Love

The most important question to understand someone is not what they believe in or what they hope for. The question is what does he love?

by

“To know if someone is good, we do not ask what they believe or hope for, but rather what they love.”. One reads this phrase and it is almost inevitable to think that it is the typical self-help junk merchandise that fills feeds, mugs and WhatsApp statuses. But nothing could be further from the truth. And not only because It was written more than 1,500 years ago by one of the most influential thinkers in history, but because (in addition) it has become one of the philosophical concepts of recent months. So maybe the question is not what an old priest can teach us in this time full of haste, but also; The question is why that old priest has returned to the center of public debate exactly now. What exactly did Saint Augustine mean? The phrase is very interesting because, beneath an apparent meaningless string (what do you believe? What do you expect?), it hides a very clear idea of ​​what is important in life. In Christian thought, the three great traditional virtues are precisely faith, hope and love. What the philosopher from Hippo defended is that faith is important, of course; Hope is fundamental, of course it is: but at the center of everything is love. In fact, Augustine himself has another famous phase (“Love and do what you will”) that goes much further in his master-centrism. Nobody can be very surprised, really. Saint Augustine has great hits like: “Lord, grant me chastity and continence, but not now.” That “Do whatever you want” sounds suspicious, but (actually) it’s not so suspicious. We’ll see. Why has all this become popular right now? For politics, of course. On January 29, 2025, US Vice President Vance defended in an interview that canceling most US foreign aid and mass deportations with that argument. That “there is a Christian concept old-school “where you love your family, then your neighbor, then your community, then your fellow citizens, and after that, you can prioritize the rest of the world.” Later, at X.com, he spent the afternoon sending people to google “ordo amoris”. That is to say, Vance endorsed that idea of ​​”love and do what you want” in the most direct way possible. But does it make sense? Translated into a more current language, the Augustinian idea simply tells us that the subject is defined by the direction of his desire, not by the correctness of his beliefs or his expectations. But, without getting into political questions, that doesn’t exactly mean that there is a clear order of obligations that tells us who we should love first and who we should love second. It is not a ranking. Augustine’s idea is more complex because, deep down, he was convinced that love has a transformative power over people: it orders them from within. That is the order he claimed. What we can learn from Saint Augustine without entering into politicking. That what is important are the things that really matter to us; not our ideas about the world, nor what we hope will happen. But, above all, because what we love will end up turning us into the type of person we want to be. In someone, as the Father of the Church would say, good. Image | In Xataka | “If I am wrong, I exist”: 1,500 years ago, Saint Augustine had already given the best argument against the productivity gurus

why Gen Z has fallen in love with technologies that they did not experience

by

Technology has been sneaking into almost every corner of everyday life for decades: how we communicate, how we save memories, how we listen to music or how we entertain ourselves. ada generation has enjoyed its own innovations: from the Walkman to the compact camera, including the Game Boy and the Nintendo DS. As the years went by, many of these devices seemed destined to remain as relics in a drawer, surpassed by increasingly powerful mobile phones capable of concentrating almost all possible functions in a single device. However, in the era of the smartphone, AI or virtual reality, some of these “relics” are regaining prominence among recent generations. Compact digital cameras, retro consoles or cassettes reappear in second-hand stores or in TikTok videos where the young people who use them have not witnessed their birth or their rise. Nostalgia or novelty? The “return” or growing interest in vintage technology could be explained as a new wave of nostalgia. Alvaro Soler, sociologist and disseminator in social networksspeaks of a “retro utopia”: an idealized look capable of commercializing aesthetics and products from the past. “May we consume again retro technology “It has to do with the consumption of retro culture,” he explains, giving as an example the success of series like Stranger Thingswhich “make us go back to the 80’s, with consoles and arcade games, but also with fashion, music…”. In this way, Soler explains the market’s ability to take advantage of previous designs or products and present them as something attractive and desirable again. This is precisely one of the nuances that explains the return of retro from places beyond nostalgia. Although some of these devices do awaken memories and have a nostalgic connotation for those who grew up with them, not all the young people who recover them today have used them. In fact, many of them become familiar with these devices through social networks. Soler attributes to these platforms the power that classic advertising had before. They also come into play influencerswhom Soler defines as “figures of success or in whom you have to see yourself reflected.” In many cases, he adds, a large part of their identity is built through what they consume and display. This makes those who follow them more likely to be interested in or consume what they show in their profiles, including vintage technology. Thus, although many young people have not grown up with these devices, they can become desirable objectsassociated with an aesthetic or a way of being in the world. What for some is nostalgia, for others becomes a new necessity. This is the case of Lara, a young woman – who prefers to keep her identity private – who is fond of analog cameras from the 70s (like the Zenit). Although he did not experience either the arrival or the rise of these devices, he confesses in conversation with Xataka find something “unique” about them that attracts you. A camera not to scroll The return of this type of technology also has another reading. For Claudia Pradas, psychologist and disseminator on social networksin a young population overexposed to constant stimuli, screens and immediate rewards, “a more limited technology can be psychologically attractive” because “it reduces the load.” Compared to the mobile phone, which is at the same time a camera, console and music player, these devices have a single functiona restriction that can feel like a relief. “We are constantly exposed to super-overloaded technology that can fatigue us,” he explains, while these devices “can promote relaxation or deactivation of the nervous system, generating well-being.” Therefore, instead of interpreting this boom as a rejection of the new, Pradas proposes reading it as a search for alternatives: devices that allow us to continue using technology but at a different pace. The type of experience they offer also influences. “Old” devices force a more physical relationship that moves away from using the smartphone: insert a cartridge, rewind, press buttons, print a photo… For Pradas, that tactile dimension is key. In a context of digital saturation, “a sensory experience beyond the visual and auditory can help us become more rooted in the present.” Sociologist Soler agrees that the search for disconnection is one of the factors behind this return to previous technologies. Many of these retro consoles, he explains, they do not depend on the internet: they allow you to continue using digital technology, but without constant connection or online services. Something similar happens with photographs. Uploading images to networks or storing them in the cloud does not generate the same relationship with memories as printing them and saving them in an album. On the Internet, he says, images can become more volatile, get lost among thousands of files or become diluted in the continuous flow of content. Instead, developing photos or physically preserving them creates another way of relating to time and memory, “more tangible and lasting.” In a context of hyperconnectivity, changing memories from the digital environment to the physical dimension can also function as a way to organize and preserve what we really want to remember. This power of disconnection is corroborated by Elena, a 23-year-old young woman whose playing with practically discontinued consoles evokes the same tranquility as “when you watch a movie you’ve seen 200 times”; The simplicity of these devices gives you the calm that current video games do not achieve. “Right now (video games) are like a movie, but before everything happened on a very small screen with drawings that could even be in black and white,” he points out. The simplicity and the imperfection that characterize old games—and that extends to the grain of a compact camera or the less clean sound of a vintage player—are part of their appeal. In the face of increasingly perfect and faster devices, these small failures or limitations are perceived almost as a mark of authenticity and humanity. “Old analog cameras have nothing to do with cell phone photographs. I don’t take photos with my cell phone because for me … Read more

In Spain we love to have dinner at ten at night. To our biological clock and our heart, not so much

by

Eating dinner at 9 or 10 at night is something that is quite normal for Spaniards, but seen by foreigners, it is something that shocks them quite a bit as it is so different from the customs of other countries. And although our normality is to eat at three in the afternoon and dinner at ten at nightthe reality is that our biological clock is not designed to digest large amounts of food when the sun has already set. Time matters. Although in recent years we have been obsessed with looking at the ingredients of what we eat or the amount of calories it contains, the reality is that science gives more and more importance to consumption. This is where chrononutrition comes from, an emerging discipline that studies the relationship between circadian cycles and our diet, and that little by little is seeing that eating late dinners has a direct impact on our metabolic health. our quality of sleep and our risk cardiovascular. The biological clock. Our body works like an orchestra perfectly synchronized by circadian rhythmsand leaving them has serious consequences. We see it, for example, with the famous jet lagthe time change or even when we go to bed at a time that is not ours. The result is that the body has to recover again and has important effects, such as great fatigue. In the case of eating at odd hours, especially at dinner, we are desynchronizing the peripheral clocks that the cells of organs as important as the pancreas or liver have. And this results in a drastic worsening of glucose tolerance and also insulin secretion. Its effect. And it has consequences, since when we eat dinner close to our biological bedtime, that is, when the sun is setting, the body reduces the consumption of nocturnal fats and there is also a large release of cortisol, which is the stress hormone, and the release of melatonin, which is essential for falling asleep, is delayed. This is something that became clear in a 2025 meta-analysis, where it is detailed that eating after nine at night worsens the rhythms of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine, which not only has a metabolic impact, but also an emotional one, increasing the risk of depression. The Spanish case. If we focus precisely on our country, we have as a reference the study led by the ISGlobal institute that analyzed to 100,000 participants of the NutriNet-Santé cohort. Here it was concluded that dining after 9 pm is associated with a greater cardiovascular risk, especially impacting the risk of cerebrovascular disease in women. In the case of weight. If you want to lose weight, dinner time also has a lot of influence, as noted in a study by researcher Marta Garaulet that showed that people who eat later at midday lose less weight than those who eat early, even when they consume the same calories and expend the same amount of energy and sleep the same amount. Added to this are studies in Catalan adults that associate the delay of the first meal of the day with a higher BMIwhile extending overnight fasting is related to a lower BMI. Beyond the scale. Although we may keep in mind the impact on digestion, the reality is that studies suggest that having late meal times is related to poorer quality of sleep. This was seen in the United States, where science pointed out that in middle-aged women it has been proven that bringing dinner time closer to bedtime prolongs the time it takes to fall asleep, therefore shortening the effective duration of rest. And as we already know, having poor quality sleep generates many other problems, such as a worse cardiometabolic profile, which generates a true vicious circle. Its nuances. Logically, having a late dinner alone does not explain the state of health of the Spanish population, since the context has a lot of influence. This is where the traditional Spanish Mediterranean diet comes in, which makes dinners later meals, but also much lighter, leaving the main energy weight for the midday meal. That is why you should keep in mind that a late, copious and ultra-processed dinner followed by a trip straight to bed is not the same as a light dinner accompanied by some physical activity before going to sleep. Even so, science suggests that, if the objective is to reduce metabolic risk, improve carbohydrate metabolism and lose weight, the winning strategy involves advance dinner time and maintain a longer overnight fasting window. Images | Eiliev Aceron Shane In Xataka | Healthy obesity does not exist: why “being fat but fit” is nothing more than a myth

The AI ​​industry fell in love with OpenAI, but doesn’t trust its CEO one bit

by

At OpenAI they see a future in which the work week should have four days. Not only that: every citizen should receive a share of the economic growth generated by AI. These are some of the proposals that the company has published yesterday with the aim of preparing us for the “age of intelligence.” And just the day they published that proposal full of good and reassuring intentions, a blow arrived for the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman. An investigation published in The New Yorker once again called into question his way of acting, highly criticized by experts and engineers who worked with him. The conclusion of all of them: better not trust Sam Altman. The arrival of the age of intelligence. What they call the “age of intelligence” will undoubtedly have a negative impact in some areas, but OpenAI proposes with their document to make changes that mitigate these problems. Among the most striking measures is the creation of a “public wealth fund” that will distribute dividends from AI directly among citizens, regardless of their employment status. Let the machines work (and pay us for it). They also suggest taxes on automated labor to finance social security, and also pilot projects of four-day work weeks without salary reduction. The proposal is striking and seeks, of course, to reassure citizens in the face of threats such as job loss that can be caused by the mass adoption of AI. The problem is that this proposal comes at a delicate moment for an OpenAI in the midst of a reputational crisis. Smokescreen? This optimistic proposal contrasts with the report published in The New Yorker and in which the authors interviewed more than 100 people “with first-hand knowledge of how Altman behaves in business.” And among them, rivals like Ilya Sutskever or above all Dario Amodei who founded their own startups. Both harshly criticized Altman. Sutskever accumulated internal documents and messages showing deception and manipulation. Amodei stated that the obstacle to AI security is Altman himself, who leaves that area in the background compared to the company’s ambition for personal power and excessive growth. For his former partners, Altman is not a visionary, but an actor with a calculated pose. Says one thing, does another. The scandal of dismissal and later return of Altman was due precisely to that attitude in which the council accused him of having “not been consistently frank in his communications.” It’s the same thing we’ve read on other occasions: Altman has a dual personality. In him, the pathological desire to be liked and accepted is mixed with a total lack of concern for the long-term consequences of his misdeeds. He tells his interlocutors what they want to hear, and then does what he really wanted from the beginning. It is something that, for example, Karen Hao narrates over and over again. in his book ‘Empire of AI’in which, it must be said, it erred in calculating the water consumption of data centers mentioned in its studies. In the report they mention how the well-known programmer Aaron Swartz met him before die in 2013 and commented about him even then that “he is a sociopath.” Public image is everything. The publication of the OpenAI document occurs at a particularly critical time for the company, which is involved in a reputational and strategic crisis. Anthropic has managed to become the darling of the AI ​​industry —without being much less perfect— and OpenAI has realized that it was experimenting with too many AI applications that were not profitable and now wants to refocus on what makes it profitable. The good intentions shown in the document try to get public opinion on their side just when the company plans its IPO. Learning from the past. Altman’s critics reveal that he is an expert at designing control mechanisms that go up in smoke. Support AI regulations (at least those that favor you) and publicly promotes ethics committees and alignment and security of the AI ​​that in reality later knocks down internally, at least according to those who work with it. It happened when he promised to allocate 20% of the computing capacity to the super-alignment team, and then actually gave up only between 1 and 2% of that capacity. Jan Leike, who was named co-leader of that team along with Sutskever, resigned in May 2024 indicating that “safety culture and processes have been relegated to the background compared to flashy products,” he explained in a thread in X. He ended up signing for Anthropic. Interested reviews. Although Altman’s career at the head of OpenAI –with what happened to the Pentagon as a recent example—reinforces the comments of those who criticize him, it must be remembered that competition in this industry is currently fierce. Many of those who participate in the report are direct rivals and therefore their criticism, veiled or not, is partly self-serving because it harms their competitor. In Xataka | There is a new generation of AI models at the doors and Anthropic has to sell them: “The biggest and smartest”

We Spaniards love low-cost telephone operators. So PcComponentes has gotten on board

by

In the middle of the operators’ war to offer low cost ratesthe Murcian PcComponentes has decided to enter the battlefield. The company debuts with fiber and mobile rates thanks to Likes Telecom, a Spanish company focused on the creation of telecommunications brands and with the support of XFERA MÓVILES (MásOrange). A new participant. From the PcComponentes website You can now contract fiber and mobile. At the moment, there are three fiber and mobile packages, and three possibilities to contract a mobile line. To stand out from its rivals, PcComponentes ensures that customer service support will be especially taken care of. The rates. At its launch, these are the three rates offered by PcComponentes. Core rate oNers rate hyperuser rate fiber 300MB 600MB 1GB mobile 30 GB cumulative + another 30 GB gift line 100 GB cumulative Unlimited additional Basic TV +3€/month Additional mobile lines from €5/month Basic TV +3€/month Additional mobile lines from €5/month Premium TV +5€/month Additional mobile lines from €5/month permanence No 6 month stay 6 month stay In the case of mobile line only rates, we have these three options. 30 GB Mobile Line for 6.90 euros per month. Mobile Line 100 GB for 13.90 euros per month. Unlimited Mobile Line for 19.90 euros per month. All of them have MásOrange 5G coverage, unlimited national calls, Roaming Zone 1 in the EU, the possibility of eSIM and cumulative gigs without permanence. The conditions. PcComponentes only sets a six-month permanence for two of its rates, which is conditional on the quality of the service. In the event that the client suffers more than two connection incidents for which the operator is responsible, it will be cancelled. Likewise, in rates like Hyperuser, there is a commitment to quality. If there is an incident caused by the operator that prevents the client from connecting to the internet, nothing will be paid during the current month. Go deeper. The company adds that, as customers of its mobile and fiber service, we will access discounts on the PcComponentes website. At the moment, there is no concrete data on how they are going to raise them or what exactly they consist of. The challenge. Digi is staying with practically all the ports in Spain, stealing customers from Telefonica, MásOrange and Vodafone. A fight for low prices that practically no rival is able to match, including PcComponentes. Despite this, it remains to be seen how this small proposal on PcComponentes’ “own MVNO” coexists with Digi, Lowi, Simyo or Finetwork. In Xataka Mobile | The uncomfortable truth about fiber: the speed that the operator promises us can never be maintained

Thousands of people have fallen in love with seven dogs abandoned and on the run in the middle of China. It was just another AI video

by

The image was undeniably powerful, almost cinematic. In the freezing darkness of the night, with temperatures below zero, a pack of seven dogs walked in formation on the shoulder of a highway. The video of just 11 seconds, published in chinese platform Douyinshowed a motley crew: a German shepherd, a golden retriever, a Labrador, a small corgi, and several mixed breed dogs. The clip went viral, quickly racking up more than 230 million views. The audience, saturated with news about wars and disastersfound an emotional balm in these animals. But what the network hailed as a miracle of loyalty and survival, the real version of the Disney movie Homeward Bound or the children’s series Paw Patrolturned out to be a completely prefabricated story. The birth of a viral myth. It didn’t take long for the internet machinery to build an epic narrative. From there, speculation became “truth.” Rumor spread that the seven dogs had escaped from a traffickers’ truck that was taking them to a dog meat slaughterhouse, and it was even claimed that they had walked 17 kilometers together. The anthropomorphization of the pack reached extraordinary levels. As illustrated by the comments of Internet userssocial networks assigned a role to each dog in this pack: the injured German shepherd was the “General” whom everyone protected; the golden retriever was the “guard” that was placed near traffic to shield them; Chinese rural dogs were the “guides” with a sense of direction; and the little corgi was the brave leader and “nurse” who walked 50,000 steps—twice as many as the rest—retracing his steps to make sure no one was left behind. The truth behind this story. The event, however, was much less romantic and lacked villains. Extensive field research carried out by reporters City Evening News dismantled the theory of the great escape. There were no meat traffickers, no kidnapping trucks, nor a 17-kilometer trip. Reporters located the village in Shuangyang district where the animals came from. Three of the most famous dogs belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Zhang: the corgi, affectionately called “Big Fatty” (Dapang); the German Shepherd, “Four Treasures” (Sibao); and the golden retriever, “Long Hair.” As the family explained, around March 13, the German shepherd simply went into heat. Since the dogs in the village usually roam freely, the males in the area were attracted to her and began to follow her, going just 4 or 5 kilometers away until they reached the highway. The rescue was not out of a movie either. Although volunteers from rescue bases such as Tong Tong or Bitter Coffee (led by Professor Liu) used drones to search for the herd, the resolution was purely customary. As detailed City Evening NewsMr. Zhang had a dream in which he was feeding his dogs. Convinced that they were alive, he went out to look for them in neighboring towns and found them safe and sound in the walled patio of a house where they had entered to take refuge. The other dogs in the video turned out to be pets of other neighbors in the area, such as Messrs. Guo and Jing, who returned home on their own. The engine of deception. If the story was so simple, how did it become a global phenomenon full of false details? The answer is in technology. According to an in-depth analysis of cnnalthough the original clip of the dogs walking on the highway was authentic, the story was hijacked and inflated using Artificial Intelligence. After the video went viral, AI-generated “spin-offs” proliferated: cinematic posters of the seven dogs, fake trailers showing their “exciting escape” and hyper-realistic images of the animals tearfully reunited with their supposed owners. The reason is purely economic, since “attention is money on the Internet”, as TJ Thomson explainsassociate professor of digital media at RMIT University. Content creators saw a golden opportunity to capitalize on a trend. As Tama Leaver, a professor at Curtin University, adds, inventing or embellishing these stories using AI is “a very effective way to increase an account’s numbers quickly.” The implications beyond. Although it may seem like an endearing and harmless anecdote, this viral hoax has tangible consequences. On the one hand, it perpetuates stigmas. Although since SCMP contextualizeciting the Dalian Animal Protection Association, that pet theft for meat is a real problem in some areas of northern China (which prompted genuine concern from many), in this specific case the false narrative fueled the fires of racism. As pointed out cnnthe invention of the “meat factory” fueled negative stereotypes against Chinese citizens, something especially dangerous in a climate of growing xenophobia. On the other hand, there is the damage to our information ecosystem. Chinese state media and the Jilin tourist office had to intervene to deny the rumor. as quote Guardianauthorities warned that this incident “reflects deficiencies in the dissemination of information online, where subjective speculation is easily taken as fact.” Professor Tama Leaver warns about danger of complacency: If we let our guard down and accept AI-generated images without questioning them because they are “cute dogs”, our critical skills will be atrophied when faced with false images about serious topics, such as war conflicts. @cnn A viral video showed a group of dogs in China who were purportedly captured to be eaten, escaped, and made the long journey home. The problem? The story’s not real. CNN’s Jessie Yeung explains how this kind of misinformation can spread. #cnn #news ♬ original sound – CNN The fragility of our eyes. The ending of “The Adventures of the Seven Dogs” in Changchun did not require an epic soundtrack, but a leash. Owners now leash their dogs during the mating season. However, the trail they leave on the network is deep. In an era dominated by AI and the desperate search for clicks, our need to consume happy endings it makes us deeply vulnerable to manipulation. The true story of the German shepherd or the corgi teaches us a hard journalistic and social lesson about the contemporary internet: as Professor Thomson … Read more

a story of love and hate

by

To human beings we love to take sides and defend it. We love and hate football teams, foods, cars and clothes, but we also love and hate technology companies. If there are two companies that represent that history, they are Apple, traditionally loved by its users and with a very good image, and Microsoft, which despite its efforts has been massively hated. We do not enter here into value judgments about whether one or the other deserved that love or hate, but we simply expose that this feeling is clearly widespread. This story of love and hate has accompanied us for the last forty years, but now another similar story is beginning to take shape. Still incipient, but striking. It is, of course, how people are starting to hate OpenAI and love Anthropic. The similarities with Microsoft and Apple are striking, especially after the events of recent days and that triangle of loves and heartbreaks that the Pentagon, Anthropic and OpenAI have formed. Two very clear perceptions have ended up emerging from all this scandal. On the one hand, Anthropic has positioned itself as the company that defends ethics and morality. They have not given in to the demands of the Pentagon and they have stuck to their guns, which reputationally has been very positive for her. On the other hand, OpenAI has taken advantage of the moment to steal the government contract from its rival. The perception here is different, and OpenAI has come across as an opportunistic and unscrupulous company. So much so that the impact on popularity has been notable: last Saturday ChatGPT downloads plummeted while Claude’s managed to place her above her rival, who had always dominated that ranking. The effect has been clear: Anthropic has become the good one, the company to love. OpenAI, on the other hand, has become the focus of criticism. In fact, a ‘Cancel ChatGPT’ movement which encourages users to stop using OpenAI AI models. Betrayal, these users seem to say, is paid for. The narrative battle of the good guys and the bad guys Here we are witnessing a unique phenomenon of the evolution of the corporate identity of these companies. While Altman seems to have adopted Bill Gates’ style manual from the 90s —prioritizing aggressive growth, government alliances and market domination—, Dario Amodei positions himself as the “spiritual heir” of that Apple that boasted of “thinking differently”. Anthropic’s refusal to cross certain red lines has served to make the average user feel that by using Claude they are supporting a technology “with a conscience”, so to speak. The curious thing about this story and this rivalry is that Anthropic was precisely born from a split from OpenAI due to ethical differences. There is a certain narrative of purity versus business pragmatism here that again reminds us of the confrontation between Apple and Microsoft since the 80s. OpenAI seems to be the Windows of AI. Meanwhile, Anthropic appears to be the MacBook. These user tantrums usually have an expiration date because human beings we have a very bad memorybut OpenAI still faces clear risks. For example, that this perception of the company complicates talent retention or that Anthropic actually ends up assuming the role of “company that develops ethical AI.” For the latter that is also a risk, because any slip in that immaculate philosophy can be very expensive. In fact, it is already being talked about on networks how Amodei actually he is no saint and your company showed up in January to a competition for a project for swarms of autonomous drones controlled by voice and AI. Thus, we are reviving the assignment of ideological values ​​to technology. Each company wants to position itself differently, but for users everything is once again a matter of good and bad. Users loved Apple computers and hated (or supported) Microsoft computers. Now that debate seems to have moved to AI: we love Anthropic’s because it seems to be ethical, and we hate (or support) OpenAI’s because it is opportunistic. But be careful: this has only just begun. In Xataka | Microsoft had a Discord channel dedicated to AI. They closed it because everyone now calls them “Microslop” Image | Xataka with Freepik

In the middle of Valentine’s week, strawberries have reached figures never seen before in half of Europe. The problem is not love, it is Spain

by

Hearts, chocolate, bouquets of flowers and pink decorations everywhere: Valentine’s week is synonymous with many things, but above all with crazy prices. What was not expected in half of Europe is that strawberries were going to rise so much. And when I say ‘so much’, it’s ‘so much’. What happened to the strawberries? The peak in demand is predictable: every year, coinciding with Valentine’s week, the demand for strawberries skyrockets. And, furthermore, it is a very inelastic demand: since it is a “special” day, people continue buying them “almost” independently of the price. That has not changed in 2026: what has changed is that the supply has suffered a huge shock. A shock called Spain and Portugal: And more specifically its meteorology. If the frosts of a few years ago caused the shortage of red peppers throughout the European continentthe historic rainfall in recent months has reduced strawberry production, its quality and shelf life to almost historic lows. To give us an idea of ​​the collapse: in Huelva, production has fallen by half compared to 2025. And despite efforts to catch up, production is 38% below from that of the 24/25 campaign. This has meant that strawberries are arriving in the Netherlands at 5.83 per kilo and in France at 6.44. The problem naked. In this case, the problem is that Europe depends completely on Huelva and, in recent decades, it has not been able to do anything to avoid it. Huelva producers have demonstrated an impressive capacity to produce with very high quality at very low prices. That (and the constant rise in production) has meant that no one can build a parallel agribusiness. The problem is that the climate becomes increasingly volatile, the ‘security’ of the Andalusian countryside decreases. and this episode has only confirmed it. What’s behind the story. So what is hidden behind the strawberries at seven euros per kilo in a market in Alicante is the story of the loss of hegemony of one of the most solid and refined economic pillars in southern Europe. That is to say, while strawberries are on their way to becoming an ‘ultra-luxury’ product, Andalusia’s competitive advantage is fading. Are a giant with feet of clay. Image | Alba Otero In Xataka | Spain’s problem with its supermarkets: Huelva strawberries are now cheaper in Germany

5,000 Stanford students have given their love lives to what an algorithm decides. And it’s consuming the university

by

It’s Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. in Palo Alto and the silence of the Stanford dormitories is broken by a simultaneous notification: it’s Date Drop. In seconds, the hallways are filled with students who, according to The Wall Street Journalthey “huddle” on their screens with a mixture of anxiety and hope. Ben Rosenfeld, a residential assistant, describes the phenomenon as an “all-consuming force”: Students talk about nothing else while they figure out whether their destiny that night is a free drink date at the On Call Cafe or an anonymous complaint on the forum Fizz. What began as a simple class project has escalated into a massive sociological phenomenon that has hijacked campus social life. The numbers are compelling: in a university of approximately 7,500 undergraduate students, more than 5,000 have already surrendered their love lives to the decisions of this algorithm. From a class assignment to a startup millionaire. The architect of this obsession is Henry Weng, a computer science graduate student who coded the platform in just three weeks. As detailed TechCrunchwhat Weng started as a tool to help his colleagues has transformed into The Relationship Company, a startup that has already raised $2.1 million in venture capital. The list of investors includes Silicon Valley heavyweights such as Mark Pincus (founder of Zynga and of the first investors of Facebook), Elad Gil (of the first investors in AirbnbStripe and Pinterest) and Andy Chen (former partner of Coatue). Success. The premise has been so successful that it has transcended the walls of Stanford. The service has expanded to ten other elite universities, including Columbia, MIT, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania. Weng, who curiously took a subject called “introduction to clowning” that taught him to “delight in failure,” seems to have found a winning formula far from failure. “Our matches turn into real dates at ten times the speed of Tinder,” assures TechCrunch. Optimizing love in the age of fatigue. The success of Date Drop It is not a coincidence; It is symptomatic of an exhausted generation and an environment obsessed with efficiency. As they point out in The Wall Street Journal, It’s a very Stanford solution to a very Stanford problem. On a campus where students are high achievers (high achievers) obsessively focused on academic and professional success, organic social interaction has atrophied. “People have difficulty starting conversations in general, and much more so for romantic interactions,” student Alena Zhang explains to the outlet. But the problem goes beyond Stanford. An analysis of Forbes reveals a general crisis In the world of digital dating: 78% of users report emotional or mental exhaustion from using traditional apps. He ghosting (suffered by 41% of those surveyed) and the feeling that the profiles are a catalog of lies have created chronic fatigue. Added to this is the “Paradox of Preparation” (Readiness Paradox). Generation Z wants to find love more than any generation before it, but they feel paralyzed by the fear of “public failure.” They have replaced asking for a face-to-face date with asking on Instagram, entering a cycle of infinite “testing.” Date Drop it seems to break that paralysis by externalizing the decision: you no longer have to choose and risk public rejection; the algorithm chooses for you. Goodbye to Swipehello to the data. The application is radically different from the mechanics of Tinder. There are no photos to compulsively swipe left or right. The process, detailed on the website itselfbegins with a 66-question questionnaire designed to capture the essence of the user. It’s not just about superficial tastes, but about deep values ​​and political stances: “Is having children essential for a fulfilling life?”, “What are your core values: ambition, curiosity, discipline?” Weng explains that the system uses standard economic “matching theory” combined with an Artificial Intelligence that is trained with feedback (feedback) of the appointments that occur. However, the most innovative—and Machiavellian—feature is the social component. The platform allows friends to play Cupid. Wilson Adkins, a freshman cited by him WSJdiscovered that his friends had “conspired” through the app to match him with a girl from his residence. The algorithm validated the conspiracy with a compatibility score of 99.7%. Not everything is perfect in data heaven. Despite the enthusiasm and millions of investment, the road is not without obstacles. Date Drop It’s not the first attempt to automate love at Stanford. In 2017 he was born The Marriage Pact, a similar project which has already generated 350,000 matches. According to the WSJthe creators of this original project sent a “cease and desist” letter to Weng in November, alleging that the marketing of Date Drop It seemed too familiar to them. Furthermore, technology has limits compared to logistical reality. Gabriel Berger, another student, says that, although he had a great connection with his matchestheir schedules were incompatible: he was vice president of his fraternity and she had dance rehearsals. “We are not interacting well,” they concluded. For her part, Mila Wagner-Sanchez, freshman interviewed by Business Insideradds a note of realism: the novelty fades. After a fun first date (with a friend), and a second matches who never wrote to him, the pressure of midterms caused the app to take a backseat. “I would be open to trying again,” she says, but academic life sometimes outweighs algorithmic curiosity. Optimizing loneliness. Henry Weng has ambitious plans. He sees his company as a “Public Benefit Corporation” intended to facilitate not only romance, but “all meaningful relationships,” including friendships and professional connections. Perhaps the best summary of this phenomenon comes from Madhav Abraham-Prakash, a junior who helped bring the app to campus. Although Date Drop He hasn’t gotten him a girlfriend, he has given him connections on LinkedIn. His justification for The Wall Street Journal sums up the spirit of a generation that doesn’t want to leave anything to chance, not even fate: “I would be sad if my soulmate was here and I couldn’t find it. Or if my co-founder was here and I couldn’t find it, or if my business partner was … Read more

The world had been in love with US technology for 25 years. We are finally unhooking

by

We have been living within a digital ecosystem designed in the United States for more than two decades. Big technology companies not only built the dominant social networks, but also built a network of services around them without real substitutes. From Europe we have been talking for years about technological sovereignty and a possible disengagement – even if it is partial. There are more and more proposals, but at the moment it is more of a wish than reality. Difficult, but not impossible. Become completely independent from American technology In software it is complicated, but feasible. Our colleague Jose told it just a few days ago, leaving aside giants like Google, WhatsAppAmazon, or Instagram. The changes made something very clear: the United States has taken over the great pillars of daily technological life: Internet searches Sending messages online shopping Social networks Email accounts Operating systems The dependence is total, and assuming it is uncomfortable. Countries like France have banned to its officials the use of American platforms such as Zoom and Teamsto promote a video conferencing platform developed in France and under the name Visio. The objective is clear: reduce dependence on foreign technology, minimize costs and achieve a communication standard under European legal control. The UpScrolled case. Behind him TikTok ownership changewhich went from being mainly in Chinese hands to being under the lap of large American companies, the use of social networks like Upscrolledan app founded by the Palestinian Issam Hijazi as a challenge to big technology companies. During the last week of January, Upscrolled was the most downloaded social network above Threads, WhatsApp and TikTok in the United States App Store. A paradigmatic case in which Americans themselves opt for alternatives outside their country. The Proton case. Although less recent, the proton case It is one of the most ambitious in the last five years. From being protagonists only for ProtonMail (end-to-end encryption by default, European jurisdiction and independence from the Big Tech model), to a whole suite with calendar, VPN and storage alternatives. According to the company, its apps already have more than 100 million users. Good number, but far from more than 100 thousand millions of users who have Google services. The distance remains enormous, and explains why technological disengagement continues to be, for the moment, more of a political and cultural gesture than an everyday reality. Prepared for the worst. At the end of January, the Wall Street Journal reported a scenario starring even more tension. The Greenland case has been the flame necessary to finish lighting the fuseand the main managers of European strategic sectors want to move both their systems and data to local centers. Thinking about a 100% European software ecosystem does not seem entirely realistic. But imagining a scenario in which the dependency is not complete sounds a little better. Image | Xataka In Xataka | We criticize the EU a lot with its obsession with regulating Big Tech. There are at least two examples that justify this obsession

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.