matter

Light and gas have become luxury items. Europe’s plan is to intervene in prices no matter what the cost

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Turning on the heating, running a washing machine or keeping a factory blind up has become, overnight, a luxury. Faced with the economic asphyxiation that threatens citizens and companies, the European Union has crossed the Rubicon: the free energy market, as we knew it, cannot sustain this crisis, and Brussels is preparing a drastic intervention to lower the bill at any cost. ORn global market on fire. The epicenter of this new financial earthquake is in the Middle East, as we have been counting these days in Xataka. The price of oil in international markets continues to suffer shocks; as the firm points out Sparta Commodities to EUobserverit is the “largest daily movement since 1988.” Investors assume that the blockage in the region will cause real cuts in the global supply of crude oil, leaving behind the idea of ​​​​a simple logistical delay in ships. Gas has not been left behind. As detailed BloombergEuropean natural gas futures—the Dutch benchmark—soared 30% in a single day, reaching €64/MWh. Europe emerges from the winter with its reserves depleted and is now facing an all-out war with Asia to obtain the scarce shipments of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) available for the summer. The daily roller coaster of the bill. To understand why this crisis punishes the consumer so much, we must look at how the price of electricity is formed hour by hour. An analysis of Finance Times shows how prices in Europe now suffer wild volatility. The example of last March 4 is devastating: at the height of the solar peak (2:00 p.m.), a megawatt hour in Denmark cost just 26 euros; Just three hours later, after the sun set and the gas plants came into play, the price catapulted to 430 euros. This “roller coaster”, with jumps of up to 1,700% in one afternoon, has been replicated with the same harshness in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. Gas thus imposes a “law of luxury” every time the sun disappears, preventing the industry from planning its production. Intervene “whatever the cost.” With a heavy industry (steel, chemicals, aluminum) on the brink of the abyss – it is worth remembering that, according to a document from the European Commission cited by Euronewsindustrial electricity in the EU was already twice as expensive as in the US and China before this crisis—Europe has decided to act. According to the documents discussed by the European leaders to whom has had access Euronewsthe emergency plan seeks quick relief by putting the scissors directly into the bill in three ways: National tax cuts: Which currently vary enormously and can amount to up to 22% of the electricity bill. Cap on tolls and network charges: Which represent 18% of the bill for large industrial consumers. Review of carbon emission costs: Which add 11% to the cost of electricity generation. The intervention beyond of tax cuts. The Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, has toughened her tone towards companies. In statements cited by Euronewswarned: “We will do everything possible to stop speculation. I am ready to react, if necessary, including by increasing taxes on companies that speculate on prices through energy bills.” Furthermore, the panic button for strategic reserves has been activated. As explained Reutersthe finance ministers of the G7 and the EU are negotiating to release part of the 1.4 billion barrels of strategic reserves that Europe keeps to flood the market and artificially sink prices. The impact of not intervening in time. Bloomberg details the case of Domo Chemicalsa plant in the German industrial city of Leuna, which has had to declare insolvency consumed by energy costs. This erosion of the industrial fabric also coincides with a delicate political moment in Germany, where the conservative party (CDU) of Chancellor Friedrich Merz has just suffered an electoral setback against the Greens in the regional elections in Baden-Wuerttemberg. The Spanish shield. Despite the urgency, the overall European response is being fragmented. EUobserver points out that Ursula von der Leyen has proposed as a patch to expand the Caspian Sea oil and gas corridor. Ironically, the only royal coat of arms right now is Spain. As highlighted by this same medium, the Spanish market has registered the lowest and most stable prices this week thanks to its gigantic previous investment in renewable energies, partly isolating its system from fossil volatility. Finally, the markets have experienced a slight respite thanks to geopolitics. According to the latest update of BloombergEuropean bonds rebounded and gas fell 17% on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump predicted the conflict with Iran would be resolved “very soon.” However, investors assume that if the war drags on, prices will remain high for a long time. Waking up to reality. With 67% of its consumption still tied to imported fossil fuels, the bloc is aware that depending on Middle Eastern trade routes is a huge risk for its economy. Until now, the European Union trusted that the free market would solve consumer problems and guarantee the best prices. This energy crisis has shown that this is not always the case. The authorities now assume that, in extreme situations, intervening in bills, capping profits and emptying state reserves is the only viable solution. Whatever the cost, Europe has decided to take control to ensure that turning on the lights is not a privilege reserved for times of peace. Image | freepik and Haydn on Unsplash Xataka | Neither oil nor gas: if a total war breaks out between the US and Iran, the definitive weapon will be desalination plants

saying that opera and ballet don’t matter to anyone

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A conversation about the future of cinema in theaters unleashed, almost accidentally, one of the most unexpected cultural controversies of the final stretch of the awards season that we are experiencing. Timothée Chalamet had the unfortunate idea of ​​using opera and ballet as symbols of cultural irrelevance, and the institutions in the sector have responded, while Chalamet’s chances of winning an Oscar that many took for granted have begun to be questioned. I didn’t want to dance. Chalamet did not intend to talk about opera. The conversation, held last March 4 with his partnerInterstellar‘ Matthew McConaughey, revolved around something broader: whether theatrical cinema has a future and whether actors should beg audiences to come see it. Chalamet defended that good films (he gave as an example the Barbenheimer phenomenon) they don’t need anyone to promote them. And to illustrate the alternative, he resorted to a somewhat cornerstone image: “I don’t want to work in ballet or opera, which is like ‘hey, keep this alive even if no one cares anymore.’” And he added: “with all due respect to the people of ballet and opera.” Too late. Some answers. The institutions linked to opera and ballet were the first to respond: the Royal Ballet and Opera of London posted on Instagram on Friday a video of artists and technicians on the theater stage. In the description they invited the actor to reconsider his position, without any conflict. The English National Opera was somewhat more aggressive: posted a photo of Chalamet along with his viral date and offered him free tickets with the code “Timothée” so he could “fall in love with opera again.” The Seattle Opera went in the same direction: 14% discount on your production of ‘Carmen‘ using the same code. In a later interview, the Royal Ballet and Opera made it clear: Ballet and opera have influenced contemporary theatre, film, fashion and music for centuries, and millions of people around the world continue to attend their performances. That is, it is not a dying industry. In addition, it was mentioned how the company distributes its productions in more than 1,500 movie theaters in 50 countriesand its own executive director noted in the presentation of that season that three quarters of the institution’s activity occurs outside the Royal Opera House. The artists come in with a bang. People like the Colombian opera singer Isabel Leonard have been less diplomatic, saying on social media that “only a weak person or artist feels the need to belittle the arts that precisely inspire those who seek slower and more contemplative experiences.” The Colombian dancer Fernando Montaño published a formal letter on Instagram: comparing artistic forms, he wrote, limits growth and blocks the ability to develop one’s talent. London dancer Anna Yliaho was more succinct: Only an insecure artist, she said, destroys another discipline to elevate his own. The Irish baritone Seán Tester commented that confusing popularity with value is a fundamental error. From Spain, the orchestra director Alondra de la Parrafrom the Orchestra and Choir Foundation of the Community of Madrid extended the invitation of so many other institutions to Chalamet to come see them and change his mind. Many of these statements were collected in the aforementioned article from The Hollywood Reporter. The worst moment. The statements come at the worst possible time for Chalamet’s campaign in search of the Oscar for Best Actor for ‘Marty Supreme’, one of nine for the film, including the top prize. Chalamet has had a certainly notable career in awards, since at only thirty years old he became youngest male actor to accumulate three nominations for best performance since Marlon Brando. For months, in fact, it has been the favorite, and won at the Critics Choice and the Golden Globes. But the back-and-forth of the months leading up to the awards seems to have taken its toll on the film: first an article about director Josh Safdie’s behavior on a previous shoot. Then the defeat at the BAFTAs (without a single award and with 11 nominations, a record for failure in the contest), followed by the defeat at the SAGs, where Michael B. Jordan won for ‘Sinners’ (becoming the new Oscar favorite). And now, these statements, in line with the Chalamet’s aggressive promotion stylebut that can turn away the most traditional voters. In Xataka | Cameron’s ‘Titanic’ was going to be a flop. Until a trailer that broke several Hollywood rules changed the narrative

an “invisible” galaxy made up almost 100% of dark matter

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The Universe continues to be that great unknown. Not only because of its vast immensity, but because human research and subsequent theories that explain its functioning continue to require tweaks and reformulations. we have seen it when calculating the distances between planets of the Solar System, the size of Jupiter either what is the training mechanism of planetary systems. Now, a research team from the University of Toronto has discovered to the strongest candidate for a “dark galaxy”, something that until now was only considered a possibility. The candidate. The study presents the discovery of CDG-2, an acronym that literally means Candidate Dark Galaxy 2. It is an object 300 million light years away, in the Perseus cluster, with a peculiarity: it is almost completely dominated by dark matter, with a minimal number of stars. Thus, between 99.94% and 99.98% of its total mass would be dark matter and it only delivers a light of “only” six million suns compared to the brightness of tens of billions of the Milky Way. Context. Galaxies are something like the Lego pieces that make up the universe and they all contain dark matter. The dark matter It is something scientifically fascinating: it is invisible, it does not emit or reflect light, but its gravitational influence was the scaffolding on which galaxies were formed and is what holds them together today. In the Milky Way, estimates suggest that between 65 and 90% of the mass is dark matter, depending on the model, but astronomy has always wondered if there were even more extreme galaxies. The “dark galaxies” were until now just a theoretical prediction. Why is it important. To begin with, because it empirically confirms what the theoretical models contemplated, but it has more implications: It opens a new way to detect galaxies from statistically significant groupings of globular clusterswhich serve as a trace. As a case study: the most probable hypothesis is that neighboring galaxies ripped away the gas necessary for star formation, leaving only the skeleton. It makes us look at its “twin” CDG-1 with different eyes. Detected previously, it could be a case of an even more extreme dark galaxy, possibly a pure dark matter halo. How they discovered it. The research team came across this galaxy in a striking way: looking for its shadow, since it is practically undetectable. Their fingerprints were four globular clusters, small dense concentrations of stars around the Perseus cluster. After analyzing its disposition with statistics and ruling out that its grouping was a matter of chance, they pointed the three most powerful telescopes available, Hubble, Euclid and Subaru, towards that region and created the image that evidenced its existence. Is, in the words of the main researcher Dayi Li, “the first galaxy detected solely through its population of globular clusters.” Image: NASA, ESA, Dayi Li (UToronto); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) Pending subjects. However, CDG-2 is still a candidate and not a confirmation, which is why it keeps its name. To confirm with certainty the mass of dark matter it would be necessary to measure the velocities of its stars or clusters, something technically very difficult with current technology due to how little they shine. It will be necessary to wait for James Webb and new Euclid observations to improve the image of this object to better define it or continue finding more dark galaxies like it hidden in the universe. It would require measuring the velocities of its stars or globular clusters, something technically very difficult given their extreme tenuity. The next few years, with James Webb and new observations of Euclid, will be crucial to refine the portrait of this object and track whether there are more galaxies like it hidden in the large clusters of the universe. In Xataka | A new “solar system” has just been discovered. There’s just one problem: it shouldn’t exist. In Xataka | We have been deceived by the distances of the Solar System: the closest neighbor to Neptune is Mercury Cover | POT

Productivity science says it’s not just inches that matter

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It has happened to me and it may happen to you too: you have a monitor and you notice that it is no longer enough. You could take a leap and swap it for something a little larger, but just adding inches to the equation isn’t going to change things too much. To change our experience, we need something different, like opting for an ultrawide monitor or adding one more monitor to our setup. What is the best option for you? Both are great, but both may not suit your needs in the same way. For this reason, we are going to take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of these two configurations so that you know what to choose according to your priorities. Choosing an ultrawide monitor An ultrawide monitor is larger than a conventional one, but we cannot stop at that alone. These monitors usually have a 21:9 format, which means they are wider. This means that we have a longer horizontal space, which is a wonder for productivity. And not only that: being a single screen, there is no type of barrier or frame that cuts off the visual experiencesomething ideal for working with long lines of code or spreadsheets with countless columns. Also three windows with documents or applications open at the same time. Your entire workspace, without interruptions. And for gaming, they are the best because you have a larger field of vision and the immersion they provide is not comparable to that of a normal monitor. To this elongated screen we must add another factor, which is the curvature. There are options for flat ultrawide monitors, although if you dare to take the leap, I would recommend opting for a curved one. The reason is very easy to understand: the small curve of the monitor helps you see the entire thing at a glance. What does this imply? You don’t have to turn your headsomething you will appreciate when you finish your day. In addition, the ultrawide allows you to work centered and with a straight spine. With two monitors, your “center” will be the frames of both. Therefore, more neck movements. Another element that works in favor of the ultrawide: Fitts’ Law. This, in short, predicts that the time needed to move to a target depends on its distance and size. And how does this apply to monitors? With two of them, we will have the frames as a “barrier” separating them both. that the brain will understand as an interruption. That does not happen with the ultrawide, since the mouse and everything will move fluidly across the screen. Without constantly jumping from one monitor to another, the cognitive load is reduced and that is great for less fatigue. It is not the main reason to choose one of these monitors, but I have friends who have opted for an ultrawide because they prefer a more minimalist and tidy space. In the end, it is a continuous visual experience that you place on your desktop, which, of course, also has its downside: you need a large desktop background. I will leave for last two more cons that, without being a drama, I would value a lot before opting for this option. Since it is a screen, if one day you start the computer and the monitor does not turn on, you will be left with nothing (having two monitors clearly wins there). In addition, by having many more pixels than a traditional widescreen monitor, you are going to need a medium powerful graphics card if you don’t want your games to drop below 60 FPS. Choose two monitors The other side of the coin: two monitors, side by side. If I had to define this setting in one word, it would be versatility. To build a setup with two screens, we can go ahead and buy them both or simply purchase one and add it to the one we already have, whether identical or of a different size and characteristics. And not only that: we can also change its height as we wish or rotate one of them to make it vertical. The latter is great for reading long documents or taking a look at social networks while, at the same time, you have another horizontal screen for a normal experience. I have been working with two monitors for years and it is my choice because it offers the feeling of having two separate spaces. For example, I usually have a document open on one screen where I write and email or Slack on the other. In return, there is one thing in which the ultrawides win by a landslide: you are going to find a frame in the middle and you are going to have to move your neck more. I’m going to stop at this last point for a moment. It is very necessary that the two monitors are well placedsomething that is not as simple as it sounds. If they are identical it is easier, but it can be an odyssey as they are different sizes or manufacturers. If possible, I would pull a monitor standalthough that adds to the bill. And it is better not to skimp there, since they will have to support the weight of the monitors all the time. The good and the bad of both options, face to face ultrawide monitor two monitors THE GOOD 🟢 You work without frames in between. It is ideal for editing video (infinite timeline) or having 3 legible columns of text, and it helps you avoid straining your neck. Allows you to have two separate workspaces THE BAD 🔴 They are not for all desktops: you need a robust stand, table background and a good graphics card They involve more neck movement and there are black frames in the middle Ideal for: Have all your documents or apps on the same screen to see them at a glance More versatility: you can put one vertically (ideal for … Read more

we have to get to the month of March no matter what

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Russia has intensified a strategy of attrition that aims less to gain ground than to disrupt daily life, and it has done so hitting the energy system Ukrainian to leave the country without electricity, without heating and without basic services at the cruelest time of the year. Faced with Moscow’s missiles, kyiv has called in a group of kamikaze hunters with a very clear plan. The terror ends. It we count last week. With temperatures plummeting to -20ºC and a network already weakened by months of attacks, waves of missiles and drones they seek to collapse substations, electrical infrastructure and nodes that sustain urban heat, and there is even fear of a more precise campaign against points that feed to nuclear plants. The goal it’s simple: turn the cold into political pressure, erode civil resistance and push kyiv towards a negotiation under torment, just when the United States tries to open a diplomatic path. The result is a country forced to live in survival modewith blackouts that last for days in some districts, thousands of buildings without heat in the capital, schools closed and citizens who, unable to leave, endure in dark and frozen homes, wrapped in blankets, with candles, camping burners and a shared feeling that the front is no longer only in the trenches, but also in the living room. Heat, water and normality under minimums. In cities like kyiv, the blow is especially dangerous because the heating depends on centralized systems that distribute hot water from cogeneration plants, and when the supply is cut off in the middle of the ice, the risk is not only of being cold, but also of the pipes freezing and bursting, causing flooding when the service returns. That is why the authorities have come to recommend draining circuits in thousands of buildings, accepting temporary cold weather to avoid a major disaster, while repairs are made slow and difficult by the weather and repeated attacks. Searching for fire. Life is reorganized around of heat points: public centers where people take shelter, charge mobile phones and receive hot food, and extraordinary solutions such as adapted trains as mobile hubs to warm up and regain some autonomy. Even so, they remembered in Forbes What is most striking is the obstinacy of normality: businesses operating with generatorsneighborhoods that resist in the dark, families improvising routines and a society that, instead of becoming anesthetized, tangibly feels again what it means to sustain a country at war when the temperature turns each blackout into a physical threat. Air saturation. Russian pressure is not only more constant, it is also more massive, and its strength resides in the volume: The number of attack drones has escalated to exceed 5,000 a monthwhich is equivalent to more than 150 every nighta figure designed to deplete defenses and force Ukraine to choose what saves and what doesn’t. Although the interception rate stays highthe strategic cost is enormous because shooting down swarms with surface-to-air missiles or aviation weapons consumes scarce and very expensive resources at an unsustainable speed. Zelensky himself has warned that there are systems that run out of ammunition. Mobile teams with autocannons and machine guns provide useful and relatively cheap defense, but its scope is limited and they can only protect specific points, such as a power plant, leaving too many gaps for an enemy who strikes and repeats the pattern every night. In that equation, the “thermal terror” It does not depend on destroying everything, but on having enough impacts so that the system does not raise its head and the population can’t rest. The kamikaze “hunters”. The Ukrainian response is coming through a route more adapted to this new mass war: interceptor drones small, fast and cheapconceived like disposable hunters capable of taking down Shaheds from a distance without burning a missile for each target. They are a evolution of the FPV ecosystembut oriented towards pure performance, with “bullet” type designs and industrial logic looking for volume: different models, several suppliers, accelerated production and a cost per unit that allows you to take risks without mortgaging the arsenal. Its effectiveness is maximized by launching more than one per whitejust as is done with expensive interceptors when the priority is to ensure the downing before the drone reaches a substation or thermal plant, which requires manufacturing many more interceptors than enemy drones. Aid. And yet, what seemed impossible a few months ago is beginning to sound viable: manufacturing has been triggered and, with allied supportUkraine is reaching a scale that It is no longer symbolicbut operational, to the point that interceptors are becoming protagonists of night demolitions and claiming a growing share of the work that previously fell on missiles. Hold on until March. The strategic sense of these interceptors is not only to shoot down drones, but to open a window of timebecause Ukraine will not be able to rebuild or stabilize its energy network as long as it continues receiving daily blows on the same critical points. The winter war is decided, therefore, in the ability to reduce the impact leak enough to repair without the repair being destroyed the next day, and in maintaining morale when the cold punishes as much as the enemy. Russia bets on fatigue and despairwhile Ukraine does it for a defense cheaper and massive that allows it to resist the peak of winter demand and reach the temperate spring season with the system alive. If the Russian plan is to push a country into a dark age of ice and blackouts, the Ukrainian response is to build, urgently and with war engineering, an aerial barrier made of kamikaze hunters that not only protect transformers, but buy something much more valuable: time not to break (or freeze). Image | Denys Shmyhal In Xataka | Russia has dynamited electricity in Ukraine to activate “thermal terror”: that “warming” in winter is a lethal risk In Xataka | Russia’s drones are dropping like flies and it’s because of Ukraine’s craziest weapons: a fishing … Read more

We have spent 30 years forgetting how things are made. Now China has the keys to the matter and the West is in panic

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For the past three decades, Western democracies have operated under an intellectual mirage. Elites, blinded by a neoclassical bias, assumed that control of intellectual property, financial instruments, and software code constituted the pinnacle of value creation. In this worldview, physical processes—the “dirty work” of mining, refining, and manufacturing—were considered low-margin commodity services that could be outsourced to low-cost jurisdictions without strategic risk. As Gillian Tett explains in his Financial Times columnthis cognitive bias allowed China to dominate global supply chains with little protest. The material deterioration of the West. The essence of the current problem is defined by investor Craig Tindale in his essay “The return of matter”. In it he argues that the West has suffered “strategic disarmament” by dismantling its national productive economy in favor of quarterly financial efficiency. As Tindale details, he fell into the “raw material paradox”: believing that possessing the raw mineral is equivalent to possessing the usable material. While the West possesses vast geological deposits, China has monopolized the “Midstream,” that is, the heavy industrial capacity to refine, smelt and purify these materials into useful forms. Without this capability, a lithium mine in Australia or a copper mine in Arizona are simply quarries for a Chinese smelter; They are not strategic assets for the West if Beijing has the keys to access them. The data is there. The data of the Chinese industrial domain are, as investor Craig Tindale describesoverwhelming and unprecedented in history, consolidating what he calls “processing sovereignty”: Gallium: China controls approximately 98% of global production, a material that is essential for AESA radars, 5G networks and the semiconductors of the future. Rare earths: The Asian giant dominates 90% of chemical separation capacity – the true technical “separation wall” – and more than 90% of the production of NdFeB magnets, vital for electric vehicle engines and defense systems. Graphite: Control more than 90% of the production of graphite anodes, the indispensable component of virtually all lithium-ion batteries. Magnesium and Polysilicon: Your control extends to 90-95% of magnesium casting (key for aluminum alloys) and 95% polysilicon necessary for solar energy. As Tett points outwhile the West became obsessed with software and services, China was quietly building the physical infrastructure that today gives it a massive competitive advantage in the race for artificial intelligence and the energy transition. This physical reality is what has forced the Trump administration to try to redraw the energy map by taking Venezuelan crude oil, desperately seeking to regain control over the “matter.” The electric wall of AI. This physical reality has revealed that the race for Artificial Intelligence It’s not just a question of code or chips. The digital leadership of the West is now encountering the physical limit of cheap energy. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, and Jensen Huang, director of Nvidia, agree that the biggest current problem is not the excess of chips, but lack of electricity to connect them. On this board, China has gone from being a dependent petrostate to becoming the first “Electrostate” in the world. Beijing now produces 2.5 times more electricity than the US and builds 74% of all current solar and wind projects on the planet. By investing massively in electrification, China is expanding an infrastructure that could give it a definite advantage in the AI ​​race. The Venezuelan trap. Against this backdrop, Donald Trump’s administration has accepted the importance of physical matter, but seems determined to fight with tools from the last century. The taking of Venezuelan crude oil seeks to consolidate the reserves of Venezuela, Guyana and the United States are under US influence, which would represent close to 30% of the world’s oil reserves. according to a JPMorgan report. However, Venezuelan oil alone cannot solve the AI ​​problem. As Gillian Tett warnswhile Washington asks the world to buy 20th century infrastructure (fossil fuels), Beijing offers 21st century infrastructure (renewable energy and high voltage networks). In addition, Venezuelan crude oil is “mortgaged”: The country owes up to $60 billion to China under the oil-for-loans model, and its infrastructure is in ruins. The skills gap and the clash of “clocks.” Rebuilding industrial sovereignty is not just a question of money. The West has closed its heavy industrial capacity for thirty years, causing a “human bottleneck”. Metallurgists and process engineers who know how to adjust an unstable furnace or a chemical separation train are retiring without relief. Tindale further postulates a conflict of time horizons. The “Western Financial Clock,” which requires quarterly profits, has destabilized the “Industrial Clock” (which requires decades of investment) and the “War Clock” (which requires immediate reserves). While China’s clocks are synchronized by the state, the West remains trapped in short-term financial efficiency. Towards a rematerialized sovereignty? The JPMorgan report suggests that the US has won the short-term battle for Venezuelan crude oil. But, as Gillian Tett concludesrisks losing the global strategic war for the energy that will power AI. Tindale’s thesis is blunt: a civilization that financializes everything ends up sacrificing the material base that keeps it independent. If the West does not rebuild its foundries, refineries and factories, it will renounce the material sovereignty that sustains democracy, becoming a simple “quarry” rich in resources but poor in capacity in the face of a rival that already holds the keys to the physical world. Image | freepik Xataka | Venezuela has something much more valuable than oil and the US knows it. The big problem is that he doesn’t know where he is.

almost no one wants a computer with AI no matter how hard the industry tries

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Dell is clear that its products in 2026 will no longer be “AI-first.” That absolute focus on promising the gold and the moro in the new generation of PCs thanks to the virtues of artificial intelligence is disappearing and the reason is obvious: almost no one cares if their PC has AI functions or not. what has happened. Kevin Terwilliger, chief product officer at Dell, said in a recent interview with PC Gamer that the AI ​​fever on PCs has ended up causing a lot of disappointment among users. “In fact,” he explains, “I think the AI ​​probably confuses them more than it helps them achieve a specific result.” Dell no longer believes (as much) in PCs with AI. This manager showed surprising honesty when talking about how this absolute commitment to AI has not convinced either users or companies. The company has taken a step back, and although they will continue to pay attention to these AI options, they will no longer be the priority because they have discovered that people don’t care too much about those options: “We’re very focused on leveraging the AI ​​capabilities of a device – in fact, every product we announce has an NPU – but what we’ve learned over the course of this year, especially from a consumer perspective, is that they don’t buy based on AI.” Although the monkey dresses in silk, the monkey stays. Our dear PC knows it well, that in the last two years wanted go from being a Personal Computer to a Personal Companion with the help, of course, of AI. All manufacturers started to brag about TOPS on powerful NPUs and how instead of using our computer with a mouse and keyboard we were going to use the voice. The promise has dissipated and what has happened to the PC is that everyone keep using it the same way you used it. At least, for now. Dell lowers the bet. Dell was one of Microsoft’s initial partners in the launch of Copilot+ PCs in 2024, and even added variants of its popular Dell XPS 13 and Inspiron with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chip. They even added Cloud AI chips of this manufacturer in its high-end chips last year to try to reinforce the execution of local AI models, but that has not convinced users. That manufacturers like Dell change the discourse is significant and dangerous for Microsoft’s ambitious plans. Microsoft is left alone. The company led by Satya Nadella has been flooding us with new AI features in Windows for a long time, but the problem is that most of these features are being received with indifference… or with total rejection. The Windows Recall example is the clearest: the feature seemed promisingbut its launch was involved in a great privacy controversy and its availability was delayed and currently it is an option that is barely talked about. Thank you for your sincerity, Dell. Dell’s speech is surprising and appreciated. Especially after that continuous trickle of releases in which AI seemed to be the salvation of the PC and the key to a new golden age. These functions can end up being valuable, without a doubt, but what users continue to look for in their laptops, for example, is reliability and great autonomy, for example. That’s what still matters. The PC faces a complicated future. Jeff Clarke, COO of Dell, participated in a media meeting at CES 2026 and also mentioned how in this industry “We have this unfulfilled promise of AI and the expectation that AI will drive demand from end users.” It is clear that Dell now has a different vision, but both it and other manufacturers face a very difficult few months because as Clarke said, “we are about to enter 2026 with a quite significant memory shortage“. In Xataka | Sundar Pichai (CEO of Google) believes that ‘Her’ is inevitable: “there will be people who fall in love with an AI and we should prepare ourselves”

The gold of the 21st century is not in Venezuela. China and Russia know it, and that is why the US wants Greenland no matter what.

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As if it were a Deja Vú2026 has exactly begun same as 2025: with Trump’s insistence on take over Greenland. It happens that it no longer seems like an isolated whim or a rhetorical eccentricity, but rather the convergence of a personal drive, a strategic opportunity perceived as easy, and a high-impact geopolitical calculation. Venezuela It has served to light the fuse. Greenland as an obsession. After the capture of MaduroTrump confirmed once again that the use of force abroad lacks the legal and judicial brakes that do constrain his domestic action, and that, in the face of clearly outmatched adversaries or allies, the reality is imposed on international law without too many immediate consequences. Greenland then appears (again) as the perfect prize: a huge, sparsely populated territory, defended by an ally incapable of military resistance and located in an area where Washington can dress territorial ambition in the language of “national security”. The reiteration of the message, the appointment of a specific envoy and the public statements that normalize even the military option indicate that this is not a joke or simple diplomatic pressure, but rather an obsession that grows as Trump’s internal political margin narrows. The founding paradox of NATO. The central problem is that Greenland belongs to the Kingdom of Denmarka full member of NATO, and any US action against it would place the Alliance before a paradox for which it was not designed. He Article 5, designed to deter external enemies, does not see clearly What happens when the aggressor is the hegemonic member. As has warned Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, in that scenario “everything would stop”: NATO could continue to exist formally, but its credibility would be destroyed. No one would come to the defense of Greenland against the United States, not only due to a lack of political will, but also due to the absolute material asymmetry between Washington and the rest of the allies. The implicit message is thunder for Europe: security guarantees are no longer automatic, and force is once again in place above the treatyan outcome that directly benefits Russia at the moment of greatest tension since the end of the Cold War. Critical minerals. The economic and technological argument is supported in mineral wealth that lies under the Greenland ice, the result of an ancient geology that concentrates rare earths and other essential critical minerals for the energy transition. From the 19th century to today, different actors have tried exploit that potential, from Ivittuut cryolite during World War II to contemporary rare earth projects. However, the enthusiasm collides with a stubborn reality: extracting these resources is extraordinarily expensive, slow and risky. The almost total lack of infrastructure, the dependence on maritime or air transport, the complexity of processing (with minerals often associated with uranium) and restrictive environmental legislation mean that only a minimal fraction of exploration projects become operational mines, usually after more than a decade of investment. Extra ball. Furthermore, the memory of the environmental damage caused by past exploitations, whose effects are still detectable half a century later in extremely fragile ecosystems, explains why Greenlandic society only contemplates mining. like an opportunity if you actively participate in decision-making and project ownership. The loot exists, but it is neither immediate nor easy, and it certainly does not seem to be able to justify the American strategic urgency on its own. Hybrid war. The backdrop is a northern Europe increasingly militarizedwhere incidents against submarine cables, gas pipelines and critical infrastructure in the Baltic have normalized the idea of a permanent hybrid war. In this context, Washington observes how Moscow and Beijing test pressure tactics below the threshold of open conflict, while legal and judicial responses appear slow or ineffective. The explicit willingness of the United States to include military option for Greenland fits into that fait accompli logic: securing key positions before the strategic environment deteriorates further. It is not just about denying advantages to rivals, but about getting ahead of a scenario in which infrastructure, logistics and control of physical nodes are worth more than declarations of principles. The navigable Arctic and a port. Here a possible decisive derivative emerges. Science has been warning for some time a stage where the Arctic is heading, on a horizon of decades, to be navigable for most of the year. The sustained retreat of sea ice is transforming routes that were once seasonal into viable commercial corridorsdrastically reducing the distances between Asia, Europe and North America. Today, they capitalize on that advantage especially Russiawith the Northern Maritime Route, and Chinawhich presents itself as a “near-Arctic power” and invests in ports, icebreakers and logistics agreements. For the United States, which is late to this board, Greenland represents the perfect shortcut: an enclave located between the Atlantic and the Arctic, capable of hosting deep-water ports, air bases and logistics nodes from which to offset the Russian-Chinese advantage. Seen this way, more than a mine, Greenland is a port ahead of the world to come, a piece from which to influence the global trade of the 21st century and the control of routes that, for the first time in modern history, cease to be be closed by ice. A small island, a global change. If you will, the final paradox is that all this pulse revolves around a tiny territory of less than 60,000 inhabitantsone mostly opposed to integrating into the United States and in favor, at best, of a slow and cautious independence. However, its symbolic and strategic value is disproportionate. Greenland condenses the transition to a world where melting ice reconfigures maps, critical minerals redefine dependencies, and alliances are strained to the limit. For Trump, it is a source of political impact, potential money and demolition of the old order. For Europe, possibly proof that geography prevails again to the law. And for the international system, the warning that the Arctic is no longer a remote edge of the planet, but one of its new centers of gravity. Image | The … Read more

We have searched for dark matter with the most sensitive detector in history and we have found nothing. And that is a success

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The search for dark matter It becomes more and more like a game of hide-and-seek where, as we improve our vision, the target appears to become more invisible. The last thing we tried to do to find it was drill 1,500 meters deep underground, although in the end we had a very bad result, although it did allow us to find things that we were not looking for. The dark matter. It is without a doubt one of the great mysteries of physics. While many researchers suggest that this matter surrounds us and is the main component of the universe, others believe that we were wrong and it doesn’t exist. Although little by little evidence is emerging that it is true that it exists so that our own theories fit. This whole mess is mainly focused on the fact that we do not have the ability to detect this matter. We know it’s there, but we don’t ‘see’ it. Something that generates a great confrontation within the world of physicistsand that is why these types of experiments try to shed light on this matter that allows us understand much better the composition of what surrounds us. New tools. Science has exploited the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experimenta very sophisticated tool built by humanity to hunt down these ghost particles. To understand it, it is nothing more than a sensor that had to be buried 1,500 meters deep, in the facilities of the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF), in South Dakota. The reason? Use the rock as a shield to block the cosmic radiation that bombards the surface. The concept. The magnitude of this experiment has undoubtedly been quite considerable, since at its core 10 tons of ultrapure liquid xenon have been housed. The theory here is that if a dark matter particle passes through the Earth, it should occasionally collide with a xenon atom that produces a tiny flash of light. In total, the LZ has analyzed data collected for 471 daysbetween March 2023 and April 2025. A period of time that makes this the most exhaustive search that has been done so far. The sound of silence. The main result is that no direct interaction with the particles has been detected. However, this null result is practically worth gold in the field of physics. And by not finding anything, scientists have been able to rule out a huge range of possibilities about what dark matter is and what it is not. In short, we have been able to establish tighter margins to detect dark matter, now having the strictest limit in the world on the cross sections of dark matter particles for a very specific mass. And it is that being of such a small masswhich is why it offers so many problems when it comes to detecting them. The surprise. The most fascinating thing about these results is not what was missing, but what appeared. Although the detector did not see dark matter, it did validate its extreme sensitivity by recording something incredibly difficult to capture: solar neutrinos. This marks a bittersweet milestone: the experiment has officially entered what physicists call the ‘neutrino fog‘. This means that we have reached a point of such extreme sensitivity that neutrinos (that go through everything without flinching) begin to generate background noise that could be confused with dark matter. And the truth is that we are facing a big problem, since technology will have to find a way to distinguish dark matter from neutrinos. The future. The experiment does not stop here. Although these results cover until April 2025, the official plan is to continue taking data until 2028, with the aim of accumulate more than 1,000 days of observations. And many experts continue to point to the same thing: 85% of the mass of the universe It’s dark matterand although it escapes us, we are getting closer to knowing what the universe is made of. Images | Karo K. In Xataka | The strangest event that humanity has witnessed occurred in 2019 under a mountain in Italy

India wanted to impose an indelible state app on all mobile phones. In a matter of days he had to take an unexpected turn

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The Government of India movement to force a security app to be installed On all mobile phones sold in the country it has lasted less than a week. On November 28, the Ministry of Telecommunications sent a private communication to the manufacturers in which it gave them 90 days to comply with the measure. However, the general rejection of public opinion, doubts about its impact on cybersecurity and the apparent opposition of some manufacturers have forced a change in plans. The order began to gain public relevance when its internal details became known. Reuters noted that The Government not only requested the mandatory presence of Sanchar Saathi in new mobile phones, but also its incorporation in those already in the supply chain through software updates. The agency also reported that the initial instruction specified that the application could not be disabled. What is Sanchar Saathi. The program’s own website define the tool as a public service aimed at empowering users against fraud and device theft. It is available as a mobile application and also as a web portal, from where it is possible to temporarily lock a lost phone, track subsequent use attempts and, if recovered, reactivate it. The Government frames these functions within a broader digital education effort, with end-user security materials and advisories. From security discourse to doubts about surveillance. The debate intensified when opposition figures and privacy specialists They questioned the initiative. In his opinion, an application managed by the State, coupled with such a broad mandate, required additional guarantees to rule out intrusive uses. Organizations such as the Internet Freedom Foundation They asked for transparency and access to the full legal text. Under pressure, Scindia publicly defended that “spying is not possible” with Sanchar Saathi and denied that the app can be used for surveillance. Opposition from manufacturers added pressure to the process. Reuters indicated that Apple had no intention to comply with the order as it was proposed and that it would convey its objections to the Government, while Samsung and other actors expressed similar reservations. According to sources cited by international media, the companies questioned whether the instruction had been issued without prior consultation and warned of its impact on the privacy policies of their ecosystems. The context was not minor: India has become one of the fastest growing markets for smartphones, especially for companies like Apple and other large manufacturers. An express reverse gear with success figures in hand. The rectification came on December 3, when the Ministry of Communications published a note announcing that mandatory pre-installation was no longer necessary. The decision was justified by the “growing acceptance” by Sanchar Saathi, which according to the Government now has 14 million users and allows around 2,000 frauds to be reported daily. Only the previous day, 600,000 new registrations had driven tenfold growth. Scindia then insisted that “spying is not possible”, despite the skepticism of specialized groups. In recent years, as reported by BloombergIndia has driven decisions that have forced big tech companies to readjust, such as demands for access to encrypted information or recent attempts to have manufacturers distribute the GOV.in public app suite. All of this occurs in a market that is strategic for Apple and Google, both in sales and production. The withdrawal of the mandate makes it clear that these dynamics continue to evolve and that balances will likely continue to be redefined. Images | Ministry of Communications of India | Piyanshu Sharma In Xataka | There are 500 million users who could perfectly upgrade to Windows 11. The problem is that they don’t want to

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