Meters

The Canary Islands have been suffering total blackouts for years. Their salvation is a beast of engineering 1,145 meters under the sea

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A month ago, the destabilization of an old generator at the El Palmar thermal power plant in La Gomera caused a dramatic “cascade effect” that left more than 15,000 people without electricity, and without mobile coverage. This incident showed the extreme fragility from living in an isolated electrical system. However, the solution to this historical vulnerability no longer looks to the sky, but to the depths of the Atlantic. To overcome the abrupt volcanic orography and the extreme pressures of the Canary Islands seabed, engineering has had to design an “umbilical cord” unprecedented in the world, marking a before and after in the history of the archipelago. The end of isolation. In an effort to protect supply, Red Eléctrica de España (REE) has officially inaugurated the underwater interconnection between La Gomera and Tenerife. As confirmed by the REE itselfthe magnitude of the project translates into historic figures: an investment of 145 million euros for the cable laying, to which are added another 32 million destined for the two link substations located in Chío (Tenerife) and El Palmar (La Gomera). It is not a capricious work. How they collect local mediathe Canary Islands have suffered nine major “energy zeros” (total blackouts) since 2009. Tenerife and La Gomera have been among the islands hardest hit, so this infrastructure was born as a vital antidote to darkness. More than light. The implementation of this system completely alters the energy paradigm. As indicated ANDldiario.esboth islands cease to be solitary island systems and become a single network. From now on, if the rubber plant fails, Tenerife will inject energy instantly to avoid a blackout, and vice versa. But the scope of the work transcends mere security. As explained in detail in the REE statementcable is the key to decarbonization. La Gomera will now be able to generate much more renewable energy – mainly wind – than its population consumes. This green surplus will not be lost, but will travel along the seabed to Tenerife, drastically reducing the burning of fossil fuels on both shores. The technical challenge: engineering to the limit. Connecting two volcanic islands separated by abyssal trenches is not an easy task. As emphasized The Daythe 36 kilometer length of the cable descends to 1,145 meters below sea level. This extreme depth makes it the deepest tripolar alternating current link on the entire planet, snatching the record that linked Crete and the Peloponnese since 2021. To withstand the weight and crushing pressure of the ocean at these levels, engineering had to reinvent itself. To do this, they had to discard the traditional use of steel and lead, opting instead for an ultralight synthetic material armor and an insulation based on ethylene and propylene rubber. Caring for the environment was also a priority. In order not to destroy coastal biodiversity or alter shallow volcanic beds, from The Confidential detail that it was used the “directed drilling” technique: an underground microtunnel that allows the cable to exit to the sea hundreds of meters from the beach. Likewise, the terrestrial substations use GIS (gas-insulated) technology to occupy the minimum possible space, and their buildings have been camouflaged imitating greenhouses and agricultural terraces to integrate into the landscape. Laying underwater bridges. The milestone of La Gomera and Tenerife is just the beginning. Future planning, as pointed out The Daycontemplates the colossal challenge of joining Fuerteventura with Gran Canaria, an even greater challenge given that the distance between the two exceeds 100 kilometers. Parallel to the electrical revolution, the Canary Islands are experiencing an unprecedented leap in their telecommunications. As these local media detailthere are more projects like BASE 6, promoted by the public company Canalink. This is a new 328 kilometer fiber optic cable with a budget of 19 million euros that will link Tenerife with El Hierro, landing through a drilling on Tamaduste beach. This data highway, with a capacity of 5 terabits per second, seeks to eradicate the digital divide on the most remote island, guaranteeing services such as telemedicine or online education. The invisible network. The Canary Islands not only look inward. As contextualized by OCTSI (Canary Telecommunications Observatory), the archipelago has been functioning for decades as a global strategic node, surrounded by historic fiber rings and international connections such as Telefónica’s PENCAN cables, currently in the process of renovation. However, this strategic position has its geopolitical edges. An extensive report from my colleague for Xataka focuses on network extension from Canalink to Africa. The Canary Islands are financing a cable to the Moroccan city of Tarfaya with European funds. The problem lies in the fact that Morocco intends to extend this infrastructure towards Western Sahara, a movement that clashes head-on with the rulings of the EU Court of Justice and that threatens to place Spain at the center of a complex diplomatic and legal conflict with the Polisario Front. Overcoming geographic isolation. At 1,145 meters under the scrutiny of the waves, where sunlight does not reach and the pressure is unbearable, the heartbeat that unites two islands now runs. The Canary Islands are managing to transform their greatest geographical weakness—fragmentation and isolation—into a true global showcase of technological innovation. Little by little, the old and noisy combustion engines give way to a future that will be inescapably green, and deeply interconnected. Image | OCTSI Xataka | The Canary Islands are going to lay a submarine cable to Morocco. If Morocco decides to extend it, Spain is going to have a big problem

China surrounded an enclave with robots. Now they have been given a rifle to shoot at 100 meters, and the result points to an island

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China has been leaving increasingly explicit clues about how it imagines future conflicts. In 2025, PLA maneuvers included island assault exercises minors using ground robots and unmanned systems, a sign that Beijing is no longer testing only classic amphibious crossings, but scenarios where machines make way before soldiers. Those practices marked a clear direction: Combat automation was no longer a distant theory, but something China was beginning to test on the ground. Now he has amplified it. Drones with rifle. China has made a qualitative leap in the use of combat drones by demonstrating that a UAV armed with a standard assault rifle can be 100% right of his shots against a human target at 100 meters while remaining in hover. The system, developed by a Chinese company together with the PLA special operations academy, fired 20 times and placed half of the hits in a comparable radius. a shot to the heada result that makes it clear that these are no longer experimental platforms but rather precision weapons ready for real environments. Extra ball. It does not seem like a specific experiment or a laboratory demonstration: the team itself has explained that the only “imperfect” shot was due defective ammunitionnot the system, making this test an unmistakable sign of where Chinese combat power is headed. Taiwan and a problem. This progress cannot be understood without the Taiwan backdropone of the most urbanized territories on the planet, where any military operation would require fighting in dense megacities, full of civilians, underground infrastructure and narrow streets that neutralize many traditional advantages. For the PLA, the challenge is not just cross the seabut to dominate neighborhoods, subway stations and residential complexes where human infantry suffer enormous political and military costs. The Chinese response to this dilemma is neither doctrinal nor moral, but technical: dealing with urban warfare as an engineering problem which can be solved by delegating violence to machines capable of moving, identifying targets and shooting without fatigue or fear. A bet. In fact, recalled in The Diplomat that the essay of the armed drone fits into the third major phase of Chinese military modernization, the so-called “intelligentization,” which seeks to replace human decisions with distributed artificial intelligence systems. Having mechanized and digitized its forces, the PLA now aims to delegate key functions (detection, prioritization and attack) to algorithms that operate faster than any human chain of command. In this framework, a drone with a rifle is not a curiosity, but rather an elemental piece of an ecosystem where sensors, weapons and software act in a coordinated manner, reducing the role of the soldier. to a mere initial authorizer or, in the extreme, eliminating him from decision-making altogether. Swarms in alleys. There is much more, because the medium stood out documents and studies linked to Chinese military universities that reveal that the target is not individual drones, but autonomous swarms specifically designed for urban warfare. These systems are designed to operate at low altitudes, inside buildings, indoors and underground, even when communications are degraded or non-existent. Through simple rules and self-organization, swarms They could patrol areastrack people and execute attacks without receiving orders in real time, a solution that the PLA consider ideal to neutralize defenses in cities such as Taipei or Kaohsiung and to eliminate key objectives before external forces can intervene. The gray area of ​​legality. The technological bet is accompanied by a legal position deliberately ambiguous by Beijing on lethal autonomous weapons. As? Defining as unacceptable Only those systems that simultaneously meet a series of very strict criteria, China leaves itself a wide margin to develop weapons capable of killing without direct human supervision, as long as they can be stopped in theory or follow pre-programmed rules. This ambiguity, they say, contrasts with documented risks of AI in combat (identification errors, inability to interpret human intentions, data biases) and makes it easier for research to advance without clear regulatory brakes. The future that is being tested today. In short, the drone that shoot with surgical precision at 100 meters is not an anecdote, but tangible proof of where the Beijing strategy: move the war to the heart of the city and delegate it to machines. There is no doubt that if this model is applied in a conflict such as Taiwan, the combination of autonomous swarms, integrated light weapons and decisions without human intervention could multiply the risk for civilians and reduce the political thresholds for the use of force. From that prism, what is presented today as a technical experiment is, in reality, a most disturbing preview: that of an urban war where the alleys are no longer patrolled by soldiers, but by armed robots that will never ask questions. Image | Heeheemalu In Xataka | The biggest geopolitical risk on the planet is not Greenland. It’s a smaller island with a disturbing neighbor: Taiwan In Xataka | 200 drones in the hands of a single soldier: China is advancing very quickly in a type of war that seemed like science fiction

Someone dumped three cubic meters of asbestos in Las Palmas. They caught him because he advertised on the internet as an unlicensed manager

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In the age of digital immediacy, it seems that any problem has a solution just a click away. “Economic debris removal”, “Rapid waste management”. These ads flood shopping portals and social networks. However, behind some of these profiles there are no authorized companies, but rather a network of illegal activities that end with carcinogenic materials abandoned on the corner lot. The latest case detected in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is the perfect reflection of this problem. The Local Police have managed to identify an individual who not only operated clandestinely, but also converted the surroundings of the Mirador de Las Torres at a hazardous materials landfill. The alarm voice. The events date back to December 19, when a citizen’s notice alerted the authorities about a van that was unloading debris in a suspicious manner on an embankment in the Díaz Casanova urbanization. Upon arriving at the scene, agents from the Environmental Group of the Mediation and Coexistence Unit (UMEC) of the Local Police found an alarming sight: approximately three cubic meters of asbestos-containing fiber cement sheets. In other words, it was not common debris, but a cataloged material as hazardous waste due to its high toxicity if the fibers fracture and are inhaled. An investigation connected to the network. The investigation did not stop at the spill. Upon tracking the vehicle, officers discovered a pattern of professional deception. As reported by local mediathe suspect actively advertised on internet portals, offering to manage all types of waste, including asbestos. However, when cross-referencing data with the Registry of Waste Managers of the Government of the Canary Islands, the reality came to light: the individual was neither listed as a manager nor as an authorized transporter. He did not have the equipment, training, or permits required by law to manipulate “uralite.” After being located, the investigated person had no escape. According to Canarian sourcesthe man acknowledged being the author of the spill and admitted that he charged his clients for a service he provided illegally. Instead of taking the asbestos to an authorized treatment plant – where he would have to pay for its correct disposal – he simply dumped it in open fields to keep the full benefit. The legal framework: Law 7/2022. This behavior is not just incivility; It is a serious violation of public health and the environment. According to Law 7/2022of waste and contaminated soils for a circular economy, the abandonment of hazardous waste is strongly penalized. This law seeks precisely to end the underground economy in the waste sector. The regulations are clear: whoever generates the waste (the owner of a home who is renovating, for example) has the responsibility of ensuring that his garbage ends up in the hands of an authorized manager. If it is delivered to a “fake manager” of the Internet, the producer of the waste could also find himself involved in legal problems. Asbestos, an invisible enemy. The City Council of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, through its waste guide, reminds that asbestos requires special handling. It is classified under specific codes like LER 170605. When these planks break when thrown down an embankment, they release microscopic fibers that, when they enter the lungs, can cause serious respiratory diseases and long-term cancer. Therefore, its withdrawal must be carried out by companies registered with RERA (Registry of Companies with Asbestos Risk), something that the accused was completely unaware of. How to act correctly? The case of Las Torres is a warning for all citizens. The City Council and the Cabildo of Gran Canaria offer legal alternatives To avoid these crimes: Clean Points for domestic debris from small works (minor renovations). Asbestos Census: the Cabildo usually opens calls for the orderly removal of elements with asbestos in homes (drums, sheets, pipes). Authorized Managers: the authorized manager number should always be required before contracting any service. Closure against impunity. The person responsible for the spill in Las Torres now faces economic sanctions that, according to Law 7/2022can reach very high amounts for serious infringement. This case serves as a reminder that the city’s natural environment is no one’s backyard, and that the digital trail of offenders, sooner or later, ends up reaching the hands of justice. What began as a “cheap” advertisement on a website has ended in a criminal complaint and environmental damage that now all taxpayers must, in one way or another, help to remedy. Image | Las Palmas Local Police Xataka | These days Tenerife is experiencing a phenomenon that only occurs every 60 years: the “blooming of death” of the Ceylon palm trees

North Korea believed the threat was miles from its border. A video has revealed that it is a few meters away with a huge warhead

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For years, North Korea has built your security on the idea that the most dangerous thing came from afar and could be seen coming in time. But on the peninsula, threats do not always come from the other side of the world: sometimes they develop much closer than anyone imagined. A “monster” missile. a video has revealed that South Korea has begun to operationally deploy the Hyunmoo-5its largest ballistic missile to date and one of the most peculiar in the world due to the combination of size and mission. Although it remains shrouded in secrecy and there are no publicly confirmed test launches, its input in units indicates that Seoul already considers it a real instrument of deterrence. A weapon designed for an extreme scenario on the peninsula, where the problem is not just attacking, but hitting what is buried, protected and designed to survive. The key: the head. What it places to Hyunmoo-5 In a category of its own is its warhead gigantic penetrationmuch heavier than that of usual conventional missiles. Where it is normal to carry loads of less than a ton, here we are talking about a block that can be around several tons, with an important part dedicated to dense metal and structure to pierce before detonating. The logic is simple and we have seen it before in the United States MOP: enter the ground at enormous speed, break through like a kinetic hammer and then explode once inside, attacking bunkers, command centers, warehouses and shelters designed to withstand traditional attacks. Ballistic bunker-buster. In terms of effect, it is reminiscent of bunker buster bombs launched from a planebut with a decisive difference: here it is not falling from a bomber at subsonic speed, but rather hits like a ballistic projectile at speeds close to hypersonic or directly hypersonic. This multiplies the penetration capacity by pure impact energyeven before counting the explosion. It does not make the weapon “nuclear,” because the type of destruction is different, but it does create a conventional tool with the power of entry and demolition that seeks to get closer to what a regime fears most: losing its underground shelters. Ceremony celebrating the 65th anniversary of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Korea The mystery of scope. The huge warhead penalizes the range, and that is why many estimates They place their radius of action around about 600 kilometersmore typical of a short-range missile despite the size of the set. For South Korea that is not a problem, because the priority objective is close and it’s concrete: Hardened facilities in North Korea. Still, if the load were lightened, it could reach much greater distances, even entering intermediate-range missile parameters, opening the door to broader regional readouts. Total design freedom. For decades, Seoul developed missiles under agreed limits with Washington, first very strict and then increasingly relaxeduntil those guidelines disappeared completely in 2021. That change was not symbolic: it came at the pace of North Korea’s advance in missiles and nuclear weapons, and left South Korea with room to create heavier, more capable systems with greater range options. Hyunmoo-4 had already raised the bar with a powerful charge, but Hyunmoo-5 represents the definitive jump to the idea of ​​“demolition power” as a main feature. The three-way strategy. Plus: the Hyunmoo-5 is integrated into the South Korean scheme designed to avoid or respond to a North Korean nuclear attack, with three pillars that complement each other: a preemptive strike plan on nuclear and missile capabilities if deemed inevitable, an air and missile defense to intercept launches, and massive conventional retaliation against leadership and strategic infrastructure if the North strikes first. On that board, the missile serves both to punish and to decapitate capabilities, because its specialty is attacking what the adversary hides underground to guarantee its continuity. Deterrence and escalation. They counted the TWZ analysts that the South Korean bet aims to maintain a “balance of terror” with increasingly forceful conventional means, but it also fuels an uncomfortable debate about the future. If Seoul one day decided to pursue a nuclear arsenal of its own, a missile from this family would be a natural candidateand a nuclear charge would also be much lighter than the current conventional one, which would expand range and flexibility. Meanwhile, the mere existence of Hyunmoo-5 already serves as an unmistakable message: even without crossing the nuclear threshold, South Korea wants the ability to open any relevant bunker and force Pyongyang to assume that his depth no longer guarantees security. Beyond Pyongyang. In public, South Korea frames these weapons as an answer to North Korea, but the regional background weighs more and more. Have a missile potentially adaptable in range and with a devastating payload add margin facing scenarios where the threat is not only from North Korea, but also from nearby powers such as China or Russia. The idea of ​​​​increasing their survival and employment options with future naval platforms is even contemplated, following the trend global from “arsenal ships”because in deterrence it is not enough to have the weapon: we must also guarantee that it will remain alive when the time comes to use it. Image | Lightrocket, 촬영 – 이헌구 기자 In Xataka | “It’s a level 10 Godzilla, but they only see a tiger”: South Korea’s surprising response to North Korea’s rearmament In Xataka | If the question is what has North Korea achieved in the last four years, the answer is simple: an unimaginable arsenal

Japan does not want to depend on China for rare earths. And that is why it is drilling the ocean at 6,000 meters deep

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He map of the world’s (known) rare earth reserves makes one thing clear: China is the absolute queen. Although They are neither earth nor are they rareconstitute a real poker of aces in the game of global geopolitics, energy and technology. And it’s not just about having lanthanides in your territory, it’s about discovering them and knowing how to extract them. Within that graph, in the Asia section, we can see that Japan does not even appear on the map. And it’s not because there aren’t any, because there are, there are. But so far they have turned to their trading partner and neighbor: China. Where Christ lost the lighter. In 2024 Japan found an impressive site of 230 million tons that would put it on the front line. But that site had small print: it is at the bottom of the sea, in a coral atoll in the Pacific about 1,900 kilometers southeast of Tokyo. Fair where they suspected. Last summer discovered his roadmap with a first stage that would begin right now, in January 2026. Japan and China, on the brink of the abyss. The two Asian countries are mired in a deep diplomatic crisis. The great trigger was the statements of the Japanese Prime Minister at the end of 2025 suggesting that a Chinese military intervention in Taiwan could be considered an “existential crisis” for Japan, which would open the doors to a Japanese military response. The consequences were immediate: China considered it interference and began to intensify its maritime patrols and areas near Japanese waters in a move that has displeased the Japanese government. consider it reckless in terms of security. 2026 also began with trade consequences from China such as the veto on seafood products, restrictions on tourism and an embargo on the export of dual-use goods (civil and military), including rare earths. So Japan has to expedite another way to obtain rare earths to feed its automotive industry in particular and technology in general. And he has done it. Just in time. Given the rough patch he’s going through with his partner and neighbor, the timing couldn’t be better. Last Monday a mining ship set sail for that remote atoll located in front of the Minami-Torishima Island to begin a month-long mission in which the famous Japanese drill ship Chikyu and a crew of 130 people will have to go all out, literally, to try to continuously extract rare earths from that succulent seabed six kilometers deep. And we say “try” because It’s the first time it’s been done. If successful, a full-scale mining test will follow in February 2027. Japan’s “detox” of Chinese rare earths. It is not the first time that Japan has been in this situation. Without going any further, in 2010 China retained exports after an incident that took place between a Chinese fishing boat and two Japanese patrol boats near the Senkaku Islands (administered by Japan but claimed by China). At that time, Japan managed to reduce their dependence from China from 90 to 60%. The alternative route involved investments in projects abroad (for example, from Australia) or promoting recycling and manufacturing processes that are more independent of the base material. But now it is different because who can obtain rare earths within their own territory. Looking to the horizon. Since the diplomatic crisis of 2010, Japan has been investigating in search of mineral reserves. Without going any further, this one on Minamitori Island has been in development since 2018 and the Japanese government has invested more than 40 billion yen (250 million dollars) since then. It was previously considered economically unviable, but between China’s embargo and the willingness to pay higher prices, it already seems more plausible, explains Kotaro Shimizuprincipal analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting. The senior director of economic security policy at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan on the China Talk podcast This week’s issue revealed how the government must continually remind companies of the importance of diversifying their supply chains: “Sometimes an event occurs and the company reacts, but when the event ends, the company forgets. We have to maintain a continuous effort” In Xataka | The “B side” of the United States landing in Venezuela: a subsoil full of hypothetical rare earths In Xataka | Greenland has 1.5 million tons of rare earths. The problem is that there are no roads to get to them. Cover | Peggy Greb and Gleam – Photo taken by Gleam., CC BY-SA 3.0

AEMET confirms a collapse and snow at 1,000 meters to start Christmas

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If you thought you had too much of a coat this week, now you’re going to have to think twice. After a few marked days due to unusually mild temperatures for mid-Decemberthe weather is going to change radically with the arrival of the peak days of Christmas. A thermal collapse. So far, the month of December has seen some really warm days where you could easily be out in the sun without a jacket. This is something that has been seen especially in parts of the Mediterranean, Almería and even in the Cantabrian Sea with thermometers that have reached to touch 20 degrees. However, it already has an expiration date. Starting on December 21, coinciding with the official start of astronomical winter, a notable thermal drop is expected. According to AEMET itself This change will not be gradual, but will feel like a drastic collapse in thermometers by this polar jet that arrives from the north that will leave minimum temperatures in the negative and that in general will cause a thermal drop of 3-5ºC. Precipitation map for Sunday, December 21 | Source: AEMET Rain and snow. Before the great drop in temperatures, we will see abundant rains in our territory due to the entry of a new front from the Atlantic. This will mean that this weekend we will see abundant rain in a good part of the peninsula, with special emphasis on northern Spain where significant storms are expected for next Sunday. The Galician coasts are where we will have to keep a close eye, as these precipitations will be accompanied by very strong gusts of wind, which will lead to the appearance of waves that can exceed seven meters in height. Appearance of snow. With the drop in temperature, rain can end up turning into snow in part of the peninsula. In this case, the snow level is expected to drop to 1,000-1,200 meters in the northern third. The most affected areas They will be the communities of Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, La Rioja, Castilla y León, the Community of Madrid and Castilla – La Mancha. This is bad news, except for lovers of a Christmas under a layer of white. And just this weekend a new operation begins, coinciding with the start of the Christmas holidays. This is something that can cause significant traffic delays in the northern third of the country. Christmas week. We already have Christmas Eve almost here, and there are many eyes on to the weather forecast. For now, the progress that the AEMET has given us after the front on the 21st is that we will have a cold environment with significant night frosts across the peninsula and widespread, although not extreme, rainfall, which will be present especially in the south of the peninsula. But this is something that will not affect the Canary Islands, which will maintain stable weather and normal conditions for the time in which we find ourselves. An extreme change. There is a climate prediction coming from Europe that sees a much more extreme and unusual scenario that may or may not occur. Specifically, the ECMWF points out that there may be heavy snowfall in the province of Seville, Huelva and the south of Badajos on Christmas Eve. This would be something historic, since snow is a strange event to see in Seville, where there has not been a solid snowfall since 1954. That is why this European prediction is really crazy, which logically can change as the days go by, leaving the chances of snow in Seville a disappointment, despite the fact that the low temperatures are going to continue. Images | Osman Ran In Xataka | Lightning seems like a normal thing: in reality we have been trying to understand it for years and we have achieved it in a laboratory

Lava rises hundreds of meters in Hawaii. Under it, a much bigger plan: reactivate geothermal energy

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The heat from the depths of the Earth is in the news again. And not only because of the almost unreal images of Kilauea launching jets of lava hundreds of meters high on the Big Island of Hawaii. Also because, while the volcano chains increasingly spectacular eruptive episodes, the United States is rediscovering the energy that those same volcanoes hide beneath the surface. Geothermal energy had been in the background for years. Suddenly, it matters again. Quite a spectacle. First of all, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) has warned that Kilauea is preparing for another high-energy eruptive episode. However, these are not isolated episodes. According to ABC Newsthe volcano has already had 36 and 37 eruptive episodes since December of last year. In some phases, the fountains have reached 300 meters and in others they reached 457 meters, a height comparable to a 100-story skyscraper. Even so, the entire phenomenon remains contained. All activity remains within the crater, away from homes or structures. That does not detract from the power of the figures: according to the USGSepisode 37 expelled 6.3 million cubic meters of lava in just nine hours, at a rate of around 190 m³ per second. But behind the show, another debate is beginning to make its way. Hawaii’s untold potential. In fact, as the Hawaii Tribune-Herald recallsSince 1993, the state has had a commercial geothermal plant, Puna Geothermal Venture, located precisely in the East Rift Zone of Kilauea. The University of Hawaii estimates that this facility produces five times more electricity than one of the state’s leading solar parks using 80% less land. The problem is that Hawaii has never tapped into that potential. The reasons combine real volcanic risksexploration costs and cultural resistance of communities for which drilling is a form of desecration of Pele, the volcano goddess. However, the context has changed. Kilauea’s continued activity brings back to the table a question that seemed shelved: should Hawaii use the heat that fuels its volcanoes to power its electrical grid? A door that begins to open. The University of Hawaii has been insisting on it for years. According to their analysis, all major islands could have usable geothermal resources, although knowledge outside Kilauea remains limited. Your Play Fairway project, funded by the Department of Energyhas already drawn the first deep heat maps beyond Puna. The pressure is now political. According to the Hawaiian mediathere are three state agencies competing for funding to re-explore the island in search of new deposits. 80 million public dollars are requested to map resources, drill test wells and reopen the way to a geothermal expansion that has been stalled for decades. The plan includes drilling outside of Puna, on the Big Island, but also in Maui and Oahu, where the resources would be deeper. As the volcano flares up and spills lava in nine-hour episodes, Hawaii looks under its feet: not at the magma, but at the heat that drives it. America’s geothermal renaissance. This local turn coincides with a national renaissance. According to a report by WoodMackenziegeothermal investment in North America soared 85% by 2025 in the first quarter alone, with $1.7 billion in public funds. The reason is not in the volcanoes, but in technology. The analysis points out three innovations that are transforming the sector: According to that analysisthe United States could have 500 gigawatts of geothermal capacity, a figure capable of reconfiguring the country’s energy matrix. However, there is still more. The hidden engine: data centers and AI. As TechCrunch detailedthis underground energy could cover two-thirds of the electrical consumption of the new data centers that will be built in the United States between now and 2030. And the technology giants are already taking positions. In fact, the cases are beginning to multiply as is Meta has signed an agreement with Californian startup XGS Energy to generate 150 MW of geothermal electricity by 2030 using a closed-loop system that prevents water leaks. Also Google has done the same partnering with Fervo Energy. Geothermal energy is no longer a marginal experiment: it is an energy outlet for the infrastructure that supports artificial intelligence. The question left by the volcano. As Kilauea continues its choreography—inflating, roaring, and shooting lava to heights not seen since the 1980s—Hawaii and the rest of the country look downward toward the primeval heat pulsing beneath the crust. Where nature shows its wildest power, technology sees promise: a forgotten energy resurfacing as the United States the more you need electricity continuous, abundant and clean. Image | Pexels and Rjglewis Xataka | Tenerife seeks to turn on its lights with the heat from the subsoil: this is its great commitment to geothermal energy

We thought this bug was a pig. Now we know that it was two meters tall, weighed a thousand kilos and was a killing machine related to whales.

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Almost 200 years ago, a paleontologist found some completely improbable bones. They thought about it a thousand times, tried to find some sense in it; but everything ended in the same delirious image: that of a huge pig with the capacity to destroy everything in front of it. And that’s what we called him for decades: the ‘pig from hell’. What we have just discovered, two centuries later, is that we know almost nothing about them. Now they are even more terrible. But what really is a ‘hell pig’? It is the popular nickname by which entelodonts are known; an extinct family of large prehistoric mammals that lived about 30 million years ago. The bug was described for the first time in the 1840sbut it was in the early 20th century that paleontologists assumed it was closely related to pigs or peccaries. It was not something irrational: on a strictly physical level, entelodonts looked very similar to modern-day pigs. Two meters tall, weighing more than a thousand kilos and jaws capable of crushing bones, but pigs nonetheless. With “crushing bones” we are falling short. Recently, a team from Vanderbilt University could examine in detail the teeth of these animals and, thanks to three-dimensional models of dental microwear, they have managed to turn around everything we thought we knew about the role of these animals in North American ecosystems 30 million years ago. Your conclusions they leave no room for doubt: “the largest specimens were capable of crushing bones with an efficiency similar to or even greater than that of lions and hyenas.” Luckily, they weren’t very smart; And, according to the researchers, “it has a brain-body relationship similar to that of reptiles, so they were very unintelligent creatures.” A complex story. At first, experts thought that this monstrous animal was a born hunter. Then, partly because of this familiarity with pigs, they came to the conclusion that they were omnivorous animals, capable of eating small animals and carrion. Now, thanks to this team, we know that they were most likely at the top of the food chain of their ecosystems. This, in fact, raises the possibility that different species (or subspecies) occupied different ecological niches. However, there are curious things. To begin with, entelodonts have nothing to do with pigs. In fact, they are closer to whales and hippos than anything else. But, above all, it shows us the difficulties we continue to have in understanding our past. Little by little, we are understanding that if our way of looking at the past conditions the futureour ability to understand what the world was like 30 million years ago will radically change many things we think we are. And the best thing is that, even though I get melancholic and retrospective, everything we know makes it clear that the “pig from hell” is more infernal than ever. Image | Carnegie Museum of Natural History In Xataka | The deaths of cows, reindeer or rhinos are not a mystery: they are the consequences of a curse, that of “large animals”

142 meters of luxury and technology

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a few days ago A Malaga beach bar released a robot called ‘Sardinator’ to advertise of your business. It is not the only event on the beaches of Malaga, it has also been the arrival of the Dragonfly, one of the largest, most expensive and luxurious yachts in the world. Its owner is Sergei Brinco-founder of Google. Favorite destination. Brin’s yacht had already been seen on the coasts of our country and a few days ago he arrived in Malaga for the first time, as they say in The Opinion of Malaga. And it is not the first superyacht to be seen in its port. Last year the Radiant, worth more than 270 million eurosdocked for the fourth time at its port and also stopped by there the co-founder of WhatsApp with the Moonrise. in a big way. The Dragonfly is the work of Argentine designer Germán Frers and is 142 meters long. This places her as the largest American-owned yacht and also the largest in the world. German manufacturer Lürssen. It cost a whopping $450 million to build. To put it in context, according to Superyatch Fanthe largest in the world measures 180 meters in length and cost 600 million dollars. Luxuries: yes. The Dragonfly has a total area of ​​3,000 square meters: 2,000 interior and 1,000 exterior decks. It has nine luxury cabins with capacity for 18 guests and 20 cabins for a crew of 40. Not everything is there, it has several swimming pools and, if that were not enough with one, two heliports. Regarding its power, it has a diesel-electric propulsion system and reaches a speed of 24 knots. Dragonfly History. Although it is known as Dragonfly, it was initially named Alibaba and was not going to be for Brin, but for Leonid Mikhelson, a Russian oligarch dedicated to the gas industry. Due to the blockades imposed after the invasion of Ukrainethe purchase of the Alibaba could not be signed and that is where Sergei Brin was able to acquire the yacht. He called it Dragonfly, just like his previous boat. Brin. He is also of Russian origin, but left the country with his family when he was barely six years old. Decades later, founded Google with Larry Page and that’s where it all began. He was president of Google from 2015 to 2019, when Sundar Pichai succeeded him. He is currently the sixth richest man in the world, according to the Forbes list, with a heritage of 215,000 million dollars Image | Wikipedia, Lürssen In Xataka | Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google and became millionaires. Now they are dedicated to collecting gigantic airplanes

Something has hit a Boeing 737, injuring the pilot. The truly unheard of: it happened at 11,000 meters

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A shattered windshield, a pilot with his arm covered in cuts, and United Airlines Flight 1093 diverted for an emergency landing. The plane that covered the route from Denver to Los Angeles has become the aeronautical mystery of the moment after, apparently, something hit the cockpit at 11,000 meters above sea level. What we know. The United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating an incident that occurred Thursday with a Boeing 737 MAX 8 flying over Moab, Utah, at cruising speed. The plane was traveling at an altitude of 36,000 feet when a suspected impact occurred in the cockpit. Photos of the incident show the captain’s side windshield completely splintered, the plane’s center console splattered with glass, and the pilot’s arm covered in small cuts and abrasions. According to initial reports, the captain “thought they had been hit by a piece of metallic space debris.” When they made an emergency landing in Salt Lake City, they ended up discovering a “3.5-inch” impact on the outer panel of the windshield, but the cabin did not depressurize. Space junk? The plane’s windshield has been sent to NTSB laboratories for analysis, but researchers are not working on the hypothesis that it was a space debris impact, but rather part of a more mundane object that also flies higher than airplanes: a weather balloon. Although space junk be a growing problemthe United States Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) considers the risk “minuscule” of a piece of satellite or rocket hitting an airplane. That it also injures a person on board has a probability of “less than one in a billion.” The famous popularizer Scott Manley points out one of the main reasons for skepticism: modern satellites are designed to disintegrate into small pieces. Upon reaching cruising altitudes, these pieces are no longer hypersonic and have low impact energy. So a balloon? If it wasn’t space debris, what could have broken the windshield and injured the pilot? One of the exterior images of the plane shows, in addition to the broken windshield, dozens of small marks and dents on the metal fuselage of the plane, just above the window, which could be an indication that they encountered a hail storm. Hail is rare at 11,000 meters, but not impossible. However, the NTSB is working on the line of investigation that it was “a piece of a weather balloon data packet,” according to the specialized website AVBrief. These balloons and their payloads usually operate at 25,000-40,000 meters above sea level. Of course: if the piece was still tied to a balloon, it is strange that the pilot confused it with space junk. The windshield failed. Whatever hit the plane, the photos suggest the windshield didn’t do its job. The cabin windows of a 737, Manley explains, have multiple structural layers: glass on the outside and inside, with a polymer layer in between. The impact did not cause depressurization, indicating that the main structure and polymer layer held, but the inner glass layer fractured violently, projecting “glass dust” and small fragments toward the pilot, and causing the abrasions and cuts seen in the photos. The crew descended to 26,000 feet after the incident to reduce the pressure differential over the damaged window, and landed without further complications. The definitive answer as to what hit Flight 1093 will have to wait for the forensic analysis the NTSB is conducting on that shattered windshield. Images | JonNYC In Xataka | Three large pieces of space debris reenter every day: “one day our luck will run out and they will fall on someone”

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