impossible

you will just have to achieve the impossible

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It was the last step that separated Elon Musk from getting the biggest salary bonus in history US business. Tesla’s shareholder meeting has given majority support to its CEO who, if achieved, would become the world’s first billionaire. “Other shareholder meetings are boring, but ours are amazing,” said an exultant Musk on stage in front of some of his shareholders. Tesla’s plan, valued at nearly a trillion dollars, is based on the progressive unlocking of payments in the form of packages of shares and is conditional on Musk meeting a series of very ambitious objectives related to the company’s growth and technological development over the next decade, giving Musk tight control over the decisions the company makes. Approved and with grade. With the support of 75% of shareholders, Tesla has approved a plan that could give Elon Musk up to 423.7 million shares in the company over the next ten years. The estimated valuation of these shares exceeds one trillion dollars, a figure that, although extremely high, strictly depends on certain very specific and demanding objectives being met. It should be said that it has not been a simple negotiation, since Musk has faced important shareholders such as the Norwegian sovereign wealth fundwhich controls a stake of 11.7 billion, spoke out against of the Tesla CEO’s compensation plans clarifying that “while we appreciate the significant value created under Mr. Musk’s visionary role, we are concerned about the overall size of the award.” As a counterpoint, Musk controls approximately 15% of Tesla’s shares and, like any other shareholder, could also vote in favor of his compensation plan. “What we are about to embark on is not simply a new chapter in Tesla’s future, but an entirely new book,” Musk told a packed audience of shareholders during the act of voting. 1 billion, but with conditions. To receive the total remuneration, Elon Musk must meet different progressive milestones that will unlock 12 packages of shares that can only be made effective after seven years, which not only guarantees to keep Musk motivated with financial incentives, but are also golden handcuffs to keep him as CEO of the company for the next decade. The package of shares will provide Musk with control of 25% of Tesla’s shares, which implies that this package of shares is not only about economic compensation (very generous, yes), but it is about gaining more weight in the company and allowing Musk to impose his criteria in front of the board of directors. Something that I had been demanding for a long time to prevent they made him “an Altman.” Complicated milestones. Milestones Musk must reach to receive the full package include: raising the Tesla market capitalization from the current 1.5 trillion to 8.5 trillion dollars. This first condition is one of those that has most convinced the popular investor Cathie Wood, who wrote from her In addition, Tesla must manufacture and deliver 20 million vehicles, just at a time when Tesla sales in Europe and other markets record their worst figures. To put it in context, Tesla sold 55 units of its Model 3 in Spain during the month of October. It’s not going to be easy. Freelance future. Another of the great challenges that Musk will face to get his billion-dollar bonus, and one of the main reasons why Musk wanted more control within Tesla, are the future plans for the company’s autonomous car and humanoid robots. To unlock part of its salary package, Tesla must deploy one million autonomous taxis, reach ten million subscriptions to its self-driving cars, and sell one million humanoid robots. None of these three projects is 100% functional at present and there are only prototypes and partial tests. “I think it’s going to be the biggest product of all time, by far. Bigger than cell phones, bigger than anything. I guess one way to think about it is that every human being on Earth is going to want to have their own R2D2 or C3PO,” assured the CEO of Tesla in his speech to his shareholders. Perhaps the least commented detail is that, with this approval, Tesla gives the green light to the investments in xAIso Musk would have already achieved one of his objectives: obtain a constant line of financing that increases the value of your AI company. If you don’t get it you don’t get paid. The compensation plan does not contemplate a traditional fixed salary for Elon Musk for the next decade. All your compensation will be linked to the achievement of the set objectives. In addition, Musk would have to remain CEO for at least ten years to collect the package in full. This part has been one of the most talked about, since it gives Musk an almost messianic role at the head of Tesla in which he either takes the entire prize or leads Tesla to absolute failure. “This is not pay for performance. It is pay for power without control,” said to The New York Times Thomas DiNapoli, head of the New York public pension fund, which controls part of Tesla’s shares. It should be remembered that, currently, Musk receives a symbolic salary of a dollar a year for running the company. In Xataka | The shocking thing is not that Elon Musk has lost $80 billion in 2025: it is that others have earned $102 billion Image | Flickr (Gage Skidmore)

Ukraine has opened Russia’s cruise and ballistic missiles. War is impossible if your allies make weapons for you

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He fed up with Ukraine with the hole that exists around international sanctions it is palpable and numeric. kyiv intelligence has hundreds of reports in your possession that reveal that Russian drones have passed those sanctions for the lining. And not just drones, even in the tanks. The latest: Ukraine has begun analyzing parts of Moscow’s latest cruise and ballistic missiles. And what they found is a deja vu. Clandestine circuit. Three and a half years after the start of the invasion, Ukraine continues to dismantle the last Russian missiles and drones and find tens of thousands of parts inside made in the westthe majority of his “allies” (microcontrollers, sensors, connectors, converters) from countries that have theoretically embargoed the supply: United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan. Of course also, Moscow’s allies like china. In fact, Zelensky put in more than 100,000 the foreign components found only among 550 vectors used in a single recent bombing, confirming that the sanctions have not turned off the tap: if anything they have made it more expensive and slowed down, but not dried up. The escape mechanism. It we have counted before. The mode of entry does not require sophisticated espionage, but rather exploiting loopholes in global trade: pieces “dual use” sold to civil actors who then they deviatecomponents placed on the market before sanctions, networks of shell companies and brokers in lax jurisdictions, and triangulated purchases via third countries that do not apply or execute controls. The sanctions gave the West three years to close the gaps, but they also gave Russia (and those who traffic for it) the same time to learn to get around them. In practice, it is a market: if you pay more, there is always someone willing to move the merchandise with layers of opacity sufficient to break traceability. Iran and North Korea. Moscow relies on two veterans of the sanctioning regime: Iran (which has spent decades refining the engineering of commercial border hopping) and North Korea (capable of moving components and complete systems despite being formally embargoed). Cooperation with both not only transfers material: it transfers method. Both logistical routes and corporate and financial camouflage techniques now migrate to the Russian military supply chain. What is possible and what is not. They remembered on Insider that the West hardens the perimeter: compliance guides for companies, “catch-all” to block sensitive exports (even if they are not listed), border inspections, criminal threat to repeat offenders, closures of loopholes when Ukraine identifies specific pieces. But even so, the regime is not airtight: global trade in components is massive, triangulation via third countries It is structural and already exists “pirate” production replacement that replicates or falsifies sanctioned parts. By design, control is reactive: it is as if each new closure encourages Moscow to seek an alternative route. Partial effectiveness. Plus: just because embargoes haven’t cut off the flow doesn’t mean they’re irrelevant. London estimates that the sanctions have deprived Russia of at least 450,000 million of dollars and have multiplied by up to six the price of dual pieces, draining war liquidity and adding temporary friction to the Russian military chain. This, a priori, penalizes rhythms, quality, scaling and maintenance, even if it does not prevent the material from arriving. The structural limit. If you want, the export control It is an instrument of soft power: its real power depends on what the rest of the world is willing to do and tolerate. It can raise the cost, strangle necks, penalize intensities, but it can hardly seal an economy-state Russian size connected to global intermediaries willing to charge for the risk. The result is an industrial war where the blockade is never binary (flows / does not flow), but rather marginal: raising the cost per Russian shot, reducing the cadence, pushing failures due to logistical stress and buy time, but hardly prevent a chip made for a laptop I ended up controlling the guidance of a kamikaze drone over a Ukrainian city. Image | Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation In Xataka | After Cubans and North Koreans fighting alongside Russian troops, new guests have appeared in Ukraine: Chinese In Xataka | In 2023, a pilot from Ukraine had an idea for Star Wars. Not only did it go well: his kamikaze plan has rewritten the war manual

There are foreign bus companies trying to compete with Alsa and Avanza. And Spain is making it impossible

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The Spanish bus map is in the process of changing. Routes that do not make money, corridors that no one wants to access, companies that want to completely liberalize the sector and the doubt of, to what extent, foreign companies can enter to play in a foreign country. And Spain is trying by all means to ensure that the latter does not happen. What’s happening? If we adhere to Spanish regulations, right now a company dedicated to the transport of passengers by bus You cannot make international trips with stops to drop off and pick up travelers within Spain. Not, at least, permanently. The rule only allows this service to be carried out temporarily, in order to protect national routes. That is, this prevents a company from opening a route, for example, between Lisbon and Paris and from picking up and dropping off passengers within Spanish territory at its stops within Spain (in Madrid and Barcelona, ​​for example). It is understood that if this is possible it would be a direct competition to those who have been awarded those corridors. How do buses work in Spain? Spain uses a concessional model for its bus lines. This means that a broker goes out to tender and companies present their proposals playing with the price. The best offer is the one takes the concession and the one that begins to operate during the agreed years. The system has its advantages and disadvantages. Confebús, an association that defends this model, points out that it gives security to the client because transportation is guaranteed during the agreed years and a route cannot be abandoned. Companies like FlixBus are contrary because they understand that competition is limited and that they prevent the company from adapting to new circumstances. These circumstances, for example, leave some expired concessions or concessions that have never been put out to tender. It is especially serious on bus lines where a high-speed railway operates in parallel, since the train is much more competitive in price and time. Of course, the main people affected by the abandonment of these lines are the residents of towns with intermediate stops. And what about international travel? For some time now, Europe has wanted to liberalize the sector, as it has done with trains. Despite this, Spain is resisting and although at first it was proposed to jump to the direct competition model, finally we want to maintain the concessional system but with profound changes in the current map. With this system, services through cabotage are prevented. That is, the company picks up and delivers passengers within the same country along an international route. This is the argument of Avanza and Alsa to defend the latest ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union that has ruled in favor of Denmark before the opening of a file from the European Commission. However, the case that both companies put forward is not very representative of the open debate in Spain. What has happened in Denmark? Denmark has regulated the occasional bus service that operates through cabotage in the country to a maximum of seven calendar days in a month. The formula is also applied at other times in France, as both companies use in a statement collected by 20Minutes. Understanding that this contravened community rules, the European Commission has opened a file against Denmark but the Court of Justice of the European Union closes it, understanding that Denmark does not prevent the service, it only regulates it. That is, a company can act with a discretionary service through cabotage but within the regulations established by the country. But… what is discretionary? Here is a big part of the issue. European bodies have been discussing Whether or not Denmark allows cabotage service through discretionary routes but not regular routes. Discretionary routes are those that do not have a fixed route or established times. That is, they do not always leave on the same day of the week and at the same time from a specific city, for example. They are the typical routes for trips by tourists or supporters who go to watch a soccer match in another country. The limitation of those seven consecutive days within the same month that Denmark applies is designed so that foreign companies do not compete unfairly with their national companies, offering a regulated service camouflaged as discretionary. Implications in Spain? None. This is what FlixBus defends. The travel company maintains that this regulation, contrary to what Avanza and Alsa points out, has nothing to do with the regular and international routes that companies like them propose for our country. Routes in which they would use cabotage to make the line more efficient. They give as an example the route between Trier (Germany) and Madrid that FlixBus has requested with intermediate stops in Zaragoza and Barcelona that passengers could use to move within the national territory. The line has not been authorized and FlixBus appeals to the resolution of the European Commission of April 16 that forces Spain to open its lines to this service. Spain filed an appeal against this decision was dismissed by the Court of Justice of the European Union. What is Spain doing? Place all obstacles to the entry of new actors or the liberalization of bus lines, as demanded by Europe. The approval of the Sustainable Mobility Law On October 8, 2025, article 50 was eliminated, which allowed certain routes to be authorized in free competition. That is, for now, the battle to open new international routes that allow the transfer of travelers within the same country continues. Spain has the obligation to comply, if we adhere to what is required by the European Commission, but, for the moment, it still has not given the green light to this possibility. Photo | FlixBus and Eleazer Glez In Xataka | Until a few years ago, the towns between Madrid and Valencia had trains and buses. Now they only have one problem: the AVE

It was practically impossible for a satellite to “ruin” the photo of another satellite. With Starlink already go twice

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Until recently, the idea that a terrestrial observation satellite accidentally captured another satellite in the flight was as an unlikely coincidence as finding a needle in a haystack. Space is an immense emptiness and The satellites move very quickly. But in the last year we have witnessed this phenomenon twice. And on both occasions, the protagonist has been a Spacex Starlink satellite. In a secret military base in China. On August 21, one of the new Satellites WorldView Legion of Maxar It passed over the Gobi desert, in China, with the aim of photographing the Dingxin Air Base: a high secret installation where China proves its most advanced fighters. The satellite achieved the image, but an unexpected intruder appears in it. A silver ship with two large solar panels and three spectra of colors cross Maxar’s photo, creating what an executive of the company described on LinkedIn as “accidental art.” What we see is actually a single satellite, the Starlink 33828immortalized in different wavelengths on one of the most sensitive places of the Chinese army. The trick is in the camera. The curious multicolored image is explained by how observation satellites and the incredible speed at orbit move. These satellites do not take a single image, but a series of images in different spectral bands almost simultaneously: a high resolution (panchromatic) and several in different colors (red, green, blue …) of lower quality. Then, an algorithm merges all this information to create the final photo, already clearly color. The problem of that “almost simultaneously” is almost. When the objective is the earth, which is relatively still with respect to the satellite, the system works perfectly. But when another satellite crosses in the field of vision at a relative speed of almost 1,400 meters per second (about 5,000 km/h), the camera captures it in a slightly different position in each of the color layers. The result is that spectral effect with several colored shadows. The Google Maps Starlink. This is the second time that a Starlink satellite accidentally sneaks into an alien photo. As We count in April 2025a Reddit user discovered a very similar effect on a Google Maps image on a rural Texas area. On that occasion, the photo was taken by a Pleaiades European satellite, and the result was even clearer: five silhouettes of the same object, corresponding to the close, red, blue, green and pancromatic infrared bands. The enormous amount of satellites in low orbit is turning an astronomically unlikely event into a new normality. Why are Starlink satellites. Because they are a majority. Spacex already has More than 8,300 Starlink in orbitmore than all other satellite constellations together. With its plans to expand the network to more than 30,000, the probability that one of them is crossed in the viewfinder of another satellite is growing. But also, they fly low. To offer a low latency internet connection, the Starlink operate about 500 km altitude in the low terrestrial orbit. This is the same orbital “highway” that most use the earth’s observation satellites, such as the Worldview Legion of Maxar (which are 518 km). His paths are destined to cross. Beyond the visual anecdote, these images are the symptom that the low orbit is increasingly congested, which forces perform constant evasion maneuvers To prevent collisions. Image | Maxar In Xataka | What types of satellites exist: guide not to get lost in a gigantic network of which we are increasingly dependent

“It is impossible to make an electric car with SEAT if we want to earn money”

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The current interim CEO of the brand has put a brake on any short and medium term electrification plan for SEAT, focusing the entire electricity bet of the group in Cupra. In fact, it has been in the Munich Motor Show where some of the coupra models that will mark the future of the brand have been seen. An electric SEAT that does not arrive. “Today it is impossible to make an electric car with SEAT if we want An interview With the media. The shadow of An electric volkswagen for 20,000 euroswhich would materialize according to the company in 2027, unbalance all SEAT electrification plans. “If Volkswagen sells at that price, how much should Seat sell?” Haupt continued. The Raval Cupra makes an appearance at the IAA Mobility. Image: Cupra A two brand strategy. The decision to keep Seat out of the electrification responds to a clear commercial logic that HAUPT himself explains: “Seat today is an ideal complement to coupra, because they are in different segments, aimed at different customers.” While Cupra is positioned right now as the premium and sports brand that can assume electrification costs, Seat will remain in the field of combustion and hybridization. To this strategy is added the launch next month of The new versions of Ibiza and the Aronademonstrating that the company wants to continue betting on renewing its range of supervent vehicles. Cupra takes the electrical prominence. The group’s electric future is concentrated exclusively in Cupra, which next year will launch the ravalits entrance model from 25,000 euros with up to 450 kilometers of autonomy. This vehicle will occur in Martorell next to the Volkswagen Id.polowith an estimated capacity of 300,000 units annually between both models. HAUPT has also presented in Munich the Cupra Tindayaa concept car that will reach production “at the beginning of the next decade” and that marks the new brand design language. Of figures goes the thing. In the first semester, Seat and Cupra barely reached an operational benefit of 38 million eurosand Haupt It has been clear on the need to “reduce our cost structure.” Tariffs to the coupra tavascan manufactured in China have negatively impacted these results, although the manager is optimistic about a resolution before the end of the year after negotiations with Brussels. The future is still electric, but not for everyone. Despite how resounding his words have been with Seat, Haupt maintains that “the day will come where I suppose that the amount of electric cars will exceed combustion. That will allow us to improve component prices and make the electric car more affordable for the consumer and cheaper for us.” Meanwhile, the group continues to make the decision to play with Cupra and Seat to satisfy its entire audience. Cover image | SEAT In Xataka | Volkswagen presents the ID. Cross concept and the least is the car: the buttons return and forget the rare names

Breaking a bad habit is difficult, but not impossible. The key is to make your brain hate it

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Habits have a very important role in daily life. In fact, as indicated in the book ‘Emotional Intelligence: Good habits‘ Harvard Business Review, approximately half of our daily actions are based on habits that we repeat without just realizing. However, the same mechanism that anchors good habits, also explains why changing a bad habit may seem like a task almost impossible. It is not only willpower, but to understand how our brain works and how habits are anchored in it. Why do we adopt bad habits? We know that leading a sedentary life is not healthy, that navigating Tiktok video video until many in the morning Take takes the next day and that smoking seriously harms our health. However, such and As explained to Harvard Business Review Judson Brewer, neuroscientist and author of the book ‘Undo the anxiety‘, we cannot avoid falling into any of these negative habits, and eliminating them is very uphill. According to Brewer, the environment in which we live is designed to bombard us with stimuli that reinforce those habits, especially negatives. The rewards that our brain receives when performing certain behaviors alter our Reward -based learning systemso a pattern difficult to break is created. “Every time we try to disconnect from an exhausting task (with social networks), we reinforce the reward, to the point that harmful distractions can become habits.” However, although it is not a simple process, research carried out by Brewer demonstrate that it is possible to change the bad habits definitively. Understanding the response mechanism that articulates them gives us the tools to achieve it. Bad habits have their origin in the way our brain learns through an immediate rewards system (yes, as in Animal training). These behavioral patterns arise because they reinforce the feeling of pleasure or relief quickly. This rewards system implies a trigger (hunger sensation), followed by behavior (eating) and a reward (feel satiated). “These three components (trigger, behavior and reward) appear every time we smoke a cigarette or eat a cake,” says the neuroscientist. Detect the origin of bad habit Bad habits are not eliminated, they are only replaced by good habits. Therefore, one of the important steps of the process to get rid of them is to find the trigger that generates the action to seek the reward. “Once you know your triggers, try to identify the behaviors you make when these bad habits occur. Do you look at social networks instead of working? Do you eat sweets during difficult tasks? You should be able to identify the actions to which you resort to feel comfortable or quiet before you can evaluate your reward value.” For this reason, the neuroscientist ensures that knowing the scenario in which activation occurs and what action is carried out to obtain the reward is one of the key points so that it is easier to eliminate bad habits. For example, eating sweets would be the search for reward that is activated by a situation of stress or anxiety, and sugar rush reward. Avoid or learn to manage the stress situation It is the first step to subtract weight from sugar reward. The key: break the reward chain According to studies of the University of Utrecht (Netherlands), self -control alone is not enough to eliminate a habit, since the brain associates that behavior with a reward that temporarily cancels rational thinking. No smoker will tell you that tobacco It is beneficial for healthbut even so smokes. A fundamental step to break with a bad habit is to reduce or eliminate the reward that the brain receives. That implies not only changing the behavior itself, but also the context that activates it and the associated sensations. Modifying those three elements: detonating, behavior and reward, it is basic for the brain to stop finding satisfaction in that behavior and abandons the need to carry it out. Brewer’s investigations have revealed that an effective way to face bad habits is to replace them with behaviors that offer similar, but positive health or well -being rewards. One of the techniques that Brewer has used with his patients full care training to teach the brain that this behavior is not only benefits, but also represents something unpleasant or even harmfulcausing him to hate him and not look for him anymore. The neuroscientist said that, when someone joined his program to quit smoking, the first thing he asked is to pay attention while smokeing: to the smell, the environment, to the sensation when smoking, etc. The objective of this exercise is that patients become aware of the “value of the reward” and if this value, which probably had positive connotations (social acceptance, etc.), still remains. Studies From the University of Bethesda they have shown that if that reward is no longer appreciated as it used to be, it is less likely that the brain will claim it and, with it, it will be easier to get rid of that bad habit. This can be applied to any other habit that the past may have a positive connotation, but has already been diluted. According to Brewer, an important factor is in question what gives you that bad habit before consuming it and analyzing how you feel before, during and after the process from a critical point of view, instead of simply having a reactive behavior of repentance after having obtained the reward. “Your behaviors may not change immediately, but persevere. If you manage to control your mind with our methods, over time you can free yourself from unwanted habits and see how your cravings disappear with peace of mind,” said the neuroscientist. In Xataka | Creating new habits is difficult. The author of “atomic habits” believes that there is something even more complicated: keep them Image | Unspash (Oskar Kadaksoo, Lilartsy)

It seemed impossible to have a laptop in which to update the graphics card. Until Framework arrived

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Framework has just achieved something that gaming laptops users have always longed for: to be able to effortlessly update the dedicated graphics card of the computer. To make this dream come true, the framework company has launched a new version of its Laptop 16 With one NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 5070 which can be physically exchanged with the previous AMD Radeon RX 7700s in just two minutes. What everyone expected with desire. When Framework presented his laptop 16 in 2023, he promised something that sounded too good to be true. And he assured that he would bring a laptop with modular and updating graphics such as a desktop PC. Today, several manufacturers offer external stations for Cover desktop graphics cards to laptops with the standard Thunderbolt. However, changing the dedicated internal graph of the laptop is another roll. This is the GPU extraction system. Image: Framework Almost two years later, they have fulfilled. As assures The company, the new RTX 5070 offers between 30% and 40% more yield in games compared to the original RX 7700s, maintaining the same 100W of sustained power but with architecture Blackwell8GB of GDDR7 and support for technologies such as DLSS and Ray layout improved. Important technical details. The update is not limited to the GPU. Framework has completely redesigned the cooling system with new fan blades and thermal interface material Honeywell PTM7950, promising better acoustic and thermal performance. In addition, the new graphics card includes a port USB-C Additional rear that supports both video output and 240W feed input. The system also incorporates a MUX switch that allows the dedicated GPU to directly feed the internal screen of the laptop, thus reducing latency. Beyond the GPU. The new generation of laptop 16 includes processors AMD Ryzen AI 300with 8 -core options (Ryzen AI 7 350) and 12 cores (Ryzen AI 9 Hx 370) working at 45w sustained. The motherboard now supports four simultaneous screen outlets through the rear expansion card slots, compared to the previous three. It also incorporates the second generation webcam already seen in Laptop 13, a more rigid upper cover and, as a novelty, a 240W USB-C current adapter. A promise fulfilled. What truly attracts attention is that any owner of the Original Laptop 16 Framework can buy the new RTX 5070 for $ 699 and install it on their current equipment. They can also choose to update only the motherboard (from $ 749) or the 240W current adapter ($ 109). As explained by CEO Nirav Patel to The Verge: “If we found any mass obstacle and we could simply make it work … we want to make sure it is done and working.” Price and availability. Framework keeps the RX 7700S renewed for 400 euros available, although we can also obtain the first generation GPU for 429 euros. The new laptop 16 starts from 1,719 euros in DIY version (without operating system), while a complete configuration with a RTX 5070, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage costs 2,748 euros. Although of course, the laptop is very configurable, so the price will vary according to your needs. You can access your configuration page in This link. The first shipments will arrive in December, with the reserves already open. Cover image | Framework In Xataka | Best laptops in quality price. Which to buy depending on the use and eight recommended models

What is a light year and why it is impossible to travel in less than a year, according to Einstein’s relativity

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Among all the rules that govern the universe, one of the most iconic and at the same time difficult to understand is the universal speed limit. The speed of light is not only an unwavering constant: it is the link between matter and energy, as Albert Einstein described with the most famous formula of science: E = Mc². Can Asom to the foundations of our own existencebut not travel to more than “C”. Only light can travel a light year in a year. Let’s define constants: the speed of light The speed of light is the key piece in Einstein’s equation. That “C” is not only a number, but the conversion factor that unites the concepts of mass (m) and energy (e). It is a constant that represents the speed of light in a vacuum, but also the speed limit for the spread of any type of information, signal or material particle in the universe. If you think very strong, it is the limit of causality itself: an effect cannot occur before its cause, spreading at the maximum “C” speed, can reach it. This speed is the same for any observer in the universe, regardless of their own state of movement. If you travel in a hypothetical 99% spacecraft of the speed of light and light a flashlight, the light of that flashlight will move away from you exactly at the speed of light, not to a fraction of it. It is one of the universal constants of physics. And the observations of the cosmic microwave background, The remaining light of the Big BangThey confirm that it has not changed measurable in more than 13.8 billion years. What speed is light, then? Although it sounds strange, the speed of light in a vacuum has an exact and defined value: 299,792,458 meters per second. To put it in more earthly figures, it is equivalent to almost one billion kilometers per hour. A photon of light would go around the earth’s Ecuador about 7.5 times in a single second. It is, according to Albert Einstein’s special relativity theory, the definitive and unwavering speed limit of the universe. An epic about measuring the above Calculating the speed of light has been one of the great sagas of science. After the philosophical debates of ancient Greece and an ingenious but failed attempt from Galileo using lamps between distant hills, the first estimate came in 1676. Observing the eclipses of ío, one of Jupiter’s moons, the Danish astronomer Ole Rømer noticed that they had a different duration According to the time of the year. He deduced that it was due to the additional time that the light took to cross the orbit of the earth when our planet moved away from Jupiter. Rømer estimated the speed of light in 220,000 km/s, a surprisingly close figure for the time. Half a century later, in 1728, the English physicist James Bradley He refined this measure using a different method: the aberration of stellar light. He noted that the apparent position of the stars changed slightly due to the speed of the earth in their orbit. Something similar to how rain seems to fall at angle when we run. From this effect, it calculated a speed of 301,000 km/s, a value with an error of just 1%. Michelson’s experiment. Image | Popular Science (1930) It was not until 1887 that scientists discovered the most surprising aspect of the speed of light. Albert Michelson and Edward Morley tried to detect the “luminous ether”, an invisible half assumption that, according to the belief of the time, filled the space to allow the propagation of light. With Your experiment They hoped to measure a difference in the speed of light depending on whether it moved in favor or against the “ether wind” created by the movement of the earth. However, they found no variation at all. Sometimes, scientific progress does not come from finding what is sought, but of accepting the evidence that hits old certainty. This was how this failure It became one of the most important results in the history of physics. He showed that the speed of light was constant regardless of the observer’s movement, knocking down the ether theory and laying the empirical bases for the revolution that Einstein would unleash later. What is a light year and what is used for Since 1983, the speed of light is no longer something that scientists try to measure with increasing precision. Its value was set with such accuracy which is now the meter itself that is defined according to the light. One meter is “the length of the path traveled by light in a vacuum during a time interval of 1/299792458 seconds.” This change hides a deep truth: the constancy of the speed of light is a more fundamental property of our universe than our own units of measure. We no longer use meters to measure the speed of light, we use the speed of light to define the subway. And this is how one of the largest units of measure we use is born, and that has been crucial to understand the immense scales of the universe. Although your name includes the word “year”, a light year is not a measure of time, but of distance. In a nutshell, a light year is the distance that a ray of light travels in a vacuum during the course of a terrestrial year. That is, in 365 days. Given the incredible speed at which the light travels, it is an astronomical distance, of approximately 9.5 billion kilometers. We use the light years because the distances in space are so huge that measuring them in kilometers would be totally impractical. For example, The exoplanet closest to EarthNext Centauri B, is about 4.2 light years away. In kilometers, that figure would be almost 40 billion, a much more difficult number to handle and contextualize. How a light year is calculated in kilometers A laser indicates the center of the galaxy … Read more

Chrysalis, the impossible ship 58 kilometers long to transport 2,400 people to next Centauri

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Exodus through space is a recurring theme in science fiction. It doesn’t matter if it’s literature (‘Aurora’), cinema (‘Wall-e‘) or video games (‘Mass Effect Andromeda‘), the idea of a huge ship that transport a lot of people that become inhabitants of a planet on the other side of the universe is as fascinating as utopian. But at some point you will have to get to work, and there are those who have had an idea: a 58 -kilometer ship for Bring Humanity to Alpha Centauri. His name is Chrysalis, and the duration of the trip will be 400 years. Chrysalis project. Within the ‘Project Hyperion Design Competition‘, a group of Italian social engineers, scientists and architects They have designed Chrysalisa ship of about 58 kilometers in length with a cylindrical and multicapa architecture. To simplify, it would be like a Russian, but elongated doll, with a concentric core and layers that would have differentiated areas for: Production. Life. Industry. Storage. Would have artificial gravity achieved by constant rotation of the entire cylinder and the idea is that it can transport 2,400 passengers to Next bthe most promising exoplanet of the system. There they would disembark and could start colonizing the territory after a 400 -year trip. Estimated construction time? 20 to 25 years. Layers. It would be like a huge city and remember The Line, the Saudi Arabia macroproject. Throughout those 58 kilometers and depending on the layer, areas destined for food production, forest biocservation, community areas with parks and facilities such as schools, hospitals or libraries, as well as habitable modules, industrial areas and an external ring dedicated to storage. The heaviest jobs would be operated by robotsand it will not be the only thing, since the plan includes a combined governance between humans and artificial intelligence. No cryogenization. Something that we usually see in these science fiction works is that the crew criotic so as not to die during the trip, but in the case of Chrysalis, there would be no option. Throughout those 400 years, several generations will pass, being a task for all those that fail to reach the goal. To avoid tensions due to the shortage of resources, births would be controlled to the millimeter, maintaining the population within the sustainable limit that the installation can provide. Recycling is contemplated as a vital option and, to give energy to the entire complex, nuclear fusion reactors will be used. Crew preparation. In addition to the fact that everyone who embark on Chrysalis will not see their new home on the mainland, it must be taken into account that virtually no one of those who embark on the mission at first will set foot on the ship. The reason is that it is estimated that one of the most crucial part of the trip, also the most radical, will be the preparation for it. In addition to having psychological support and having a careful strategy for 2,400 people to live in such an environment, before leaving the training will be given for 70 or 80 years In Antarctica. That first (and almost second) generation will face the conditions of isolation and extreme confinement that they will experience during the journey. It will be part of the second and third generation that, finally, are on their way to next Centauri b. Housing modules. There would be one and two floors Do not make illusions. Now, the ‘Project Hyperion Design Competition’ is an initiative with an objective: to seek a spacecraft capable of taking some thousands of humans to a habitable exoplanet In an interstellar trip of several centuries, so it is only a conceptual project for several reasons. The first could be ethical, since training will be devastating and, in essence, the entire trip is an evolutionary experiment with a large -scale controlled population, which means this Mental health levelidentity and perception of time. The second … because the technology to make it reality escapes our understanding right now. Only the fact of need Fusion reactors (that We are investigatingbut we have not yet developed), leave this experiment as something exclusive to the science fiction field. Although, yes, The document It is tremendously explained. Images | Canva (presentation of the project) In Xataka | It was not an extraterrestrial ship, but not a giant kite. We were totally wrong about 3i/Atlas

It is impossible to make money with her

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One of the things they have achieved, in quotes, the LLMS is bring the programming closer to users They don’t know how to program. It is no longer necessary, again, in quotes, to know programming languages to do simple things, but it is enough to give natural language instructions to a model and let it do its magic. This is what we know as Vibe Coding And there are startups dedicated to it, see Windsurf (now owned by Openai) and Anysphere, the matrix of Cursor. The problem is that the accounts do not come out. How does this work. Companies such as Cursor, Windsurf and Replit have become famous for the Vibe Coding. Basically, these offer access to a programming platform that, in the background, is based on the models of large companies of AI. In other words, Anysphere charges the user a subscription for accessing cursor and, in turn, pays Google, Anthropic and Openai for accessing Gemini’s API, Claude and GPT. Money, money, money. The problem that this business model has is that many costs do not depend on startup itself. On the one hand, AI companies are refining their new models to program better, See GPT-5. These models, in addition, are generally more expensive as we will see later, but the Vibe Coders They love them because the results achieved are better. Thus, the startups of Vibe Coding They are in the position of having to offer the best models (and therefore, the most expensive) without raising the price of the subscription and, at the same time, competing against the companies that create these models and that also have their platforms of Vibe Coding. Let’s think, for example, Claude Code (Anthropic) or Codex (OpenAI). In short accounts. When the product depends practically completely on third -party models, a change in the price structure can cause the startup not to face the costs. This is the case of Windsurf, a company Vibe Coding which was sold to OpenAI for 3,000 million dollars and that, according to slide from TechcrunchHe had very negative gross margins. There is an entire industry based on the idea that the prices of the models will go down, but the reality is different, at least for the moment. Prices of the latest Anthropic models | Image: Xataka The models are expensive. Accessing the Google, OpenAI and Anthropic models does not come out cheap. To give some data, and based on the basis that one million tokens are more or less 750,000 words, more than the three books of ‘The Lord of the Rings’: Opus 4.1 (Anthropic) It has a price Input/output of 15 and 75 dollars per million tokens, respectively. It is one of the most expensive models, but the most used to program thanks to its good results. For prompts of up to 200,000 tokens, Gemini 2.5 Pro (Google) It has a price Input/output of 1.25 and 10 dollars per million tokens. GPT-5 (OpenAI) It has a price Input/output of 1.25 and 10 dollars per million tokens. Openai has thrown prices with its new model, since GPT-4.1 cost 3 and 12 dollars per million tokens. If a company bases its business model on a subscription of $ 20 per user, it is quite likely to lose money with each of them. The best proof of this is the recent Pro change prices for cursorwhich since June 16 offers $ 20 per month of use of the large models of the invoices of API rates. Until that time, users could access 500 quick responses from the best models. The background reading is that offering broad access to the best models to program AKA to Opus 4.1 does not go to accounts. The options. The most obvious option is that the startup develops its own models to program, something that is neither easy, or fast. Moreover, these models would have to offer capabilities equal to or higher than those of OpenAI and company, companies with many more resources to iterate and improve rapidly. This would not be viable in many cases, but in the long run it would have a positive impact on costs. In that sense, Anysphere, the company behind cursor, is already working in Fusion, its own model. The second is to entrust to the idea that the price of AI models will go down over time, something that, for the moment, is not happening in general. OpenAi has taken steps forward With the launch of GPT-5whose price, as we saw before, has been reduced considerably. However, the trend is rather the opposite. Gemini 2.5 Pro and Claude 4.1 They are, without a doubt, models more expensive than their predecessors. The only exception, for the moment, is GPT-5 and we cannot do anything other than expect to see how prices evolve. Cover image | THISISENGINEING In Xataka | Customers demand that a human solve their problem. The surprising thing is that if they attend to them humans think they are an AI

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