life

give it a second life on your Smart TV or PC

by

Let’s tell you How to give a second life to your old mini or micro systemso that you can reuse it, especially its speakers. Thus, if you have one at home or see one that is quite cheap second-hand, you should know that it may be better for you to reuse it than to buy a sound bar for your TV or speakers for your computer. Let’s start by telling you about the limitations you will have if you want to do this, such as limited audio formats or no network access. Then, we’ll tell you what you’ll need and how to proceed. These are the limitations The first limitation that you are going to find is in some audio formats. If you connect the mini system to a device such as a TV or computer, you can play almost all types of files, although you will not have support for Dolby Digital, DTS or Dolby AtmosFor example. What you will have is support for great audio quality, since the speakers are connected. The other limitation will be in the connectivity that your chain supports. The safest thing, being a few years old, is that you do not have support for USB-C or HDMI, and possibly not WiFi or Bluetooth support either. Mini chains that are a few years old will surely be limited to analog audio inputs by RCA-type coaxial cable, and it probably has two different inputs, one for the left speaker and the other for the right. The speakers you bring may also be connected to the micro system via a specific speaker cable. This is what you can do If your TV has support for RCA coaxial cables, there is no problem, because you just have to connect them to the micro system, and then the speakers to it. But not all TVs have this support, and of course your computer will not have it. For these cases, there are two solutions. The “easy” solution is to opt for a 3.5mm jack cable. Many TVs and some computers may have one of these connectors, the headphone jack for life, and many micro systems may also have an input to use them. Then, on the device you will have the option to output the audio to speakers or headphones. If your chain doesn’t support it, there are 3.5mm jack to RCA cable adapters, another good option. However, the best option is to buy a DACespecially if you want to reuse the mini system on a computer. These are small boxes that are responsible for converting digital audio into analog. This means that you can connect your computer or TV to the DAC via USB, and after the DAC the RCA cables come out. In fact, you can even use DACs as intermediaries for other PC speakers you have, because they usually improve the sound a lot. This is how I told you back in the day when I explained to you how to improve the sound of your computer. The negative part here is that DACs have a cost. I use a Fiio K7 with support for Hi-Res audio, and Its price is about 200 euros. You can also buy others for less than 100 or less than 50 euros in stores like Aliexpres, they will also work for you. There are many models and many prices, and it all depends on the use you want to give it. Some DACs even have Bluetooth support, which will add this connectivity to your micro system. Regardless of the method used, once you have connected your TV or computer to the micro system, then turn it on in the INPUT options choose the auxiliary or the one designated to input sound from another device you have connected. Reusing speakers is not easy Reusing only the speakers of a micro system without the device itself and its electronic part is a little more complicated. This is only possible if the speakers have passive filters for the frequency range already installed inside them. Almost all speakers are two or more ways, with at least one driver for treble and another for bass-midrange. For everything to sound correctly, the speakers need to send the corresponding frequency range to each driver through prior filtering. These filters can be passive with a filter made up of capacitors, resistors and coils, or electronically active. The normal thing is that the technology to be able to do this is within the microchain itselfso separate speakers sometimes won’t do. In Xataka Basics | Improve the sound of your computer: basic tips and what you can do to make music sound better

makes my life easier every day (and at no cost)

by

By now we all know Gemini. Google AI is a fantastic tool that we can use for a ton of things: from writing down a recipe in Keep to getting ideas for giving a gift, to generating a Christmas card. We can download it through Google Play Store But there Android phones have an advantage, since Gemini is deeply and very naturally integrated into them. The best thing is how simple it is to activate this artificial intelligence assistant: All you have to do is press and hold the side button on your phone for a few seconds. and we will automatically be able to interact with Gemini (either by writing or speaking). Now, what exactly can this AI do for us? Let’s see it briefly. Gemini is a very useful tool that has no cost Gemini is a very versatile tool that, as we say, can carry out many tasks. Now, before moving on to it, it is worth mentioning two very important details that give even more value to Google’s AI. The first of them is that interacting with Gemini is very natural, so you don’t have to speak robotically for him to understand us. The other detail is also key: everything is done at no cost to the user. In addition to talking to Gemini directly (or writing, as we have said before), we cannot ignore the existence of Gemini Live. Thanks to this function, which arrived after the launch of this AI, we can activate the device’s camera to share visual information with GeminYo. It is very useful if, for example, we want this assistant to translate a poster in another language. We can also share screen with Gemini if ​​we wish. On a day-to-day basis, we can continually use Gemini to set alarms or create reminders. In fact, this Google assistant handles complex tasks very wellwhich simplifies everything a lot. The clearest example is that we can, with a single sentence and in a language that we would use to talk to a friend, ask Gemini to create a reminder for a doctor’s appointment and send a message with this information to our partner (among many other things). Finally, we must add to this cocktail the latest function that Gemini has received, so far, on mobile phones: Nano Banana. Thanks to this, we can generate images very precisely and use them for anything, whether to create a meme or to design a birthday greeting, for example. You have Android phones with direct access to Gemini on offer If you’re in the market for a new Android phone and looking for something that lets you access Gemini directly, you’re spoiled for choice. In fact, MediaMarkt has an active promotion with many of them on offeralthough you only have a few more days to take advantage of it. Below you have a selection of some very interesting ones. Galaxy S25 Ultra If we are looking for a top Android device, perhaps the Galaxy S25 Ultrawhich precisely won the Xataka award for best super high-end mobile this 2025. We are faced with a device with a beastly performance thanks to the tandem formed by the Snapdragon 8 Elite and its 12 GB of RAM. Its 6.9-inch screen with QHD+ resolution has the best anti-reflective treatment there is and its camera system is outstanding. All added up to seven years of updates and a very interesting price with this offer: 890.10 euros in its 512 GB version if we register in myMediaMarkt (it’s free). Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra (512GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Google Pixel 10 Pro The purest Android experience, as usual, will be offered to us by the Google Pixel. We have available right now the Pixel 10 Proa more compact device than the previous one. It has a 6.3-inch OLED screen and uses the Tensor G5 chip, as well as a 4,870 mAh battery with 30 W fast wired charging. Its camera system performs well in all scenarios and has seven years of guaranteed updates. comes out for 854.10 euros if we register at miMediaMarkt. Google Pixel 10 Pro (256GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Google Pixel 9a If we like the previous Google phone, but we are looking for a cheaper alternative, then the Pixel 9a. This device is, right now, a great quality-price option: it costs 399 euros. Despite having been on the market for almost a year, it continues to offer very good performance thanks to the Tensor G4 chip and its 6.3-inch 120 Hz screen is of high quality. It has a very balanced dual camera system and came with seven years of guaranteed updates. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Vivo V50 Lite We also have an economical and very interesting alternative with the Vivo V50 Lite. This device, which currently costs 209 euros With 256 GB of storage, it stands out for offering a considerably larger battery than previous devices: it is 6,500 mAh. In addition, its 6.77-inch 120 Hz screen provides a very fluid experience. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Galaxy Z Fold7 We also have several folding ones on sale right now, as is the case with the Galaxy Z Fold7. Although Samsung already has several competitors in the foldable sector, this Fold is one of the best devices of this type out there. Its interior screen, once opened, offers 8 inches with a resolution of 2,184 x 1,968 pixels. In addition, it has plenty of power thanks to its Snapdragon 8 Elite processor and 12 GB of RAM. We have it available for 1,709.10 euros if we register at miMediaMarkt. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Here are just a few examples. If you are looking for other alternatives, just take a look to the complete MediaMarkt catalog. Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit … Read more

TRAPPIST-1 was the most promising solar system to search for life. Now our joy is in a well

by

spent years searching for planets that could serve as a Earth 2in 2015 it happened. Thanks to the TRAPPIST telescope, we discovered an ultra-cool dwarf star which had three planets around it. They published the discovery in 2016, but a year later it was concrete that in the system there was a total of seven Earth-sized planets. It was clear: we had to continue investigating because there were options for one to harbor life. TRAPPIST-1 (because a way of naming the findings it is with the name of the telescope) became the “holy grail” of extraterrestrial life. The star is 40 light years away and three of its planets are estimated to be in the “habitable zone.” This is the segment with the ideal conditions for life to prosper. The initial enthusiasm was justified: they were small planets, they were not gas giantsand the star is so faint that the temperate zone of the system would favor those ideal conditions. Different climate models pointed out that only a small greenhouse effect would be needed for any of them to be able to house liquid water on their surface. but the same James Webb telescopewhat youit is giving us so much joyis the one who has unmounted almost completely the narrative of TRAPPIST-1 as a system in which to search for life. And in less than a decade, these planets have gone from being the most promising place in our cosmic block to being just another rocky exoplanet. James Webb lowering the soufflé There are multiple reasons why we look for extraterrestrial life. There are the philosophical reasons, the well-worn question of whether we are alone in the universe. Then the scientists, eager to find life to understand how much organisms can endure in other conditionsunderstand the origin and evolution of the universe and even compare ourselves with them. And the practices: experiment in other environments, get resources and to a new home. The telescopes with which we observe the system are good for that first exploration, but more recently the task was left in the hands of one of the most powerful we have, the James Webb Space Telescopeor JWST. The result of an international megaproject is not on earth, but on a satellite, which allows sharpness and detail of the observed objectives unattainable for terrestrial telescopes. And when we have pointed the JWST at TRAPPIST-1, the soufflé has been deflated. His work has focused on the inner planets, known as TRAPPIST-1b, c and d. The conclusion is thatTheir habitability is complicated due to the lack of atmosphere or one so “thin” that it would not protect the planet well against the star’s radiation, also implying surfaces so hot that they would not be compatible with life. Any hint of atmosphere that was initially observed is now practically ruled out. As we read in spacefrom the University of Arizona they comment that “based on the most recent work, the previously reported tentative hint of an atmosphere was likely just “noise” from the host star.” If the star itself gave us hope in the first place by not seeming to be a “killer” of planets, it has now moved to the other side of the spectrum. It is possible that this radiation bombardment allowed Extremophilic microbes will develop on those planets, but to do so they would have to have a denser atmosphere, something that JWST is not seeing. However, all is not lost. The Great Hope: TRAPPIST-1e Although d, c and d no longer look good, the great hope now falls on e, f and g. They are the planets located in a more temperate orbit, where the balance between radiation and atmospheric loss may be more conducive to having a denser atmosphere that allows life. Among them, astronomers consider TRAPPIST-1e to be the most promising. A few weeks ago, a article showed how JWST observed TRAPPIST-1e during four different transits at the time when the planet came closest to its star. The telescope’s near-infrared spectrograph recorded subtle changes in the light around it, which would indicate the presence of chemicals in the atmosphere. Their estimate is that the atmosphere is composed of a majority of nitrogen and methane, and not carbon dioxide as occurs on Venus or Mars. Now, is this the case or is it once again noise from the host star.” It is a possibility that they do not rule out, but as they comment, need more observations and analysis. The researchers are clear that “if TRAPPIST-1e has an atmosphere, it is habitable.” It is a bold statement, but the second part of the question is “is there an atmosphere?” For now, it remains an enigma, but the next step is what will allow researchers to rule out the planet as habitable or get excited again. What will they do? Observe the transit through the star of TRAPPIST-1e when it coincides with that of TRAPPIST-1b. This way, ‘e”s signal will not be contaminated with noise from its star and observers will be able to “separate what the star is doing from what is actually happening in the planet’s atmosphere. If it has one.” Therefore, there is a thread to hold on to, but it is better not to get too excited about a planet that is right here in the neighborhood of the infinite vastness of the universe. Images | IT/M. Kornmesser, NASA/JPL-Caltech In Xataka | The James Webb has broken another historical record: a supermassive black hole older than expected

Why 20°C “ice slush” changes our search for extraterrestrial life

by

Titan, the crown jewel of the moons of saturnjust gave us a slap of reality. For two decades, the official narrative of space exploration focused on what was hidden beneath its thick haze. a vast global ocean of liquid water. But now we know that we were wrong, or at least, it was not as we imagined. The study. Led by Flavio Petricca, from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) from NASAand published this December 17, 2025 in Nature magazineproposes a radically different model: Titan does not have an interconnected ocean, but a dense, viscous layer of “slush ice” with pockets of trapped liquid water. The 15 hour lag. The Cassini probe ended its mission in 2017 crashing into Saturn, but its data remains a gold mine for physicists. Petricca’s team has therefore decided to reanalyze the probe’s Doppler data, that is, the changes in frequency in the radio signals generated by the moon’s gravity. But now with the most modern processing techniques that we have developed. The result of the analysis is a 15-hour lag in Titan’s tidal response. This means that when Saturn exerts its brutal force of gravity on Titan, the moon deforms as if stretched. In this way, if on its surface there would be pure waterthe response would be almost instantaneous as it is liquid. But what they saw is a 15-hour delay that indicated that the interior is highly viscous. What is it? The data collected suggests that the material on Titan behaves more like a pasty glacier or extremely dense slush. What seems ruled out is free-flowing water, where the existence of life in the future was already pointed out. A new Titan. With all the data that has been collected, it has been possible to completely define everything we knew about the internal geology of Saturn’s largest moon. Specifically, it is now known that the rock core has a radius of 2.26 km, and the layer that surrounds it is formed by high-pressure ice mixed with water. Although not everything has to be so cold, it also has hot water pockets due to the internal heat. This is what keeps liquid water lakes near the rock core at about 20ºC. The question of life. At first glance, eliminating a global ocean of liquid water may seem like a bad idea for astrobiologists who had hoped for life here. But for the members of this study, the opposite is true. In the new “slush” model, the liquid water in the pockets is in direct contact with the rock core. This is very important, as it allows the water to dissolve essential nutrients from the rose and also have a temperature of 20°C which is ideal for complex chemical reactions. But also, having a small size, all these components are more concentrated. Dragonfly. This discovery puts all the pressure on this NASA mission whose launch It is planned from 2028. Dragonfly is an octocopter designed to fly over the surface of Titan, but its most important instrument in this context is its seismometer. What was expected is that this mission would measure the tides of a deep ocean. Now their mission will be to confirm whether seismic waves propagate through this viscous “hail.” In the event that the characteristic vibrations are detected, we will have confirmed that Titan is the most promising chemical laboratory in our solar system. Images | Wikipedia Matt Hardy In Xataka | NASA changes hands in the middle of the space race with China: private astronaut Jared Isaacman will be its new director

In 1965, a notary bought an apartment of bare ownership from a 90-year-old owner. The old woman was already living her second life

by

In 1965, in the picturesque city of Arles, in the south of France, the notary André-François Raffray believed he had found a bargain to invest. Jeanne Calment, a 90-year-old widow and no heirs owner of a large apartment in the historic center of the town, was willing to reach an agreement to sell her housing in exchange for a life annuity and to be able to live in it until his death. With the statistical data in hand, the purchase of the apartment was going to be a bargain for the notary, so he did not hesitate to reach an agreement with the elderly owner. What the young notary did not expect is that it was going to be the worst deal of his life: the old woman had a bombproof geneticsor at least that’s what everyone thought. The deal was a bargain, but not for who it seemed The purchase agreement was simple in its approach: Raffray would pay 2,500 francs per month to Calment (an amount equivalent to about 380 euros per month). until the death of the old woman (who we remember was already 90 years old), after which the property would be fully his. This type of contract (known in France as traveler) is based on the bare property. This legal concept establishes that the buyer acquires the right to property without enjoy the usufruct until an uncertain event occurs, in this case the death of the saleswoman. That is, it is like a deferred purchase in which a certain immediate payment is established and the seller can use the property until his death. The buyer then takes possession of the property. Given this condition, the price of the investment is considerably lower than the market value, since it is not available immediately. That reduction in the initial price has shot the number of operations that have been growing at a double-digit rate since the pandemic. According to published data by Expansionin 2021, this type of operations grew by 22.6%, 23.7% in 2022 and 11.3% in 2023. For a 47-year-old buyer like Raffray, that seemed like a smart move and a very low-risk investment. In 1965 and with the life expectancy statistics much smaller than the current ones, Raffray assumed that Calment would live perhaps a few more years and that the total amount he would pay would be less than the market price of the apartment. A saleswoman with a lot of attachment to life However, what seemed like an operation with few unknowns turned into a financial nightmare for Raffray. Jeanne Calment, the elderly nonagenarian, not only lived beyond any reasonable expectation at that time, but his longevity surpassed all calculations. Officially, Calment died in 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days. as he collected The New York Times. That is why he entered the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest person recorded to date, It’s also bad luck for Raffay. Raffray, in turn, died in 1995 at the age of 77, 30 years after signing the contract with Calment. Until that moment, the notary had paid fees that, together, They far exceeded the value of the property. However, after his death, his widow was forced to continue with payments to Calment, because the obligation agreed in the annuity contract only disappeared with the death of Calment, not Raffray. There was no escape. The result was that Raffray’s family ended up spending much more money than it would have cost to buy the apartment through conventional methods, without ever moving in. Calment herself, with irony, even commented in an article for The New York Times that “in life, sometimes bad deals are made.” A life worth two As expected, such remarkable longevity did not go unnoticed by science and medicine, with much interest being shown in investigating the details about the life and habits de Calment to try to reveal their secret…and boy did they do it. In 2018, a research team formed by the Russian mathematician Nikolay Zak and the gerontologist Valery Novoselov proposed a radical hypothesis: Jeanne Calment could have died in 1934. The Calment who had signed the bare ownership contract with André-François Raffray could be Yvonne Marie Nicolle Calment, daughter of Jeanne Calment who, supposedly, had died of pleurisy on January 19, 1934. The hypothesis was that Yvonne would have impersonated his mother’s identity to avoid paying inheritance taxes. That artificially “extended” the longevity of his mother, who was actually living two lives under the same name. This theory was supported by discrepancies in ancient documents, such as differences in physical characteristics between historical records and by comparing photographs of Yvonne and the supposed elderly Calment. So it was not only a fraud to avoid paying taxes, Raffay was also victim of deception. However, there is no scientific consensus on this version. Subsequent research by a team of Swiss and French demographers and historians, published in it Journal of Gerontologythey discard the hypothesis of fraud and maintain that, statistically, Calment could live to be 122 years old. In Xataka | There is a ‘good’ fat that hides a secret to aging better and being in shape. All that remains is to get the pill Image | Wikimedia Commons (Emilien Barral), grg.orgUnsplash (Jakub Zerdzicki)

We knew almost nothing about the “black box” of life, the initial moment of fertilization: that is over

by

In biology, human development, from the fertilization of an egg to the formation of the complete baby, has a large area called ‘black box’because we don’t know what happens there. We have a lot of data about what happens in the first days after fertilization and also during the last months thanks to ultrasounds. Worse, there is an area between the second and fourth weeks of development that is terra incognita. The ethics. It is without a doubt the great wall of developmental biology right now, since to see what happens to an embryo in these weeks we would have to have it in a culture dish for more than 14 days. But this is something that ethics does not allow, since after those days the embryo must be inside a uterus or destroyed. The change. Now science is working to find exactly how to see the embryo in this time window, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona achieved it. Specifically, it has achieved cultivate macaque embryoids which are embryo models derived from stem cells until day 25. In this way, processes that until now were hidden have emerged. A team of researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona has managed to cultivate macaque embryoids (embryo models derived from stem cells) until day 25, revealing processes that until now remained hidden. And this has already given us data about how our body is formed. Gastrulation. Lewis Wolpert, a famous biologistused to say that “the most important moment in your life is not birth, nor marriage, nor death, but gastrulation.” And he was right. To understand this importance, you must know that during gastrulation the embryo stops being a simple sphere of equal cells and transforms into a complex structure with three different layers that will give rise to all the organs of the body. But it is also essential to be able to define the axes of the body, that is, knowing where the head will be, the tail and what is right and left. Something that until now was impossible to see because previous models of primate embryos ended up collapsing after day 17. The solution. The research has therefore used a new system of 3D suspension culture which has enabled macaque embryonic stem cells to self-organize and develop complex structures until day 25 outside the uterus. What they have seen. What researchers have observed in these “embryoids” is fascinating because of its similarity to natural embryos. As detailed in the paper from Nature, these models have recapitulated key events of the late gastrulation. Among this, the formation of the central nervous system stands out, the precursor of the digestive system, the first blood cells or even those that in the future will give rise to eggs and sperm. The most surprising thing is that the transcriptomic analysis (the study of which genes are active cell by cell) revealed that differentiation trajectories were similar to those found in natural monkey embryos during this stage. At last. This means that we have, for the first time, a reliable simulator to study human development. Since we share a large part of our biology with macaques, this model allows us to investigate the causes of abortions early spontaneous and congenital malformations without crossing the ethical red lines of experimentation with human embryos. They are not real embryos. This is something fundamental for the limits that ethics imposes on us that we mentioned at the beginning. What has been cultured in this case are not real embryos, but models derived from stem cells where neither eggs nor sperm were involved. This has the aspect that it can never become a viable living being if it is implanted in a uterus and its usefulness is limited only to laboratories to analyze how we are developing and revealing critical points where an embryo can be aborted. In Xataka | There are more and more men obsessed with one thing: donating their semen

We already have the missing ingredient to explain the origin of life

by

What the mission OSIRIS-REx brought back to Earth in his capsule after being perched on the asteroid Bennu It could be very enriching, but the truth is that it has exceeded all our expectations. And in the past we have already been surprised to find water or carbon in space, but now NASA has confirmed than what has been seen on this asteroid: Bennu contains sugars essential for life as we know it. But not only that, among the grains of dust and rock, researchers have come across something they did not expect: a mysterious substance that they have already dubbed ‘space gum’. The discovery. After a long time analyzing the materials extracted by this probe, the results have finally been released to a published study in Nature Geoscience led by Yoshihiro Furukawa from Tohoku University (Japan) and which undoubtedly marks a milestone in astrobiology. From a sample of just 603 milligrams of Bennu dust, the team was able to detect a variety of sugars that are biologically significant, such as glucose. This marks something historic since it is the first time that this sugar that we know so well has been identified in a pristine extraterrestrial sample. But this has not only been the important thing, but also samples of ribose which is an essential component of RNA, which is responsible for transporting genetic information in human organisms and which undoubtedly It became popular during the COVID pandemic. Its importance. Until now we had seen signs of these samples in meteorites, but there was always the shadow of land pollution upon impact. Now this doubt disappears since the samples arrived sealed. What is undoubtedly important is that the joint presence of these sugars suggests that they were synthesized by abiotic processes (without life) inside the asteroid, probably through chemical reactions in the presence of water at the dawn of the solar system. Something that would be essential to be able to generate life. Space gum. If sugars are the “hard” science news, what has captured most of our attention is what Danny Glavin, a mission co-investigator at the Goddard Space Flight Center, describes as “space gum.” The analyzes revealed a unique polymeric material, a kind of complex, sticky substance that doesn’t fit the standard minerals we’re used to. That is why its composition is now under study and its presence indicates that Bennu is not only a pile of rubble, but a chemical laboratory that is capable of create organic macromolecules that we have living beings inside us. In addition to this “gum” and sugars, the samples contained star dust that is older than our own Sun, survivors of ancient supernovae that were trapped in the asteroid’s matrix. A ‘complete kit’. With this announcement, the Bennu puzzle seems to be complete since amino acids have been found that are essential for proteins, bases to form DNA, carboxylic acids and now sugars to give energy and structure to RNA. This strongly supports the hypothesis that carbon-rich asteroids, like Bennu, acted as “cosmic delivery boys” during the late intense bombardment, seeding the early Earth with all the ingredients necessary for the life we ​​are now enjoying to emerge. It is literally an asteroid that carries all the ingredients for life as we know it. A look at the past. The stability of compounds like glucose and xylose in these samples, along with the surprising presence of ribose (which is typically very unstable), tells us that Bennu’s parent body had very specific water activity and chemical conditions shortly after the solar system formed. As confirms NASA itselfwe are facing the strongest evidence that the building blocks of biology are not a miracle exclusive to Earth, but rather common products of the chemistry of the universe. Images | NASA Hubble Space Telescope In Xataka | We have left Moss out for nine months in space at the mercy of vacuum and radiation. He’s back alive and breaking records

has a new life on land as a luxury hotel

by

There are people who dream of have your own boatbut their stories don’t always end as they imagined. Clyde Stires began to raise in 1987 a yacht at his California home because he couldn’t afford to buy it. He threw it into the sea seven years later, although its story had a bitter end when the Kaleidoscope was stolen in Mexico. Chris Willson bought an old cruise shiprenamed it Aurora, invested a fortune and more than ten years to turn it into a floating dream, but it was finally scrapped. Some boats accumulate effort, years and enthusiasm, but destiny is not always on the side. Among all those marine stories, one appears that has taken an unexpected direction. It is what was once considered the oldest active passenger ship in the world. It was born in 1914, the same period when shipyards were still working with rivets and before welding became popular in shipbuilding. Today it no longer travels the oceans, but it is still standing: it is stranded on a small artificial island off Bintan, in Indonesia, and has been converted into a luxury hotel known as Doulos Phos The Ship Hotel. It does not sail, but continues to receive passengers. From onion cargo ship to hotel stranded on artificial island Its history began far from tourism and any pretension of luxury. When left the shipyard in 1914his name was SS Medina and transported onions and other products along United States trade routes. Decades later, he would be recruited for World War II, performing logistical support tasks. After the conflict, it was converted into a passenger ship and adopted a diesel engine, which allowed it to extend its useful life. Later, as a mission ship and floating library, it visited more than one hundred countries and survived an attack in the Philippines in 1991. The age that made it special also left it at a disadvantage compared to modern maritime safety standards. Updating it involved changing a good part of its structure, installing new fire protection systems and adapting the cabins to current standards. It was too expensive an operation for its owner, who took it to a dry dock in Singapore, where it was waiting for offers. The most likely involved its scrapping. However, a Singaporean businessman named Eric Saw submitted the winning bid.acquired it for 900,000 euros and decided to try to give it a second life. After purchasing the boat, the new owner faced a problem that was not technical, but geographical: he had nowhere to put it. He tried to get Singapore to grant him a permanent space, but negotiations were unsuccessful. Keeping it in dry dock was expensive. and it didn’t offer a way out either. The opportunity came in Bintan Resorts, a tourist area jointly promoted by Indonesia and Singapore, where they proposed taking it as a heritage attraction. There he proposed an unusual idea: instead of keeping it afloat, permanently installing it on land, on an artificial island shaped like an anchor. Moving a 6,800-ton ship to dry land is not a common operation. First, a section of the coastline was emptied to make a provisional “channel” and allow the hull to approach the area where it would be stranded. On that land, a concrete base was prepared, anchored by piles that crossed the ground until reaching firmer layers. The movement was done with winches and enormous air cushions that acted as rollers. The initial plan contemplated a much shorter operation, but progress was slower and the maneuver ended up extending to seven weeks. Converting a century-old ship into a hotel involved completely redesigning its interiors. The old shared cabins, with bunk beds and barely any space for movement, gave way to spacious rooms with private bathrooms, air conditioning and services typical of modern accommodation. Fuel tanks were removed, bulkheads were pierced and new electricity and water networks were deployed. Today it has 93 cabins spread over several levels, including the Executive Suites, the Family Suites and the so-called Master Mariner, located on the upper deck with a terrace, outdoor jacuzzi and private dining area. Although the interior was completely transformed, the goal was not to erase its past. Key elements were preserved such as the engine room, the propeller shaft of more than 60 meters, several lifeboats and some original cabins enabled as “experience cabins”. The decks remain passable and guests can access iconic spots such as the fo’c’sle, the same space in the bow popularized by the movie Titanic. Original rivets recovered during the renovation were also incorporated into the interior decoration as a reminder that this is a 1914 boat. The project does not stand alone as a business. The investment exceeded 15 million euros and the owner maintains that his objective is not to recover that amount. He has declared that this is a conservation project and that He only earns a dollar a year in salary.. In addition, it states that the proceeds go to charitable activities. Keeping the boat, even out of the water, remains an ongoing challenge, because the rust never completely disappears. Painting and repairing the hull is an ongoing process. The owner maintains that the modifications made could be reversed, allowing, at least in theory, the ship to be returned to the sea if someone wanted it in the future. Images | Doulos Phos In Xataka | We believed that the most incredible thing about megacruises is their size. It turns out that the real miracle is their kitchens

Historians have been trying to understand Hitler for decades. DNA just gave us a clue about your sex life

by

“We didn’t know what we were going to find. It could have been the most boring genome on the planet, but it turned out amazing.” As if the promise of new (and morbid) revelations about Hitler weren’t enough to grab the world’s attention, that phrase of Turi Emma Kinga famous geneticist, has helped the documentary ‘Hitler’s DNA’ generated a huge stir even before its premiere. Logical. After all, the work is based on scientific research that reveals that the Nazi leader suffered from a genetic disorder that affected his sexuality. And that is just one of his many conclusions. Yes, Hitler again. The 20th century was prolific in wars, milestones and historical figures, but probably few arouse the fascination of Adolf Hitler. For his disastrous role as fuhrer but also because of the enormous amount of conspiracy theories and hoaxes that surround his figure. About his death, your habits and tasteshis supposed Jewish ancestry and his equal alleged offspring So many pages have been written that they would cover (several times) the bunker in which he committed suicide on April 30, 1945 with a sip of cyanide and/or a bullet. So it’s no surprise that any new revelation about him generates considerable excitement. Especially if it is one like the one that promises ‘Hitler’s DNA’a documentary produced by Channel 4 and which boasts of having thoroughly studied the DNA of the Nazi dictator. The piece premiered yesterday, Saturday, but its authors have taken it upon themselves to air their main conclusions in advance to warm things up. And although there are those who question their rhetoric or the solidity of some of their statements, one thing is clear: they have not done badly in their endeavor. Adolf Hitler’s DNA? Exact. To understand how the producers obtained a genetic sample from Hitler, we must go back to May 1945, shortly after the Nazi leader’s suicide. Among the allied soldiers who were able to access the Führerbunker There was one especially clever one, Roswell P. Rosengren, who came up with an idea: Why not take proof of the very couch on which the dictator had taken his life? No sooner said than done. The American officer cut off a blood-stained scrap and took it home. The piece was guarded by his family until 2014, when it passed to the Gettysburg History Museum. There the producers of Channel 4 found him, who had to face the following challenge: Was that really Hitler’s blood? Was there some way to establish the link, beyond Rosengren’s story? The answer was yes, although it forced them to take a new time jump (this much shorter one) to 2008, when the journalist Jean-Paul Mulders obtained a DNA sample from a relative of Hitler, a person with whom he shared paternal ancestors. Mulders’ purpose was to investigate the rumor of an alleged illegitimate son of Hitler, but in the end it served the creators of the documentary to compare the sample with the blood on the couch. The result: a perfect match. Double check which reinforced the conviction that the cloth contained Hitler’s DNA. “I thought about it a lot”. The next mission was to sequence that DNA to find out everything it hid about its owner, another far from easy task. Not so much because of the technical complexity itself but because of the enormous controversy that accompanies Hitler. In fact The Times assures that there were several laboratories that refused to collaborate in the documentary. Professor Turi Emma King, the lead geneticist on the research, also had her reservations when it was proposed. “I thought about it a lot,” recognize to the British newspaper the scientist, known for identifying years ago the remains of King Richard III. If he decided to embark on the project it was for two reasons: first, why not do it when the DNA is already being used for historical research it would mean giving a prominent role to Hitler; second, by the conviction that sooner or later someone would do it. “We wanted to make sure it was done methodically and rigorously.” So King decided to join the other main expert in the investigation, Dr. Alex Kayexpert on Nazi Germany and professor at the University of Potsdam. Clearing up unknowns. The experiment did not disappoint. As King acknowledges, the team risked not getting convincing results or anything substantial to justify the effort. Quite the opposite happened: the DNA analysis yielded some surprising conclusions that help debunk myths and expand the keys to understanding the Nazi leader. “We didn’t know what we were going to find. It could have been the most boring genome on the planet, but it turned out incredible,” relates. One of their most interesting findings is that the rumors about Hitler’s Hebrew ancestry appear to be basically that: rumors. At the time, there was speculation that the dictator’s paternal grandfather could have been Jewish (Hitler’s father, Alois, was an illegitimate son), a theory so deep-rooted that in 2022 it came to light. share it publicly Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. He was wrong. Channel 4 analysis reveals that Hitler was of Austro-German descent and supports the family tree drawn up by the Nazis. “Confirms that the story of Jewish ancestry through his parents is false,” concludes King on CNN. Kallman syndrome. If there is a revelation that has generated interest and grabbed headlines, however, it is the one that tells us about a much more personal aspect of Hitler: his physiology. Scientists claim to have found solid evidence that Hitler suffered from some form of Kallman syndromea genetic disorder that affects the development during puberty and of sexual organs. The most common thing is that the syndrome causes hypogonadism (insufficient production of testosterone during adolescence), but as the British press has been responsible for reminding these days, it has another peculiarity: up to 10% of those who have the disorder have micropenis. Beyond the obvious morbidity of this revelation, the data is interesting because of the stories that … Read more

Some say Mercury retrograde ruins their life, but the planet didn’t even move from its spot.

by

Mercury retrograde season returns. From November 9 to 20, 2025, many people around the world – and especially on social networks– They will blame this curious planetary phenomenon for the argument they have had with their partner, the breakage of their refrigerator or the failure in an exam. But the question we must ask ourselves is if there is something behind this phenomenon that seems astronomical. What is ‘Mercury retrograde’. Despite its magical name, “Mercury retrograde” is described according to NASA as an optical effect: from Earth, Mercury (the planet closest to the Sun) appears to move backwards in its orbit for a few weeks. Astronomically, that “recoil” It is an illusion created by the difference in speed and position between Earth and Mercurybut nothing in the cosmos really changes, only our point of view. This is a phenomenon that occurs several times a year and has no physical effect on the Earth, our communications, travel or emotions. This is why astronomical science is clear: it is pure visual effect, not causality. Another interpretation. In the case of astrology the interpretation is very different. For this branch, Mercury is attributed powers over the communication, thought and movement. In this way, when it is ‘retrograde’, astrologers advise avoid signing contracts, taking trips or having difficult conversations. But this is something that has no scientific support behind it. A real meme. The interesting thing, according to experts in digital cultureis how Mercury retrograde has become a lifeline to cast our blame away. It is the perfect meme to explain everyday chaos: when WhatsApp crashes or the AI ​​responds strangely, the fault is not ours, but Mercury’s. In this way, everything stops being our fault, and for psychology it is something that we use as a strategy to attribute the disorder to external factors that reduce anxiety and connect us with the community. In countries like Spain, each Mercury retrograde cycle activates dozens of interactions on TikTok, Instagram and X, full of jokes, astrological advice and memes. This narrative allows us to find order (or at least, poetic meaning) in digital unpredictability. There is no relationship. Whether the computer or the refrigerator stops working or you have had a fight with your boyfriend or girlfriend has nothing to do with the position of Mercury. However, the myth and the joke will live on. Perhaps it is therapeutic to look to the sky for an answer when reality surpasses logic, even if we know that looking at the sky will not change whether our router breaks or not. Images | Wikipedia Afif Ramdhasuma In Xataka Basics | 19 apps and tools to see and have more information about stars and constellations

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.