kilometer

ride a 15 kilometer long cable car

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Mexico City is one of the most massive cities on the planet. Also hell when it comes to transportation. It is about one of the most congested cities in the world because you have to take the car for absolutely everything, but the Government found a solution: the cable car. What we have associated with ski resorts and tourism is in Mexico the artery for thousands of people to move much more quickly and economically. After a line of almost 12 kilometers, Mexico City is preparing something worthy of China. A new 15 kilometer cable car that will become the longest in the world. In short. If someone controls cable cars, that is Doppelmayr. This Austrian company is the largest manufacturer of cable cars in the world and is the one that, as we read in EFEis going to be in charge of the new longest cable car in the world. In total, 15.2 kilometers in length for Line 5 of the Cablebus of the Mexican capital. This line will have twelve stations, will interconnect the suburbs of Álvaro Obdal, Contreón and Beni Contreón and it is estimated that it will be able to transport 3,000 passengers per hour and direction in the 642 cabins it will have. The project will have a cost of about 400 million euros and something that draws attention is the start-up: 2028. It is one of the advantages of this transportation system. While railway lines, subways or roads require years of planning and construction, laying cable car cables is faster and easier. The longest, but not the only one. Those 15.2 kilometers are impressive, but they are not that far from other lines that already operate in Mexico City. Without going any further, Doppelmayr has laid more than 25 kilometers of cable between three lines that operate in different parts of the city and they are already building a Line 4 of 11.4 kilometers in length. In addition to Cablebús, there is Mexicanable (that came before), with another 13 kilometers deployed. Mexicable is the system of the State of Mexico operated by a Mexican company, while Cablebús is from CDMX and operated by Doppelmayr. Advantages. Aside from the short development times from when the project is approved to when it starts operating, the cable car is a relief for daily traffic. The first thing is that it is a simple way to connect the suburbs with the most central parts. Areas that are poorly connected today will be able to access a continuous route with other areas. In areas where the orography is complex and the roads are collapsed, it is a real transportation alternative. And, although it does not have the capacity of the metro, it is affordable transportation and, as we say, any help when it comes to decongesting the city is welcome in a city where Mexicans spend, on average, a hundred hours in traffic jams. There is also a reduction in CO₂ emissions into the atmosphere. The intangibles of ‘Cablebús’. Although they are not perfect and are sensitive to extreme weather conditions, such as strong winds or storms, there is something less visible, but equally important: the state of mind with which the user arrives at their destination. One of the problems that CDMX faces is that the population is geographically far away and disconnected. Travel times from peripheral areas to employment, education or health centers can be up to an hour and a half when the cable car would take about 45 minutes. This reduces the inequality gap, which is measured not so much in money as in hours and opportunities lost by living so far away. A study of the United Nations Office for Project Services measured the benefits of two Cablebús lines, specifically what they called: generalized travel costs. They are everything that a passenger absorbs beyond the price of the ticket, and the conclusion is that traveling by cable car saves 466 million hours in 20 years, 102,000 tons of CO₂ into the atmosphere and users arrive more rested where they need to go. Also safer as they are not exposed to traffic accidents. And, in the end, although they are not a magic solution, in certain cities, especially where the terrain is not a help, cable cars seem like a support for decongest the brutal daily traffic. When lines 4 and 5 are completed (by 2028), Mexico will have about 50 kilometers of public cable car. Images | Government of Mexico City, Joke 2021 In Xataka | Mexico spent a fortune building its Mayan Train to attract tourists. Things are not going as expected.

a 32 kilometer megastructure over the Red Sea

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The Straits of Tiran are only 13 kilometers long, a distance so short that you can even see the people on the beach on the other side or take a walk to cross it. Well, if there was something to cross it. So in practice that very small distance between that tip of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt to the other end in Saudi Arabia means driving 1,600 kilometers. The other option is to take a ferry and face a trip that would also take a few hours. Saudi Arabia has a plan to link both countries in Africa and Asia: the “King Salman Causeway”, named after the Saudi monarch Salman bin Abdulaziz. An impressive mega infrastructure for crossing the Red Sea, evoking the biblical story of Moses. As? Combining a road and a railway with a length of 32 kilometers that links the straits from Ras El Sheikh Hamid (Saudi Arabia) to Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt). Also known as the “Moses Bridge” for obvious reasons, the 4,000 million estimated for its construction are provided entirely by Saudi Arabia. The awarding company in charge to materialize it is China Civil Engineering Construction Corp., which has an enormous challenge on its hands. Because beyond the symbolism, this transcontinental land bridge has great strategic value for the economy of the parties involved. But it won’t be easy. Why is it important. Integrated within the Vision 2030 plan of Saudi Arabia to promote tourism, infrastructure and economic diversification, this megastructure would completely change regional geopolitics: an enclave is an area that connects Asia, Africa and indirectly Europe. With its construction, a new corridor would be opened between Asia and Europe through North Africa that would turn Saudi Arabia into a logistics and goods transportation hub. Tourism would also benefit: initial estimates they point to a rise in Egyptian tourism, going from 300,000 people a year to 1.2 million. And the other way around: it would be an agile way to reach the northwest of Saudi Arabia where the futuristic $500 billion megacity called NEOMwith a constellation of resorts on the Red Sea to attract tourism. Furthermore, the “Moses Bridge” would also be a passage area to the pilgrimage to Mecca. So Saudi Arabia (for now) is working out: new income from tolls and businesses, development of regions and the generation of thousands of jobs. In fact, planning estimates a recovery of the investment in about 10 years, as collects Global Business Outlook. A technically pharaonic work. With more than 30 kilometers long on the sea, the ends and the island of Tiran in the middle, will count with roads and a railway line that will allow transporting both goods and people on high-speed trains. Thus, the King Salman Causeway will be one of the longest maritime crossings ever built in the form of a hybrid construction that combines a mixture of bridges and submerged tunnels, which will allow the passage of deeper areas and allow the passage of heavy air traffic. For ships to pass underneath, it will have sections up to 75 meters high. For the bridge part you will use a type of piles called caissonshuge steel tubes placed on the seabed. For its installation it will be necessary to pump the water, so that dry foundations can be built. For the tunnel they will combine tunnel boring machines with the sinking of prefabricated segments with a technique similar to the link Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao. According to initial estimates, the work could last almost a decade. Scheme of a caisson. Yk Times – Wikimedia Hellish engineering. As we will see later, the Red Sea is a sea with a particular ecosystem, but also a terrifying topography for a work of this magnitude as it houses the Red Sea Trench, a rift where the African and Arabian plates separate, generating sudden drops: the areas close to the thing are shallow, but according to the bathymetry The passage area of ​​the King Salman Causeway registers a depth that “only” only touches 300 meters (the only thing is because it has an average depth of 500 meters and a maximum depth of 2,730 meters). At that depth, using traditional seabed-founded pillars is useless. The use of the adjective infernal has not been coincidental: the temperature in the area comfortably exceeds 40°C. Working there is like being in an oven, but it also takes its toll on the materials: the water in the concrete evaporates before it sets properly, losing structural resistance, as explained by Victor Yepes, engineer of Roads, Canals and Ports and professor at the Polytechnic University of Valencia. on your blog. So the concrete must be cooled during setting to avoid cracks. Steel also suffers: you have to deal with its thermal expansion, the accelerated corrosion of a high salinity environment and the thermal fatigue of day and night cycles. So we must resort to the use of high corrosion resistance alloys, a design of expansion joints capable of absorbing metric movements produced by thermal expansion in a structure more than 30 kilometers long, cathodic protection and even paints with reflective colors to reduce radiation absorption. The natural challenges of the Red Sea. The sea that bathes the coasts of the Straits of Tiran is a true garden: it is home to coral reefs, a great marine diversity with endangered species such as the dugong and it is a nesting area for turtles and seabirds. Obviously the construction of such a megastructure results in annoying noise pollution for fauna, but also the appearance of sediments, which are lethal for the coral as it suffocates it, modifying currents and affecting water quality. Egypt Independent echoes The warning from the environmental NGO HEPCA has given the go-ahead to the work, as long as there are rigorous environmental studies and the most sensitive reef area is avoided. Otherwise, he will take the project to court. Nothing new diplomatic challenges. The first time a bridge between Egypt and Saudi Arabia was formally proposed data 1988 at the … Read more

A 600 kilometer quantum network is one of its great strategic bets

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During the 90s the idea was established that Japan represented the future. Whoever traveled there found bullet trains, cities covered in neon, technological culture on every corner and a very visible contrast between tradition and innovation. In the early 2000s, cell phones with cameras and humanoid robots arrived, further reinforcing that image of a country ahead of its time. Three decades later, that perception is still alive in the collective imagination, but it no longer fully reflects the Japanese technological reality. Japan retains important capabilities, but has been losing ground for years. It controlled nearly 50% of global semiconductor production four decades ago and in 2019 it represented only 10%. In artificial intelligence fell from fourth to ninth place after the release of ChatGPT in 2022. According to the Global Innovation Index 2025 It occupies 12th place, and in digital competitiveness it falls to 31st, affected by a lack of specialized talent. Japan seems determined to return to the global technology board Japan is deploying several initiatives to reposition itself technologically, and one of the most relevant is its future national quantum network. The plan contemplates a 600 kilometer fiber optic infrastructure which will connect Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe, and will have an operational environment for testing in 2027. The National Institute of Information and Communications Technologies will lead the project together with Toshiba, NEC and telecommunications providers. The network will transmit quantum keys using photons, in states that allow attempts to intercept information to be detected. The quantum bet cannot be understood without considering the risk that comes. IBM and Xanadu They predict that quantum computers with bug fixes will be functional before 2030, which could render current encryption systems, including RSA and elliptic curve algorithms, obsolete. In 2024, researchers from Shanghai University breached SPN encryption using D-Wave technology, while Google warned that 2,048-bit RSA keys could be decrypted in less than a week with advanced quantum resources. That’s why NIST has begun publishing post-quantum cryptography standards to protect digital infrastructure. Building the network is just the first step. Japan has experience in quantum research, but lacks large-scale operating environments and will need to resolve issues such as signal stability, deployment costs and system governance. Equipment installed will be needed every so often to maintain the range and quality of the encryption, which makes the operation more expensive and requires specialized personnel. However, These challenges also represent opportunities to develop new capabilities, train talent and demonstrate that the country can compete again in advanced infrastructures. The international map shows that Japan is not starting from zero, but it is not leading either. China has a quantum network land of more than 10,000 kilometers that connects around 80 cities, and the European Union is working in its own infrastructure that covers several countries. The difference is in the approach: Japan aspires for its network to function as an operational national infrastructure, with the capacity to scale and become a strategic asset. The potential of this project goes beyond its technical scope. Japan seeks for this network to become a symbol of technological autonomy and a platform from which to build international agreements. With its own technology and operational experiencecould offer solutions to other countries and reinforce its role as a digital security provider. In a scenario where secure communications will be considered critical infrastructure, being prepared can be a way to regain relevance without competing in all sectors at the same time. Images | Chris Bahr | Jesus Esteban In Xataka | Japan’s great technological delay: how it went from being a pioneer in the sector to being frozen in time

His Porsche 911 discovered it on a 2,000 kilometer trip and the police also discovered it

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In the late 70s and early 80s, Bill Gates was not only known for his talent in programming and for having founded one of the most thriving technology companies, but also for his love for speed and supercars. Especially those of porsche. The problem with driving a supercar is that it is relatively easy to exceed the speed limits. Thanks to this ease of stepping on the accelerator more than necessary, Gates has a strange record: three speeding tickets in a single trip. According what was published by Luxury Launchestwo of them placed by the same police officer who was following him. Release stress at full speed. When Microsoft was still in its infancy in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Gates used to drive his Porsche at high speed through the desert after long days of programming. This habit caused him more than one problem with the local police and ended with the now famous photograph of his mugshot in 1977. Although, in his defense, it should be said that this arrest was due to skipping a stop sign and driving without a license to Albuquerque, not for speeding. That reckless behavior behind the wheel caused him all kinds of problems, and ended the patience of everyone around him. As Walter Isaacson said in an interview for Time, Paul Allen, his founding partner at Microsoft, had to bail him out of jail after one of his midnight escapades to drive at full speed on the roads of the New Mexico desert. 2,000 kilometers go a long way. In 1979, Microsoft made the decision to move from Albuquerque to Seattle to establish its headquarters there, so its founders also packed their bags back north. However, Gates decided that, instead of sending his Porsche 911 in a truckit would be a good idea to drive it to Seattle himself. As the millionaire has acknowledged in several interviews, on that trip to Seattle he accumulated up to three “very serious fines for speeding”, two of them from the same agent who, after detecting Gates’ speeding, began to follow him. In this section, the millionaire committed another reckless act, which led to a double fine. “It was a very long trip,” said the millionaire. Gates and his obsession with Porsches. Since started driving – and he could afford it – Gates has been especially attracted to supercars made by Porsche. In 1987, Gates ordered a Porsche 959then considered one of the most advanced supercars in the world, thanks to its biturbo engine, all-wheel drive and pioneering electronics. The car was capable of reaching 317 km/h and only 337 units were manufactured, something that made it a true collector’s item. However, when the car arrived in the United States, it was detained at customs in Seattle because the brand had not passed the safety tests for the US for that imported model. For 13 years, Gates paid a fee of $28 a day to keep the car guarded at the port, which added up to more than $133,000 just to keep it stored until it was passed a law that allowed him to circulate legally. Your Ferrari “Sand Buggy”. In addition to a large collection of Porsches, cars from Ferrari, Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz have also paraded through Gates’ garage. According to what he said Walter Isaacson in his interview with Gates, the most popular of them was a Ferrari 348 that earned the nickname “sand buggy” after Gates got into the sand with it and started drifting with it. In addition to different collector units and 911 variantscurrently the millionaire regularly drives a porsche taycana sports car fully electric with which Gates appears in some shots in his miniseries ‘And now what? The future according to Bill Gates‘. In Xataka | A $700,000 Ferrari F40 spent a decade parked in a Munich garage: its owner had forgotten where he had it Image | Flickr (First Minister of Scotland), Unsplash (Jeff Cooper)

A huge two -kilometer ring and 20 meters high

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Osaka It is known by its port, Your gastronomic offerthe district Shinsekaihis emblematic castle and sanctuaries, among other claims. Now (and at least during the coming months) to all of them A new Guinness record Fascinating: the world’s largest wooden architectural structure, a gigantic ring of 61,000 m2 raising following an old Japanese construction technique and has become one of the icons (and the most recognizable) of Expo 2025which has just opened in Osaka and will have its doors open until October. The name of the gigantic structure, which It has already sneaked into In the Guinness book, leave little room for interpretation: they have baptized it Grand Ring. A ring to govern them all. Although the Osaka-Kansai Expo2025 has the participation of more than 160 countries and regions, Its inauguration In Yumeshima it was headed by the highest Japanese authorities and its goal is Grand Ringa ring -shaped construction that will serve as a catwalk so that the visitor move to the shelter of the rain, the sun and the wind. And it is normal that it has generated so much interest. After all, Grand Ring is not just any ring. There is no other Like him in the world. Why’s that? How much it measures. And especially for how it has been done. The structure is basically built with Japanese cedar and cypress wood and wild pine. Moreover, its creators claim the symbolic value of that mixture of native and foreign materials, although the former represent about 70% of the construction. Worldwide there is no larger wood architectural structure. And so the Guinness World Records judges, which already They have granted him The official plusmarca. Question of measures. Grand Ring figures impress. The outer diameter of the ring reaches 675 meters (615 m in the inner face) and covers a construction area of Something more than 61,000 m2. As for the huge circular structure, it has a width of about 30 m with a height that at the lower end reaches 20 m. On the internal side it is somewhat lower and is around 12 m. The jobs to shape them started in June 2023 and did not end until August last year. In total the operators used around 27,000 m3 of wood. Something more than great figures. The ring is interesting for more than its enormous size or its record size. The organizers of the 2025 Expo insist in which the structure was lifted by combining modern construction methods and the Tradition “Nuki” used in the building of Japanese sanctuaries and temples. In fact the ring is inspired by the millenary temple Kiyomizudera of Kyoto. In practice, Swissinfo needsthat means that Grand Ring was manufactured with a technique that does not dispense with screws or nails to hold the wooden beams. To assemble the structure, the vertical and horizontal pieces are intended, forming a scaffolding composed mainly of cedar sugi local and Hinoki Ciprés. While the environment specialized in architecture and design Designboom precise that in the case of Grand Ring its creators resorted to metal elements to reinforce the resistance of the structure to the earthquakes. The Japanese manufacturing system has allowed for example that the kiyomizudera temple has remained standing For centuriesalthough over time it has been restored and rebuilt. And what will your future be? Expo 2025 It was inaugurated Sunday 13 and will remain until mid -Octobera period of time during which the organizers hope to receive some 28 million visitorsincluding 3.5 million foreigners, with an economic impact that according to some estimates will move between 12,270 and 17.6 billion euros. What will happen to Grand Ring once the exhibition ends is something that is not yet at all clear. His architect, the architect Sou Fujimoto He has recognized since he would like to be preserved at least part of the structure in his current location. The key It is that its land belongs to the city of Osaka and the construction to the Japanese association for the Expo. The international appointment has also been launched between news about the high cost of the installation (enough greater than initially expected) and a warm moment interest by the public. Claiming the wood. “I would like to keep it, preserve it … because it is really wonderful and a symbol of how our society can live together with nature,” says Fujimoto in An interview With CNN. In case it should be dismantled, ask the wood to be used in other projects. “Although the building disappears, the spirit of the materials will remain alive.” For now, Grand Ring has served something more than conquering Guinness records: it is a sample of the possibilities of wood architecture (An upward bet and that is already being used in The construction of skyscrapers), especially in Japan, where According to the US chaintoday about 90% of single -family homes rise with wooden structures. Images | Eduards B (Flickr) and Expo25 In Xataka | We are creating transparent and latest technology wood with a goal: to revolutionize the future of materials

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