island

We have been wondering for centuries how the statues on Easter Island moved. The answer was very simple: walking

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Can you walk a block of stone the size of a school bus? Can a rock that weighs tons and measures several meters long be walked? The most logical answer is (obviously) no, but things change if what we are talking about is the moai of Easter Island, the unmistakable carvings sculpted and distributed throughout the Polynesian island several centuries ago through the old town of Rapa Nui. Beyond your meaningcharacteristics or design archaeologists have always wondered how the hell the natives managed to move those multi-ton masses from the quarries to the ahuthe ceremonial platforms on which they stood. The answer was just that: no more and no less than ‘walking’. An ancient mystery. There are few sculptures in the world as iconic, unmistakable and fascinating as the moai of Easter Island, the enormous rock heads that seem to emerge from the earth on the distant oceanic island. Since Jacob Roggeveen and its people arrived there in 1722, the world wonders what they were for, what they represent and of course how their creators, the people of Rapa Nui, managed to move them from the quarries to their destinations. Why is it so surprising? Because the statues, carved especially in volcanic tuff of the Rano RarakuThey measure several meters long and weigh tons. In fact, it is said that on average they are around 4.5 meters and 10 talthough there are older specimens. Taking that into account and that they had to move from the places where they were made to their platforms, how did the islanders move them? It is not a minor question if we remember that on the island there are hundreds and hundreds of statues, some have the buried torso and were manufactured mainly among 13th and 16th centuries. Their displacement has aroused so much curiosity that over the last decades it has inspired various theories, such as the one that maintains that the figures they lay down on a kind of wooden sled with ropes. Now a group of researchers he thinks he has settled the debate once and for all. And your answer has little to do with trailers, horizontal loads and logs. ‘Walking’ sculptures. The ancient legends of Rapa Nui they assured that the moai arrived “walking” to their ceremonial platforms, the ahu. And although that possibility has always sounded like a pure fable, it seems that it was not so far off the mark. Thanks to a study that combines physics, 3D modeling and field experiments, a team led by experts from Binghamton and Arizona universities has confirmed that “the statues really walked”. And the most interesting thing is that this process had very little mysterious about it. It was simple physics and engineering. All that was needed was ropes, people, paths and a special design. “After studying nearly a thousand moai, Professor Carl Lipo and Terry Hunt discovered that the inhabitants of Rapa Nui probably used ropes and ‘walked’ the gigantic statues in a zigzag pattern along carefully designed paths,” he explains. a statement launched by Binghamton University. Is it something new? More or less. The theory itself is not new. In the 80s a Czech engineer (Pavel Pavel) already raised that the moai moved upright thanks to a system that propelled them from two points. Carl Lipo himself and his colleagues they argued does years that the statues “walked” with vertical and oscillating movements, contravening the hypothesis that the people of Rapa Nui transported them upside down with the help of logs. To prove it they even did a practical demonstration that attracted interest of National Geographic. Despite these efforts, there were still critical voices that questioned the theory. And that is what Lipo and Hunt have now wanted to settle by deploying their entire arsenal. From the theory… To the facts, which is what the investigators have done. For prove the validity of his theory and better understand the movement of the carvings, Lipo and his colleagues turned to high-resolution 3D models and thoroughly studied the shape of the moais, both those that remain upright and the dozens that fell by the wayside when their creators tried to remove them from the quarry. Not only that. The team also incorporated practical tests into its argument. Practical tests? Yes. The researchers built a moai of 4.35 tons and they dedicated themselves to moving it with the help of ropes. The result is fascinating and Binghamton University itself has taken care of divulge it on YouTube. The team needed just 18 people to move the moai 100 meters in 40 minutes. “Once it gets moving it’s not difficult. People pull with just one arm. It saves energy and it moves very fast,” comment Professor Carl Lipo. “The tricky part is getting it to swing in the first place.” That experience, added to the 3D models and the rest of the analysis, demonstrates, in the opinion of the archaeologists, that their theories “really work.” And to silence voices they have captured it in a paper published in Journal of Archaeological Science with a headline as revealing as it is provocative: “The hypothesis of the walking moai.” Have they discovered anything else? Yes. The researchers identified certain “distinctive characteristics” in the design of the moai that, a priori, made it more feasible for them to advance with an oscillating and zigzag movement with the help of the ropes. What features? The archaeologists quote two specifically: “wide ‘D’ shaped bases and certain inclination forward” (between 5 and 15º). To be more precise, the experts appreciated bases wide and roundedespecially in the moai that were left halfway, which suggests that the islanders used them to move them (the design served to lower the center of gravity). Then, once the figures reached their destination, they carved them to settle them. Another of the clues they have found is in the paths used by the islanders of Rapa Nui. Its width (4.5 meters) and concave cross section invites experts to think that roads were “ideal” … Read more

It is a tiny Caribbean island with a unique asset

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The AI ​​is A bottomless well of burning money. There is Very few companies earning money With this technological boom and the fear that everything will be A bubble about to explode The atmosphere flies over. In the midst of this uncertain panorama, an unexpected winner has emerged, a small British island located in the Caribbean Sea. Your secret? It has control of the domain .AI .AI The domain was created in 1995 specifically for Isla de Anguila. Like the .es. With the AI ​​boom, the use of domains. The boom. Perplexity.ai, x.ai, Google.AI… They are some of the AI ​​services that these domains use, but there are many more. According to This report From the Domain Technik hosting service, in 2018 there were approximately 48,000 .AI registered domains. The figure was growing over the years, but in 2023 the thing is triggered and the 354,000 domains are reached, which meant 145% growth with respect to 2022. There are currently 870,000. Taking into account that up to date an average of 1,500 domains are being recorded. Income. As reflected in the Annual Income, Expenses and Capital Report of 2024 of the Anguilla government, in 2022 the income derived from the domain registry. In the world of AI, they are ridiculous figures, but on a small island like eel, it is an important part of its income. Caution. According to the local medium Anguilla FocusJose Vanterpol, Minister of Infrastructure and Communications said that “in the years prior to the true advance of AI, income from domains. However, they are cautious. In statements A AP News Last year, Prime Minister Ellis Webster said that “we cannot predict how long this will last (…) I do not want our economy, our country and all our programs to be based solely on this.” Other cases. Anguilla is not the only case of a domain that unexpectedly becomes a gold mine for a region. He passed with Tuvalu, an archipelago between Australia and Hawaii who saw how The .TV domains became their second source of income. There has also been similar cases With the domains .ly belonging to Libya and. Me de Montenegro. Cover image | Wikipedia In Xataka | There are such monstrously high skyscrapers in China that a new job has emerged: those who take lunch to the last plants

Vigo’s elite has an island for her isolated from the rest of the city. Now risks that to change

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Maybe it’s not as famous as The Cíesbut Torralla It is also a unique island. In its own way, of course. More than its fauna and flora, this small insula of the southern coast of Galicia stands out for its legal situation. Although it is connected to Vigo’s coast through a 400 -meter bridge and in theory it must comply The Costas Lawin practice it is an impenetrable urbanization for most vigueses. At the end of the viaduct there are A garrita with a guard who restricts the passage to the interior of the island. The barrier only rises for the (scarce) residents, their guests and the researchers who work in the Marine Science Station (Ecimat), a space linked to the University of Vigo that premiered in 2006. Torralla is therefore a city within a city, a private and exclusive village available to its even more exclusive residents, including The business elite local. The country Precise that there are only 149 people censored there, although in good weather the number of residents multiplies. Two ways to visit her As access is closed to anyone outside the island, there are only two ways to get an idea of ​​what is inside. One is to cross the bridge and (without crossing the garrita), go down to one of the coves located on both sides of the catwalk, accessible from the 90s Thanks to a Supreme Judgment. The other (more comfortable) is to open Google Maps and notice In view of birds, internal roads, large gardens, chalets and swimming pools that are distributed throughout the island. Its most characteristic piece (and perhaps controversial) can be observed, however, from a good part of the vigués coast: a tower of 70 meters high and 21 plants Raised between the end of the 60 and the beginning of the 70s, during the boom of the developmentalism. In idealist it is possible to find The announcement of a floor of 120 square meters on the 18th plant sold for 620,000 euros. Another peculiarity of the island is that in practice it is intended as a Private condominium in which the City of Vigo barely has a presence: the basic services, such as lighting, water supply or maintenance of the vials are assumed by the neighborhood community, Precise The confidential. That Torralla is today an island of private use, an anomaly of the Galician coast, is greatly explained by Its complex story. Until the second third of the nineteenth century the island belonged to the Church, but after confiscation He went to the Marquis de Valladares. Since then it has changed ownership (in 1884 a prosperous factory came to rise there, Iberian string) until in the mid -60s it ended up under the control of a society, Torralla S. This episode was key to the future of the insula, which saw how in just a few years the bridge was built that connects it with the coast, the Huge residential tower and the thirty of exclusive chalets that are distributed by its surface, some with gardens and pools that arrive almost to the rocks where the sea breaks. In its day, the construction of a nine height and 120 meters long for 85 exclusive homes that met the frontal opposition of the city. “It goes against every idea not only landscape, but I am even afraid that the island sinks,” He came to iron In 1975 the then mayor, Joaquín García Picher. After an intense pull and loosen, three years later the Supreme Court proved him right and gave the judicial folder to the megaproject. Goodbye to privileges? Torralla has been hoarding for years headlines Because of its peculiar status, but a quick search arrives on Google to verify that its rhythm has increased exponentially in recent months. The reason is simple: if the government Fulfill your wordin not long residents could lose one of the privileges that have been retaining for several decades, being the only ones (except for Ecimat workers) who can enjoy the coast of the island. In June, during a visit to the neighboring beach of Samil, Minister Sara Aagesen, guaranteed that will defend “he toCceso to the public domain Maritime-terrestrial “in the area.” It has to be for public use and we are working on the definition of the project, we hope to have it just around the summer, “he insisted. Wednesday The confidential revealed That the government is already finalizing the project to achieve it, which in practice would go through lifting the garrita that prevents the passage of non -residents and recovering the public domain strip of the insula. To understand that effort you have to understand some keys before. The first, the status of the island. What Torralla SA has is a concession, an authorization of almost a century granted in the mid -60s and will not end Until 2064. In between, in the late 80s, the Government approved the Coastal Lawa regulation that regulates the public use of the coast and the one that right now does not adjust the Galician island. In fact, if the vigueses (and the rest of the visitors) can cross the bridge and sunbathe on the coves of the island located on their margins is not because of the hospitality of the SA, but by a sentence of the 90s that forced him to retract the garrita to the end of the catwalk, allowing his public access. The Coastal Law however demands something else. The norm includes a space of “Traffic servitude” that must respect a strip of six meters widean area in which “the construction of any installation is not authorized and should be left permanently expedited for pedestrian public use.” That is what Vigo aspires now with the support of the government: a perimeter walk of more than 1.5 km and at least six meters wide for which residents probably They will have to give land. With him they would achieve two objectives: to end decades of privileges and erase Torralla … Read more

The Caspian level has dropped so much that it now has a new island. But you can’t visit (still)

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Climate change has caused the oceans to have raised their reach in a few centimeters, but human action escapes also the opposite in other environments. The most obvious case is almost missing from the Aral Sea, but we find a more recent one in a nearby basin, that of the Caspian. A new island. A new island It has emerged from the waters in the Caspian Sea. The geographical accident is due not volcanic activity (as usually happens occasionally) but to the progressive decrease in sea level in this inner basin. The existence of the island was confirmed this summer by the Shirshov Institute in Oceanography, part of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IO Ras) On the ground (or almost). According to Explain the institutionthe first sighting of this new sand bank in the middle of the waters of Caspo was held from space, in November last year. However, the existence of the island was not confirmed and the unknown of its existence lasts for a few months. Until the end of May, when the IO Ras brought an expedition to the land. According to the oceanographic body, the expedition could not make land on the island due to the low depth of the waters and the weather conditions, but could see it and perform a first analysis that included the deployment of a drone to be able to approach it. The island without name. The island has not yet been named and there is little we know about it. As Io Ras points out, it is about 30 kilometers Southwest of Maly island Zhemchuzhny, another small islet formed in front of the Delta del Volga. The description made by its discoverers of the new formation is that of “a soaked plain”, a kind of marsh in the middle of the sea, as can be seen in the photos. In addition to appointing it, the team Point out that we will still have to study it in better detail to investigate in its “biohydrochemistry, hydrobiology and (in) the dynamics of sea behavior.” To facilitate the study, the team placed an oceanographic station about 40 cm deep in the waters surrounding the island. Experts expect the continued descent of the sea level in the Caspus to make the island expand over time. The end of summer would be a conducive moment for the study of the new island since the evaporation of sea water during the summer, along with a lower flow in its tributary rivers also implies a slight seasonal drop in this sea level. Importance for marine life. It will be interesting to see how the appearance of this islet to the ecology of the environment affects. The land could be used for some of the bird species that inhabit the Caspian to nest or make a break in the environment with other reasons. The other new islands. The warm -up of the planet is also able to “give” new islets to the geography of the planet through the withdrawal of the ice from the poles. It is what It has happened too Recently in Alaska, where the withdrawal of Alsek glacier has allowed the appearance of an island in the homonymous lake. However, the main engine in this creating new formations in our seas and oceans is volcanic activity. A recent example is The island that arose with the eruption of the Hunga Tonga volcano. It was the already missing The island of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, the result of the fusion between two existing volcanic islands. It is not necessary to leave the caspian waters to find another example. At the beginning of 2023 a mud volcano erupted in this sea, creating a new island that faded little by little. These examples do not predict a long life expectancy for the new training, but the scientists who study it believe that the progressive decrease of sea level will imply that this island grows, at least for now. If it will be later that is razed by the sea, that will be another story. In Xataka | In 1940 the Nazis invaded a British island. There they met an unexpected enemy: a language that nobody understood Image | Io Ras

When the Nazis occupied an island on the Channel of La Manchas they met an unexpected enemy: an indecipherable language

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The enemies sometimes appear for the most unsuspected places. That is what the German soldiers who occupied the Canal Islandson the Canal de la Mancha. The campaign promised them happy and in fact it extended for several years, but shortly after putting the first foot on the island of Jersey the Nazi officers realized that they would have to deal with an unexpected enemy: a language that they did not understand their interpreters. And that was a luck for the locals. In a place on the Channel of La Mancha … It is found Jerseythe largest of the islands of the Canal, an archipelago located very close to the French coast but is administratively linked to London. In fact they are considered British crown dependenciesautonomous, self -governor territories and that strictly are not part of the United Kingdom, but they are linked to their crown. It is estimated that in 2001 a few resided in the archipelago 150,000 people distributed in Two dancers: Guersey’s and Jersey, where they live more than 100,000. An island, its own language. Jersey not only stands out for his geography, status and history. It also does it at the linguistic level: on the island you speak English, French … and The sweater (Jèrriais), a tongue related to The Normand and, They claim The island authorities, have a rich history of more than a thousand years. His first written record dates in fact the 12th century, with The poet Waceand on the island presume of its literary legacy of the late eighteenth century. The sweater He caught his attention Even from the prestigious French writer Víctor Hugo, who rescued one of his words, Pieuvre (octopus) in your novel ‘The sea workers’of 1866. “A Language of Peasants”. The history of the Jersejés is not exactly simple. Despite his age and the enormous roots he has had on the island, there was a time in which he considered a vulgar and stigmatized language, which has irremediably marked his base of speakers. “In 40 and 50 if you went to school the Jerseyés was prohibited. It was considered a language of peasants, spoken only by poor people. That was the attitude of all teachers, even those who spoke Jerseyes,” He recounts To the BBC François Le Maistre, a almost 90 -year -old man who explains that in his home, as a child, only the island language was used. … And a weapon in front of the Nazis. Interestingly and despite his stigmatization, the sweater played a relevant role during World War II. The Canal Islands hold the sad honor of being the only “British” islands that endured the occupation of German troops during World War II. The Nazis came to Jersey between June and July 1940 (with The battle of England as a backdrop) and remained in the archipelago until May 1945. The authorities evacuated 30,000 people From the Canal Islands before the arrival of the Germans, but even so when Führer’s troops landed in Jersey they met thousands of locals (the archipelago added in total 104,000 residents) With a disturbing peculiarity, especially for the Nazis: they spoke a seemingly unintelligible language, even for the Francophone Germans. Not even the collaborative interpreters understood at all. What devils are they saying? “The articles in Jerseyes published at the beginning of the occupation managed to transmit messages of resistance”, Point out to the BBC Geraint Jennings chain, linguist and expert in the island language. “The texts openly said that it was better to speak Jerseés so that ‘certain people’ could not understand it, that is, the Germans! Of course they soon realized and took drastic measures with censorship, but the sweater continued to be used as a secret language to transmit messages during the rest of the contest.” In the island’s passive resistance strategy, that language related to Normando became a valuable piece. Its complexity, even for the ears of the German soldiers who spoke French or the collaborative performers, made the Jerseés a key tool to exchange information, draw clandestine plans or even, remember The English chain, mock of the Nazis. “Everyone spoke”. “During those years everyone spoke Jerseyes simply because, unfortunately of the Germans, it was not possible for them to understand our language,” remember I maistre. Perhaps it sounds strange, but it is that within the jersey itself different dialect varieties of the language were used: despite the fact that the island is small, a good part of the islanders were related to their own communities, which favored surprising wealth of expressions, words and even accents, distinctive marks of groups of speakers. On other channel islands, such as Guerneey, Sark and Alderney They also had their own languages, some already disappeared. A dream for linguists, a nightmare for German soldiers who walked through Jersey. A tongue in retreat. That does not mean that the sweater was immune to war. His starting point was already delicate. Although in the 30s the mother tongue of most people born on the island remained, it was minorized and stigmatized. To that was added “the great social rupture” that, Jennings lamentscaused the German occupation: families evacuated to England with their children ended up adopting English as the main language, the same that happened to the islanders who enrolled in the Armed Forces and then returned home. This rupture is added that tourism and the island’s financial sector, key pieces in its economy, They contributed to boost English as a communication vehicle. And what is the situation now? Complicated. There are reasons for optimism, but also for concern. In recent years the language has managed to claim, with institutions expressly dedicated to its promotion and greater sensitivity on the part of local institutions. In February 2019 in fact the island authorities They declared it COOFICIAL LANGUAGE IN THE ASSEMBLY WITH ENGLISH AND FRENCH. Who today lands at the island’s airfield is also with a message that welcomes him in the language: “Seyiz Les Beinv’nus à Jerri”. That is the positive part. The refusal … Read more

Japan sent the wrong creature to eradicate the snakes of an island. The disaster was so great that it has taken half a century to solve it

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Once again, desperate situations lead to extreme measures. Save a species Sometimes it implies “exterminating” another. We have seen it in South Africa and Your plan to annihilate miceeither Injecting radio -material material into rhinos hornscases of Wild cat huntor the plan for exterminate half a million owls. However, sometimes things do not come out as governments imagine. In Japan they know perfectly. The incident of 79. The story begins in 1979 on the Japanese island of Amami ōshima, located in Kagoshima Prefecture. That year, rediscover Amami’s rabbit (Pentalagus Furnessi), an endemic species and considered a “living fossil” due to its evolutionary seniority. Before the finding, it was thought that the rabbit was on the verge of extinction due to the loss of habitat and hunting. The discovery marked a before and after for the conservation of the species and highlighted the importance of protecting the natural environment of the island, home from many other unique species. An event that also underlined the need for higher conservation efforts in Amami ōshima, for example, trying to eradicate or control the population of snakes. A wrong “bomb”. Thus, within a few months, Japan launches a plan. Introduce about 30 mushrooms on the island With the intention of ending the population of snakes, specifically Habu (Trimeresurus flavoviridis), which represented a threat to local inhabitants. The idea, on paper, was a fissure plan: that mushrooms, which are natural snake predators, reduce the number of Habus and improve safety on the island at all levels. However, that project was far from infallible. The mushroom was not the ideal creature to eradicate snakes. In the first place, because they are active animals during the day, therefore, they could not catch the nightly hubs, who continued to inhabit the following decades without problem. What happened as a consequence had a huge ecological impact. A specimen of trimeresurus flavoviridis Depredation of endemic species. Thus, during the day, instead of focusing on the snakes, the mushrooms began to prey a wide range of native species, including several that had no natural enemies on the island until then. That seriously affected local fauna, especially endemic and endangered species, such as Amami’s same rabbit that had just announced happily months ago. Hundreds of thousands of mushrooms. The situation reached such a point, that the mushrooms, carried to eradicate a plague, had become even larger and more dangerous, one than reached around 10,000 copies At its maximum point over the year 2000. The truth is that Japan had already started a mushroom control project in 1993 that was expanding over time. As? About 30,000 traps were placed on the island to capture the animals and cameras with sensors to monitor them were installed. In addition, local residents formed the so -called Amami Mongoose Bustersa team specialized in the capture of mushrooms (they came to capture thousands). The end? In 2018 there was the last official capture of a megosta on the island. It happened in April, and since no creature has been captured for a long period of time, the panel of experts, which has the task of determining if the animal is eradicated from the island, estimated that the eradication rate It was between 98.8 and 99.8% In February of last year, reaching a preliminary conclusion that it is reasonable to say/think that mushrooms are eradicated from the island in current circumstances. Finally, on September 3, 2024, the Ministry of Environment of Japan declared The eradication of non -native mushrooms on the island of Amami-Oshima, declared a natural heritage of humanity by UNESCO. The statement was based on the opinion of the group of experts on scientific bases, taking into account that the capture of mushrooms has not been confirmed for more than six years since the last one in April 2018. A unique case. The Ministry itself did not hide the disaster that supposed the attempt to control snakes in 1979. In fact, and as the administration has announced, it is one of the largest cases in the world in which non -native mushrooms have been eradicated that had been established for so long. After the statement, the government explained that it will withdraw the traps that were placed on the island, although it will continue to watch with cameras to prevent a new group of these small creatures from between again. After all, if it took half a century to get them out of there, any contingency method is more than understandable. A version of this article is PUblicó in 2024 Image | Animalia, Tanaka Juuyoh, Patrick Randall In Xataka | We have just found a surprising remedy against Argentine ants pests: caffeine dose In Xataka | The mission impossible to control the invasive plague that is eating the European pine: biomolecules, piñones and citizen science

It was built on an artificial island and has been sinking for years

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At the end of the 1960s, commercial aviation was booming. The first civil aircraft with Turbofán engines, such as the Douglas DC-8 and Boeing 707they were redefining the rules of the passenger air transport game. As a result of this scenario, many countries in the world began to boost changes for a future where flights would multiply. Then In Japan they believed than the Osaka International Airportwhich operated for the Kansai region, would not be able to deal with the growing air market. Expanding its facilities, however, was not a plausible option. Due to a series of residents demands, the government had established strict operating standards to this airport. An airport on an artificial island To avoid limits as a limited operating schedule and the impossibility of carrying out an ambitious work to expand the existing airport, it set out to build “A second Kansai airport” The project was advancing, little by little, during the following years. In order to avoid the noise pollution of the planes of that time it was concluded that the new airport should be at least three kilometers from the coast. Under this premise, The works began in 1987 five kilometers inside Osaka Bay. Kansai International Airport To shape the artificial island they were made multiple excavations in adjacent mountainous areas in order to obtain sufficient material to fill the site. Every day, from 4 in the morning until the afternoon, the members of the land project used machinery to throw thousands of cubic meters of rock on the seabed. Osaka Bay Marine bed The oceanic relief of this area is made up of a surface layer of 20 meters thick called Holocene layer. Then comes a layer of hard clay and gravel of many meters thick, which can be divided into upper and lower level parts. These layers usually yield when they are under pressure, And the builders knew it perfectly. Kansai International Airport with its first phase (left); With its two phases (right) The first phase of the project was designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano and began with the construction of a landing floor and a passenger terminal in 1991. To compensate for the sinking of the same, special columns were installed with base metal plates to support the weight of the structure. Opened its doors to the public in September 1994. Four months later, The one that was considered one of the most expensive and complex civil works in history He received his fire test. On January 17, 1995, the Asian country was beaten by the Kobe earthquakewhose epicenter stood several kilometers from the airport. The structure resisted with slight damage thanks to its advanced antisismic design. In 1996, the construction of another track and passenger terminal was given green, second phase that demanded a good amount of years to complete. In 2007 it was partially inauguratedwhich allowed a limited service and, in turn, decongest the other parts of the airport. Since then, the airport has starred in several improvements and maintenance works. Boeing 747 at Kansai International Airport The ability of those responsible for the project to carry out a work of such magnitude has received praise throughout the world. In 2001 he was awarded the prize “Millennium Civil Engineering Monument“From the American Society of Civil Engineers. But it has also received an avalanche of criticism, mainly at its cost of realization. In 2008, Kansai International Airport had consumed more than 20,000 million dollars. Many of the expenses derived from the necessary tasks to mitigate the sinking of the artificial island. In 1994, the sinking rate was around 50 centimeters per year, although it is currently by below 10 centimeters. Engineers have resorted to a system of sand drainage to address the problem of sinking. The same consists of placing sand piles in the clay area that allow the water to escape and clay to harden. Since the beginning of the project, 900,000 piles have been installed that, in the light of the data, seem to be fulfilling their function. Images | Wikimedia (1, 2) | The Kansai International Airport | Google Maps | Ken h (CC By-SA 2.0) In Xataka | It is assumed that the US is already developing the successor of the legendary SR-71. It is supposed because everything is super secret *An earlier version of this article was published in August 2024

It’s called Null Island and it’s a buoy

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If they ask you about The islands you have visited Your answer can vary. You may have visited one, several or none. We will put the last case in serious. Although you think you have not visited an island, the story that comes next will show you that, you may have been in one (many times). His name: Null Island. His paradox: you will only find it on the maps. The island is not island. Actually, under the name of Null Island we are Before a location Cartographic, although not any, since it is zero degrees of latitude and zero degrees in length. In other words, it is about the intersection where the first Earth meridian meets Ecuador. To be more exact, if that is possible, it turns out to be a point in the Gulf of Guinea, a portion of the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean off the western coast of Africa. The reason for its existence? That to geolocate any point on a map, the premise is that there is a starting point (or 0-0 place) from which to draw the rest of the points. The choice of this specific point on the map has to do with the fact that the intersection between the Zero and Ecuador It is the starting point of World Geodetic System 1984that is, the cartography on which the GPS system is based. Why the Gulf of Guinea. Because it is part of the South Atlantic Ocean, something like the armpit of Africa. It is the mass of water right off the coast where Western Africa curves south to become central Africa. The Gulf is right in the middle of any standard world map, and that is not a coincidence. It is the meeting point for the two geodetic measurement lines, the first meridian and the Ecuador. Or, expressed in length and latitude: 0 ° N, 0 ° E. And that is precisely Null Island, the Perfect anchor for non -geolocalized dataalthough, as you will have imagined, it is not an island as such, it is rather the colloquial name of the intersection of these two main orthodromes. In mathematical code, and by extension also in Geodesia, an ortododrom (or maximum circle) is the longest possible line drawn around a sphere, dividing it in two halves, or hemispheres, perfectly the same. It is a buoy. It is not a joke. Obviously, it is not a real continental mass, but if you literally sail towards the Gulf of Guinea, towards the intersection between the world’s first meridian and Ecuador, You will find a great buoy. That is the closest thing to Null Island that exists on the planet. Null Island (also known as La Boya Station 13010 – Soul) Known as Station 13010 – Soulthe climate monitoring buoy is part of the prediction and research system tied in the Atlantic (pirate) that monitors the tropical Atlantic ocean. Together with 16 other buoys, the floating weather station measures things such as wind speed, air temperature and humidity to help inform meteorological forecasts and climatic models. Therefore, in the real world, Null Island is a buoy, and in the virtual, a hypothetical point where they stalk data points out of place. The origin of the (no) island. Ecuador, equidistant of the poles, gives the northern and south hemispheres. He Greenwich meridianwhich divides the world into eastern and western hemispheres, is a more arbitrary line. His status as the first meridian in the world It was not established until 1884at the International Meridian Conference in Washington DC the French abstained in the final vote because they had campaigned for the Paris meridian. That was the year zero for our point north north, zero east. What happened? Due to its distance, the location remained culturally insignificant until 2011, when it appeared in The map data set of the public domain of Natural Earth as “Null Island”. As they explained then In a statement On the birth or invention of Null: “We have added a country of debugging of errors with an indeterminate sovereignty class called Null Island. It is a fictitious island of a square meter located off the coast of Africa, where Ecuador and the primary meridian cross. Focusing it on latitude 0 and length 0, it is useful to mark geocoding failures that appear as 0.0 in many services.” Why have you been. Because you have surely wrong, and not only one, but many times, looking for the location of a site. Although there is no null island, it is that convenient place name for a frequently used place. Zero-zero reading arises frequently as an error, due to the lack of data or software failures. In the background, something that we use every day is the real person responsible for our visits to Null: the GPS. When we do an erroneous search, we try to reach a place that does not exist or an error of the system occurs, at which time it relocates precisely there, at the zero-zero point, in Null Island. Image | Graham Curran In Xataka | This is the life on the most remote inhabited island: the improbable history of Tristán de Acuña In Xataka | In Japan, an island has just been born suddenly. Of course, we have the video *An earlier version of this article was published in July 2024

Jeff Bezos and his millionaire neighbors live on a luxurious artificial island to which something basic is missing: he has no sewerage

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Indian Creek It is an artificial island on the Miami coast known for its multimillionaire residents and its extraordinary privacy. That has given him the nickname Billionaire Bunker. Figures like Jeff Bezos (Jeff Bezos, in fact, bought three mansions on the island and is building its main residence), Tom Brady, Ivanka Trump and even Julio Iglesias They have bought properties in this exclusive enclave. The island is connected to the continent only by a small bridge guarded by its own police, which makes it one of the most closed and monitored communities in the United States. However, as highlighted in The local pressin this luxurious paradise where most mansions have an average of 10 bathrooms, no one has taken into account How to delete properly the waste they generate. Millionaires in a Ciénaga. By not having sewerage infrastructure given the isolated character of the enclave, Indian Creek’s homes depend on individual septic tanks, located dangerously close to Bay of Biscay. This proximity has turned the graves into a constant source of pollution. According to published The New York Timesa 2018 study already warned of the high pollution indices of these septic tanks due to the sewage leaks To the bay. These leaks not only affect Water health that surround the island, but also to marine ecosystems. Neighbor, do you have a sewer left over? Given this situation, the Indian Creek government raised a possible solution: send its wastewater to the sewerage system of the neighboring town, Surfside, located on the other side of the bridge that communicates them with the mainland. However, Surfside responded in a diplomatic but firm way. Connect to the sewerage system that have paid and maintained their neighbors has a cost: 10 million dollars. For his part, Indian Creek considered the petition as an act of “extortion” and decided to look for alternatives that would not imply paying the neighbors the 10 million dollars hitch rate. The law of the sewer. One of these alternatives is to raise a claim to the government of the state of Florida since there is a state law that would force surfesides to accept the wastewater of its military neighbors to Eliminate septic tanks. According to that law, conveniently approved in June 2025, includes a provision that prohibits municipalities from blocking or charging for certain sewerage connections. According to published he Miami Heraldthis measure would prevent localities such as Surfside to reject projects such as Indian Creek or impose connection tolls to their sewerage lines, although they directly affect their urban infrastructure. If you use our sewers you are one of ours. In response, Surfside authorities raised a legal counterpart: if an acceptable agreement was not reached, they could contemplate the possibility of annexing Indian Creek to their municipality, so that both entities share fiscal and maintenance obligations. According to surfeside leaders, the Urban growth and the environmental pressure generated by Indian Creek justifies a formal solution and a common responsibility. Both populations are communicated by a bridge, so all the traffic and services that the island of the Millionaires needs compulsively passes through the streets of Surfsis. A private pipe. Rejecting the idea of annexation to Surfside, Indian Creek has designed an independent infrastructure project that consists in building its own sewerage system. This plan includes placing an underground pipe that would pass under the streets of Surfsis along one kilometer until reaching the Bay Harbor Islands sewerage network. In this way, the waste would leave the island without formalizing a connection with the system of its immediate neighbor. Stephen J. Helfman, Indian Creek’s lawyer, assured to The New York Times that “the preliminary works and preparation works for the future sewerage line will begin next month.” Meanwhile, the mayor of Surfsis, Charles Burkett, who initially requested the 10 million dollars, was more conciliatory after knowing that the law prevents him from refusing to facilitate the construction of that new sewerage line. “We hope to work with Indian Creek to help them achieve their goals with the least possible impact for our residents,” Burkett said. In Xataka | Billionaires prepare their mansions for apocalypse: luxury bunkers have become a trend Image | Flickr (Smithsonian)

The urban heat island effect

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Summer is here and with him the desire of millions of people to escape the city. The east desire is more than the mere enjoyment of the beach, leisure or rural landscapes, there is also the prevailing need for escape heat. And part of the fault of this lies in the so -called urban heat island effect. What is the urban heat island effect Heat island? The term refers to the fact that cities They tend to accumulate heatwhich implies that the temperature in them is usually higher than in their surroundings. This effect can be felt during the day but it is perhaps at night when the difference between urban temperature and that of its surroundings is greater. The difference can be several degrees. An estimate For example, he calculates that the difference between New York City its surroundings is around the 4th Celsius. A recent study made in five Spanish cities estimated that the average variation in Madrid was 1.3º, but in Valencia reached 4.1. The responsible team came to measure differences of up to 11 between the center and the periphery of the Spanish cities studied. How a heat island occurs The causes of the heat islands There are several and diverse. The construction materials we use tend to absorb energy that they release during the night. This makes night temperatures do not descend in the city as much as in other contexts, thus accumulating heat. The buildings, in addition, block the passage of the air that would drag the heat accumulated in the day to day, while the absence of trees and of phenomena such as the evaporation of soil water contribute to a worst thermoregulation of the system. The other great factor responsible for urban warming is human activity. Many of our activities, from driving to heating a pout generate residual heat. Even when we cool things, for example when we use the air conditioning, the thermal “balance” is positive. What factors aggravate the problem We pointed out before not all cities experience a heat island of the same magnitude. The complexity of the factors that cause this phenomenon is responsible for it. Knowing this, we can list some factors that can influence the degree in which a city stands out from its thermal environment. Among these factors We could find Population density, orientation and structure of its street, characteristics (height, materials) of its urban buildings, vegetation and trees, the passage of rivers, or its location with respect to geographical elements such as the mountains or the coast. Even the color of the buildings, including its roofs, affects the temperature differential. The heat island in the city of Paris. Copernicus Climate Change Service, ECMWF. Consequences of the heat islands The direct consequence of this phenomenon is an increase in temperatures, which in turn affects a multitude of Aspects of everyday life of whom these cities inhabit. Both at night and day. Heat can have consequences on our health and well -being: heat strokes, Difficulty reconciling sleep or to concentrate or an increase in the risk of suffering the effects of certain diseases such as cardiovascular, among other problems. Urban heat can be somewhat positive in winter or certain climates from the energy point of view, but in summer it will imply that we will spend more to cool our homes, work areas and even our refrigerators. A problem that will go to more There are two factors that invite you to think that this phenomenon and its consequences will go worse in the coming years. The first, climate change. Perhaps the phenomenon that we mostly associated with climate change is the increase in the average temperature of the planet. This temperature increase can be added to the increase associated with urban heat island, thus increasing the risks and problems associated with this phenomenon. The second factor to consider are migrations, specifically the rural exodus. A growing proportion of people live in cities, some of them already host dozens of millions of people. The biggest cities They are more susceptible to suffering the problem of urban heat island. In addition, the more people live in them, the more people the impacts of this temperature increase will be vulnerable. How to prevent the heat island effect Urbanization is a process that continues, especially in the “developing” countries, so all we can do is search ways to reduce impact of these heat islands. To do this, understanding its causes and dynamics is essential. The solutions that They have been proposed To avoid heat accumulation in cities are diverse, but the possibility that they can be implemented depends on various factors. For example, in an area still under development, we can encourage architectures that optimize air flow and reduce the presence of materials that capture heat easily. It is also important to leave spaces to non -urbanized areas, natural and seminatural environments such as parks and urban forests. The introduction of trees and other green areas () can also be feasible in already built areas. The mere Presence of trees On an avenue you can significantly reduce the insolation that reaches the ground and thereby prevent it from hot as much as it would happen without the trees. In this sense, even the use of paintings that increase the solar energy reflected again to the atmosphere (if we paint a roof or a white square, for example) it can also become a useful resource. In Xataka | An American city is “terrifying” its streets to combat heat. They have an ally: NASA Image | Fabian Lozano

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