lack

70% of its hotels lack staff

by

Becoming one of the great resorts in the world has its price. Spain knows this, as it is on its way to overcoming the 100 million visitors foreigners and become the country with the most tourists of the planet. And Japan certainly knows this, which in recent years has seen its flow of foreign travelers skyrocket to almost the 43 million. That avalanche of people eager to climb Fujisee the geishas and he Sakura or be photographed in Shibuya has strained coexistence in the country, sparking the debate about the tourism and one wave of social rejection. Japan could, however, have a natural (and unexpected) brake on its tourist expansion: the lack of staff in hotels. The percentage: 72.2%. In full tourist boom and with Japan breaking records of foreign visitors, the Japanese authorities recently did a curious exercise: they asked the country’s hotels how they are doing. Not in terms of billing and demand, but in terms of their ability to provide services. It may seem like a strange task, but the truth is that it has revealed a surprising fact: 72.2% Of the more than 500 accommodations surveyed, they acknowledged having fewer staff than they really need. That is to say, in the midst of a tourism boom, it is easier for businesses to attract clients than workers. Does it affect everyone equally? For their study, the technicians spoke with 522 establishments of all kinds, from large hotel chains to more modest accommodations and ryokan traditional. Of all of them, those that acknowledged having the most difficulties when training their staff are medium-sized businesses, with an annual turnover level of between 100 and 1,000 million yen, equivalent to between 540,000 and 5.4 million euros. Of the 280 businesses interviewed with these characteristics, 77.1% admitted that it is difficult for him to find professionals. And almost all of them (90%) are companies with less than 100 employees. What’s more, half don’t even reach 30. One word: overexertion. The problem is not only the greater or lesser shortage of staff, but what this means for the professionals who already work in hotels. The equation is very simple: more work without more staff ends up resulting in greater pressure on the workforce. The Government study confirms this with figures: 79.3% of accommodations with a lack of staff recognizes that this handicap ends up overloading their staff in high season. 40.6% have no choice but to reduce their services. The great mystery. The question at this point is obvious… If tourism has become a booming business in Japan and the country aspire While this demand continues to grow, why is it so difficult for hotels to hire staff? l The answer is complicated and requires handling several keys. The main one: the hospitality industry is not the most desired sector in the country. Low salaries and a lack of breaks discourage the Japanese population from looking for work in the sector, leading the authors of the ‘White Paper’ on Japanese tourism to propose an improvement of working conditions. They also advocate modernizing their accommodations. Is it the only problem? No. In the background there is another handicap that cannot be ignored either: it is not only that Japan has fewer employees for its hotels, it is that in general Japan has fewer people for everything. Its population has been contracting for yearswhich in turn affects the nation’s labor muscle: if in 2010 it came close to 128.1 million of inhabitants, in 2025 it would not reach 124 million. And a significant part of that population is already very old. With these data as a backdrop, it is better understood that the sector has chosen to look for talent outside, signing foreign personnel and offering part-time contracts. Ironically, in recent years Japan he hasn’t made it easy to immigrants who come to the country to work or undertake, hardening the conditions that must be met to qualify for resident status. It is estimated that at the end of 2025, Japan would host slightly more than four million of foreign residents, an interesting figure on two counts: it represents 9.5% more than the previous year and (above all) a new historical record. A not so new notice. This is not the first time that Japan has seen alarm bells go off due to labor shortages in the tourism sector. He did it in 2025when the Asia Pacific Institute of Research warned that the country risked suffering a deficit of hundreds of thousands of hospitality workers. Specifically, it estimates that if the nation maintains its goal of reaching 60 million tourists in 2030, it will find itself with a ‘hole’ of about 536,000 employees. The problem is the same: demand in hotels and restaurants increases, but the sector’s muscle to meet it is not strengthened. Even the aviation sector would have problems. In 2024 Bloomberg warned that to reach the goal of 60 million tourists the country will need many more pilots. At the moment the flow of foreign visitors remains below the 43 millionbut the trend is clear growth. Images | IK’s World Trip (Flickr), Ramon Buçard (Unsplash) and Victoriano Izquierdo (Unsplash) In Xataka | “If you only visit Copacabana, you don’t really visit Rio”: mass tourism has found its new object of desire in the favelas

Due to the lack of steel, World War II ships began to be built with an unusual material: concrete

by

Close your eyes and think about the main material of a boat. Very possibly wood be first that comes to mind, and it’s normal: we have been sailing in wooden boats for millennia, and we continue to do so. But it is also logical that the steel that dominated the 19th and 20th century shipsand the current sea monstersideas haunt you. And most likely you have not thought about another material: the concrete. But yes, for 150 years we were creating concrete boats, and far from being crazy, it was the most logical idea. And they were even used in the First and Second World War. a french. One fine day in the mid-19th century, a French gentleman named Joseph-Louis Lambot It occurred to him to build a boat. Not just any one: a reinforced concrete one. There was one problem: in 1848, they had no idea what reinforced concrete was. This material, basically, is the mixture between concrete and steel. Both combine to create something with much greater structural resistance and have been the basis of the most imposing skyscrapers, dams and almost any construction of the last century since its invention. Well, it was Joseph-Louis who came up with the idea of ​​combining the two materials. At least, it attributes the invention of reinforced concrete to this man. As always, there is controversy over the dates, who patented reinforced concrete, who built the first slab, etc. But anyway: Lambot wanted to test his invention and built a small boat of less than four meters with the aim of exhibiting it at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1855. Quite a few advantages. Basically, the interior was wire mesh covered by cement and Lambot’s idea was to completely replace wood. The invention was liked, but it did not really attract the attention of boat manufacturers. Some barges were created for European canals, but little else. Everything changed when the Italian engineer Carlo Gabellini built the Liguria in 1896. It is what we consider to be the first reinforced concrete ship designed to sail on the high seas. And, really, it made sense to create reinforced concrete ships. It is a material that has great resistance to corrosion, so the marine environment does not damage the hull, reducing maintenance (which also has it) and extending its useful life. It offered good thermal insulation, so perishable resources could be transported in better conditions and there were no fire problems. The Namsenfjord In the absence of bread… A few years later, the construction of these concrete ships expanded and other countries began to build them, especially cargo ships. But of course, we are in 1914 and that means that something happened: the World War I. And beyond the advantages of concrete over other materials, the world was forced to create concrete boats for a very simple reason: there was no steel. The militarization and industrialization of the belligerent forces caused a situation of steel shortage. The ships were important, since the naval supremacy It has always been a determining factor in a conflict, but with the steel necessary for a destroyer many other things could be created. And the problem is that they had to continue building ships because there were resources to move worldwide. The First World War. The revolution came with Namsenfjorda Norwegian ship that, in 1917, demonstrated that self-propelled concrete boats could be made. It was 26 meters long and weighed a whopping 400 tons and most importantly: the United States saw that there was potential in these ships beyond serving as freighters powered by an auxiliary ship. Thus, they created the Emergency Fleet Corporation program with the objective of producing 24 concrete vessels. It was a failure: those that were completed were done after the war, so they had to be used for other things. One was the SS Faithwhich was going to serve in the war, but in the end it was left to be used in transportation work in the United States. It was launched in 1919, was in service until 1921 when it was sold to Cuba and had a length of 97.54 meters. A year after Faith, the SS Selmaan enormous mass of reinforced concrete measuring 129.54 meters in length that was launched just the day Germany signed the Treaty of Versaillesending the First World War. It ended up being used as an oil tanker in the Gulf of Mexico. With sails and a secondary support engine Devastating disadvantages. With the war over, interest in concrete shipbuilding waned. It still had advantages, since building them was much cheaper than making them in steel or iron, but if we mentioned a series of advantages before, it is important to now know the disadvantages (which outweigh them, and by far). To match the strength of a steel hull, a concrete hull is thicker, which has several limitations. On the one hand, it weighs more, so it also has a greater draft, the ship’s movement is slower and more fuel is needed. Being thicker means that there is less interior space for cargo, since the useful volume is reduced. This weight means that the engines must be more powerful and the fuel tanks must also be larger, so the investment in this part is greater. The dam to build it must also be monstrous because parts cannot be welded, as in a steel one, and then there is the impact resistance. Second World War. Metal breaks, yes, but it has greater elasticity than concrete. This material, however, is much more fragile when faced with impacts. A collision causes a crack in the hull, and this in a boat that weighs so much is a condemnation. That is why, after the Great War, the concrete ship project was abandoned, leaving its construction practically limited to cargo barges, but then the Second World War arrived, and the steel needs of the previous one were repeated. However, the US program was not as ambitious as the one they started … Read more

We have spent decades blaming a lack of willpower for obesity. Genetics Just Proved Us Wrong

by

For decades we have heard about overweight and obesity that it is a problem of lack of willpower, of eating too much or moving too little. However, science has been trying to find more causes for years that we do not see with the naked eye about obesity to treat it as a complex, chronic disease with many different factors. Two great studies recently published studies have provided very important evidence that suggests that the way we relate to food and the size of our body in childhood are not always ‘choice’, but are, to a surprising extent, an inheritance dictated by our DNA and amplified by the environment. The weight of inheritance. The first of these studies published in PLOS Medicine analyzed to 86,000 children belonging to the Norwegian MoBa cohort. The goal here was to understand the extent to which parents’ BMI determines body size and the eating behaviors of their children at eight years of age. The results have exceeded what many geneticists expected, since, using structural equation modeling, researchers discovered that genetics explains about 79% of the association between the mother’s BMI and that of the child. When we look at the father, the figure is even more compelling, since DNA explains approximately 94% of the association between the paternal BMI and that of the child. Its importance. This means that when we see patterns of obesity that are repeated from parents to children and the determining factor is not mainly that “that house eats badly”, but that genetic variants are being transmitted that regulate key physiological aspects, from basal metabolism to the brain architecture that dictates the mechanisms of satiety and reward when eating. The environment. At this point, it is inevitable to ask a reasonable question: if genetics is so determining, why have obesity rates skyrocketed in recent decades if our human genome has barely changed? The answer the second study gives itpublished almost in parallel in PLOS Genetics where British researchers analyzed four large birth cohorts in the United Kingdom, namely people born in 1946, 1958, 1970 and 2001. The goal here was to measure how genetic risk interacts with the passage of time and changes in society. Its result. What they saw was precisely that the genetic variants associated with obesity have become much more predictive of BMI in more recent cohorts. That is to say, having a genetic predisposition to gain weight in the forties did not necessarily ‘condemn’ obesity, because the environment did not support it. However, being born with that same predisposition in 2001 exposes you to a much greater risk. Our genes interact with what epidemiologists call the obesogenic environment, which are sedentary urban environments, chronic stress, sleep disturbances and, above all, a constant, cheap and ubiquitous availability of ultra-processed, high-calorie-density foods. The modern environment acts as the trigger of a weapon that genetics had already loaded. Much further. This avalanche of empirical data collides head-on with social stigma. As organizations such as the Spanish Society for the Study of Obesity have been warning for some time, it is urgent banish “Eat less and move more” is the only recommendation given in medical consultations. It is for all this that understanding that obesity is a condition with a very deep genetic root, strongly conditioned by the environment, completely changes the rules of the game. Images | i yunmai In Xataka | We thought that quenching hunger with Ozempic was the definitive remedy against obesity. Until we look at the muscle

Raquel González, director of Airbus Space in Spain, on the challenge of Spain as a space power: “We lack people”

by

It is not usual to cross the doors of Airbus Space in Getafe and tour a facility where the space industry stops being a succession of proper names and becomes something physical. During the visit organized by the 60 years of Airbus Espacio in Spainthe tour revealed production areas, clean areas, parts linked to launchers and satellite technologies and components that will end up operating outside of Earth. The first impression was not of a corporate celebration, but of an industrial chain much broader than its separate programs suggest. Rachel Gonzalezdirector of Airbus Space in Spain, summed it up with a very direct phrase during the presentation: “Spain is a space power.” He did not present it as a pending aspiration, but as a reality that, in his opinion, is explained by the accumulation of capabilities developed in the country. Satellites appeared on the table like PEACE, PEACE-2, Wit, CHEOPS either LSTMsecure communications programs such as Spainsat NGparticipation in European launchers such as Ariane 6 and even antennas made in Spain to communicate with the rovers Curiosity and Perseverance on Mars. The statement had weight because it did not rest on a single project, but on a sustained presence in various layers of the space sector. The Spanish space muscle and its challenges With that statement on the table, the next question was almost obligatory: if Spain has reached that position, How do you maintain yourself in an industry as competitive as the space industry?. The pressure does not come only from access to space, although launching more frequently and at a lower cost has become one of the great battles in the sector. Also important is the ability to design, manufacture and prepare increasingly complex systems, to respond to strategic needs and to do so on a board where pace has accelerated. SpaceX is the most visible symbol of this change, but not the only one: the US maintains a very active commercial ecosystem, China accelerates its commercial and state capabilities, India opens more space for private participationand Europe tries to strengthen its autonomy. Structure manufacturing area for Ariane 6 at Airbus Espacio España, within the Getafe facilities That was the question I asked González: what challenges now appear to remain in that position and what the next step should be. The director of Airbus Space in Spain opened the focus to the entire European space industry, but the response immediately landed on the terrain she knows first-hand. “There’s a talent challenge now. Budgets are increasing, programs keep coming up. There’s a lot of ambition.” “Now there is a talent challenge. Budgets are increasing, programs continue to emerge. There is a lot of ambition” The idea became even clearer when he condensed it into two words: “people are missing” González then turned the diagnosis into a call to those who are still deciding their educational path. His message was aimed at university students, but also at younger students who are beginning to choose where to direct their studies: space needs scientific, technological and engineering profiles, but not only that. Professional training trajectories and profiles linked to production are also needed, because an industry like this is not sustained solely by design on paper. Between an approved mission and a technology ready to leave Earth there are years of specialized work, and that quarry does not appear from one day to the next. Raquel González, director of Airbus Space in Spain, during the meeting with the press at the Getafe facilities The dimension of the problem is better understood by looking at the figures that Airbus put on the table. According to the company, Airbus Espacio in Spain closed 2025 with 295 million euros in turnover and 530 direct employees, but its impact does not end with its own workforce. Around 30% of this turnover goes to subcontractors, a fact that helps measure the extent to which space activity is distributed across a broader ecosystem. That is why the lack of talent does not only affect a specific company: when programs grow, pressure also increases on suppliers, specialized technicians and teams capable of supporting high-value-added work. This activity is better understood when you go down from the figure to the type of work behind it. Airbus maintains that its space division in Spain is the only company in the country capable of designing, building, integrating and delivering complex satellites into orbit, a statement that places the focus on high-level industrial responsibilities. González took it to the field of accumulated capacity during the presentation: “Everything that is satellite construction, that is where we are as a leader in Espacio España.” PAZ appears as one of the examples already in service within that trajectory, while PAZ-2 and LSTM show where that capability is now moving. Another part of the journey led to a less visible, but equally important layer: the technology that allows a mission to observe, measure or transmit useful information from space. Airbus spoke of radars, microwave radiometers and active antennas as areas in which its Spanish division has been accumulating knowledge. They are not elements designed to attract attention outside the sector, but they can make the difference between a space platform and a mission with real service capacity. Airbus Espacio España personnel work in the Getafe clean room, where the company assembles highly complex space systems The map was completed with another sensitive piece for Europe: access to space. Airbus recalled during the presentation that its activity in Spain has been linked to the family for decades. Ariane already Vegawith structures and subsystems that are part of the European launchers. In the case of Ariane 6, the company also noted that it is increasing production to supply 27 complete setsknown as shipsetsincluding large lightweight carbon fiber structures for Ariane 6 in the coming years. It is not necessary to go into the detail of each component to understand the relevance of this line of work: without reliable launchers and with sufficient cadence, a good part of European … Read more

“Entire boxes are bought, there is a lack of product and we are producing 24 hours a day”

by

“I’m the typical nostalgic millennial, I admit that.” This is how our colleague Laura Sacristán of Xataka Mobile the article in which he narrates his experience completing the World Cup sticker album… digitally. It is a phrase that could summarize the entire text that is to come. And if one feels like Don Quixote in front of the windmills when trying to complete the Panini World Cup album. The one that the company has launched with the punctuality of someone who knows they have a good business on their hands. Among the strength of the world fifespeculation and the feeling of nostalgia, one buys the album assuming that it will be almost impossible to complete it. Working piecework But it doesn’t seem enough. “It had never started this way, especially in Spain and Portugal. In Brazil it has always been crazy, but, this year, there is a lack of product and we are producing 24 hours a day. We did not expect it” The statements are from Lluís Torrent, general director of Panini in Spain, to elDiario.eswho accepts that there is a shortage of stock in the stickers that our country demands. And the company claims that it had not seen the same fever for World Cup cards in our country as this year. Although the public is loyal to each year’s album, the World Cups have something special and that can also be seen in the results account by adding more followers. “There are adults who have reengaged. There is hunger and whole boxes are bought“, explains Torrent to the digital media. And our colleague confirms it. If she has made the leap to digital it is for a very simple reason: desperation. “They are sold out everywhere” is the answer she has heard the most in recent days. Fed up, she has forgotten the physical card. “The cards also serve as a socialization tool, you have to know how to organize them, exchange them, “They have a positive aspect of coexistence and sociability,” says Torrent. The problem is when the speculator takes over that “positive aspect of coexistence and sociability.” To both Laura Sacristán, Torrent, and everyone who approaches a kiosk, those who run them give the same answer: “people take away whole boxes.” The shortage remains in the market three weeks after this report from The Newspaper. The person who spoke then was Narayan, head of a kiosk in Sant Cugat del Vallés, stating that even they themselves have had larger orders rejected for their points of sale. More than 600 kilometers further away, in the Puerta Cerrada square in the heart of Madrid, another kiosk gives the same answer to some children who are trying to quench their thirst for stickers. Children who can go look for the ones that interest them most just a few hundred meters away. In the lower part of the Rastro, the fans They meet every Sunday to exchange the repeated stickers and complete the collection. Or buy them. Because the truth is that there is no shortage of those who resell the most sought-after stickers. On digital buying and selling portals it is not difficult to find individual trading cards for 30 euros (the equivalent of 20 sealed envelopes). if we talk about Cristiano Ronaldo either Messi. For an “extra sticker”, the stickers premium that Panini has launched along with the standard collection with another 80 prints, individual prices start at 50 euros and in some they reach 150 euros. Despite everything, Torrent defends that there is the same probability of an envelope containing the Lamine Yamal sticker as it is of JK Duverne, the Haitian defender who plays for the Belgian team KAA Gent. This World Cup, furthermore, is of special interest for collectors because everything indicates, if no one can remedy it, that it will be the last for Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar. But also, the collection is broader than ever because more teams than ever play in the World Cup. The result: 980 cards that represent the players of the 48 teams that complete the tournament this time. A figure never seen in Panini’s World Cup album and that falls like May water on the Italian company that this year will bill more than 100 million euros in Spain. A tiny part of the global result that is estimated at 1,400 million euros in this edition, they point out in Seville newspaper. An empire built on two factories, one in Italy and the other in Brazil. An empire built on childhood anxiety, hunger accumulated during the four years of the World Cup cycle and, above all, the nostalgic thirst that seems insatiable among the millennial generation. Photo | Panini and FIFA In Xataka | We are in 2026, but you will only see part of the World Cup in 4K. The “shitification” of the platforms gives us back DTT

We believed that raiding the refrigerator at dawn was a lack of willpower. Science has discovered the real culprit

by

When night comes, there are many people who cannot conceive of watching a series without something in your hands to eatand not exactly a little carrot, but a little ice cream or some ultra-processed bun. Traditionally, popular culture and fad diets have dismissed this behavior as a simple “lack of willpower” or a sweet tooth. However, the most recent scientific evidence suggests that it is not gluttony, but chronic stress taking control. Night feeding. Eating at night is not always a disorder, but medical literature has been delineating for decades when the line is crossed. Already in 1955, a researcher defined the bases of the so-called night feeding syndrome (NES), characterized by a curious triad: lack of appetite in the morning, hyperphagia at the end of the day and insomnia with awakenings to raid the pantry in the middle of the night. Today, the diagnostic criteria have been updated and indicate that this syndrome occurs when more than 25% of daily calories are consumed after dinner, or if there are two or more episodes of nighttime binge eating per week for at least three months. The trigger It is none other than the hated stress and emotional dysregulation. Here various studies they point Because this nocturnal snacking is associated with a depressed mood, high levels of stress and the need to eat to find a little comfort after a very difficult day. The biological clock. When we eat late, usually after nine at night, or in the two hours before going to sleep, the reality is that we are sending contradictory signals to our ‘primal’ endocrine system. On the one hand, eating at night prolongs the rise of cortisol, which is the stress hormone, at a time when it should be at its lowest levels to prepare the body for sleep. In this way, the body postpones the secretion of the hormone that induces sleep, which is melatonin, and the serotonin and dopamine receptors are altered to respond to food intake. An explosive cocktail. Perhaps one of the most surprising recent findings is the devastating impact that this combination has on our digestive system, since if we combine a high level of stress with late dinners or nightly visits to the refrigerator, the result is catastrophic for the microbiota. Science suggests that those who combine poor sleep, stress and eating habits are up to 2.5 times more likely to see their intestinal health diminished, and also have noticeably less diversity in the bacteria in their microbiome. The whiting that bites its tail. In the end, we are faced with a textbook vicious cycle, wonderfully documented by the University of Arizona. According to your investigations60% of adults confess to itching at night on a regular basis. Of them, two-thirds admit that it is precisely lack of sleep that triggers junk food cravings. But precisely eating at these hours makes you less sleepy. And so on. Images | freepik In Xataka | We Spaniards love to have dinner at 9:30 p.m. and even at 10:00 p.m. Who is paying the price is our body

Spain’s problem is not the lack of buildable land. It is a huge land jam that blocks three million apartments in cities

by

The brick crisis at the beginning of the century may be left far behind in time; But the truth is that, almost 20 years after the bubble burst, the sector has not yet recovered from its hangover. And that has dragged it into a paradox: although the country drags a serious deficit residential (some 700,000 homes) and prices they don’t stop going upin Spain there is a huge amount of immobilized buildable land, plots that after the crisis have ended up in the hands of municipalities incapable of promoting housing on them or of groups, funds and companies that have not been able to develop them or have not considered it viable. It might seem like a minor issue if it weren’t for the fact that there are calculations who estimate that that ‘big traffic jam’ of land is costing the cities of Spain 2.9 million potential apartments. That is, houses that could be built on developed lots, but for one reason or another they still do not go beyond paper. Just over half (1.5 million) are also concentrated in the 15 main metropolises. One figure: 1.5 million. The data comes from a study published in the last notebook of the Civic Circle of Opinion by Ignacio Ezquiagaeconomist and expert in the real estate sector. In it he basically dedicates himself to reviewing the “pending planned housing” in the main urban areas of the country. These are apartments and houses that should be built on plots of land in an “advanced state of urban development” or sectorialized (endorsed by a plan and the corresponding city council), but that still do not go from paper to work. Why is it important? Because as Ezquiaga’s study recalls, that bag of land could accommodate millions and millions of new homes. To be precise, it speaks of about seven million properties, although a good part is located in rural areas where the gap between supply and demand is not as serious as in the capitals. If we focus on the 86 urban areas of Spain, we find vacant land with the potential to host 2.93 million of housing. If we refine the shot even further and limit ourselves to the 15 main metropolitan areas of Spain, the figure remains at around 1.51 million homes. Of these, half a million would be located in areas with already urbanized land. Madrid, in the lead. In your studioEzquiaga includes a table prepared with data from the Ministry of Housing that shows that the largest housing stock planned and pending execution is located in the Madrid area, at least if we talk about raw figures. There the potential is 351,000 properties, almost 15% of the total existing housing stock in 2021. The potential is equally high in Murcia (226,600 units), Seville (142,900) and Barcelona (142,900), although in general terms it adds up to thousands of homes in all areas of the country. The smallest is Palma, with almost 12,000. In “dead hands”. To understand part of this large pool of stuck housing we have to go back almost two decades ago, to the bursting of the real estate bubble and its subsequent hangover. When brick ceased to be the business of the century and many developers were forced to close, the plots that had recently hosted residential projects began to become an asset with an uncertain future. A part ended up in private hands. Another, from the town councils. Their casuistries are different, but in the end the result is the same: what Ezquiaga calls properties in “dead hands”parked plots, stuck despite having the potential to inject millions of homes into a market that, 20 years later, is once again tense. “Judging by its urban status, blocked for more than two decades in which many have remained vacant, these are not temporary but structural situations; that is why they remind us, overcoming the distance, of those owners who went down in history as dead hands,” reflect. Who controls that land? As remember The Country There are two major fronts. 30% has remained in the hands of municipal administrations that once received them from the developers as part of the land that they had to give up to carry out their real estate projects. The problem is that not all town councils have the capacity, will or simply the resources to take advantage of that land and convert it into public housing (VPO). The result is that it ends up blocked, up for sale or redirected towards other uses, such as endowment services. The remaining 70% of the land depends on private entities, but that does not guarantee that it will be exploited and converted into housing. The key is whether or not its development is profitable. And if they can finance it. This also explains that when city councils opt for public-private collaborations to take advantage of the land they control, they do not always find partners willing to embark on the projects. One of the keys is provided by Ezquiaga in your studio: The 15 main metropolitan areas in Spain have land with potential for a million and a half homes, but only a third are located in environments with already developed land. “Vacant land”. Last year, in another study published by the think tank Funcas on the Sareb, Ezquiaga I already warned of the complexity of the scenario: “With a development industry with lower capacities compared to previous decades, the original projects were discontinued. Thus, many of the still viable lands would not adapt to the regulatory changes or the new territorial needs, paralyzing them and contributing to a surplus of vacant lands with negative consequences on the valuation of Sareb’s portfolio and, above all, for the long-term generation of new residential supply.” He is not the only one who has drawn attention to the land with still pending potential in the cities of Spain. The Ministry of Housing itself has analyzed the main pockets of land available in Spain for new apartments, focusing above … Read more

The problem that we read less and less is not a lack of time or discipline: it is that we do not do ‘habit-stacking’

by

We all know the scene: a pile of books gathering dust on the nightstand and a silent promise that, this weekend, we will finally get around to reading. However, Sunday night arrives and we have barely turned a couple of pages, so our relationship with reading has become in an “aspirational disenchantment”. We want to read, we long to get into the habit, but in the event of any temporary unforeseen event, the book is the first thing we discard. We usually punish ourselves by thinking that we lack willpower or that we don’t have enough free time. We wait for the holidays to devour novels, believing that reading requires large blocks of uninterrupted time. But behavioral science has bad news for our ego and great news for our routine: it’s not a discipline problem, it’s a design problem. The solution is not in motivation, but in a neurological “hack” known as habit-stacking or habit stacking. The motivation trap. When we don’t achieve our wellness or intellectual goals, “it’s not because we don’t care enough or aren’t disciplined,” explains Dr. Eve Glazier. to Washington Post. Failure comes because we rely too much on ephemeral motivation and lack a realistic implementation plan. This is where the habit-stacking. Popularized by behavioral experts such as BJ Fogg (creator of the method Tiny Habits at Stanford University) and James Clear (author of the best-selling Atomic Habits), this technique consists of linking a new habit that we want to incorporate to a habit that we already do automatically every day. As James Clear detailsthe formula is astonishingly simple: “After a ‘current habit,’ I will make a ‘new habit.’” Applied to our problem, the goal is to stop saying “I’m going to read more”—an abstract and overwhelming goal—and use everyday anchors. For example: “After I turn on the coffee maker in the morning, I’ll read a page,” or “After I brush my teeth at night, I’ll pick up my book.” In Xataka They are not your imagination: the best-selling books are increasingly simpler and contain less elaborate sentences The biological “hack”. As James Clear explains Based on neurobiology, our brain experiences a phenomenon called “synaptic pruning.” As we age, the brain eliminates the neural connections we don’t use and strengthens the ones we repeat daily (like showering or making morning coffee). By “stacking” reading on top of an already strong and established neural pathway, the new habit travels first class. The brain uses signal-based learning (cue-based learning), dramatically reducing friction and decision fatigue. You simply no longer have to remember to read; your coffee maker reminds you. And achieving it has an impact that goes far beyond general culture. As we analyzed recently in Xatakaa 12-year study with more than 3,600 participants showed that reading books reduces the risk of mortality by 20%. Readers have a 23-month survival advantage over non-readers, thanks to the fact that deep reading improves cognitive reserve. And no, you don’t have to read for hours: the study suggests that 30 minutes a day are enough to obtain these benefits. The voice of the experts: start in miniature. If the theory is so good, how do we apply it without failing in the attempt? The experts consulted by the main media agree on several golden rules to design our habit-stacking: It starts ridiculously small: Psychologist Beena Persaud, cited in Washington Postwarns against drastic changes. Don’t aim to “read a whole chapter”, aim to “open the book and read a paragraph”. Make the tiny habit guarantees that you comply even on your worst days. The anchor must be unbreakable: Psychologist Melissa Ming Foynes explains to Real Simple that the anchor must be bulletproof. If you want to read at night but your children constantly interrupt your sleep routine, using the night as an anchor is a mistake. Find something you do “rain or shine.” Forget the 21 day myth: As stated Dr. Axscience has shown that forming a habit takes between 18 and 254 days (with an average of 66 days). Patience is vital. Use the “Principle of “Premack”: Dr. Lauren Alexander recommends applying immediate rewards. When you achieve your micro-reading habit, give yourself a small reward so that your brain releases dopamine and closes the positive reinforcement cycle. Beware of mirages. However, before starting to pile up habits, it is important to understand our context. In Spain, 65.5% of citizens claims to read for leisure (an all-time high), but this figure may be inflated by “social bias”: we like to brag that we read because it gives us prestige. Furthermore, reports of The Economist they point out that the best-sellers current ones have a readability equivalent to that of a 16-year-old teenager. We read less deeply than we think. Added to this is the danger of misunderstanding the habit-stacking. How to warn Guardian, Now there is a viral trend on social networks known as bedtime stacking. It consists of going to bed at 8:30 p.m. but taking an arsenal of tasks: the laptop, the iPad, the skincarea snack and the gratitude journal. Far from being a productive habit stack, it’s a disaster for sleep hygiene and destroys our circadian rhythm. {“videoId”:”x7zmsee”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”11 WEBSITES to DOWNLOAD FREE EBOOKS for your KINDLE Xataka TV”, “tag”:”Kindle”, “duration”:”321″} Consistency vs. intensity. At the end of the day, in behavioral psychology “consistency always trumps intensity”. Great personal transformations are not born from marathon reading weekends, but from ridiculously small daily actions repeated over months. We are not bad readers nor do we lack discipline. We have simply been using the wrong tools to fight a hyperconnected life. By chaining reading to our toothbrush or our coffee, we stop depending on capricious inspiration to finally put our own biology to work in our favor. Image | Photo by Matias North on Unsplash Xataka | Science has calculated the real impact of reading books on your brain. And it has a very simple recipe: 30 minutes a day (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); … Read more

First the PS5 rises in price by 100 euros and now the lack of chips forces Sony to stop selling SD and CFexpress cards in Japan

by

Buying a computer, a mobile phone or a console is much more expensive today than it was a couple of years ago and the voracious appetite of data centers is to blame for this component crisis: RAM has become more expensivemore of the same for NAND storage (and therefore, of SSDs) and already threatens even to the batteries. And consumer electronics manufacturers are making moves to avoid swallowing the price rise resulting from this imbalance between supply and demand. If we talk about gaming, a couple of days ago Sony threw a bucket of cold water on those who expected its latest console to drop in price over time because it has been the opposite: The PS5 will go up 100 euros in April. But it is not Sony’s only drastic measure: in Japan have announced that stop selling storage cards. When you see your neighbor’s beard cut… NAND memory chip shortage is wreaking havoc If you have tried to buy a memory card in recent months, you will have already realized that prices have gone up a lot for that common little device that we use for photography, gaming or the Raspberry Pi (which also its price has skyrocketed due to the component crisis). Well, Sony has gone one step further and has indefinitely suspended the acceptance of orders for almost all of its line of CFexpress Type A, Type B and SD cardswhether for authorized distributors or those who buy from the Sony Store. The brief Sony Japan statement is blunt: “Due to the global shortage of semiconductors (memory) and other factors, it is expected that supply will not be meet the demand for CFexpress and SD memory cards in the near future. Therefore, we have decided to temporarily suspend the receipt of orders from our authorized dealers and customers in the Sony store from March 27, 2026. As for the resumption of accepting orders, we will study it based on the supply situation and will announce it separately on the product information page.” It is no longer just the temporary suspension, it is that there is no return date and the reality is that the medium-term future looks bleak: it does not seem that this shortage of components will be resolved in the coming months. In fact, the conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran It is bringing other consequences beyond the rise in fuel prices: helium shortageessential in cooling operations in chip manufacturing It is true that this statement is restricted only to Japanbut the shortage is not exclusive to the Asian country: a quick search for SD in the Sony Store in Spain It returns just four models, one moderately affordable 64GB and then three others of 128GB, 256GB and 512GB that cost around 300 euros. One of the most affected models are the TOUGH cards used in professional photography and the entry-level SD cards. What you can buy today on the Sony website About a month ago the CEO of Phison, one of the major suppliers of controllers for SSDs and memory cards, he already warned: If the situation does not improve, this shortage may end the closure of consumer electronics companies completely in 2026. In Xataka | Not content with bursting demand and prices for RAM, AI is already targeting another victim: batteries In Xataka | The current generation of consoles was supposed to be “weak” and the games were expensive. Well: nothing has stopped the PS5 Cover | Xataka

OpenAI’s big problem all these years has been a chronic lack of definition. Now he wants to solve it with a super app

by

OpenAI spent much of 2025 announcing new features, not new models (that also), but new products. We saw him with his Sora 2 video generator or with ChatGPT Atlas browser. Now, the company recognizes that they were diversifying too much and their plan is… to launch another app. The super app. They have an exclusive Wall Street Journal that OpenAI is preparing a desktop tool that will unify the ChatGPT app, its Codex code platform and the Atlas browser. This super app will offer agentic capabilities, not only oriented to code, but also to productivity. This is aiming directly at the business field, a field in which its rival, Anthropic is quite ahead of him. Too many products. The company’s goal with this move is to simplify the experience and reduce fragmentation between products. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, a company spokesperson assures that it will allow them to unify the different teams, which will be able to focus their efforts on one product instead of several. In an internal note, OpenAI explicitly acknowledges that they were spreading their efforts across too many apps and needed to simplify them. The change will be led by Fidji Simo, the head of apps at OpenAI, who recently brought the employees together to give them a message: “We cannot waste this moment because we are distracted by parallel projects.” And diversifying consumes many resources, both economic and computing capacity, and OpenAI is not to be wasted none of them. Without direction. OpenAI has the most used chatbot in the world, but what they don’t have is a clear product strategy. They have wanted to be too many things at once without a clear strategyand in addition, half-abandoned products have been left along the way. The Atlas browser is the best example of this. I had all the potential to be a serious alternative to Chrome which had not yet integrated Gemini. The reality is that, five months after its launch, ChatGPT Atlas is still exclusive for Mac and also has lost functions. Something similar happened with Sora 2: they got the viral moment they were looking for, but today the app remains exclusive for users in the US and Canada. Competition where it hurts most. While OpenAI launched its video memes or its browser, the competition moved forward with a much less flashy, but better thought-out plan. According to a Menlo Ventures reportin 2023 OpenAI had a 50% share in the enterprise segment, while Anthropic had only 12. In 2025 the tables turned: Anthropic had 32% and ChatGPT 25%. If we focus only on programmers, 42% prefer Claude and only 21% ChatGPT. ChatGPT still has many more users, but the vast majority are for personal use. Financially, business users are much more valuable because they have no qualms about paying for subscriptions that often exceed $200 per month. Image crisis. In case Anthropic was not eating enough toast, the image crisis caused by the agreement with the Pentagon. ChatGPT began to lose users at a worrying ratewhile Claude was placed in the top of most downloaded applications. What they were missing. Image | Amparo Babiloni, Xataka In Xataka | There was a time when ChatGPT was a magical and free tool. That time is about to end

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.