internet

Surfshark is a top tool to protect your privacy on the Internet

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With news of massive hacks almost every week, it is logical that we want to add an extra layer of security while browsing the Internet. Of all the ways there are to do this, the most useful and easy to use is a VPN. If we are actively searching for one of them, we have one of the best VPN available at a discounted price: it is surfsharkavailable now for 1.99 euros per month. Surfshark Starter Subscription – monthly The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A secure, fast VPN that you can use on all the devices you want As we always tell you, a VPN It is one of those tools that does not get in the way and that is always good to have installed on our devices. Yes, there are free options on the Internet that, for specific use, are not bad. The problem is that most of them They are not as safe as they say they are.hence It is advisable to invest a little and get a payment one that is safeas is the case with Surfshark. How can a VPN help us be safer on the Internet? By activating it, what we will be doing is passing our traffic through an encrypted and secure tunnelin such a way that no one will be able to see what we are doing. This is ideal in any scenario, but especially recommended if we are going to use a WiFi network that is not ours, such as that of a hotel. Another thing that a VPN also allows us to do is keep our IP address hidden. By using it, we will be preventing it from being registered anywhere or that no one will be able to intercept it, something ideal, since with it they can even impersonate our identity. Let’s now talk about Surfshark’s offer. This company offers three different plans, the Starter being the cheapest of them. Right now we have it available for 1.99 euros per month if we go for their two-year plan. In this way, in total we will be paying 53.73 euros and we will take three extra monthsso we will enjoy the tool for 27 months in total. And be careful, because you can use it on as many devices as you want without paying more. If we don’t mind investing a little more and are looking for a more complete tool, we can automatically go to your plan Surfshark Onereduced right now to 2.49 euros per month. This, in addition to including the VPN, comes with more additional tools, such as an antivirus or a tool that warns you in case your data is leaked on the Internet. Surfshark One Subscription – monthly The price could vary. We earn commission from these links The improved version of the previous plan, called Surfshark One+is also on sale: it goes for 4.19 euros per month. This includes, essentially, everything from the previous plan, along with a very interesting tool called Incogni. It allows us to delete our data from people’s company databases, which is very useful. Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Image | Nathan Fertig on Unsplash,Surfshark In Xataka | Why it is dangerous to connect to public Wi-Fi and what you should do to protect yourself In Xataka | Free VPN and security: what’s the problem, why you should be careful

Someone dumped three cubic meters of asbestos in Las Palmas. They caught him because he advertised on the internet as an unlicensed manager

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In the age of digital immediacy, it seems that any problem has a solution just a click away. “Economic debris removal”, “Rapid waste management”. These ads flood shopping portals and social networks. However, behind some of these profiles there are no authorized companies, but rather a network of illegal activities that end with carcinogenic materials abandoned on the corner lot. The latest case detected in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is the perfect reflection of this problem. The Local Police have managed to identify an individual who not only operated clandestinely, but also converted the surroundings of the Mirador de Las Torres at a hazardous materials landfill. The alarm voice. The events date back to December 19, when a citizen’s notice alerted the authorities about a van that was unloading debris in a suspicious manner on an embankment in the Díaz Casanova urbanization. Upon arriving at the scene, agents from the Environmental Group of the Mediation and Coexistence Unit (UMEC) of the Local Police found an alarming sight: approximately three cubic meters of asbestos-containing fiber cement sheets. In other words, it was not common debris, but a cataloged material as hazardous waste due to its high toxicity if the fibers fracture and are inhaled. An investigation connected to the network. The investigation did not stop at the spill. Upon tracking the vehicle, officers discovered a pattern of professional deception. As reported by local mediathe suspect actively advertised on internet portals, offering to manage all types of waste, including asbestos. However, when cross-referencing data with the Registry of Waste Managers of the Government of the Canary Islands, the reality came to light: the individual was neither listed as a manager nor as an authorized transporter. He did not have the equipment, training, or permits required by law to manipulate “uralite.” After being located, the investigated person had no escape. According to Canarian sourcesthe man acknowledged being the author of the spill and admitted that he charged his clients for a service he provided illegally. Instead of taking the asbestos to an authorized treatment plant – where he would have to pay for its correct disposal – he simply dumped it in open fields to keep the full benefit. The legal framework: Law 7/2022. This behavior is not just incivility; It is a serious violation of public health and the environment. According to Law 7/2022of waste and contaminated soils for a circular economy, the abandonment of hazardous waste is strongly penalized. This law seeks precisely to end the underground economy in the waste sector. The regulations are clear: whoever generates the waste (the owner of a home who is renovating, for example) has the responsibility of ensuring that his garbage ends up in the hands of an authorized manager. If it is delivered to a “fake manager” of the Internet, the producer of the waste could also find himself involved in legal problems. Asbestos, an invisible enemy. The City Council of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, through its waste guide, reminds that asbestos requires special handling. It is classified under specific codes like LER 170605. When these planks break when thrown down an embankment, they release microscopic fibers that, when they enter the lungs, can cause serious respiratory diseases and long-term cancer. Therefore, its withdrawal must be carried out by companies registered with RERA (Registry of Companies with Asbestos Risk), something that the accused was completely unaware of. How to act correctly? The case of Las Torres is a warning for all citizens. The City Council and the Cabildo of Gran Canaria offer legal alternatives To avoid these crimes: Clean Points for domestic debris from small works (minor renovations). Asbestos Census: the Cabildo usually opens calls for the orderly removal of elements with asbestos in homes (drums, sheets, pipes). Authorized Managers: the authorized manager number should always be required before contracting any service. Closure against impunity. The person responsible for the spill in Las Torres now faces economic sanctions that, according to Law 7/2022can reach very high amounts for serious infringement. This case serves as a reminder that the city’s natural environment is no one’s backyard, and that the digital trail of offenders, sooner or later, ends up reaching the hands of justice. What began as a “cheap” advertisement on a website has ended in a criminal complaint and environmental damage that now all taxpayers must, in one way or another, help to remedy. Image | Las Palmas Local Police Xataka | These days Tenerife is experiencing a phenomenon that only occurs every 60 years: the “blooming of death” of the Ceylon palm trees

TeraWave, Blue Origin’s satellite internet, is born

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Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ space company, has announced this Wednesday the deployment of 5,408 satellites to create TeraWave, a satellite communications network that will compete directly with starlink from SpaceX. But there is a crucial difference: it is not intended for you or me. What Blue Origin proposes. TeraWave promises speeds of up to 6 terabits per second, both upload and download, anywhere on the planet, according to the company. Deployment will begin at the end of 2027 with a constellation that will combine satellites in low and medium Earth orbit, connected by optical links. The network is designed to serve a maximum of approximately 100,000 customers, not millions like its competitors. The big difference with Starlink. While the service deployed by Elon Musk’s company, with more than 9,000 satellites in orbit and some 9 million customers, focuses on offering internet to individual consumers, companies and governments alike, TeraWave is committed to an exclusively business approach. Blue Origin has made clear that its network is “designed specifically for enterprise customers,” targeting data centers, governments and enterprises that require reliable connectivity for critical operations. Dave Limp, CEO of Blue Origin and former head of Amazon devices, confirmed in the statement that this is an “enterprise grade” service. An increasingly saturated market. Bezos is not only competing with Musk, but also with his own creature: Amazon. The e-commerce company Leo is deploying (formerly Project Kuiper), a network of 3,236 satellites of which there are already 180 in orbit. Unlike TeraWave, Leo does target both businesses, consumers and governments, competing more directly with Starlink. In addition, several Chinese companies are rapidly developing similar constellations with low-cost reusable rockets, following the strategy that SpaceX established with your Falcon 9. Why do they aim so high in speed?. Those 6 terabits per second that TeraWave promises are extreme even by current enterprise standards, well above what rival commercial services offer. So yes, indeed, Blue Origin aims to meet the demand for data centers for AI. And the TeraWave announcement coincides with a career in the space industry for building data centers in space that can meet the growing demand for large-scale AI processing. Musk has already expressed his desire to build these space centers complementing Starlink, while Bezos already predicted that will be common in orbit in the next 10 to 20 years. The logistical challenge. To put 5,408 satellites into orbit you need a reliable and economical launch machine. This is where Blue Origin’s reusable New Glenn rocket comes in, which although it has completed two launches, has not yet reached the necessary flight rate. Last November, the company achieved an important milestone upon successful landing the New Glenn booster after the launch of two NASA spacecraft, becoming the second company, after SpaceX, to achieve this feat. Bezos’s commitment to space. The founder of Amazon has been preaching about the potential of Blue Origin for years. In 2024, during an interview at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit, Bezos stated who believes Blue Origin “will be the best business I’ve ever been involved in, but it will take time.” Founded in 2000, the company has been primarily known for its tourist flights to the edge of space. Last year he also took both his current wife, Lauren Sánchez, and to the singer Katy Perry or to our national survivor, Jesus Calleja. Cover image | Jeff Bezos In Xataka | SpaceX has made sending things to space very cheap. The problem is that now space is full of things

The internet has decided that 2016 was great and worth remembering. But there’s a problem: it wasn’t at all.

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The aesthetics of 2016 comes back strong: filters that They imitate the Instagram of then (according to Wikipedia, more than 200 million videos with filters that imitate visuals), trends that they recover photos from thenrecreations of the summer of ‘Pokémon GO’, tributes and memories to David Bowie. Generation Z users, many of them teenagers at the time, they rebuild 2016 like a golden age (there has been a 450% increase in searches of the term “2016” on TikTok). The contradiction is obvious: That same year, numerous media declared it one of the worst in recent history. What happened. On January 10 he died David Bowie; they followed him Prince, Leonard Cohen, George Michael, Carrie Fisher. On June 23, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. On November 8, Donald Trump won the US election. Media like slate either Newsweek They wondered if it was the worst year in history. Less than a decade later, that same year it has become an object of nostalgia. Starting shot. The Bowie’s death January 10 marked the year since its inception. Two days before he had published ‘Blackstar’, an album that today is interpreted as a farewell but that then went unnoticed in its testamentary dimension. The shock was immediate: an artist who had hidden his cancer for 18 months disappeared without warning, and memes filled that void almost immediately. The artists mentioned above followed, and each death reinforced the same idea: 2016 was cursed. In Xataka All the reasons you should listen to David Bowie if you haven’t already Imbalance. Trump and Brexit shattered the expectations of progress and openness that dominated Western political discourse. In‘The future of nostalgia’already in 2001, Svetlana Boym distinguished between “restorative nostalgia” (which seeks to reconstruct a mythical home) and “reflective nostalgia” (which enjoys longing without seeking to recover anything). Nostalgia for 2016 is of the first kind: it invents a year that never existed. Boym noted that restorative nostalgia “does not recognize itself as nostalgia, but as truth and tradition.” Just what happens when TikTok recreates the summer ofPokémon GO as if it had been edenic. This has already been said. There are theorists who have reflected on the phenomenon to remember 2016 just ten years later. David Foster Wallace documented in the 1990s what he called “nostalgia for the present”: the urge to long for something that is not yet over. 2016 fulfills that paradox: it has become an object of nostalgia before being historically processed, while its political consequences remain active. The temporal distance necessary for nostalgia, usually two or three decades, has been compressed to the point of almost disappearing. {“videoId”:”x9785qi”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”Prince – Partyman”, “tag”:””, “duration”:”233″} Retromania. It is inevitable to refer to ‘Retromania‘a 2011 essay in which Simon Reynolds argued that since the 2000s, pop culture had reversed its direction: instead of generating the future, it was dedicated to reactivating the past. Reynolds documented band reunions, deluxe reissues, revival festivals, nostalgic samples. Fifteen years later, his thesis has intensified: no society has ever been so obsessed with the cultural artifacts of its most recent past. The return to 2016 confirms his diagnosis: a decade is enough to activate nostalgia. Hauntology. Mark Fisher elaborated on this idea in ‘The ghosts of my life’where he developed the concept of “hauntology” that Derrida had coined: we are inhabited by futures that did not materialize. Fisher, who died in 2017, argued that contemporary culture had lost its ability to imagine alternatives to the present. The past cannot be recovered; Their ghosts haunt a present incapable of projecting forward. Nostalgia for 2016 materializes this paralysis: one longs for a year defined by its catastrophic nature because there is a lack of vocabulary to articulate desirable futures. In Xataka A rosy past: why our brains can’t fight nostalgia Nostalgia mode. Finally, Fredric Jameson had anticipated this phenomenon in ‘Postmodernism: or the cultural logic of late capitalism’ in 1991, when describing the “nostalgia mode”: postmodern culture reproduces styles from the past by emptying them of historical reference and reducing them to an aesthetic surface. Instagram and TikTok accelerate this process. What was present yesterday is content today vintage available for consumption. The Spotify playlists of 2016 and the summer of ‘Pokémon GO’ are remembered, but not the bad thing. The algorithm creates a sweetened version of the past that eliminates conflict. It could be worse. 2026, without going any further. The nostalgia of 2016 reveals an escape from much more present horrors: those of 2026. That year has been dwarfed as a “bad year” because a decade later Trump returns to the presidency in a much more virulent way, with attacks on international law and invasion of countries, the war in Ukraine has no signs of ending, Gaza is going through a humanitarian disaster that shames the planet, political and media polarization has become radicalized, housing has become inaccessible… Carrie Fisher, who died in 2016 If in 2016 there were those who considered it exaggerated to talk about authoritarian drift, 2026 materializes that exaggeration: the alarms that seemed like hyperbole turned out to be prophetic. Nostalgia for 2016 is not innocent: it is the implicit recognition that the situation has worsened, that that year, with all its disasters, was preferable to the present. It’s coming. The cycle accelerates. If 2016 is already an object of nostalgia in 2026, what year will be nostalgic in 2030? 2020, the year of the global pandemic? 2024? Culture is caught in a loop where the present devours itself before it has been digested, where the ability to imagine alternatives has atrophied to the point that we can only look back. Even when what we see behind is disaster. In Xataka | People are so fed up with the current Internet that they are returning to MySpace. Not out of nostalgia, but out of rebellion (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news … Read more

We can no longer trust any image on the internet

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In 2012, Hurricane Sandy devastated the Caribbean Sea and reached the coast of New York. There he left floods, power outages and spectacular photos. Of all of them there was one especially amazing which went viral, but there was a problem: it was false. She wasn’t the only one that slipped into networks. That image was just one more example of what we have seen before and after: great phenomena and events end up generating floods of content, some of which are not real. There are many reasons why people take advantage of these moments to spread false images, but at least before achieving credible images and videos was expensive. Only advanced users of applications like Photoshop or Final Cut/Premiere could achieve convincing results, but AI, as we know, has changed all that. We have been warning about this problem for some time: distinguishing between what is real and what is generated by AI it’s getting harder. and these days we have had the last great example of this trend. Anatomy of a deepfake The Kamchatka Peninsula, in the far east of Russia, has experienced a historic snow storm. The worst in decades, according to records, with snow levels exceeding two meters in various areas, according to Xinhua. Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the administrative, industrial, and scientific center of Kamchatka Krai, has especially suffered these consequences, and residents of the region have spread images on networks of the one that already has been baptized like the “snow apocalypse.” Those images spread in news media and social networks and that they were real—often more “mundane” and much less spectacular— contrast with others that theoretically also showed the state of various points in the region but that are actually generated with AI. That video, for example, was shared a few days ago by Linus Ekenstam, an influencer who often shares news and reflections on AI. He republished that video and claimed that it was real, but soon several users indicated that the video was actually created by AI. Ekenstam argued that the theoretical AI error that it pointed out in the user was not such, and that where he lives there are poles near the streetlights. He therefore tried to defend that for him the video was real, but others suggested that it was not. The definitive test: a user linked to the theoretical original videowhich apparently originated in a TikTok account dedicated precisely to disseminating AI-generated content that seems real. The crucial thing about that fake video is that it is spectacular, but not overly spectacular. It is, to a certain extent, believable, and when the image and the camera movement itself is so convincing, it is difficult to think that “maybe it is generated by AI.” With this snow storm experienced in Kamchatka, unusual images have been shared on networks, much more typical of a dystopian Hollywood movie than a real natural phenomenon. A priori the images may even seem coherent, but a more detailed – and above all, more critical – examination makes it easier for us to realize that perhaps these images are not as real as they seem. In fact, the most striking images shared on social networks and that accumulate thousands of retweets and likes on X, for example, contrast with those published in traditional media, which tend to be as we said much less flashy and much more mundane. Spanish media such as OndaZero or OKDiario have published some images and videos generated by AI on their digital media or on their social media accounts without realizing that these videos actually had their origin in the aforementioned TikTok account which has managed to spread like wildfire. Debates about the possibility that certain images could be real have been frequent for example on Redditwhere users shared for example an amazing catch which when analyzed in detail seemed generated by AI. The avalanche of “citizen journalism”, which can be well-intentioned and very important at times, contrasts here with the role of the media, which has an enormous responsibility in acting as trusted sources of information. Even they (and we) can fall into the trap, and here once again The best thing is to start distrusting what we see on our screens, because it may be false content. The videos that appeared in some media such as SkyNews or in The Vanguard they combine with others that (at least, a priori) seem real, but that at this point also require rigorous examination. Our brain betrays us and technology knows it There are several well-studied psychological phenomena and cognitive biases that explain why we believed in fake news in the past and now the same thing happens to us again with deepfakes. It doesn’t matter if we know (or at least rationally suspect) that these images and videos are false: technology and especially AI precisely exploit these biases. Among them the following stand out: Confirmation bias: we believe what fits with what we already believe. Our brain does not seek truth as much as internal coherence, so if a piece of news reinforces our ideology, we lower the level of potential criticism, but if it contradicts it, we analyze it with a magnifying glass or directly discard it. The problem here is that AI can generate tailor-made content adjusted to each narrative. Illusory truth effect: here it happens that “if I have seen it many times, it will be true.” Repetition increases the feeling of truthfulness, not actual truthfulness, and it is something that, for example, social networks, machines for repeating hoaxes, make the most of. Again, AI facilitates the mass production of the same lie with minimal variations. We believe what we see: This is what some call perceptual realism. We trust too much in the visual, and hence the famous saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Images are processed much faster than text, and critical thinking comes after the emotional reaction, as you well argued Daniel Kanheman in his famous ‘Think fast, think slow’. Cognitive load: related … Read more

We have been telling ourselves for decades that we have the Internet thanks to military research. The problem is that it is false

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It is difficult to imagine that something as impressive as the Internet could be summarized just over 40 years ago in a single page. The map of germ of the internet, ARPANETtook up no more than a DIN A4 sheet of paper and reflected the less than 50 computers that at the beginning of the Internet were connected to each other. But even more curious is the story of how ARPANET was born, which may not be as you have been told. It all happened almost midnight on October 29, 1969, in a small room at the University of California (UCLA), and with a message that only said “it“. The true origin Search the Internet about its history (from the Internet itself), and you will find that the most common thing is to talk about its military origin. Technically it is correct since ARPANET was developed by the ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency), an institution that depended on the US Department of Defense. But the reasons were not military even though One of the minds behind some of the ideas that helped create ARPANET, Paul Baran, worked precisely with the motivation that cold war between the US and the USSR would not end with a blockade and destruction of the communications and control structures of the US army in the event of a nuclear attack. You will indeed find many references to this idea, which results in a story that makes for an entertaining movie. hollywood but in reality it was not exactly with that motivation that ARPANET was born. In the 1960s, within ARPA there was the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO), at that time focused on taking full advantage of computers within the administration. Robert Taylor, one of the fathers of the Internet, began his career as director of the IPTO in 1966, and proposed to the then director of ARPA the possibility of connecting computers together to optimize their use. With this structure of networked computers (an idea that he took from the previous works of JCR Lickliderpioneer in 1962 by proposing the possibility of interconnecting equipment with each other) the ARPA could better manage your budget for computers and not distribute efforts uselessly but concentrate them on a few but very powerful computers connected to each other which would allow resources and results to be shared between researchers and centers. “lo”, first message between computers on the network Taylor was not limited to the resource of sharing computers and results between centers as an advantage of his ARPANET. If the idea worked, the agency was ensuring that it could use more computer models of different types without the compatibility or use of terminals to access them being a nightmare, while at the same time allowing the creation of protection against failures, so that with the non-centralized network structure proposed, if one computer failed, the others could continue working. Taylor’s initial proposal consisted of a test network with four nodes that they could expand if the results proved them right. ARPANET was born. The Internet was on the way. If you are passing through California, a recommended visit is in room 3420 Boelter Hall at the University (UCLA). Do not look for it as such because after being forgotten and until its use as a common room, it was recently restored and became part of the Kleinrock Center for Internet Studies (KCIS). Much of the history and documents are concentrated there (there is no waste of original presentation of ARPANET) and equipment that allowed the first node to be established between computers. But it’s actually a fantastic tribute to Leonard Kleinrocka professor who in 1969, right from that small room at the university, sent the first message on ARPANET. It was 10:30 at night on October 29, 1969 when, from the SDS Sigma 7 computer in said room, Professor Kleinrock sent the LOGIN message to the SDS 940 computer at the Stanford Research Institute, the computer with which he was connected in a basic way. The message remained a curious “lo” since there was a transmission failureand it was not until an hour later that the initial transmission could be completed. The first connection had occurred between the first two computers within the ARPANET. Two weeks later there were 4 interconnected teams, and in two years, almost seventy. And no one could stop this revolution. In Xataka | In 1995 ‘Toy Story’ forever changed the way animated films are made. He did it with rudimentary computers In Xataka | In 1969, humans set foot on the Moon for the first time. He did it thanks to a computer less powerful than your cell phone

Thanks to Starlink, Papua New Guinea was able to access the Internet in its most remote areas. That dream is over

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Thousands of people in Papua New Guinea They have been left without an internet connection following the government’s order to suspend operations of starlink in the country. The decision has come amid a legal blockade that has lasted more than a year, and is affecting businesses, health centers and rural communities that depended on Elon Musk’s satellite service to stay connected. What exactly happened. In mid-December, the National Information and Communications Technology Authority (Nicta) ordered Starlink to cease all operations in Papua New Guinea because the company does not have a license to operate in the country. “Starlink is currently not licensed to operate in Papua New Guinea, and until the legal process is completed, services cannot be permitted,” account Lume Polume, CEO of Nicta, told The Guardian. The company has already completely withdrawn its services from the territory. Why was there so much hooking? Although there are no official figures on how many users Starlink had in the country, telecommunications analysts estimate that its terminals served thousands of people before the closure, including entire towns and districts in remote areas, according to the media. For many rural communities it was the only viable option since mobile networks are unreliable or non-existent, and other satellite services are much more expensive. Starlink offered fast, relatively inexpensive internet in places where connectivity had historically been a chronic problem. The real impact of going offline. The blackout has generated a series of important problems in daily life. Teachers like Simon Jack, who works at a remote secondary school in the Southern Highlands province, have explained to the British media that students need the internet to check their academic results and see where they have been admitted to study this year. “For many of them, Starlink was the only option that worked,” he says. In the health field, health worker Theresa Juni, from East Sepik province, counted that his clinic used Starlink to communicate with doctors in the city and send reports quickly. “Now we have to wait days or travel just to send information. For patients who need urgent care, these delays can be dangerous,” he warns. On the other hand, the medium assures that some farmers and merchants must now travel long distances to cities to access banking services and other transactions that they previously did online. The legal mess behind the blackout. The problem comes from afar. Starlink has been trying to get a license in Papua New Guinea since December 2023, but in March 2024 the Ombudsman Commission blocked its approval citing concerns about service reliability and regulatory compliance, according to inform RNZ. Nicta took the case to court months later seeking to overturn this directive, but the court decision is still pending. Meanwhile, the regulatory authority is “legally prevented” from issuing a license until the court rules. The Pacific is from Starlink. The irony is that Starlink has become a lauded service in other Pacific nations, especially after its deployment in Tonga after the 2022 volcanic eruption destroyed underwater internet cables. There the service was described as “transformational.” However, Papua New Guinea has been left out of this story for now. Just like account According to RNZ, last November, SpaceX’s director of global market access, Rebecca Slick Hunter, said at a conference in Port Moresby that the company was ready to activate services as soon as it received authorization, and that Starlink had already established a local entity in the country. Citizen reaction. About 200 people have signed an online petition asking that Starlink be allowed to operate legally, as confirmed by Nicta. Businessman and former MP John Simon has criticized harshly the situation: “This is really bad for this country. Internet and online services have been very expensive and slow for years, yet we cannot listen to ordinary people on the street and solve this,” he told The Guardian. “The Papua New Guinea government must do something for struggling small businesses. Ordinary people and small businesses depend on the cheapest and fastest option, and right now that is Starlink. This problem must be fixed.” Cover image | starlink In Xataka | Without making a noise, someone has eclipsed Elon Musk among the most influential millionaires in the US: Larry Ellison

Why has the internet gone crazy shouting rhythmic words at the television?

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Table, strawberry, weight, weight, weight, table, strawberry, table. If your brain has just played a little music and you have read it to the beat, you have also fallen into the latest viral challenge of social networks. You will surely have felt this December that the algorithm has been “hacked” by an infinite loop of rhythmic words and a sound in a language that we cannot identify. But it is not a computer error: it is the definitive viral phenomenon that has transformed our Christmas dinners in a makeshift arcade. The phenomenon that conquered the holidays. What started as a niche game has become the absolute protagonist of the family gatherings of 2025. The challenge, known globally as Say the Word on Beat (or its version adapted to Spanish Say the word with the rhythm), has flooded digital platforms. According to analyzed datathe challenge has gone from being a simple filter to a skill competition that has already accumulated more than 1.2 billion views under its main label. The figures that can be seen at a glance under the hashtags #wordonbeat either #wordonbeatchallenge They exceed thousands of videos that, in turn, garner millions of views. This new phenomenon suggests that its rise is due to the extreme ease of participating, thanks to the CapCut automatic templates either on your own websiteand the ease of the game that brings together everyone from children to grandparents. The science of the mental “short circuit.” But what makes such a simple game so addictive? The answer is in our brain. The challenge is a digital and playful version of the famous Stroop effect. This psychological phenomenon measures reaction time when faced with tasks where there is a cognitive conflict. When trying to say the name of an object while the rhythm pushes us to say a rhyme (like cup, soup, clothes, cup), the prefrontal cortex of our brain suffers a small collapse as it tries to inhibit the automatic response. As professor and virality expert Jonah Berger explains in his theories about the “social currency”this type of content succeeds because it allows us to demonstrate a skill to our circle. Achieving the “Impossible” level is not just about winning a game; It is gaining public validation that the brain rewards with dopamine rushes. Furthermore, these “micro challenges” adapt perfectly to the new consumer habits: They are short, intense and highly competitive. An unexpected origin. One of the most curious aspects of the challenge is its soundtrack. That rhythmic, foreign voice that guides the game is not a creation of artificial intelligence. This is a traditional Thai school song known as “Moo Ma Ga Gai“, which translated would be something like “Pig, dog, crow, chicken.” This audio, originally designed for Thai children to practice the diction and tones of their language, was rescued and remixed by content creator @robgongfriendwho added the metronome and the whistle that we all recognize today. It’s a fascinating example of how digital globalization can turn an elementary school lesson in Southeast Asia into the hit of the new viral challenge. A new family “arcade”. Unlike other TikTok dances that are usually individual, the Word on Beat has made a qualitative leap towards the “phygital” (physical and digital) world. YouTube channels like Rhytup or its Spanish version I Know The Game! have detected a massive peak of traffic from Smart TVs. Instead of consuming content on the small mobile screen, users are projecting these videos on their televisions to play as a group. The living room thus becomes an improvised arcade, replacing classic board games with visual reflex challenges. It is, in essence, the “karaoke” of the new generation: a collective activity that encourages laughter through other people’s mistakes. A party at the stroke of beat. Today, as we prepare for the chimes of New Year’s Eve, it is very likely that the ambient sound is not just that of toasts or party music. Before the grapes, you will hear rhythmic shouts: table, dumbbell, strawberry… It’s not that the networks have hacked our brains, it’s that we have found in the simplicity of a Thai rhythm the most human and fun way to connect. So, if tonight you see your entire family yelling at a screen, don’t be surprised. They are simply trying to keep their brain from jamming before the clock strikes twelve. Image | instagram Xataka | The house as a showcase: how interior design has taken over from fashion

disconnect from the Internet with a digital iron curtain

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Imagine a world without Internet It’s not that strange. In October, an AWS outage left the Internet shivering. In December, with Cloudflare sneezehalf the Internet collapsed. These are just two examples that show that, At any tremor, the network wobbles. And they are specific cuts, but imagine that there are 655 cases in a month. Or until 2,099. If they are very specific figures, it is because that is what is happening in Russia. And not because of an error or a server crash. But because Russia is experimenting to completely disconnect from the global Internet. RuNet. We told it a few years ago. The Russian Ministry of Statistics noted that the Government had instructed all state sites and services to change their domain names. From a global one to a Russian one. It coincided with Ukraine asking that Russia was disconnected from the network, and that was it: mere coincidence. According to the rulers, disconnect of the Internet responds to a strategy of defense against cyber attacks (Russia is a power in this sense). According to others, it has more to do with implementing a filtering system similar to the one China operates with its ‘Great Firewall‘. The truth is that we knew this as ‘RuNet’and the strategy that began step by step in 2019 is now colossal. The new normal. Throughout these years, Russia has been testing disconnection tests. 2025 has been a critical year in this sense, one in which administrations have repeatedly pulled the cable to test the system. They have even been given massive blackouts in regions such as Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia to test the stability of RuNet. In 2024 They tested in several regionsbut this year has been a ‘massacre’. In May of this year, on the eve of Victory Day40 regions were left without mobile communications. There were 69 “blackouts” of the network, but in June there were 655 and in July the figure increase to 2,099. It is estimated that it exceeds the number of outages in the entire world for a full year. Data packet loss reported on Cloudflare when Russia has pulled the cord Roskomnadzor. That’s a key name in this story. To ensure control over Internet access and consolidate it within the legal framework, the Russian government expanded the powers to Roskomnadzorthe state regulator. The entity has the ability to isolate and redirect traffic within Russia in the face of “specific threats” such as cyber attacks, critical infrastructure failures or loss of access to both domestic and foreign networks. They have the authority to issue binding orders to teleoperators, allowing them to disconnect Russia from the global Internet in an emergency, and in fact, in recent years the authorities consolidated more than half of Russian IP addresses in the hands of seven service providers who are clearly linked to the state. In the evidence This year, which has left regions without mobile Internet for up to two months, the narrative is defense. If the ukrainian war is that the rules have changed, but in 2025 in particular, lDrones and cyber attacks They have created a totally new battlefield. That is what they hide behind for some of these patterns of cuts, but the problem is that they are occurring in remote regions, such as Omsk, 2,500 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. Lock. During these outages, users are not completely disconnected, but rather have limited access to websites that are on a government-approved whitelist. Anyone who is not there is blocked or penalized. YouTube is an exampleexperiencing a significant reduction in speed since summer of last year. Any service that uses Google caching is also being throttled. AND cloudflare It is also being penalized by Internet providers. From Cloudflare itself they affirmed this summer that only Russian users are allowed to upload the first 16 KB of any website. It is a limitation that affects 20% of the entire Internet and 16 KB is not even enough to upload a sad image. WhatsApp, Google Meet, FaceTime or Telegram also have been penalizedto the point that in October there were users who they complained because they did not receive confirmation SMS from those apps to create a new account. 2026 doesn’t look better. The Government has a solution: Max, a super app similar to China’s WeChat with messaging, calls, video, file sharing and banking operations option. With everything that this implies. And, if throughout 2025 new laws and articles have come into force to give more power to Roskomnadzor, on March 1, 2026, Decree No. 1667 will come into force, which will establish new rules for centralized network management, giving more power to the regulator and which will be in force until 2033. The decree will potentially give Roskomnadzor the ability to pull the cable permanently. For now, what has been experienced in recent years responds to different tests, but it is evident that Russia is preparing for this total disconnection and the creation of an Intranet. Much more controlled and to where VPNs to see what happens abroad are criminalized. In Xataka | The color of your Ethernet cable is not for decoration: it is a key visual language

30 years later it is the glue that keeps the internet alive

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Three decades ago, a joint release from Netscape and Sun Microsystems introduced the world to JavaScript, a scripting language designed for creating interactive web applications. Behind that press release A story of technological survival was hidden: said language had been born months before, the result of a frenetic ten-day sprint led by engineer Brendan Eich. What began as a hurried prototype to give life to the netscape browserhas today become the infrastructure that supports a huge percentage of the visible web. The myth of ten days. The legend tells that Eich wrote the core JavaScript in just over a week. And it is true, but the result was a hybrid of influences. Pressured by Netscape management to make the language more like Java, Eich adopted a syntax of curly braces and semicolons. However, under the hood, it injected the functional elegance of Scheme and Self’s prototype-based object model. This mix, born out of haste, left a legacy of technical inconsistencies that developers still suffer from (and love) today. From Mocha to confusion. You may not know that the language was not always called that. It was born as Mocha, became LiveScript and was finally named JavaScript in a marketing maneuver to take advantage of the popularity of Java. What’s more, the confusion over names continues to this day among less knowledgeable users: but Java and JavaScript have the same thing to do with each other. car (car) and carpet (rug), as is usually answered when someone asks about their differences. The strategy worked, but angered rivals like Microsoft. His response was to create his own version called JScript, something that caused notable fragmentation that made Bill Gates himself complain about Netscape’s constant changes. To bring order to the chaos, the language ended up being established in 1997 under the name ECMAScript. Image by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash Ajax and the conquest of the server. For years, JavaScript was seen as a toy for doing simple validations, but that all changed in 2005 with the arrival of AJAX. This technology It allowed websites like Gmail or Maps to update data without reloading the page: the step was taken from static websites to dynamic apps. The second leap occurred in 2009 with Node.js, which took JavaScript out of the browser and onto the server. Key for developers to use a single language for the entire stack and which now involves between two and three million packages in the npm registry. Absolute domain. Despite the emergence of modern rivals, the hegemony of JavaScript is indisputable. According to the 2025 Stack Overflow surveycontinues to be the language most used by 62% of developers, something that puts them ahead of others such as Python or SQL. Its ubiquity is such that it has transcended the web: it powers desktop apps using Electron, mobile development with React Native and even AI tools. It is the default language for learning to program and chosen by 60% of students. This mass success has brought with it a complexity in the JavaScript ecosystem: Frameworks like React, Angular and Vue dominate the market (used by 40% of web developers). The weight of libraries is beginning to take its toll on the performance of the web. Therefore, predictions for 2026 point to a resurgence of pure JavaScript either Vanilla JavaScript. Forced maturity. Despite its birth defects, JavaScript was able to evolve. In 2015, the ES6 update radically transformed the syntax, but the real paradigm shift came from Microsoft: with the TypeScript creationa layer of security and types was added that solved much of the original chaos, something that allowed it to become the almost mandatory standard for professional development. JavaScript is still the engine, but TypeScript is the precision flywheel. A legal problem called Oracle. The paradox of JavaScript is that, despite being an open standard, its name is proprietary. Oracle inherited the “JavaScript” trademark after purchasing Sun Microsystems, although it has never released a product with that name. Recently, key figures such as Brendan Eich himself and the creator of Node.js have signed a request so that the US patent office can cancel the trademark due to abandonment. The legacy of a hack. It is ironic that the companies that sponsored his birth have disappeared or been absorbed, while his creation remains more alive than ever. Authoritative voices like Douglas Crockford (creator of JSON) have come to suggest they should “retire” it for its basic design flaws, but the reality is that the modern web would not exist without it. JavaScript is not just code; is the lingua franca of the internet, the invisible glue that turns static documents into digital experiences. Without its existence, the network would only be a collection of texts and images without movement, something similar to a PDF newspaper that we see on our screen. In Xataka | There is a shadow giant pulling all the technological strings that connect TikTok with AI: Oracle

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