jewel

Every minute that passes is a piece of Napoleonic jewel that will never be recovered

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From the moment it was known theft of the Napoleonic jewels Inside the Louvre in Paris, France began two parallel races where they sought to try to recover part of the loot. The first one didn’t last long. The next day he found out that he was not going to receive a single euro. by insurance because French law prevented it. The second, and more complicated, is a race against time, because every second that passes is a piece that may not be able to be recovered. A global black market. I counted this week The Wall Street Journal that the assault on the Louvre has immediately activated the semi-clandestine ecosystem through which stolen art and, in particular, historical jewels circulate: an international circuit that moves billions and that connects diamond cutting workshops in Dubai or Delhi with discreet jewelers in New York, Antwerp or Tel Aviv. The priority now is not only to recover the pieces, or those that can, but to do so before they come in on that circuit and suffer the most feared fate: being dismantled, separated from their mount and converted into anonymous gems and molten gold without a past. Jewelry is not paintings. Unlike a Picasso or a serial watch, a stolen jewel can disassemble in minutes: the gold melts, the diamond is cut, the emeralds are rearranged and historical traceability disappears. Although they lose their premium for Napoleonic symbolic value, they retain their value as raw material. The situation reinforces the incentive: the ounce of gold exceeds $4,000 after go up 60% in one year, detonating a wave of metal thefts throughout Europe. And unlike pictorial art, ancient gems lack microengravings or universal databases that allow them to be blocked from being released to the market: once split and relocated, they disappear. The method. The media counted this week that the coup combined speed and daring, but left a trail unbecoming of a professional command: the assailants used a moving elevator to access through an upper window, burst display cases with radials and fled on scooters… leaving abandoned the elevator itselfthe tools, part of the costume (work vests) and even an imperial crown from the 19th century with 1,400 diamonds and 56 emeralds. For former specialized agents, this distances the Pink Panthers profile (disciplined groups that leave no trace) and suggests a bold but technically weak team, capable of entering, but not maximizing value or minimizing exposure. What will the thieves do now? For the Journalif the museum does not pay a reward or admit negotiation, the only viable commercial path is cutting and atomization: re-cut large diamonds into smaller sizes to erase the mark, separate secondary stones easily absorbed by the gray trade and melt the gold to sell it as metal. The experts remember that a receiving network remains up to 90% of value: the thief usually receives only 10% of the legal market (the “price of silence” that is distributed among those who participate in the risk, the conversion and the shielding of concealment), but even so the black reward can be higher than that of a stolen painting, the trace of which jumps to public bases. The crux. The incentive persists because the penalties are low compared to profit and because the stolen jewel, once decomposed, leaves few traces to incriminate. Experts they propose to reclassify the looting of heritage as cultural terrorism (harnessing penalties and sending a regulatory signal). Plus: it forces museums to raise standards physical and procedural, from the control of systems such as cranes or external platforms to, as a deterrent idea, verifying the identity of visitors elevated to sensitive parts, although this clashes with the tourist experience and the flow of masses. The Louvre remained closed after the robbery, remembering that beyond the property loss there is an immediate reputational and operational cost. It only works in the shade. Everything in the jewel crime revolves around at speed: the faster they pass into the hands of cutters and smelters, the more irreversible the evidentiary damage is and the more liquid the exit to the black market. Delay, on the other hand, increases the logistical risk, multiplies leaks within the criminal chain, opens cracks for denunciations and devalues ​​the loot before it produces income. That is why the decisive race is not so much between thieves and insurers, but between stopwatches: the clock that marks how long it takes the receivers to volatilize the identity of the pieces compared to the one that measures how long it takes the State to close the perimeter and cut escape routes. The only window. If you want, the Louvre robbery embodies the Achilles heel of historical jewels: they allow a high-profile crime with a low profile outlet because their cultural identity is destructible at the will of the gangsters and its material value remains. The paradox is that an imperial loot can end up becoming in minor gems sewn into the lining of a jacket heading to an unknown jeweler before the police complete the first sweep. Thus, the only real window to rescue the assets is not in the trial, but in the very brief interval between the blow and the cuttingand once that threshold is crossed, what is stolen ceases to exist as part of history to survive only as matter. Image | Benh LIEU SONG In Xataka | No wonder the theft of jewels from the Louvre has been so easy: the museum’s security has been a disaster for more than a century In Xataka | If the question is why Napoleon’s jewels were stolen from the Louvre, the answer is simple: to break them into a thousand pieces.

The Alhambra and its environment are a jewel of world heritage. Now a threat has emerged: solar panels

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For decades Granada can boast of having a world category jewel, the set formed by the Alhambra, Generalife and Albaicín, registered all three in The list Unesco World Heritage. Now the city sees how clouds loom About them. And for an unexpected azón: a photovoltaic plant that, according to icomos (An organism associated with UNESCO) threatens the environment. In fact advises “Slighted” that is paralyzed. What happened? That Icomos (The International Council of Monuments and Sites) has just yielded a jug of cold water on a project that It has been weating for some time Granada local policy: a photovoltaic plant of something more than three hectares that will be built in The Farguea neighborhood of Granada. What Icomos said is that, if carried out, the installation will negatively affect the Alhambra, the Generalife and the Albaicín neighborhood, three Historical jewels included for years in the Unesco World Heritage list. Beyond its content and arguments, the warning is important because Icomos is not any entity. The Council is associated with UNESCO and is dedicated precisely to ensure the “Protection and value” of heritage. Its report also includes some ears to the Spanish authorities and has served to enliven (even more) the debate that For months surrounds a plant that has encountered the opposition of politicians, neighbors and Ecologists. What would the installation be like? The plant is called San Gregorio I and, As needed The countryI would occupy about three hectares to produce 4.95 MW. It is actually part of a broader project that includes two others facilities, stadium plus i and sotoscuro i, of a size more or less similar. The key is where it is projected: The Fargue (Alquería del Fargue), an area of ​​Granada located in the district of Albaicín. In June the PSOE proposed In full paralyzing the macroplanta to “protect the landscape and cultural heritage of the city”, especially the surroundings of the Alhambra and the Darro valley, considered a good of cultural interest (BIC) Since 2024. It is not the only one. Neighbors and Ecologists in Action also mislead the impact that the project would have in the area. What has Icomos said? That criticisms are more than founded. In your report the agency concludes that the photovoltaic plant entails “a very high risk of negative impact” for the surroundings of the Alhambra, the Generalife and the Albaicín, a set including on the UNESCO heritage list. Hence, their authors “strongly advise the stoppage of the planned actions” and give a small touch of attention to the Spanish authorities, to which they warn that they must be “much more vigilant and careful” in the face of projects that affect the protected heritage. How would the plant affect? It depends on what we are talking about exactly. The effect would not be the same in all cases. If we focus on the Alhambra, Generalife and Albaicín the problem is the visual impact. “The Alhambra is more than the fortified monumental complex. The Alhambra territory includes the general’s past Point out in The country José Castillo Ruiz, professor at the University of Granada (UGR). Is it so serious? “The visual impact of an industrial element like this goes much further than a simple discordant element (…). They seriously alter the heritage values ​​of the Alhambra as a historical set, monument and world heritage,” insists The expert, who warns of the loss of centenary olive trees or the alteration of the environment, breaking “continuity” between the Alhambra, the city of Granada, the Valley and the rest of the environment. If we speak specifically of the Valle del Darro the report, in fact warns of a clear environmental impact. Things are very different for project promoters, which They assure that the final affectation will be “minimal” and already contemplate incorporating “corrective measures.” Does it say anything else? Yes. The report remember That San Gregorio I is only one of the three photovoltaic plants that you want to boost in the area, so it slides that its promoter seeks avoid An environmental impact statement (DIA). In total the three photovoltaic plants will approach (although staying below) of the ten hectares that would require activating that procedure. As for processing, icomos insists in which it does not arrive with opening a public exposure process “without effective advertising”. The ideal is to find a way to guarantee “a public participation” during the process, a “real nature”. Why is it important? The controversy around the plant It is not new. A months ago environmentalists and neighbors They already warned of their impact on the territory, the olive groves and holm oaks, biodiversity and even spoke of “disorder and speculation.” The Icomos report is relevant because it has fueled the debate and oxygen to critics, For whom The document “Raises Project death certificate”. Right now its promoters They are pending of construction permits (in which the City Council plays a key role) and the resolution of allegations. Their critics rely on the ICOMOS document for claim That the Alhambra Board or the rest of the institutions move token, which goes even to transfer their complaints to UNESCO itself. Images | Wikipedia (Jebulon) and Sharon Mollerus (Flickr) In Xataka | Mediterranean countries seemed ideal for solar panels. Until the dust storms arrived

We believed that the J-20 was Beijing’s great furtive jewel. The new images of the J-50 show that there was something else in development

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“We will strive to achieve the fundamental modernization of national defense and the Armed Forces by 2035, and to make the popular army a World Class Force in all aspects for the middle of this century. ”With these words, Xi Jinping drew in 2017 A military horizon that then sounded ambitious. It could have been in rhetoric, in a gesture designed to dazzle. But in this China the plans are rarely artifice fires: they become state projects, with short and medium term goals conceded into strategies that look forward to decades. And the truth is that a good part of those goals have already begun to materialize. China is not characterized by hurry, although it advances with a speed that surprises. In 2003 he put his first Taikonauta in orbit when the United States and Russia (with the Soviet inheritance in between) accumulated half a century of experience in the space race. Two decades later, Beijing has raised its own orbital infrastructure and a program that does not give brake signals. The same happens on the mainland. In the early 2000s there were no high -speed trains in the country. Today it manages the most extensive network on the planetan example of accelerated transformation. And in defense, which is the focus of this analysis, the jump is equally forceful: Shipyards capable of throwing large -scale ships, aircraft carriers with electromagnetic catapults and last generation combat fighters. J-50, from rumor to the images As Twz collectsthe most clear images have appeared so far from a heavy poacher attributed to Shenyang Aircraft Corporation. In the public conversation it is identified as J-XDs and, unofficially, such as J-50. The material is not verified, but fits with less clear previous shots and does not show obvious indications of manipulation. We see a design without a tail that analysts framed in the next combat generation. J-50 The plane dispenses with tail surfaces, presents tilting pales that appear deflecting down and mounts 2D nozzles with vector thrust and folded bordering. The nose is long, of diamond geometry. Air shots are trapezoidal and adopt a DSI scheme. Under the nose a fairing appears for the electro-optical system and the cabin is a car. Today we do not know if the photographed is a technological demonstrator or a configuration closer to production. There are also no confirmed data on definitive sensor packagepropulsion or calendar. As a context, in parallel there have been advances of the J-20s Biplaza and the J-35 Naval. The focus, in any case, is in this design without a tail that suggests a parallel development to that of J-20. J-20s The photographs provide form, but leave unanswered key issues. It is unknown which propeller equips the plane, what will be its sensor configuration, what communications or electronic warfare systems and what arsenal is planned for him. In any case, EJ-50 becomes the clearest sample that Beijing is willing to experiment with radical concepts in military aviation. A design without a tail, with mobile wounds and vector nozzles, involves entering a land that few have dared to explore. The unknown is how much of what we see corresponds to an isolated prototype and how much is part of a long -distance program. What seems out of doubt is that China wants to position yourself at the forefront of the next generation of poachers. Images | RUPPRECHTDEINO In Xataka | The US has a message for those who turned their backs on F-35: now it will fly alone with its own drone army

Thus Rieju ended with an exclusive quality-price jewel

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The story of how a brand born in Girona ended up assembling an ambitious project of the “Ferrari de las Motos” is as recent as curious. Whether or not, a biker, it is more than likely to have heard of Rieju. It is an iconic brand in Spain, born in 1934, and that still cups the top five of sales in some of the best -selling segments of our country. Your last release? A dart with Italian design and brutal price. But the least is the motorcycle itself, it is what has led them to create it. Let’s talk about Rieju. Those of us who have raised in the rural environment have raised with grandparents that mounted two types of motorcycle: Vespinos and Riejus. In 1934, Luís Riera Carré and Jaime Juanola Farrés (Riera + Juanola) They start their business journey by manufacturing bicycle accessories. Rieju is born, a company that decides to mount a 38cc auxiliary engine in one of its bicycles. The “cyclomotor”, in 1945, was the literal definition of the device. In the 50s, Rieju begins to strengthen ties with Italian companies. They closed agreements with Motori Minarelli to exclusively import engines and components on their motorcycles, a collaboration that is still alive today. Since then, Rieju has been a discrete sales company in Spain, but Leader in segments such as Ciclomotor. There are still the numbers one in April 2025. The Chinese approach. Although Rieju is a Spanish brand that assembles in Figueres (Girona), in recent years it began Your approach to one of the largest groups in the motorcycle industry: QJ Motor. This giant, owner of Benelli, Keeway and MBP, allied with Rieju to sell part of his product and technology under the Spanish brand. Rieju | HENGJIAN It is not the only company with which they have alliance. One of the recent launch of the company, the Rieju Aventura 500it is really a version of the CHONGQING HENGJIAN DAHAIDAO 500. The motorcycle is designed and produced in China, and here adapts to the European market. The Ferrari de las Motos. Chinese manufacturers They are sweeping in Spainand two of the four best -selling brands in our country already come from there. QJ Motors wants to sneak into this top, and has a plan with one of the most exclusive Italian manufacturers in the world. MV Augusta / QJ Motors MV Augusta is an Italian manufacturer, one behind some of the most exclusive motorcycles in the world. But it has a problem: its motorcycles are not sold. Solution?QJ Motors and MV Augusta formed a joint venturewhich allowed the Chinese manufacturer to adapt some of the exclusive concepts of the Italian manufacturer and land them to quality-price models with greater sale potential. RIEJU XPLORA 557. MV Agusta Lucky Explorer 5.5. A spectacular failed concept. And so he was born. In November 2021 MV Augusta showed in the eicma of Milan the Lucky Explorer 5.5. A spectacular motorcycle oriented to the trail and with a very striking design. It was the first motorcycle for MV AUGusta A2, with a 550cc engine manufactured by QJ Motors. The problem? He never saw the light. QJ Motors stayed with the thorn stuck, and Rieju has been in charge of bringing this concept under the name of Xplora 557. A quality-precio motorcycle, for less than 6,000 euros, and with a design inherited from one of the most exclusive manufacturers in the world of motorcycles (although MV Augusta now has as much Chinese essence as Italian). Image | Rieju In Xataka | The terror of European motorcycle manufacturers is not electrification, it is China

The Divisumma calculator was the mechanical jewel of Olivetti. Now is an icon of retrofuturist design

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Before making a mathematical operation as easy as Ask for a voice assistant either type it in chatgpT, the calculators They were an essential tool on any desk. Long before Light and dear Casiothere were others that seemed authentic desktop computers: huge, heavy, and mechanically amazing. The most iconic were the Olivetti, jewels of engineering that combined technical precision with an industrial design Retroputurist that resists dying. And among them, a name shone: Divisumma 26 GT. The divisumma. Mechanical calculators exist since the 18th century in the 18th First calculator capable of multiplyingand it was in the XX when the revolution arrived. At the beginning of the century the keyboards were simplified, they became somewhat more compact, easy to use and the electric models appeared. That’s where Olivetti began to stand out. Its first electrical model, Divisumma 14 of 1948, was baptized like this because it could do the four basic mathematical operations and not only had a characteristic design, but surprising mechanics. Twelve years later the Divisumma 24 arrived, and this was a revolution. Although the keyboard was still very simple and easy to use, it had a double totalizing system that allowed to change between two calculations without losing operations. In addition, he had memory for multiplication and mechanically began to complicate the thing. Seeing one of these machines without industrial cutting is a show: 26 GT, the culmination of mechanics. Since model 24, launched in 1956, the Italian company was launching other mechanical calculators focused on various users, but the true generational relief, and the culmination of electromechanical calculation, was the divisumma 26 GT of 1967. Apart from the basic operations, it had the ability to make calculations with powers and had a totalizer in this case, but with two memories. This allowed the machine to store intermediate values ​​to chain calculations. It was fed by an electric motor that consumed 50 W and that storage of values ​​was not done in a chip or a memory like the ones we currently have: but based on mechanical parts. It was that characteristic that allowed the 26 GT to overcome the previous models due to that most marked automation. Its weight of between 17 and 20 kilos (depending on the housing) for a 28 x 25 x 50 cm machine, evidence that the interior was an authentic metal jungle and a delight for sight. It was not the most advanced in the brand, since that same 1967 came the Logos 27-2but the reliability and maintenance problems of this put more value the work done by Teresio Gassino and Natale Capellaro In the mechanical part of the 26 GT. The divisumma 26 GT with the exhibition housing Fashion calculator. Inside, the Divisumma were a real virguería, but on the outside it was not far behind. Like Braun, he is remembered, among other reasons, for iconic Dieter Rams designsa very important part of Olivetti was Austrian designer and architect Ettore Sottsass. He began collaborating with the Italian company in 1958 and remained as a design consultant for 30 years. At that time he gave birth not only the Elea 9003 of 1959 (one of the first electronic computers in Italy), but the Olivetti Valentine of 1969 that was a symbol of Italian industrial design and some of the electric calculators of the house, “wearing” those good mechanical characteristics with housings that innovated in aesthetics. The Divisumma 26 GT also had bodies of Sottsass, being one of them translucent to be able to appreciate mechanics and exceeding the passage of time. They are one of those elements that, such as Braun’s polishing, could launch at any time saying that they are retrofuturists and would not disregard at all. He had the foundations of the Divisumma 24, but added those distinctive orange colors and more straight lines so that it would not go out of style. Divisumma 18, whose compact design is exhibited at MoMA next to Divisumma 14 Electronics arrived. But we are in 1969 and progress tightened. Since the beginning of the decade, the electronic calculators had begun to appear the leg, but they were huge (the Anita MK VII with vacuum tubes and cathode tubes of 1961, for example) and impossible to use away from the desk. They evolved with the Sharp CS-10A From 1964 that already used transistors, but at the same time that Divisumma 26 GT arrived the real revolution. Sharp launched its QT-8ba very compact battery calculator. Canon did the same with the Pocketronic that already pointed ways from the name and MK6010 Texas Instrumental had everything integrated into a chip, being smaller, cheap and energy efficient. All were on the electronics ship, so the old electric calculators had to think about retiring. That does not break… Today, with that wave of nostalgia, we see users in places like Reddit who continue to love their ancient electric calculators Olivetti. They will use them or not, but there are those who affirm that, with basic maintenance, they continue to function as the first day. Its sound is still very representative, the design has not gone out of style and are even a very interesting decoration piece on a surface. Now, seeing these veteran calculating I can only think about my CRT televisions to play old consoles. Not because of nostalgia -I do not have nostalgia for a calculator other than the casio that we have all had -but because, at the time they break, we will surely not find anyone who can repair them. It will be that day when these pieces are only as a museum meat, but although the mechanics fail, that Retrofuturist design It will survive. Images | Museo della Scienza e della technology “Leonardo da Vinci” (2), Museum, Hgrobe In Xataka | Transcribe at full speed with a keyboard of only 21 keys: the office of stenotipist, according to someone who has been in it for 35 years

The true crown jewel in Apple is not its products, but its credibility. And they just torpedo her

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In the summer of 2008 Apple made a great launch, one colossal and one that was one of the greatest disasters in its history. You probably remember the first two (the iPhone 3G and, above all, the App Store), but perhaps not what was that disaster. It is normal: they got us almost forgotten about that. That disaster was mobilemethe email platform that sought to compete with Exchange or with the Blackberry systems. However, its operation was An absolute disasterwith service drops and unexpected charges to user credit cards. So terrible was what David Pogue, an known editor of The New York Times, changed the name to Mobilemess (playing with “Mess”, “mess” in English “). Two years later Mobileme was kaput. It was something later when we knew how that disaster was managed internally. In 2011 Fortune published an article in which they precisely told how shortly after the launch, Steve Jobs called the Mobileme team to a meeting: “According to a participant in the meeting, Jobs entered dressed with his characteristic black neck jersey and blue jeans, gathered his hands and asked a simple question: “Can anyone tell me what Mobileme is supposed to do?” After receiving a satisfactory response, he continued: “And why don’t you do it?”. During the next half hour, Jobs rebuked the group. “You have stained Apple’s reputation,” he told them. “You should hate them for having disappointed you mutually.” Public humiliation especially enraged Jobs. Walt Mossberg, the influential gadget columnist from the Wall Street Journal, had criticized Mobileme. “Mossberg, our friend, doesn’t write good things about us anymore,” said Jobs. In the act, Jobs appointed a new executive to direct the group. “ History showed how for Jobs that ruling, now practically forgotten, had a capital importance. But that was the Apple before. Something smells in Apple John Gruber, well -known analyst and responsible for the Dary Fireball blog, I published this week A worrying analysis of Apple’s situation. It was titled “Something is rotten in the state of Cupertino”, and in it explained how different this Apple is now to which at that time managed Steve Jobs. This expert focused on what happened with Apple Intelligence in general and with the new version of Siri enhanced by the particular. In Apple they are clear followers in generativeand it does not seem that this will change in the short term. Apple Intelligence functions are limited and very modest, and while the greats of technology and various startups do not stop surprising us with new advances and increasingly striking functions, in Apple they continue with an approach that seemed interesting (very focused on privacy) but that is being disappointing in its exasperating deployment. But the really worrying thing is what happened with Siri. After the wwdc last year They announced that “Siri will be able to offer intelligence adapted to the user and the information of his device. For example, a user can say:” Play that podcast that Jamie recommended you, “and Siri will locate and reproduce the episode, without the user having to remember if he was mentioned in a text or in an email.” But both that and other promising options of Siri were only part of an empty speech, because There was never a public demonstration of those options. The only place where we could see it was in a pre -recorded demo “Not live,” in which Siri did all that Apple said he could do. As Gruber explained: “What Apple showed about the next” personalized Siri “in the WWDC was not a demo. It was a conceptual video. Conceptual videos are shit, and a sign of a company in disorder, if not in crisis.” Not only that: in September They returned To promote that future theoretical with an advertisement in which Siri understood the personal context – in what situation we were – to respond to a request. A few days ago Apple announced without more than that option it would not arrive until at least next year. Apple not only did not demonstrate in public these new Siri options, even in a preliminary version: the only thing we could see were conceptual videos about how the characteristic should work. And that announcement with Bella Ramsey – actress famous for her role in ‘The Last of Us’— has been withdrawn from YouTube this week without more. Are Too bad signsand all point to the same: to a fiasco. One worrying, because Apple did not do these things. He has rarely promised the launch of products and then back. It happened for example With the famous wireless load basebut this was a minor accessory. Siri’s dimension had, which is a theoretically crucial component for Apple to compete in the AI ​​field. And that leads us to ask what is happening in Apple. In the last 30 years the company has managed to build an enormously solid reputation and extraordinary credibility. People choose their products because they “simply work” – with many quotes -, and despite some more or less important slips –Hello, butterfly keyboardhello Throttling-, their products continue to stand out for their reliability. Apple’s credibility begins to make waters But that credibility staggers now and joins other signals that can be worrisome. We have been waiting for years for Apple to throw its new disruptive product, but They have never achieved it. It was not his Apple Watch – despite being a very popular product, such as the airpods – and of course They have not been the vision pro. Supposedly They canceled their ‘Project Titan’ And its intentions – just officers – to develop an ‘Apple Car’, but it is even more striking that the fact that two years have arrived since Chatgpt arrived and the most powerful company on the planet can only boast an assistant who Rewrite the emails or that generates cartoons. It is terrible. Source: Trendline. Apple’s situation also seems to be reflected in sales that remain colossal, but also They seem to have stagnated … Read more

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