life

Stress was designed by evolution to save your life. Modern chronic stress is taking it away from you

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It is easy to hear in this society the phrase “I am very stressed” because we have more and more demands on us in the workplace or staffand the truth is that it is something that is gradually being used as a “crutch” to associate it with mental fatigue or lack of time. However, the reality is that the great effect that stress has on our body is generating very relevant physical problems that can alter us in the long term. Its effect. The immune system is a fundamental part of our body that defends us against microorganisms, but also against cells that do not follow a natural division and that, without this control, can continue ahead. generating cancer. That is why taking care of it is fundamentaland constant stress is one of your worst enemies by reducing your ability to act. There is no need to demonize. To understand the damage, we must first be fair with the stress, since logically there are situations where you have to have stress to be able to stay aliveand without that ‘stress’ our species would literally be extinct a long time ago. And to understand it, if we ‘travel’ thousands of years ago, if a lion chased a human, the body released adrenaline and cortisol, preparing the immune system for possible injuries and enhancing short-term defenses. The problem with modern life is that the “lion” is no longer a specific predator, but the mortgage, work or constant anxiety. But it is a problem. When stress becomes chronic, it becomes a poison for the body, since, according to different articles, the perpetual state of alert overstimulates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the sympathetic nervous system. Here the result is a sustained elevation of cortisol that, paradoxically, ends up causing “glucocorticoid resistance,” which are the molecules that are naturally produced to reduce inflammation. The body is then flooded with stress hormones, but your cells stop responding properly to them to curb inflammation. And as we have seen on many occasions, long-term inflammation brings more problems than benefits. The defenses. The immune dysfunction caused by this chronic condition is perfectly documented. An example is in the classic Cohen study which already mapped out the physiological mechanisms that make us more vulnerable to infections, but experimental studies and reviews from 2025 give us an exact cellular x-ray of what we lose. Among the examples that stand out, we have a drastic reduction of NK cells which are our first line of defense against viruses and tumor cells. Furthermore, both T lymphocytes (which are fundamental cells of the immune system) such as B lymphocytes see their response capacity diminished, making them unable to ‘destroy’ microorganisms that enter our body. But if that were not enough, chronic stress ages the immune system before its time. In a loop. Perhaps the most fascinating discovery that science points to is the connection between the immune system and mental health through neuroinflammation. Here, chronic stress is literally wearing down the body by continually adapting, causing the immune system to skyrocket. proteins related to inflammation that can travel to the brain and activate microglia, which is the ‘defense’ system of the nervous system. The result? A neuroinflammatory environment that is directly linked to the development of depression and anxiety disorders. And logically, if we have anxiety, stress will continue to increase, causing more inflammatory proteins to be released that will continue to affect the brain. It’s not forever. Here science points out that the damage caused by stress is not perpetual, but can be reversed at any time through interventions psychological interventions focused on stress reduction, as well as regular physical exercise. This has shown that chronic inflammation can be reduced and normal immune system cell function restored. That is why now rest and mental health should not be seen as a luxury, but rather we must begin to see them as an important biological shield that can greatly extend our lives if we manage to keep it under control. Images | creativeart on Freepik In Xataka | We thought staying up late was just a bad habit: It’s your body complaining about stress, according to an anxiety expert

LaLiga’s massive IP blocks are making life impossible for users, companies and developers. So you can claim

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LittleCranky67, which is the alias of our protagonist, didn’t know what was happening with his computer this weekend. This developer was doing something that never gave him any trouble: working with the GitLab platform to download a Docker software package. That process kept giving him strange errors, and LittleCranky67 ended up realizing what had caused it all: LaLiga’s indiscriminate IP blocking. After share your frustration on HackerNewshundreds of comments confirmed other similar cases, and in them we also discovered something interesting: how to officially claim LaLiga. Or at least, how to try. A sad old story. LaLiga he shields himself in the Judgment of December 18, 2024 issued by the Commercial Court No. 6 of Barcelona. This allows you to demand from operators such as Movistar, Vodafone, Orange or Digi to block at the IP level any address that is identified as a source of illegal IPTV broadcasts during LaLiga football matches. Many of those IPs are Cloudflare shared IPs, so when the IPTV service IP is blocked, all domains associated with that shared IP are blocked, which can be hundreds or even thousands. And in those domains there are web pages of private usersfrom companies that they stop being able to sell and also critical services for developers such as Docker, GitHub or GitLab. The irony is that lockdowns don’t work. While many users complain about these blocks and how are affecting websites and services that usemany others continue to remember on social networks that in reality the blocks to view these IPTV broadcasts can be easily circumvented in many ways. The most popular, use VPN services. In LaLiga they know that this method is widely used, so for months They are also working on blocking those services. It doesn’t seem to be serving a lotand whoever really wants to watch the football game without paying has many relatively simple ways to achieve it. If you are affected, you can claim. In that thread, several users remember that one way to try to change things is for users to protest, complain and complain en masse. There are several ways to do it: Telecommunications User Service Office. It is the official body in Spain for these cases. A formal claim can be filed for arbitrary loss of service or censorship, and even claim financial losses if the blockade prevents you from working. Those who have a digital certificate or Cl@ve can do so directly online. Complain to your internet provider. It is also important to open a support ticket with your operator. It is true that they are obliged to follow court orders, but they must know that the blockade is causing collateral damage to services that have nothing to do with football. Common Electronic Registry (SARA network). This portal It also allows you to send formal complaints to management if other methods fail. Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD). Those responsible for RootedCON have been fighting this situation for some time, and offer another recommendation: report LaLiga to the AEPD. This template allows you to complete that complaint in a simple way Demagive to Telecommunications Operators. At RootedCON they also suggest filing a complaint against ISPs, and explain the process in a small thread on Twitter. Again, just download a request and file it individually. Complaint to the European Commission. It is also possible to enter the European Commission complaints website to send a claim to the entity. We explained it in Xataka and the process is another way of trying to stop this situation with the help of European bodies. The BOE serves as a defensive argument. In these complaints it is advisable to cite the BOE-A-2022-10757 as a legal reference. It corresponds to Law 11/2022, of June 28, General Telecommunications (LGTel) and is the fundamental rule that regulates your rights as an internet user in Spain. The message that we can write is the following: “Under the protection of Law 11/2022, of June 28, General Telecommunications (BOE-A-2022-10757), specifically regarding the rights of end users (Chapter IV) and the principles of continuity and quality of service, I present this claim for the blocking of access to legitimate IP addresses (specify which ones, e.g. Cloudflare/Docker) unrelated to any illicit activity. This blockade constitutes a violation of my right to communication and the contracted service, causing harm (professional/personal) by preventing the operation of work/security tools. “I request the immediate cessation of said technical restriction in compliance with the provisions of the aforementioned Law.” The nightmare continues. The debate in HackerNews is nothing more than confirmation of what internet users in Spain have been suffering for more than a year. A private organization has the power to order ISPs in a country to indiscriminately block IPs without judicial review in real time, during regular hours, causing documented harm to third parties that have nothing to do with the original violation. In that thread some users compare the situation with that of the Great Firewall of Chinanot so much in intensity as in its logic. We are faced with an infrastructure of selective censorship that seems to be able to be applied to any content that an actor with sufficient judicial power wants to block. From football to tennis or golf. In fact, things could go further, because what began as an attack against illegal broadcasts of football matches could now be seen in other sports such as tennis or golf. Telefónica —which follows in the footsteps of LaLiga— wants to extend indiscriminate blockades to the Champions League, tennis or golf. This threatens to suffer these side effects for many more days and for many more hours, and can mean that for a good part of the week, users like LittleCranky67 find themselves unable to download Docker packages or access thousands of legitimate websites that end up being knocked down by these blocks. Images | Wirestock | LaLiga In Xataka | LaLiga has been at war with Cloudflare for years over piracy. It has just joined forces with its main competitor

This engineer found 1,351 loose photos in his grandmother’s house. He ended up building a personal Wikipedia of his entire life

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It all started with a closet full of old loose photos. Last year an engineer named Jeremy visited his grandmother’s house for the first time since the pandemic and unknowingly came across a treasure. 1,351 on paper, without order, without dates and without context. Some were in black and white, from when his grandparents were 20 years old. Others were from his mother as a baby. The last ones were from him in high school, just before smartphones arrived and everything moved to the cloud. What began as a family organization exercise became a fascinating project over the weeks: a personal encyclopedia. A Wikipedia of his own life. First, the physical photos and the grandmother. The first problem he encountered when starting his project is that physical photos do not have EXIF metadata. There is almost never a capture date (although some cameras superimposed it), there are no GPS coordinates and there is no information that allows them to be easily sorted. What Jeremy did was resort to a much more direct solution: sit down with his grandmother and ask her about the photos. Remembering that it is a gerund. In that conversation she rearranged the photos of their wedding and narrated the details while he took notes. Names, places, who was sitting where, what each ritual meant. With those notes, he set up a local instance of MediaWiki, the same software that Wikipedia uses, and wrote a page about the wedding following the same format that was used on Wikipedia to royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011. Within two afternoons I had a complete article with scanned photos, captions, links to empty pages about each person mentioned, and links to the real Wikipedia to give historical context to the events. Digital photos and Claude Code to get the job done. Jeremy realized that things could get worse and took the opportunity to do tests with digital photos, which do have EXIF data with date and time and even GPS coordinates. With that information he wanted to see how far he could go without interviews, so he took 625 photos from a family trip to Coorg (India) in 2012, put them in a folder and opened Claude Code in that directory with a simple instruction: compose a Wikipedia page by browsing the images. The model used ImageMagick to create contact sheets that allowed him to process multiple photos at once, and the magic of AI did the rest. The result was a detailed draft chronicling the trip organized by time of day. Without location data, just with timestamps and visual content, the AI ​​model was able to identify the places that appeared in the photos, including some that Jeremy himself had forgotten. It even detected the means of transportation used between destinations just with what it saw in the images. When AI starts remembering for you. Then came the most ambitious experiment, when he wanted to go further with a trip he took to Mexico City in 2022. He had 291 photos and 343 videos taken with an iPhone 12 Pro with GPS coordinates in the metadata, but he also exported his Google Maps location history, his Uber trips, his banking transactions and his Shazam history. By including all that data and sources, the model was able to cross-reference banking transactions with location data to identify the restaurants where he had eaten. For example, he found images of a soccer match in the photos but did not remember which teams were playing, but he found out that information by crossing those photos with bank transactions in which he found a Ticketmaster invoice with the name of the tournament and the teams, and incorporated them into the page. He also used Shazam’s history to describe the music playing in each location. From photos and memories to a personal encyclopedia. A wonderful project that now anyone can replicate thanks to the whoami.wiki website. First the trips, then the friendships. What started as a travel documentation project evolved into something more personal. The Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp archives contained some 100,000 messages and several thousand voice notes exchanged with close friends over a decade. The AI ​​model managed to convert all this information into a unique biography, identifying vital episodes of the protagonists, then converted into pages that, according to Jeremy, “read as if they were written by someone who knew us both.” When he shared the pages with those friends, they couldn’t stop reading those stories and wanted more. MediaWiki as a master ingredient. One of the most interesting decisions of the project is the choice of software. MediaWiki, Wikipedia’s engine, turned out to be an extraordinarily suitable tool for that use case. AI models understand this perfectly because they have been trained with millions of Wikipedia pages and know their structure and functioning. Discussion pages serve to control the development of those pages, categories group pages by topic, and revision history monitors the evolution of each page. All of this infrastructure already existed, and it was not necessary to create a new platform to organize the information that Jeremy was providing. Surpriseyes. At the end of his story, Jeremy explains that after the process: “I realized that I was no longer alone working on a family history project. What I had been creating, page by page, was a personal encyclopedia. A structured, navigable, interconnected record of my life compiled thanks to the data I already had around me.” Documenting her grandmother’s life revealed things she didn’t know: her years as a single mother or the decisions she had to make, for example. Going through the history of his friendships allowed him to recover moments that he had almost forgotten and made him call some of them to remember them together. “The encyclopedia not only organized the data, it made me pay more attention to the people in my life,” he explained. you can do it too. The project has been so rewarding for him that he … Read more

“Nothing in life is to be feared, only understood”

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If I knew anything Maria Salomea Skłodowska (Marie Curie), even more than Physics or Chemistry, two disciplines in which she won two Nobel Prizes, is one of uncertainty. And how to face it. Curie was not only a pioneer in the field of radioactivity (at that time full of unknowns) and discoverer, together with her husband, Pierre, of the chemical elements polonium and radium. He also had to live a world war and make their way in a territory dominated by men, something that makes clear the very famous photo of the fifth Solvay Congress, in 1927, in which she poses as the only woman among almost thirty men. That is why almost a century later his reflections on how to confront fear, uncertainty and their multiple causes are a crucial part of his legacy. Curie’s example. We were talking about it not long ago: the history of philosophy is full of round phrases of uncertain origin. There are plenty of them, even reflections attributed to two authors at the same time, such as it’s about procrastination that some sources put in mouth by Leonardo Da Vinci and others of the 18th century French moralist Joseph Joubert. The Marie Curie phrase that concerns us today and with which we head this post is also of confusing origin. Some historians have traced its origins until 1952 and the truth is that since the 60s it has been replicated in countless essays, books and articles, which makes it one of the most popular phrases attributed to Curie. Does it make sense? A lot. Basically because, unlike what happens with other famous proverbs of uncertain origin that clash diametrically with the thoughts of the authors to whom it is attributed, this one in question summarizes Curie’s life. What does the phrase say? The sentence It’s simple. Rotunda. With an almost magnetic force. And above all it is loaded with meanings. “Nothing in life should be feared, only understood. When you understand, fear disappears.” In those two sentences Marie Curie addresses several questions that philosophy has been asking for centuries, issues that date back long before the time of the Polish scientist and still continue to obsess us today: What exactly is fear? What produces it? Is it good or bad? How should we act before him? What is the best way to approach it to avoid it paralyzing or limiting us? From the outset, what Marie Curie tells us is that we should not deny fear. On the contrary. That something makes us afraid, especially if it is new to us, is totally understandable. The key is how we react to that sensation. Our attitude, the Polish scientist encourages usit must be rational, not visceral. If we really want to face fear and escape its radius of action, we will have to stop and try to understand what scares us. More than words. That this phrase has been captivating us for more than half a century has nothing mysterious. To a large extent it is explained by two factors: what it says and above all who says it. Regarding the first, time has proven Marie Curie right. Today psychologists recognize that fear is not a negative emotion in itself, it is part of our most basic toolbox to survive. In fact it is a natural reaction to the unknown. If something is disconcerting to us, it is not strange that it frightens us. It’s that simple. The problem is that this feeling ends up being disabling or leads to rejection. If that happens we run the risk of closing doors. As they explain our colleagues Trendsmany times we find it difficult to move forward or we feel limited not because we encounter an objectively high risk, but simply because we do not take the time to understand it. That’s when Curie’s voice resonates: “When you understand, fear disappears.” Setting an example. The other reason why the phrase has been fascinating us for decades is because in a way it summarizes the vital and intellectual position of the scientist. If there was one thing Curie explored throughout her life, it was the new, and if there was one thing she had to manage, it was uncertainty (and probably the fears that accompanied it). First because he had to deal with a turbulent historical moment. Marie was born in a Poland controlled by the Russian Empire, experienced hardships in Paris during her early years of training and, as an adult, faced a world war, the premature death of her husband and the misunderstanding from his colleagues. If the above were not enough, Curie strove to expand the horizons of science, facing precisely the new: together with her husband she discovered two chemical elements, radium and polonium, and was a pioneer of radioactivity, which she soon actively took advantage of to help wounded soldiers. All this in an academic sphere basically dominated by men. Current in the 21st century. Curie’s words also have a scope that goes from the individual to the collective. His advice on how to approach fears and the value of understanding to scare them away serves as a personal guide, but also makes for interesting reading in a world increasingly polarized. “When you understand, fear disappears,” insists Marie Curie. That of course has its toll: understanding requires effort, leaving the comfort zone, giving up the most visceral responses and exercising reason. Images | Wikipedia In Xataka | What did the philosopher Marcus Aurelius mean when he wrote: “Receive without pride, let go without regrets” Via | Trends

We have found a time capsule in the form of salt in Chile. And now finding life on Mars is closer

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As we continue to explore how to get to Mars with Artemis II As a critical engineering and logistics bridge in the form of a long-term trial of interplanetary travel, science continues to search for traces of life on the red planet. And it is not easy: although 3.37 billion years ago an ocean covered half the planetMars is today a dry planet devastated by radiation. The question is where to look for that life. The answer, as incredible as it may seem, may be more than 3,500 meters high in the north of Chile, in the Salar de Pajonales, a landscape that is also desolate where there is a range of extreme temperatures ranging between -23 °C and 26 °C, one of the highest solar radiation recorded on Earth, there is hardly any precipitation and winds that exceed 100 km/h. And yet, there is life. There a research team has discovered that plaster constitutes the perfect refuge for life. Spoiler: Gypsum is a common mineral both on Earth like on mars. The discovery. According to this research, gypsum is not only a sedimentary rock, but also a biological repository. Thus, this mineral is capable of harboring both current life in the form of microorganisms that live within the crystals and preserving molecular fossils and microscopic structures. A kind of time capsule that protects organic material from degradation for millions of years. Why is it important. The consequence of this finding in space research is direct: if gypsum is a “magnet” for biological preservation in hyperaridity conditions, the scientific community knows that the abundant sulfate deposits on Mars (such as Gale crater) are a magnificent place to continue searching for traces of extraterrestrial life. If there was life on Mars, gypsum is a likely place to house its traces. Context. The Salar de Pajonales seems like a place from another planet: it is in high mountains where ultraviolet radiation is high, there is extreme aridity and thermal fluctuations reminiscent of the conditions on Mars from billions of years ago, when the red planet began to dry out. In this scenario, life has learned to hide from the unfriendly surface in a lifestyle endolithic to survive. Thus, the mineral functions as a solar shield and moisture reserve. How have they done it. To read what the rocks contain, the Tebes-Cayo team has applied a kind of high-precision molecular and mineral archaeology: With habitability and climate analysis with a meteorological station that recorded data every 20 minutes for 40 years monitoring water activity. Using x-rays, petrography and microfluorescence to create thin sections to distinguish minerals and their distribution without destroying the sample. With microscope, isotopes and DNA sequencing to identify the microorganisms, the trapped corpses and to confirm that the carbon found has a biological and not a geological origin. Yesyes, but. We already know that gypsum is the ideal candidate to search for life on Mars, but that is based on a hypothetical premise: that it ever existed. On the other hand, and although the Salar de Pajonales is reminiscent of the Red Planet, the conditions on Mars are even more extreme than in Chile (there is almost no atmosphere and it is even colder), which may have affected the preservation in a different way. And then there is the practical application: it is one thing to detect these biosignatures in the high mountains of Chile and another to use a robot thousands of kilometers away for the same purpose. In Xataka | Europe has thought of throwing three robots into a volcanic lava tube and now colonizing the Moon or Mars is closer In Xataka | If the question is “how are we going to build houses on Mars” the answer today is “with bricks made of urine” Cover | Luiza Braun and BoliviaIntelligent

Extend the life of your dinosaur carrier

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To give us an idea, a nuclear aircraft carrier It can operate for more than 20 years without refueling and mobilize thousands of people, including crew and air wing. Each of these ships, or floating mini-cities, acts as a total military base capable of intervening anywhere on the planet in a matter of days. The problem is that they also have an expiration date. A decision that was not in the plans. The announced and unusual USS Nimitz aircraft carrier extension until 2027 does not seem to respond to a planned improvement or a long-term strategic update of the United States, but rather to a correction on the fly derived from the turbulent times and current war conflicts. We are talking about the oldest aircraft carrier in Washington’s fleet, it had to start his withdrawal much earlierbut that the Navy has chosen to keep it active to cover a gap that cannot be filled with other means. It is a very unusual decision because it prolongs the life of a ship that has already far exceeded its planned operating cycle, indicating that the original planning has been exceeded. due to the current situation. The requirement: 11. Behind it there is an idea that no one has wanted to knock down. The United States is required by law to maintain at least eleven aircraft carriers in servicebut meeting that number has become increasingly complicated. The removal of a ship of these characteristics without having its replacement ready generates an immediate deficit that affects the entire operational structure. In this case, the Nimitz is kept in service not because it is essential for its own sake, but because it is necessary to maintain that legal minimum and avoid a drop in global deployment capacity. Nimitz flight deck A delay and the consequences. Plus: the problem is aggravated because the aircraft carrier that was to replace it, the USS John F. Kennedyit will not be ready until, at least, the year 2027. This industrial delay forces us to extend the life of old systems to maintain operational continuity. In a fleet where each unit requires years of construction and planning, any slippage in the schedule has direct and long-lasting effects. The Nimitz thus becomes a temporary solution to cover this gap, but also a symptom that the renewal of the fleet is not following the expected pace. Subjected to intensive use. At the same time, aircraft carriers in service are operating under pressure extremely high. Deployments that should last between six and eight months are becoming longer, affecting both the condition of the ships and the crews. Already we tell it these days. The case of the USS Gerald R. Ford is possibly the most illustrative: after months of deployment and accumulated problems, a fire has forced him to temporarily withdraw from the operation in the Middle East. Thus, each incident or delay further reduces global availability and forces the remaining resources to be redeployed. Chain effect. Additionally, when aircraft carriers remain deployed longer than expected, maintenance it delays and accumulates. This not only affects the vessel in question, but the entire fleet planning, since shipyards, crews and repair cycles are designed years in advance. The result is a domino chain effect in which each extension or breakdown complicates the next rotationreducing operational flexibility and increasing overall wear and tear. The context: a constant presence. All this occurs at a time when the demand for aircraft carriers is especially high. The war in the east Middle and tensions in Asia They require a sustained naval presence in multiple regions at the same time. Thus, while aircraft carriers remain the United States’ main power projection tool, their number and availability do nothing more than the ability to cover all scenarios simultaneously, because when one is out of service, the impact is immediately noticeable. Nimitz and the problem. Ultimately, the decision of keep active to the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz is not exactly a sign of strength, but rather of adjustment to a situation increasingly demanding. Indicates that the Navy is using all available resources to sustain your level of presence globally, even those models that were destined to be retired. Worse still, in practical terms, it reflects a fleet that, although still capable of operating in multiple scenarios, does so with less margin of reserve and greater dependence on exceptional decisions to maintain balance. And where a fire in a laundry or a problem in the toilets can be the same incendiary than a ballistic missile. Image | USN, JET311 In Xataka | The largest US aircraft carrier leaves Iran with a feces problem, without laundry and with its soldiers sleeping on the floor In Xataka | The US has the most advanced nuclear aircraft carrier on the planet. What it does not have is a way to unclog its pipes of feces.

“Life begins on the other side of despair”

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It doesn’t matter where you are from, how old you are, what you do or what you entertain yourself with. It almost doesn’t matter how you think. Most likely the word “despair” causes you an automatic rejection. Normal, right? In life there are good sensations, others that are debatable, and there are those that are undesirable no matter how you look at them. Despair, anguish, is part of the latter because no one in their right mind would choose despair over hope. No? If we are clear about the above, why the hell in 1943 did the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartreone of the most prestigious minds of the 20th century, had Orestes pronounce the next words in his theater work The flies? “Human life begins on the other side of despair.” The question is timely because, unlike what happens in most literary works, here it does not seem that it is the character who speaks to us. If we take into account Sartre’s philosophy, in this case it is not unreasonable to think that it’s himself who moves Orestes’ lips to express his opinion. Did Sartre really believe that ‘despair’ is the door to life? Isn’t that a discouraging and gloomy panorama? Sartre and existentialism Before talking about how Sartre thought, it is worth knowing who Sartre was, one of the lighthouses of Western philosophy of the 20th century. Thinker, novelist, playwright, critic and political activist, Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) is remembered above all for being one of the great exponents of existentialism. Without it it is difficult to understand the intellectual panorama of 20th century Europe and figures of the stature of Soren Kierkegaard, Lev Chestov, Albert Camus either Martin Heidegger. Although its seams are wide and there are important differences between authors, basically existentialism as conceived by Sartre (atheistic existentialism) is based on a premise: humans are born without a predefined purpose. We are not toasters, cars or TVs, objects created based on a concept and with a specific purpose. Nor are we the work of a superior “craftsman.” Unlike what happens with what we make as men, objects in which the “essence” is prior to the “existence”, in our case it is the existence that precedes the essence. What does that mean? “That man begins by existing, finds himself, emerges in the world, and then defines himself,” the French thinker clarifies in one of his key works, Existentialism is a humanism. “Man, as the existentialist conceives him, if he is not definable, it is because he begins by being nothing. He will only be later, and he will be as he has been made. Thus, then, there is no human nature, because there is no God to conceive it,” Sartre continuesand insists: “Man is nothing other than what he makes himself”, a creature “condemned to be free.” We have not chosen to be here. We have not created ourselves. And yet we are responsible for everything we do. It is not lost on Sartre that this scenario can lead to “anguish”, a feeling of helplessness and despair. He is not the only philosopher who addresses the topic (Heidegger and Kierkegaard also did), although it is true that the Frenchman’s work helps us understand how important sensation is. for him Anguish is nothing other than “the awareness of being one’s own future in the way of not being one”, an overwhelming feeling in the face of the range of possibilities that are open to man, radical freedom and lack of answers. This approach leaves behind an idea that is as fascinating as it is overwhelming: man is born with a huge challenge aheadthe challenge of living authentically, assuming your freedom, choosing your course, giving meaning to yourself and making decisions that will have consequences for your entire environment. There is no destination. There are no excuses. It depends on us. “Man will only be afterwards and will be as he has been made. It is nothing other than what he makes himself. If it precedes the essence, man is responsible for what he is”, warns us. “(Fyodor) Dostoyevsky writes: ‘If God did not exist, everything would be permitted.’ This is the starting point of existentialism. In fact, everything is permitted if God does not exist and, consequently, man is abandoned, because he finds neither in himself nor outside himself a possibility of clinging. “First of all, it finds no excuses. If existence precedes essence, the reference to a given and fixed human nature can never be explained. In other words, there is no determinism, man is free, freedom.” “The first step of existentialism is to put every man in possession of what he is and to place upon him the total responsibility for his existence. And when we say that man is responsible for himself, we do not mean that man is responsible for his strict individuality, but that he is responsible for all men,” Sartre continues. Understanding this enormous responsibility and all its implications generates anxiety, but that has no why be negative. The reason? As Orestes proclaims in his dialogue of the The flies This hopelessness does not have to be frustrating or plunge us into inaction. On the contrary. “It is the very condition of their action because this means that they face a plurality of possibilities and, when they choose one, they realize that it only has value because it has been chosen,” illustrates the philosopher, drawing a parallel with the anguish that a general feels when he decides something that will affect the lives of his soldiers. “existentialism is an optimism, a doctrine of action,” claims Sartre, who ends his essay with a warning: those who use despair to attack it do so by “confusing their own feeling with ours.” It may sound like an old-fashioned lesson (Sartre died in 1980), but his words resonate strongly in an era in which we live hyperconnected, among related ephemera in which the need to search for meaning, identity and authenticity is especially felt. From the Paris … Read more

Sam Altman has spent his entire life saying one thing and doing exactly the opposite. And this time it didn’t even take 48 hours.

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A Mecano’s great song —I know, this is very Kiss FM—he said that ‘the face you see is a Signal ad’. And in case any of our painfully young readers don’t know, Signal is a brand of toothpaste. And if there is anyone whose face is exactly like that, it is Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, who with a perfect and convincing smile tries to convince the world that his company is just as perfect and convincing. For many people, today is not the case. what has happened. These days we have seen how the US and its Department of Defense (or War, as they like to call it now) have decided that if any AI company wants to work with them, they are going to have to let them use the AI ​​as they see fit. That we have to massively spy on people? He spies on her, totally, we have already done it. What should we tell AI to develop lethal autonomous weapons? Well too. Anthropic stands. But lo and behold, precisely the company that was working with the Pentagon He said that oranges from China. Anthropic, which had been collaborating with the Government for months—Claude was used for the arrest of Nicolás Maduro—, has made it clear that there are red lines that he will not cross. If Anthropic doesn’t want to, let OpenAI do it. At the Pentagon they have threatened to turn Anthropic into a pariah company, but at the moment they have not made any official move. What has happened is that the US Government has decided to change its technological partner. OpenAI has replaced Anthropic and appears to have reached an agreement to work with US defense and security agencies. Sam Altman seizes the opportunity. This has been indicated by Sam Altman, who in an ad on Twitter (I still resist calling her “X”) explained that her company had agreed deploy their models on the US War Department’s classified network. The curious thing is that this agreement establishes the same red lines that Anthropic had: no espionage on American citizens and no autonomous weapons. In the official announcement they even highlight that their agreement “has more safeguards than any previous agreement for classified AI deployments, including Anthropic’s.” There is, for example, one more requirement: that their models not be used for “social credit” systems with which citizens are rated based on the information collected from them. But. Although both Sam Altman and the company’s blog appear to place limits on the War Department’s use of its AI, the terms of that agreement contradict Altman’s claims. The announcement mentions a specific paragraph of the agreement that explicitly states the following: The War Department may use the AI ​​system for all lawful purposes, consistent with applicable law, operational requirements, and well-established security and oversight protocols. “The AI ​​system will not be used to independently direct autonomous weapons in any case where human control is required by law, regulation or Department policy, nor will it be used to make other high-risk decisions that require approval from a similarly competent human decision-maker.” Mass spying on American citizens is legal in certain scenarios as part of the Patriot Act that was passed after the 9/11 attacks, and that would allow AI to process data and communications collected by mass surveillance systems. Jeremy Lewin, a State Department official, has indicated that this agreement “flows from the pillar of ‘all legitimate use’”, and points out that what Altman proposes regarding red lines is not as clear-cut as it seems. Internal protests. Last Friday at 5:01 p.m., Anthropic was due to accept the Pentagon’s terms, but it did not do so. During that morning, several OpenAI and Google employees showed their support for the ethical and moral positioning of the rival company, and almost 800 of them (681 from Google, 96 from OpenAI) signed an open letter entitled “We will not be divided.” Altman says one thing, does another. In an interview with CNBCSam Altman said on CNBC that despite all the differences he has with Anthropic, “I trust them as a company, and I think they really care about safety.” On Thursday, the CEO of OpenAI sent an internal statement expressing his desire for “things to de-escalate between Anthropic and the Department of Defense.” The message came to nothing less than two days later, when he announced the agreement with the same Department. Altman says one thing, does another. In an interview with CNBCSam Altman said on CNBC that despite all the differences he has with Anthropic, “I trust them as a company, and I think they really care about safety.” On Thursday, the CEO of OpenAI sent an internal statement expressing his desire for “things to de-escalate between Anthropic and the Department of Defense.” The message came to nothing less than two days later, when he announced the agreement with the same Department. The world against OpenAI. Many have ended up criticizing OpenAI’s way of acting on social networks. On Reddit they appeared several messages that encouraged users to “Cancel ChatGPT” with thousands of positive votes and also thousands of comments in which the tone was indignant with the way in which OpenAI and Sam Altman have taken advantage of this circumstance. We have seen critical movements in the past —Facebook, Netflix—, but it usually happens that after these first moments, companies end up recovering from the criticism and even come out stronger for a simple reason: Human beings have very bad memories. In Xataka | OpenAI has a problem: Anthropic is succeeding right where the most money is at stake

If the question is whether there was life on Mars, NASA has a new explanation: it depends

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NASA’s Curiosity rover has been shedding light on Mars since August 2011, making authentic discoveries on its surface, in your clouds and of course, about its potential habitability. And if its younger brother Perseverance found a few months ago “the clearest sign of life we ​​have seen on Mars”, one of Curiosity’s latest discoveries is not so clear. What Curiosity found. Since 2012, Curiosity has been exploring Gale Crater, a place where there was a lake billions of years ago. In March 2025, while the rover’s integrated laboratory was analyzing a clay rock there, they found the presence of decan, undecan and dodecan. What’s that? Alkanes, that is, long chain hydrocarbons formed by hydrogen and carbon atoms. Why is it important. Because Curiosity’s discovery is the largest organic compounds ever found on the red planet and its size is such that its existence can hardly be explained by simple chemistry. On Earth, these types of hydrocarbons are usually fragments of fatty acids produced by living beings. However, on Mars, its origin is not so clear: it is reasonable to think of a biological origin, but with current evidence there is no confirmation. Biology or geology? The degradation of fatty acids causes the appearance of these hydrocarbons one way or another, but their presence does not imply that they necessarily come from a living organism. In fact, on Earth they can also be generated by geological processes. In short: detecting organic molecules on Mars does not mean finding life. Correlation does not imply causation. A “reasonable” hypothesis. So they analyzed the known non-biological sources of these organic molecules looking for an explanation for these quantities found. Since none of them fully explained this abundance, in this recent study published in Astrobiology that the research includes have raised a “reasonable” hypothesis: that living beings could have formed them. Among the known sources are molecules from meteorites that crash into the surface of Mars, cosmic dust, geological chemistry such as the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis plausible on early Mars or ultraviolet radiation, which in addition to destroying organic components can also form them, are some of the candidates. The method. To reach these conclusions, the team of scientists combined laboratory experiments, mathematical models and data from the rover, which allowed them to go back in time 80 million years to estimate how much organic matter existed at the beginning, before cosmic radiation destroyed it. The amount they were able to reconstruct far exceeds what unknown non-biological processes can generate. Of course, it does not affirm that there was life, nor are there fossils or biomarkers of course. In fact, their conclusion is clear: more studies are needed to conclude on the absence or presence of life on Mars. In Xataka | There are those who believe that 50 years ago we found life on Mars (and then accidentally destroyed it) In Xataka | China is getting closer to surpassing NASA in its Martian mission. And just invited other countries to join Cover | NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Artemis 2 passes its life test and clears the path to the Moon

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The mission Artemis IIwhich aims fly over the Moon againdid not have the best of luck in its rehearsals before launch due to the fuel and a hydrogen leak. But now NASA can breathe easy, since the second general test with fuel of the gigantic SLS rocket It has been a resounding success. and opens the way for humanity to return to the Moon half a century later. Without a doubt. Between February 19 and 20, 2026, engineers from the US space agency managed to complete the loading sequence of propellants without serious incidents, stopping the countdown exactly at the expected moment: T-29 seconds. The doubts about the engineering team are left behind and an imminent launch window opens that could start as early as March 6. Master hydrogen. Filling a 98-meter-high rocket with more than 2.6 million liters of superfrozen fuel is no easy task in practice. That is why in the previous test, carried out on February 3, we saw how it had to be aborted when the clock read T-5:15. And the culprit was none other than NASA’s old enemy: liquid hydrogen leaks. It must be taken into account here that liquid hydrogen is an exceptionally efficient propellant, but tremendously elusive, since it requires cryogenic temperatures of -253 °C. This extreme temperature causes the materials shrink in the rocketfacilitating escapes and increasing safety risks for the crew. Although this is what NASA found during the Artemis 1 mission in 2022. The repair. For this second attempt, NASA technicians meticulously replaced the defective seals and filters and the truth is that the move went perfectly. And during this last test, the filling was completed normally and the exhaust controls worked wonderfully. One step closer. The success of this trial is essential so that the Artemis program is not further delayed and neither is everything that will come after it. If we put ourselves in context, the Artemis mission was scheduled for September 2025, but was delayed until spring 2026 due to technical problems in the heat shield, batteries or control system of the Orion capsule. A big blot on paper that NASA needed to make up for with some success like this. When will it be released? In this way, the space agency already has its sights set on the launch window that opens from March 6 to 30the most optimal being to do it between March 6 and 11. That is why if everything follows the planned plan, the Orion capsule will be launched on a free return trajectory on a trip of approximately 10 days around the Moon, without landing on the moon. The objective. On board will be four pioneers who will take over the Apollo missions: Americans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Jeremy Hansen. Its mission is not only historic because it is the first manned flight of the program, but because it will serve to validate all life support systems before the main course: Artemis III. A project that has its sights set on carrying out the first manned landing on the south pole of the Moon since 1972 and, above all, overtaking competing countries such as, for example, China, which makes very significant progress in the space race. Images | POT Pedro Lastra In Xataka | NASA has managed to grow lettuce in space. What he discovered next was not part of the plan

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