special place: Teide Image | Eric Nagle, CC BY-SA 4.0 This article was originally published in Xataka in April 2025.

There is a neighborhood in Spain with so many Swedish tourists that it is already a “Little Sweden”. And it’s exactly where you imagine.

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Neighborhoods change, they transform. That has always happened. What is less common is that the change is accompanied by new accents, especially Scandinavian accents, which is what has been gaining strength in decades. Saint CatherinePalma de Mallorca. What was once a fishing neighborhood has mutated into something totally different: an area in which there are many businesses oriented to the hospitality and the real estate market and in which it is surprisingly easy to find expats arriving from cities like Stockholm. There are those who already refer to the neighborhood as “little Sweden”. ‘Little Sweden’. The transformation of Santa Catalina is not exactly new. In 2017 Mallorca Diary realized and how the Scandinavians had acquired so many stores and apartments that the neighborhood had earned the nickname “Little Sweden.” It was not a phenomenon exclusive to that specific coastal area (at expats They are attracted to Mallorca in general), but it is true that it was clearly visible in its streets. What is surprising is to see how the scandinavization of Santa Catalina has advanced in the last decade, something that makes it quite clear a chronicle published by elDiario.es. “There are few Mallorcans left”. Probably the best way to understand the change is to listen to its residents, like Antoni, a 79-year-old neighbor who, after a lifetime in Santa Catalina recognize that he hardly knows anyone anymore when he walks through its streets. “There are few Mallorcans left,” he resigns. His environment agrees with him. The man talk with the press in an area where it is not difficult to find recently renovated buildings and shop windows silk-screened in foreign languages, including English, German and Swedish. If you look a little, not far from there you can even find real estate agencies focused on the Scandinavian market and the sign of an old Swedish bakery. A neighborhood in full change. Antoni is not (far from it) the only local who notices the changes in the neighborhood. Tomeu confirm that “there are only some old businesses left” and Raúl, also raised in Santa Catalina, confirms that none of the friends he played with when he was a child no longer live there. That neighborhoods change over the decades (and that extends to both neighborhoods and businesses) is nothing extraordinary, nor exclusive to Santa Catalina, Palma or the Balearic Islands. What is curious is that this change has as one of its driving forces the landing of expats and capital of northern Europe. More than testimonials. The transformation of the neighborhood (Mallorca in general) can be followed through more than just testimonies and memories. The studies do not always allow us to go into detail about each district, but they confirm the profound changes that the archipelago has experienced in recent years. To begin with, the Balearic Islands are the region of Spain with highest percentage of foreign population. According to a report of the Funcas Foundation, 29.3% of its population was born outside of Spain. As a reference, in Madrid they represent 25.7%. In 2004, foreigners represented ‘barely’ 15.3% of the Balearic census. Expensive, but not ‘Stockholm level’. The Swedes they are very far away of being a majority group in the Balearic Islands, but for some time they have shown a special interest for the region. Almost a decade ago the local press explained that many discovered its islands as a vacation destination and, over time, chose to settle in the archipelago, attracted by its climate, quality of life and prices. “There are the small things, like having a coffee for example. In Stockholm it costs five or six euros,” recognized in 2017 Patric, at the head of a practice located precisely in Santa Catalina. “In Stockholm the square meter is around 10,000 euros and that is why Santa Catalina is still cheap. For the rest of the world the neighborhood is terrible, but for the Swedes it is quite cheap.” Agency pending. Another front that makes the transformation of the neighborhood clear is real estate. for your article elDiario has spoken with several agencies established in the area and more or less focused on the Scandinavian market, such as Mallorcabyrån Real Estatewhich presents itself as a “Swedish-speaking real estate agency in Mallorca”, or Svensk Fastighetsförmedlingwhose managers they boast of having “brought the reliable Swedish real estate model to Spain”. Escalating prices. Beyond the agencies, the Idealista portal also offers an interesting clue. The real estate portal specifies that right now the m2 in Santa Catalina-Son Armadans-Maritim is paid at 6,200 eurosfar from the 2,385 a decade ago. In fact, Idealista has registered a year-on-year increase of 14.3%. Things don’t get much better if we talk about the residential rental market. The m2 is paid at 19.7 euros5.6% more than a year ago. Rental options right now more economical In the area there is a 50 square meter apartment for which they ask for 1,100 euros per month and a 38 m2 studio for which they pay 1,150 euros. In this last case (a room without an elevator), yes, the advertisement clarifies that it is a “seasonal rental.” Why do prices increase? The transformation of the neighborhood is clear and can be followed both through testimony of its oldest neighbors as well as of the newspaper archive, which takes years strengthening the “little Sweden” label. However, not everyone is so clear that the rise in housing prices can be explained by the arrival of Scandinavian capital. “In general, the main factor behind the lack of housing at affordable prices in Palma is the shortage of supply, especially new construction,” claims Vivian Grunblatt, head of a real estate agency aimed, among others, at Swedish buyers. “In the last ten years the creation of new homes has been limited, which generates constant pressure on prices.” “And what are you doing?” There are also who raises it from another perspective, like Raúl, the horse who recognizes that there are no longer any of his childhood friends left in the neighborhood. In … Read more

Imagine you are offered $26 million to convert your farm into a data center. And then imagine that you reject them

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The market price of agricultural land in Mason County, Kentucky, USA, is around $6,000 per acre. Last year, an unnamed company — the suspect is one of the AI ​​majors — offered Ida Huddleston and her family about 10 times that amount for half of their 1,200 acres. They tempted her with 26 million dollars to build a data center there but Huddleston, 82, rejected the offer without thinking. Farmers of yesteryear. Delsia Bare, daughter of the owner, counted on a local television station as for them “26 million means nothing. Although the phrase is blunt, it is likely that more than indifference to money it reflects a different scale of values. The land matters. Bare explained how his family has farmed that land for generations, paid taxes on it, and kept it productive even during the Great Depression. “We even grew wheat during the Depression and kept bread production lines running in the US when people didn’t have access to other foods.” For the family, the sale would be a break with those values. Obsession with data centers. The Huddlestons’ story is not an isolated case, and Bare herself claimed to be one of dozens of homeowners in the area who had received similar offers from the same anonymous buyer. We all know that large AI companies have been seeking for months to expand the presence of data centers throughout the US, and several of them have announced astronomical investments to achieve that future computing capacity. cheap land. Rural areas are perfect because they are far from urban centers but still have access to resources such as water for their cooling systems and electrical networks with sufficient capacity. In Kentucky the price of agricultural land is relatively low compared to other areas, and that availability of water and energy is a very attractive combination for companies that want to create new data centers. From stupid farmers, nothing. Huddleston, 82, explained that turning down the offer is surprising: “They call us stupid farmers, but we’re not. We know when our food is disappearing, when our land is disappearing.” The owner is clear that the conversion of agricultural land into the basis for digital infrastructure will have consequences on water, food production and the economy of rural communities itself that for decades have been very outside of these technological cycles. Lies. Those who wanted to buy his land claimed that the project would bring jobs and economic growth to the area, but Huddleston has a very different opinion. “I say they are liars, and the truth is not in them. That’s what I say. It’s a scam.” Gone with the wind. His daughter compared this symbiosis with his land to that reflected in the mythical film ‘Gone with the wind‘ and what her protagonist in the film, Scarlett O’Hara, experienced: “She was very attached to that land. Her spirit would never die. The same thing happens to me. As long as I am on this land, as long as it feeds me, as long as it takes care of me, there is nothing that can destroy me if I have this land.” But. Despite the Huddlestons’ refusal, the project has moved forward. Other neighbors in the area have agreed to sell, and the AI ​​company has adapted its plans to use those plots. It is therefore likely that the Huddleston family farm will end up being very close to that future data center if it is finally built, but one thing is certain: for now they are holding out. Image | Xataka with Freepik In Xataka | OpenAI has signed countless billion-dollar agreements with other companies. We are discovering that they are made of paper

Mexico has placed impossible tariffs on Chinese cars. What they didn’t imagine was that the cars were already there.

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Export to buckets. That was China’s goal in 2025 towards Mexico. Alerted by the enormous tariffs that the country was going to impose, as it has been, Chinese manufacturers have done everything possible to be faster than the Government. Now, exporting a car to Mexico from China is unfeasible. But the Chinese cars arrived months ago. taxes. Was a 20% tariff on Chinese cars too little? Mexico believes so and that is why, since January 2026, it has been applying a new 50% tariff on imports of products arriving from countries with which it does not have trade agreements. Come on, what Chinese cars now have to pay 50% tariffs to enter Mexico. The measure, explained in Motorpasión Mexico has a bit of a protectionist flavor compared to China or India (the latter country has Mexico as the third country to which it sends the most cars). But, above all, It has a lot of nods to the United Stateswith whom Mexico has a special trade agreement that has been at risk since Donald Trump returned to the White House. when you go. I will tell an anecdote from the writing of Xataka. In our Slack we have a reaction from Chenoa to point out to someone that we were already contemplating writing on a topic that he now proposes to us again. You know: “when you go…”. And that is what has happened to Mexico with China. Manufacturers, alarmed by the possibility of tariffs being raised in their country of origin (as has finally happened) began to send all the cars they could to Mexico. The result: 625,187 cars exported to Mexico in one year. They have done “a Chenoa” to Mexico. one in three. To understand the magnitude of exports, according to data from the China Passenger Car AssociationMexico is the country to which China exported the most cars in 2025. These more than 625,000 vehicles surpassed those purchased by Russia (582,738 units), which has serious difficulties in obtaining vehicles from abroad. The United Arab Emirates, with 571,937 cars imported from China, was the third country that received the most cars. The figure is enormous. And in Mexico around 1.5 million cars are bought a year. That is, if in 2026 each and every one of the cars exported by China were sold, in 2025 we would be talking about one in every three sales in the country being from Chinese manufacturers. How many are available? Those exports, of course, leave a pool of cheap cars in stock so the impact of Chinese cars on the market will continue to be felt for some time. It must be taken into account that it is calculated that China had already taken 15% market share. The storage of these cars, everything indicates, guarantees that Chinese brands continue selling at the same rate throughout the year. They point out in Motorpasión Mexico In 2025, it is estimated that Mexicans will buy just over 400,000 cars of Chinese origin. The only question is how many of them belong to the more than 630,000 cars imported last year and how much is the stock since a part of them must have been imported into the country in 2024. Photo | aboodi vesakaran and BYD In Xataka | Japan has been charging a 0% tariff on foreign cars for half a century. It will be very difficult for you to find one on the street.

When a mountaineer experiences extreme experiences on the mountain, his brain begins to imagine something: a “third man”

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Not all adventures have to be successfully resolved to become epic. It happened with what is known as Imperial Transantarcticthe expedition that left England in August 1914 under the orders of explorer Ernest Shackleton with an enormous purpose and not for the faint of heart: cross Antarcticafrom Vahsel in the Weddell Sea to Ross Island at the other end. Due to the harsh conditions at the South Pole, the ship Endurance ended up trapped between ice and Shackleton saw how his plans became complicated until they dragged him into a real feat that took his endurance and that of his colleagues to a limit level only achievable between icebergs, glacial temperatures and extreme exhaustion. The explorer’s feat also served something that he probably did not even suspect: coining the expression “third man factor or syndrome”. Well known by mountaineers and which is, even today, a fascinating phenomenon. “Who is the third person walking beside you?” Ernest Shackleton (left) with Robert Falcon Scott and Edward Wilson in Antarctica, 1902. The phenomenon was described by Shackleton when he recalled the very hard two and a half days during which he advanced—along with Frank Worseley and Tom Cream—towards a whaling station located on the northern coast of South Georgia. The group walked 36 long hours between terrible conditions, with hardly any material and avoiding death. On their shoulders they also carried the responsibility of having to help the rest of their companions from the ill-fated Imperial Transantarctic. Only the three of them, Ernest, Frank and Tom, wandered through the desolate Antarctica, although if someone had asked them how many people made up that desperate entourage, they would probably have answered something different: that with them was another person, a fourth member, nameless, faceless… but undeniable. “I know that during that long and stormy march over nameless mountains and glaciers, it often seemed to me that there were four of us, not three,” the explorer wrote. That common feeling, precise Guardianoverwhelmed the three men who undertook the journey: the presence of a “fourth” that accompanied them. Such an expression must have surprised the poet. T. S. Eliotwho some time later, in 1922, after reading Shackleton’s story, picked up the idea to capture it in his popular poem The Waste Land: “Who is the third one who always walks by your side? When I count, there is only you and me together, but when I look ahead on the white road there is always another walking at your side.” Eliot’s license, which changed Shackleton’s “fourth” man for a “third” was successful and since then we usually talk about the “third man syndrome” to refer to that: the feeling of a ghost companion, a presence that in a way comforts people who face a borderline sensation. Shackleton was not the only one to describe it. Several years after his death, in 1933, Frank SmytheBritish and explorer like him, recounted an experience similar while trying to summit Mount Everest. “The whole time I was climbing alone I had the strong feeling that I was accompanied by a second person. It was so strong that completely eliminated all the loneliness I might otherwise have felt,” the explorer wrote in his diary. So vivid was the sensation that, Smythe explains, at one point during the ascent he searched in his pocket, took out a piece of Kendal Mint Cakebroke it and turned to offer one of the halves to that companion who felt so close. He didn’t see anyone, of course. You don’t have to go back that far in time. Not that far. The Madrid mountaineer Fernando Garrido wrote in his notebook the feeling that came over him when, at the beginning of 1986, he spent more than two months on the lonely summit of the Aconcaguaat almost 7,000 meters, to achieve the altitude survival record. “Today, like other times, I woke up with the feeling that there was someone outsidenext to the store. Have you spent the night there? Why didn’t he call me to let him in? (…) —said the mountaineer in statements collected for him The Confidential—He’s my brother, my brother Javier! Javi, wake up, come on, wake up! I turn it towards me. “He is dead, his head is a skull.” “A solid science” A good handful of articles and references have been written about the phenomenon, some in media within the reach of Guardian either NPRand in 2008 the writer John Geiger dedicated a monographic book to him, ‘The Third Man Factor: Surviving the Impossible’ after spending five years tracking down similar stories. It is more complicated than collecting experiences, however, to give them a plausible explanation. Years ago, during a chat with the journalist NPR’s Guy Raz, Geiger reported that there are those who turn to spirituality, although he insists that the syndrome can be explained by “a solid science”. “Many skeptics and non-believers have had this experience and attribute it to other causes,” claims the author, who in his volume even includes the case of a 9/11 survivor. In 2009 Geiger pointed out explanations such as biochemical reactions or simply failures in brain activity. “If we understand that the third man factor is part of us, like adrenaline is… then we can access it more easily. It is not a hallucination in the sense that hallucinations are disordered. This is a very useful and orderly guide,” he reflected. Years ago, researchers Ben Alderson-Day and David Smailes commented on the phenomenon and they explained that “strong feelings of presence” do not occur only in dramatic circumstances. Cases have been recorded after bereavement, during sleep paralysis or in cases of neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease or brain damage. “The different contexts in which they occur give us some clues about what could be happening,” they say. “Understanding more about how and why felt presences occur has the potential to tell us many things about ourselves: how we react under intense mental or physical stress, how we deal with danger and threat, … Read more

In 2013 London announced its most impressive skyscraper. Back then, no one could imagine the danger that their crystals had.

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There are many stories of skyscrapers with very different endings than those on the plans, some terriblebut in the city of London one is still remembered for its closeness and chaos generated. The history of the so-called like walkie talkie (20 Fenchurch Street) is that of a building that was born wrapped in promises of modernity and ended up exhibiting one of the most unusual and dangerous design flaws in contemporary architecture. An experiment turned into risk. In the summer of 2013, when its glass façade was almost finished, London discovered to its shock that the skyscraper it had so much promoted had a big problem: acted like a gigantic parabolic lens, concentrating sunlight on a narrow strip of Eastcheap capable of melting plastic, deform metal and produce temperatures higher than those of a domestic oven. It was no joke. Parked cars, like the story that went viral Martin Lindsay’s Jaguarsuffered palpable damage, everyday objects began to melt, passersby spoke of softened shoe soles or feeling burns on their skin. You have to give it a name. The phenomenon was such that it ended up being baptized like death rayand it was not an exaggeration: the reflections generated up to 72 degrees Celsius on the street, creating a real danger for anyone passing by. The press documented the episode with fascination and alarmimmediately turning it into a media attraction that placed the building at the center of unprecedented scrutiny. The Walkie-Talkie (20 Fenchurch Street) A failure announced. Far from being an unforeseeable accident, Walkie Talkie It had been conceived with a concave curvature that any student of elementary physics would have pointed out as capable of concentrating light. Its architect, Rafael Viñoly, recognized shortly after the building had initially been designed with horizontal slats to avoid precisely that effect, but they were removed for budgetary reasons. Viñoly admitted also that the team did not have the appropriate tools to model the phenomenon accurately, limiting itself to approximate calculations who predicted a lower risk. The reality was very different, aggravated by the increase in solar radiation in London in recent years. In fact, the problem It was not unprecedented for the architect: already in Las Vegas his Vdara hotel had been accused to concentrate light until they burn the bathers. The skyscraper under construction And more. But in London the error acquired a incomparable public dimensionbecause it affected not a private complex but one of the busiest streets in the City. The urgent installation of a temporary mesh and the subsequent placement of slats on the facade They solved the problem, but they did not avoid the perception that it was a systemic failure, the result of a design process that had privileged aesthetics and costs over urban safety. The Sky Garden Emblem of a city in transformation. Even before the death ray episode, the Walkie Talkie was subject of criticism. Its silhouette, disproportionate and widened upward to maximize profitable views, stood like a sort of “sore thumb” outside the financial cluster, generating a visual impact that the own urban report had described as “significant damage.” However, the real controversy came after its famous Sky Garden: presented as a public contribution comparable to a vertical park. open to all, it ended up being more of a panoramic restaurant complex with controlled access and mandatory reservations. For many Londoners, it represented a symbol of the privatization drift of urban spaces: a supposed “public garden” that responded more to the logic of corporate luxury than to that of the common good. The complaints were so intense that the City even raised a structural reform of space to bring it closer to what was initially promised. A razzie. In 2015, amidst the accumulation of controversies, the building received the Carbuncle Cup for ugliest building of the year in the United Kingdom, a satirical recognition that underlined the extent to which it had become object of rejection collective. Even Sky News tried to fry an egg under his facade and his name mutated into a meme: Scorchie walkie. Over time, its image became associated not only with an aesthetic problem, but with a chain of opaque decisions and urban planning concessions that many consider a paradigmatic example of how not to manage the integration of a skyscraper into the historical fabric of London. The work of the Imperial The rebirth. Despite its rugged origins, Walkie Talkie has undergone a surprising public rehabilitation. In 2025, twelve years after the incident, visitors are lining up to enjoy from the Sky Gardennow fully integrated into the city’s tourist circuit. But beneath that normalization lies a story that could have been tragic. Later studies from Imperial College showed that, in a different meteorological scenario, the death ray could have cause serious injuryfires in nearby homes and even permanent damage to the skin and eyes. Only the chance combination of clouds and the orientation of the beam (which did not fall at its maximum point at street level) prevented major consequences. A reminder. The architecture was a warning about the critical role of climate modeling, professional responsibility, and the need to subject bolder architectural forms to much more rigorous evaluations. If today the majority of tourists who sgo to the Sky Garden They ignore that the building was about to become an icon of the disaster, it is because the city acted quickly and because luck intervened at the right time. In any case, the technical memory persists: Walkie Talkie remains a reminder that, in a dense, vertical metropolis, a miscalculation can become a massive riskand that contemporary architecture (when its interaction with the environment is neglected) can produce both wonders and invisible dangers. An uncomfortable legacy. In retrospect, the Walkie Talkie has ended up occupying a peculiar place in London’s recent history: it is simultaneously a tourist success, a design failurea case study in urban security and an example of the tensions between public interest and the imperatives of the real estate market. Its trajectory shows that a … Read more

We sensed that China and Russia leaders wanted to transcend in history. What we did not imagine was how much

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Possibly, the moment that has most talk in the media during The military parade In China it has not been the Power shown By Beijing, but a conversation that lasted less than a minute among the leaders of China and Russia. “Before, it was rare to reach 70, but today, at 70, one is still a child,” Xi commented. “Reach immortality,” Putin replied. Because eternal “youth” has been a purpose of the president for years. An open micro. What happened was that An open microphone He captured an unexpected conversation between Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin who showed not only his personal concerns, but also how biotechnology crosses the geopolitics. XI commented that in this century it could be possible for humans to live Until 150 years (“It is forecast that, in this century, you can also live up to 150“He said), while Putin, through a translator, spoke of organ transplants as a way towards perpetual youth and even” immortality. “ The scene, broadcast live on Chinese state television, offered an unusual intimate vision of two septuagenarian leaders who have eliminated mandate and maneuverado limits to prolong their permanence in power. An obsession. The Russian president He confirmed later The content of the talk, underlining that medical and surgical advances open the possibility of a much longer life. For years he has converted longevity in political priorityordering your Ministry of Health work in this field and encouraging state projects such as those of Rosatomwhich claims to develop techniques for “Print “human organs In laboratory. Your personal interest in health It is notorious: During the pandemic he imposed strict quarantine who had to meet with him and has promoted constitutional changes that would allow him to continue in power until 2036, when he would be 83 years old. In search of immortality. I counted in a The Times report That, in a context marked by the war in Ukraine and the demographic crisis that hits Russia, an official commission highlighted the priorities of the Kremlin elite: scientists from different institutions had received urgent orders from focus your research In anti -aging therapies, cell regeneration, immune reinforcement and advanced biomedicine, including 3D organ bioimpression. The initiative was Linked to Mikhail Kovalchuk77, nuclear physicist, president of the Kurchátov Institute and intimate friend of Putin, known both for his political influence and his personal obsessions. Kovalchuk also supervises a State Genetics Program in which the president’s eldest daughter, María Vorontsova, endocrinologist of training participates. Personal and political objective. Kovalchuk was described in the report as “crazy” For the idea of ​​eternal life, and it would have been the one who took the project directly to Putin, triggering a waterfall of ministerial orders that demanded immediate results. For some scientists, the mandate touched the absurd, by allocating resources to prolong the life of a septuagenarian elite while hundreds of thousands of young Russians die or are mutilated in the front. A source of the National Medical Center itself He defined it as “pure cynicism”, by prioritizing the rejuvenation of aged leaders on the rehabilitation of wounded soldiers. Conspiracy beliefs and esotericism. The background of these initiatives was mixed with the conspiracy vision that Putin and Kovalchuk share. The latter He has affirmed that the West develops biological weapons specifically directed against ethnic Russians and that the United States would have created a “subspecies of servants” with limited self -consciousness. Such ideas are intertwined with practices of Doubtful scientific base: Putin, despite having access to the best health, Supremely submit To bathrooms with bloods of siberian deer horns, a folkloric treatment that in Russia is attributed to rejuvenating and aphrodisiac properties. Pioneers of longevity. Death last year of Vladimir KhavinsonRussian longevity researcher marked the end of an influential figure in the development of rejuvenating drugs allegedly used by Soviet leaders such as Brézhnev. Although there are no solid evidence of its effective They would have appealed to your treatments. Its scientific legacy, halfway between biomedical research and pseudoscience, reflects the ambiguity of Russian policy in this field. The transhumanist dream. Beyond the Kremlin efforts, private figures also drive radical projects: Dmitri ITSKOVRussian billionaire, for years a initiative to transfer Human consciousness to artificial supports in 2035, with the promise of an indefinite life. In neighboring Kazakhstan, former president Nursultán Nazarbáyev claimed in 2010 that his scientists They will decipher the secret of immortality, although at 84 he still awaits the fruits of that effort. Examples that illustrate how the aspiration to prolong life has become a recurring obsession between Postsoviet elites. Chinese ambition. Returning to the meeting that took place yesterday with that audio between both leaders, by XI, remembered the New York Times that until now he had avoided public speaking about longevity in such ambitious terms as Putin, but showed that he shares at least the fascination with an extended life. At 72, he has suppressed the limits of mandate and seeks a fourth period in 2027 without having indicated a successor, which makes his physical and political stability intertwined. His reference at 150 years of life would fit his speech of “Take care of the elderly” and guarantee well -being in old age, although in their public image, visible age signals such as gray hair are already made, in contrast to the tradition of leaders that hide their aging. Historical context. Be that as it may, the moment occurred while both leaders, accompanied by Kim Jong-un, ascended to the Tiananmén Gate Tribune to witness a parade that showed The most advanced arsenal from China (Although not everything). That exhibition of military power, together with the conversation captured Random, it reflects the contrast between the ambition to perpetuate itself in power and the ability to project strength globally. The longevity, both personal and political, thus becomes a shared obsession: prolonging life not only of the leaders, but of the power system they represent. Between the sciencesymbolism and geopolitics, the conversation suggests that both Moscow and Beijing see in the “extension” of life a … Read more

We always imagine Berber pirates as teachers of pillage, but their greatest art was another: negotiation

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Centuries ago Berber pirates They supposed a true headache for Spanish sailors, a threat to stalking from the coast of Tunisia, Tripoli or Algiers that could make an expedition end up the worst of the ways: with the prey crew, turned into captives of The privateers Or, worse, in slaves who sold to the highest bidder if no one paid their rescue. Today those pirates from North Africa and the Spanish negotiators who were dealing with them suppose something different For economists: a unique opportunity to study negotiation techniques. And they have already left us a few lessons. Learning thanks to pirates. It sounds strange, but that is what a group of economists from the universities of Duke, Harvard and Vienna was proposed for a while: learn from the negotiations between the Pirates of the Mediterranean and the emissaries in charge of paying for hostage rescues. For this they included data from thousands of captives arrested by the Berber more than three centuries, between 1575 and 1692. The result published it A few years ago in An article Signed by Attila Ambrus, Eric J. Chaney and Igor Salitskiy. But … why? For several reasons. The main one, because the researchers detected in those ‘strip and loosen with pirates an interesting example of negotiations with “Asymmetric information”that is, those in which one of the parts that seeks a deal manages more data than the other. After all, when the pirates arrested the passenger of a ship, they could not be certain of what their social status was, if it came from a family with more or less money or if there were people willing to pay a good sum in exchange for their freedom. “There was an asymmetry of substantial information between the Spaniards and the pirates,” The authors explain in his Paperin which they add that, among other issues, the privateers could not know if the delay of a rescue was due to the lack of interest in the hostage, a strategy to lower the price or simply the difficulties to move in pre -industrial Spain, in which the news could take days to arrive from Africa to the center of the peninsula. Uncertainty, the key. “Although the Algiers knew that the Spaniards preferred to rescue certain types of captives Aya could often identify the individuals of greater rank, there is evidence that they faced the uncertainty about what prisoners they wanted to rescue the Spaniards and how much they were willing to pay,” The researchers point out. In fact, they cite instructions from the time that they advised rescue teams to pretend disinterest in the hostages they wanted. To avoid this, the privateers encouraged captivity to identify each other. A not -so -old problem. The second reason why the analysis is interesting is because the problem of piracy and bailouts is not really so old. In Your article The researchers remember that between 1530 and 1780 the pirates captured and enslaved thousands of people and claim to have used records of 4,680 hostages rescued in 22 expeditions, but the reality is that The kidnappings And rescue follow the agenda in the 21st century, a reality that the authors also point out. Ambrus, Chaney E Salitskiy, for example, remember that the payment of bailouts has been an important source of income for terrorist groups such as ISIS or al Qaeda or that Somali pirates managed A political dilemma and Reason for controversy over the last years, with cases particularly sounded. And what have they discovered? After analyzing negotiations with Mediterranean pirates, experts reached an interesting conclusion: the rush is not good companions for those who want to pay bailouts … or directly those who pursue a most favorable possible agreement in a “asymmetric information” scenario. The reason? After analyzing data that include thousands of captives rescued from the claws of the Berber pirates between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the economists concluded that the delays in the negotiations cheated the payments. “We documented a solid negative relationship between delays in negotiation (measured by captivity time) and the prices of rescue,” They conclude The researchers add: “It should be noted that the results are probably more relevant to current rescue and negotiation situations, which are characterized by unilateral private information.” In fact they consider that the way of acting with the Berber privateers “can contribute ideas” to deal with modern Somali pirates. A percentage: 8%. The researchers even went further and concluded that a year increase in the captivity of the host about 8%. It is an even greater reduction than that can be associated with the prisoner’s own aging, which also influenced the bailouts. “Since the sources suggest that the pirates were concerned with preserving the value of the captives they expected to rescue, this suggests that most of the decrease in the price over time was due to the value of the delay.” Common sense … and something else. That most time relationship, less cost ‘may seem simple (even intuitive), but it is not so easy to establish it. The reason is that more factors come in play. For example, pirates could identify the captives of greater “value”, in exchange for those who requested higher amounts and those who were willing to embark on longer negotiations. In the case of prisoners with a lower “valuation”, with low rescue prices, the process would be faster. Another factor to keep in mind is that in preindustrial Spain, not all negotiations were extended for a strategic issue. Sometimes they did it simply because the news about the captivity took days or weeks to arrive from Algiers to the ports of Alicante, Cartagena or Valencia and from there to the peoples where the families of the hostages lived. That without the time had to raise the funds and move them, something that religious orders used to take care of. The importance of strategy. All these factors are relevant because they influence, among other issues, in the imbalance of information that captors and … Read more

Xi Jinping has reappeared after 16 days of silence. What we did not imagine was what was activated during his absence

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Xi Jinping has reappeared after 16 days without public presence. He has done it on June 4 in An official meeting with Belaruso President Alexander Lukashenko In Beijing. His return ends an unusually long absence that, for the moment it has occurred and for the international context, unleashed a wave of speculation about his health, his power within the communist party and the course of the second world economy. Why is it important. The disappearance of XI coincided with a rebound in tensions with the United States, marked by threats of new sanctions and a progressive deterioration of bilateral relations. In that context, the lack of visibility of the maximum Chinese leader has generated uncomfortable questions: was he sick? Were there internal movements against him? Who was making decisions in his place? The facts. Three signals fed the noise, as reported Nikkei Asia: The Politburo did not celebrate its monthly May meeting, or at least it did not communicate it, something stipulated by the Statutes of the party. Although there is no obligation to make it public, its silence was striking. The Defense Minister was absent from the Shangri-La dialogue in Singapore, the most important security conference in Asia. The name of Miao Hua, head of the political department of the Popular Liberation Army, has disappeared from the official website. In parallel, it was confirmed The death of former vice president of the Central Military Commission, Xu Qiliangofficially due to illness. But his death occurred in a context of constant purges in the army and rumors – not verified – of suicides between high controls under investigation for corruption or disloyalty. The opacity of the system, far from containing the conjectures, amplifies them. Between bambalins. As collected NTD —Inly linked to the Falun Gong movement, openly critical of the regime, “three possible scenarios were shuffled: XI could be sick after years of power concentration. He would be orchestrating unprecedented internal reforms. It would face a rebellion of the marginalized factions since 2012. The most drastic hypothesis: that high positions of the party would have agreed to resign, possibly in August. An important nuance: NTD It is not a neutral source. It is convenient to take into account his critical bias with the Communist Party and his militant editorial line. The hypotheses that it raises are not contrasted by independent sources. The context. China lives a especially sensitive moment. The economy slows down, tensions with Taiwan intensify and Trump insists with its tariff war. As I pointed out The Diplomatthe absence of XI just now projects weakness in the worst possible time. It would not be the first time that a Chinese leader responds to questioning with a symbolic gesture: in 1966, when he doubted the health of Mao Zedong, The leader swam publicly through Yangtsé To demonstrate strength. And now what. XI has reappeared, but the episode leaves an uncomfortable conclusion: even a two -week blackout is enough to activate the radar. When power depends on both its image and its actions, any emptiness is perceived as a crack. The next big appointment will be the Fourth Fourth of the Central Committeeplanned for August, and with him the traditional summer retreat in Beidaihe, where a good part of the party’s strategy is drawn. There will be special interest in seeing him again. In Xataka | China promised them very happy monopolizing rare earths. The problem is that he did not think of the smugglers Outstanding image | Chinese Communist Party

We knew that the olive trees were very old trees. What we did not imagine is that they arrived at 4,000 years of age

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The olive tree is undoubtedly one of the most iconic trees in the Mediterranean basin. The olive groves have populated the fields of southern Europe and the Levante since time immemorial, but such is the longevity of this species that the history of some of these trees also goes back, at least to antiquity. An example of this is the Vauves olivelocated on the Greek island of Crete. Conservative estimates throw this tree about 2,000 years. This would imply that in his life he could be a mute witness of events such as the division of the Roman Empire, the fall of Biscay and the Ottoman Empire and, of course, the birth of contemporary Greece. Broader estimates calculate that this tree could reach 4,000 years of age. This would not only do it contemporary of figures such as Pythagoras, Aristotle or Alexander the Great but also implied that this plant was born in the Crete Minoica and it was Witness of the collapse of the late bronze ageone of the most intriguing events that occurred at the dawn of history as and how we understand it. But perhaps the most surprising detail of all this is that the olive tree of Vouves continues to bear fruit. This has led many to wonder, how is it possible? What makes this specimen already its species in general so long? The olive tree (Olea Europea) has a life expectancy that, although it does not become ancient, does exceed several centuries. It is estimated that the life expectancy of the trees of this species Round the five centuriesalthough there is some debate about it. In this sense, A study published in 2021 In the magazine Dendrochronologyestimated that the majority of “monumental olive trees” had maximum ages that ranged between 300 and 500 years. Estimating the age of an olive tree is difficult. We indicated at the beginning that the estimates of the age of this millenary tree ranged between 2,000 and 4,000 years, a very wide fork precisely because of the difficulty that involves calculating the age of these trees. Dendrocronology is based on using the growth rings of tree trunks to estimate their age: how many rings, so many years. Counting rings in a carved copy is simple, but doing it in a living tree and doing it in an olive tree is already another song. The trunks of the olive trees grow irregularly, which implies a seemingly chaotic pattern in the rings inside, making the count especially difficult as pointed out A study published in 2013 In the magazine Plos One. His curious growth could be related to his longevity. According to Scott Travers, Biologist at Rutgers University, In an article for Forbesone of the “Secrets” behind longevity of these trees is in vegetative or clonal reproduction. That is, in the fact that this tree consists of various cuttings that start from the same root. This, adds Travers, allows this type of plants to survive extreme conditions, including similar fires, cuts and incidents. Another of the tricks for survival, Continue explaining traversIt is in the biochemistry of the tree, which offers mechanisms that allow repairing damaged tissues, as well as defending against pathogenic organisms. The same oil that humans take advantage of by the tree that gives us through its fruits. The elders of our environment Spain also has ancient olive trees, although we do want to find a tree that competes in age with the olive tree of vouves, we have to go to Portugal. It would be an olive tree located in Abrantesin the center of Portugal. According to a study conducted by the University of Trás-Montes and Alto Douro (Utad), Mouchão It would be the tree that would have this record with an age that would be around 3,350 years. Spain also has ancient olive trees and among all of them stands out The Arión Fargaa tree that we can find in the province of Tarragona. The estimated age of this olive tree is more than 1,700 years. This implies that this millenary tree would have been planted at the time of Emperor Constantine I. Olives are not the only millenary tree species in our environment. Cedros, Secuoyas and even Dragos Canarios can also reach ages that would pale the biblical matusalem. The olive trees are trees with a long life expectancy but do not usually fill the lists of the longest trees on the planet. The two longest -known non -cloned trees are two pines called Prometheus and Matusalemto which ages are estimated above 4,000 years. Both belong (or belonged in the case of Prometheus) to the species Pinus Longaevathe “long -lived pine” so it is not completely surprising this fact. When Prometheus was cut, the botanists who analyzed him told more than 4,800 rings, so he was estimated at an age of about 4,900 years. Estimates indicate that Matusalem has also surpassed for decades The 4800 -year -old brand. If we include clonal organisms we can find older trees. For example, the Pando forestconsidered the largest living organism on the planet, composed of thousands of cuttings of the same clonic tree, could have close to 80,000 years old According to some estimates. In Xataka | A retiree planted a tree in 2003 in one of the most dangerous areas of Sao Paulo. Today is an amazing “jungle” of the city Image | Eric Nagle, CC by-SA 4.0

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