owners

After the floods in China, the vice president of BYD has had to remember that their cars are not boats. Its owners have not cared

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Dozens of BYD electric cars have circulated these days on completely flooded roads in the Chinese region of Guangxi, transporting food, water and emergency supplies to villages isolated by the rains. The striking thing is that it was not a decision organized by the brand, but those who left with their cars for the affected areas were volunteers, and they did so just when a senior executive of the company asked for caution regarding the risk of driving through floods. What has happened? Guangxi has suffered historic rains caused by Typhoon Mesaak, with roads and entire municipalities under water. According to collect According to Chinese media, 163, owners of vehicles from brands such as Denza and Fang Cheng Bao, both from the BYD group, organized themselves through networks of owners to form civil rescue convoys. These groups voluntarily entered the areas most affected by the flood, ignoring the recommendations for driving in extreme weather conditions. In detail. Chinese electric cars they usually boast of a construction designed to resist water, including batteries with a highly protective seal and reinforced chassis to cross flooded areas. In the case of Fang Cheng Bao, its independent chassis architecture allows, according to factory data, to cross up to 800 millimeters deep thanks to a specific structural sealing on the underside of the vehicle. And it is not the first time that we see this type of vehicle going out for a ride in extreme conditions. Last year we already saw vehicles like the Yangwang U8 and the Jetour Zongheng G700 do the goat crossing rivers or in flooded areas. There is certainly no better advertising. The notice that arrived late. While the owners were already circulating through the flooded areas, He Zhiqi, senior vice president of BYD, published a message on social networks reminding that an electric car “is not a boat”, according to his Weibo account. The manager explained that, although the Blade Battery of the brand has watertightness certifications IP67 and IP68and that from the factory it is guaranteed that the vehicle can withstand being submerged up to one meter deep for 24 hours without suffering electrical leaks or risk of fire in the battery, driving through deep water is still a real risk that should be avoided. Models on the ground. Among the vehicles that have been seen in the images, the Denza N9 stands out, the brand’s large luxury plug-in hybrid that, according to account CarNewsChina managed to move through areas of mud and water thanks to its all-wheel drive system with several independent motors. The Fang Cheng Bao Bao 8 has also been seen circulating, an all-terrain vehicle with a harder profile with a suspension designed to better distribute the load, in addition to the Denza B5 and B8, which incorporate active body control systems capable of adjusting the height on the fly to avoid obstacles. The money has also moved. In addition to help on the ground, several Chinese brands They have allocated funds to the reconstruction of the area. The BYD Charitable Foundation has donated 10 million yuan (about 1.47 million U.S. dollars) to fund emergency equipment and repair public infrastructure. Xiaomi has contributed the same amount in cash, and the Chery group has donated another 10 million yuan divided between financial aid and supplies. Cover image | CarNewsChina (Bilibili) In Xataka | Sky Nomad is a reality: Xiaomi’s second car brand aims at one of the jewels in BYD’s crown

Every year a veterinarian, a jurist, a psychoanalyst and a gardener meet. They are the secret owners of rearmament in Europe

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In 1916, in the midst of the First World War, the German Empire created the Kriegsrohstoffabteilungan office dedicated to coordinate private companies to fuel the war effort. It was one of the first great modern experiments of war economy: industrial families, private capital and the State working side by side to sustain the conflict. More than a century later, Europe once again looks to those same dynasties to build its new military muscle. The silent heirs of rearmament. I told the story last weekend the financial times. Every year, in a discreet business hotel in Germany, a peculiar group gathers: a veterinarian, a stairlift salesman, a jurist, a psychoanalyst, a landscape gardener and several academics. At first glance they have nothing in common. However, they all share an access key to one of the most important companies on the new European military map. They are the shareholders by Wegmannthe extended and fragmented family that controls half by KNDSthe Franco-German giant behind the tanks Leopard 2 and Leclerc. For decades they were almost invisible. Now they are on the verge of an operation that can make them multimillionaires. The IPO of a war giant. It so happens that KNDS is preparing its IPO with an estimated valuation of between 15,000 and 20,000 million of euros. The plan goes through a complex reorganization: the German State wants to buy cabout 40% of the private part, while France would also reduce its participation to maintain a balance between both governments. The rest would remain floating in the marketan industrial and political operation at the same time. KNDS has become a centerpiece of European rearmament since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and Berlin wants to ensure it maintains direct influence over a key enterprise for the continent’s military future. The rearmament business and its dividends. While Europe multiply budgets military and accumulating debt to finance new purchases, the private owners of KNDS have already begun to reap the benefits. Only in November did they distribute an extraordinary dividend of 1,000 million of euros together with the French State. Another additional distribution will arrive before the IPO. Annual dividends have nearly doubled since 2021, passing from about 34 million to 65 million in 2024. The company’s revenue also skyrocketed: from 2.7 billion in 2021 to 4.4 billion last year. European rearmament is generating new fortunes, and many of them are falling on names almost unknown outside very specific circles. An industrial history from more than a century ago. The origin of everything dates back to 1882when Wegmann was a railway carriage manufacturer in Kassel. As the decades passed, the company entered the military industry until manufacturing tanks in World War I and be part of the industrial machinery of the Third Reich in the Second, using forced labor. After the war she returned to the railway sector, although the rearmament of West Germany in 1955 took her back to the military business. Over there their relationship began with the Leopard 1, precursor to the current Leopard 2. Since then, the company was linked to the military history of Germany and, by extension, Europe. The Bode family and the problem of inheritance. A good part of the shareholding structure remains in the hands of the descendants by August Bodethe industrialist who took part in the company in 1912. Today at least twelve of his heirs retain more than a third from Wegmann Holding. The main figure It’s Felix Bodemember of the KNDS council and visible representative of the family. Together with his brother Stephan, they could share about 1.2 billion of euros if the maximum valuation is met. For decades, the Bodes have been the custodians of this industrial heritage, although within the family not everyone seems to share the same attachment to preserving it. Leopard 2 The Braunbehrens and the great branch of capital. The other large shareholder family is the von Braunbehrensa lineage much more intellectual than industrial. Among its members are musicologists specialized in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, philologists and academics. His shares, inherited from former Wegmann partners, have ended up pooled in a charitable foundation linked to Heidelberg. That foundation owns 24% of Wegmann Holding and could receive up to 2.4 billion of euros with the operation. It is one of the most curious images in this history: part of the money from European rearmament could end up financing studies on historical almanacs and traditional carpets. A company that almost disappeared. The path to this point was not always ascending. In 2015, the merger between German division and the French Nexter It was seen within the sector as a defensive move. KNDS was born in part to avoid falling into the hands of Rheinmetall, which had been trying to absorb it for years. At the time, the tank business seemed stagnant. The war in Ukraine changed everything. The Leopard returned to the center of European military debate and production needs grew rapidly. What a decade ago seemed like just another industrial company is today one of the nerve centers of the new continental defense. The paradox of the new European military cycle. There is no doubt, history leaves a curious image: while European governments approve pmulti-million dollar achievements of military spending and appeal to collective security, a group of discreet heirs, many long removed from day-to-day industrial life, is about to capitalize a good part of that new cycle. They are not businessmen made in the heat of war. They are heirs of an industrial chain that has been going through the great European conflicts for more than a century. For years his wealth remained almost motionless, managed in quiet meetings and buffet lunches. Now rearmament has put new value on that old heritage. The end of a century-old relationship. Inside by KNDS Many see this sale as the closing of an era. Younger generations no longer feel the same connection to the company that their parents and grandparents did. The idea of ​​guarding a strategic industry for generations seems to dilute. … Read more

93% of owners believe that sleeping with their dog improves their rest. Science has just proven that it is self-deception

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Night comes, you get into bed and, almost out of inertia, your dog or cat jumps on the mattress to curl up at your feet. For many people, pets are full members of the family and even share the sheets. According to a report from the platform Sleep Foundation56% of people say they sleep with a pet in their room. The bond is so strong that the mere idea of ​​changing this habit generates rejection. Sleep psychologist Shelby Harris recounts in an interview for The New York Times that when caring for patients with insomnia problems, the first reaction is usually almost defensive: “I have a dog. You’re going to tell me not to sleep with him.” And, although sleeping with our animals gives us an immense feeling of peace, the scientific community has begun to empirically measure what happens in our body and brain during the night. The bad news is that, objectively, your rest could be suffering much more than you realize. Data under the microscope. An exhaustive study published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports decided to put exact figures on this phenomenon. Researcher Brian N. Chin and his team analyzed the habits of a representative sample of more than 1,500 adults in the United States. The results revealed that sleeping with pets is directly associated with poorer perceived sleep quality and greater severity of insomnia symptoms. Interestingly, the impact is not identical with all animals. Research analyzes showed that this negative effect on human sleep is strongly associated with dog owners, but no evidence was found that the same damage occurs when sleeping with cats. This difference may be due to the fact that dogs have greater sensitivity to external stimuli, waking up more easily to the noise of cars or barking in the neighborhood. The main problem lies in the sleeper’s self-deception. The author of the study highlights a surprising fact: 93% of people who slept with their pets firmly believed that their pets had a positive or neutral effect on their sleep. This disconnection between perception and biological reality is also supported In another study carried out on 12 women; Although the monitoring devices showed that the dogs constantly interrupted their rest, they rarely reported these interruptions the next morning. Why do we rest worse if we feel good? Dr. Vsevolod Polotsky, a sleep researcher at Johns Hopkins University, explains that the sleep of dogs and cats is not continuous; They inevitably move, bark, scratch or walk on the bed and on us. All this nocturnal activity causes what experts call “microawakenings.” Neurology professor Kristen Knutson details that these brief interruptions, which we are often not even aware of, are extremely disruptive because they abruptly take us out of the deep sleep phase. Worse yet, they have been associated with the release of the stress hormone cortisol, which significantly worsens overall rest. Furthermore, the investigation of Scientific Reports demolished one of the most widespread beliefs: the myth that the pet acts as a protective shield against anxiety before sleeping. Although high levels of life stress were associated with worse sleep, the scientists found no evidence that sleeping with the animal had a “buffering” effect that would protect the person from the ravages of stress. However, purely emotional logic has an undeniable weight in this equation. Sleeping with a pet, especially one with whom you have a close bond, can reduce the sense of perceived vulnerability and dramatically increase the feeling of security. We are faced with a complex exchange: our physical body experiences fragmented and less efficient sleep, but the animal’s mere presence helps emotional regulation by making us feel happy and protected. The verdict of the specialists. For animals, the experience of sharing sheets is undoubtedly positive. Dr. Dana Varble, veterinary director of the North American Veterinary Community, points out that animals Those who sleep with their owners experience higher levels of trust, as well as an increase in beneficial neurotransmitters such as oxytocin and dopamine, known as the feel-good hormones. However, in the case of humans, medical specialists warn about certain risk profiles: Respiratory problems: People with allergies or asthma are at risk of seeing their symptoms activated by being exposed to allergens such as animal dander for multiple hours in a closed space. Persistent allergens: Dr. Raj Dasgupta, pulmonologist, warns that allergens They also reside in the animal’s saliva and skin, which can cause watery eyes and continued nasal congestion throughout the night. Previous disorders: For those who suffer from chronic problems such as insomnia or sleep apnea, Dr. Polotsky is very clear when stating that bed sharing “is particularly harmful” and will prevent the patient from falling asleep again when they wake up. There are, of course, medical exceptions where the balance tips in favor of the animal. Service dogs trained for patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are of great help by knowing how to identify physical symptoms and wake their owners to interrupt nocturnal nightmares. Dr. Dasgupta also recognizes that, For people dealing with depression or anxiety, the pet can act as a comforting “big blanket” that effectively decreases distress. The unwanted companions. Beyond sleep quality, hygiene adds another layer of risk to nighttime living. A revealing pilot study published in the scientific journal Pathogens investigated what exact bacteria and parasites we take to bed. Of the 50 animals analyzed, 30% literally slept in bed, under the blankets with their humans. The most striking thing about this research was the great contradiction of the owner: although 42% of all respondents cited lack of hygiene as the main reason why pets should not be allowed into the bedroom, in practice, many ignored the risk and allowed them to sleep there. Microscopic measurements of the fur were surprising. The aerobic colony count (ACC) on the dogs’ hair exceeded the maximum limits of bacteria tolerated on hospital surfaces or in food preparation areas by 4 to 43 times. Even more graphic is that 64% of the dogs tested positive for … Read more

“We felt cheated.” Even gas station owners are freaking out about the sudden, meteoric rise in oil

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The missiles fell and the energy markets soared. When the conflict officially began on February 28 between the US, Israel and Iran and its expansion through the Middle East, the energy markets responded to the new scenario and in more or less two weeks, the barrel of Brent has already risen by 50% according to EIA data. At gas stations, the price of fuel also rose overnight. The rapid rise in fuel. Below these lines you can see how the average price of fuel in Spain has evolved according to the data extracted from the Ministry of Ecological Transition of the States and compiled by the Dieselogasoline website. Thus, if we closed February with a price of €1,493/l for Unleaded 95 and €1,548/l for Diesel A+, March has been a relentless uphill climb for all fossil fuels. Today they mark €1,727/l and €1,935/l respectively. With this panorama and the figure of 2 euros/liter on the horizonthe first days already There were long lines at some service stations. before what was coming. Evolution of fuel prices in Spain in March. Dieselogasolina.com The perfect storm. With the blockade of the Strait of Hormuzthe place through which approximately 20% of the world’s production of crude oil and liquefied natural gas passes, confirmation that China turns off the tap of its exports to meet domestic demand, the slowdown in activity of some deposits and that large merchant companies are paralyzed or surrounding all of Africa to satisfy demand at the cost of a longer and more expensive route, it is clear that the scenario for buying oil looks bleak. In fact, not even the International Energy Agency release 400 million barrels of emergency reserves (the largest mobilization in history) was enough for the market to react. Ultimately, that number equivalent about four days of world consumption or about 20 days of what passes through the Strait of Hormuz. And it could be worse: as the spokesman for the Khatam al-Anbiya headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps explained: “They will not be able to artificially lower the price of oil. Prepare for oil to reach $200 per barrel,” picks up Al Jazeera. Instability, the reduction in supply and its use as a measure of pressure summarize the black picture. But that gasoline is not that of war. Although the history of conflicts in the Middle East is an unequivocal precedent to glimpse the rise of fuel and everything, because in practice it has an impact on the logistics of the bulk of the activities: if the fruit store brings its delivery five times a week, those deliveries cost more. And if you travel 50 kilometers a day to get to work, it will also cost you more. Economy of the obvious. However, there is a harsh reality: that fuel that you are already paying at war prices was acquired previously. We are paying prices for the future, those for replacement. And not just consumers: also gas stations. As Michel-Édouard Leclerc, president of the E. Leclerc supermarket chain and its gas stations, said, to public broadcaster Franceinfo: “We felt cheated, just like the drivers, by the almost automatic speed with which prices rose.” In his case, he also announced the reduction of 30 cents at the group’s gas stations in France thanks to negotiations with suppliers. Who sets the price of fuel. In the Spanish state, prices have been free since 1998, as the CNMC explainsbut from here there are several actors that influence: The international market, based on the price of Brent oil or refined oil in the reference markets. The refinery or wholesale operator, which adds its operating and logistics margin until distribution. The gas station operator: if it is a flagship station such as Repsol or BP, the price is practically a matter for the parent company. If it is independent or belongs to a large surface (such as Plenoil or Leclerc), it has more room for fixation. Hence they are the cheapest. The State through taxesmore specifically the Special Tax on Hydrocarbons and VAT. In Xataka | The rocket and the pen: the theory that explains why the rise in gasoline is here to stay In Xataka | There is a hidden war to sell us the cheapest possible gasoline. One that Ballenoil and Plenergy already dominate Cover | Leclerc

Video games have grown a lot this year. But the money goes to China, Roblox and the owners of mobile platforms

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The global video game industry had a turnover of around $185 billion in 2024 and continues to grow. But there is a catch: this growth does not reach the studios or the area that traditional players look at, those of the console wars and the old PC Master Race. Matthew Ball’s usual annual report leaves a less complacent diagnosis: revenue is concentrated in China, on platforms like Roblox and on the owners of mobile operating systems. The rest survive as best they can. The Old Times (2021): There is still talk about how great the year 2021 was for video games. It seems like it was yesterday when the pandemic (insert meme of Grandpa Simpson telling stories to the kids here) confined hundreds of millions of people to their homes, and games (mobile, console, PC, free, subscription) absorbed the benefits of that confinement. As Ball, CEO of Epyllion, analyzes in The State of Video Gaming in 2025the factors that drove that peak were an extraordinary sum of factors: mobile platforms, free-to-play models, games as a service, the cross play and new genres like battle royale and social play. Downhill. The flip side of that was a much bigger recession than expected: global spending on video games fell 3.5% in 2022 and barely recovered a few percentage points towards the end of 2024. According to the consulting firm MIDiA Research, the sector had enjoyed growth of 26.3% in 2020 and 9.8% in 2021, and the rebound was inevitable. According to Ball, the engines that had driven the industry between 2011 and 2021 stopped all at once: the smartphones They were no longer surprising with each interaction, social networks were paralyzed, the free-to-play was normalized. 6.5% of total gaming time in 2023 corresponded to new video games, says Ball, and only four titles shared half of that percentage. Layoffs in full force. He report also speaks how the sector’s layoffs since 2022 illustrate this adjustment: more than 44,000 jobs, 61% of them concentrated in North America. This does not mean that it is the end of the industry or that the same pattern is being repeated. crash 1983, as has been said (the industry is too diversified and globalized to repeat a systemic collapse of that magnitude). What we are paying is the cost of having built a structure designed for an industry in continuous growth during the pandemic. The Chinese monster. Ball puts on the table that global spending on video games grew by approximately $10 billion between 2021 and 2025. But… where did that money go? The report assures that to Beijing: about 4,000 million of that growth is from the Chinese market, and another 1,500 million are from titles developed in China sold in international markets. In total, Chinese publishers have racked up about half of global growth since 2019. And there are more data: Gamer spending in China reached $49.2 billion in 2024, with a base of 722 million active gamers, more than double the total population of the United States. China is already the first market in the world by income. Not foreigners. Very significantlythat market remains almost closed to foreign games. 84% of Chinese gamers’ spending goes on titles produced in China, and that percentage has increased, as unusual as it may seem: 20% of Chinese domestic spending goes on imported titles (a figure that also registered a decrease of 5% between 2023 and 2024). It is comparable to what happens with cinemawith local films devouring foreign ones at the box office. A situation favored by a combination of factors: First, the Chinese regulatory framework favors national titles through a licensing system; second, development costs are substantially lower than in the West; Finally, the work culture of the country’s studios allows for more intensive production cycles. You don’t have to dig far to find examples of great Chinese international successes: ‘Genshin Impact‘, from miHoYo, raised more than $3.5 billion in its first year70% outside China with a character design rooted in anime. ‘Honor of Kings‘, from Tencent, dominated the Chinese mobile market for years before making the international leap with adaptations of character names. AND ‘Black Myth: Wukong‘, developed with support from Tencent, sold ten million copies in its first three days launching in August 2024, betting on the opposite of assimilation: an unequivocally Chinese mythology without thematic concessions to Western taste. Roblox sweeps. The numbers sing: 70% of the growth of the video game market outside of China in 2025 was absorbed by ‘Roblox‘. Which is an infrastructure on which millions of creators build interactive experiences using the platform’s own tools. Players access it for free and spend real money on cosmetic items and access within these worlds, transactions that are carried out in Robux, the ecosystem’s virtual currency. Of every dollar spent,’Roblox’ historically retained around 70% leaving the creator with approximately 25 or 30 cents. In September 2024, ‘Roblox’ announced a new delivery model for paid games that increases the creator’s commission up to 70% on titles that sell for $49.99. What does this translate into? In 2024, ‘Roblox’ paid around $923 million to its creators (an increase of 25% compared to 2023), while its total revenue grew by 29% until reaching 3.6 billion dollars. Its intentions are colossal: CEO David Baszucki stated that the company’s goal is to capture 10% of the global video game content market. Some more questions. Just to finish outlining the portrait: ‘Roblox’ registers sustained net losses (a accumulated deficit of 3.5 billion) with the logic of the platform in the expansion phase, sacrificing immediate profitability. Some observers they point because ‘Roblox’ has become the video game equivalent of YouTube, a platform that extracts value from the work of its creators in the form of data, advertising and infrastructure. And one last thing: two titles on the platform (‘Blox Fruits’ and ‘Brookhaven RP’) each accumulate 60% of the monthly gaming hours of all of Electronic Arts. 30%. If the global video game market reached an all-time high in … Read more

give 600 euros to its owners

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Talking about Barcelona is talking about a city full of motorcycles. In fact, it leads the ranking with more than half a million registered motorcycleswell above Madrid. There is a type of motorcycle that is especially noisy and polluting, one that those of us who started out in the world of motorcycles started out with when we were minors: the motorcycle moped. 49cc. Barcelona has set out to put an end to him. 32,000 mopeds registered. The moped has several key differences from the traditional motorcycle. Teenagers from 15 years old can drive it. Your AM license is approved with a closed-circuit skill test It is not allowed to carry a passenger until they are 18 years old. Vehicles larger than 50cc cannot be driven or exceed 45km/h. By having such restrictive conditions regarding the engine, and minimizing the access barrier, mopeds are the most economical type of motorcycle that can be purchased. Of the 32,000 registered in Barcelona, ​​24,000 are combustion. The subsidy. The Government Commission has approved the bases for a new aid program aimed at replacing combustion mopeds with electric ones, with an initial budget of 15 million euros and with the aim of extending it until 2030. Concretizing. The aid will consist of a single amount of 600 euros, an amount that, according to the Ministry of Transport and Mobility, represents between 16% and 40% of the current cost of equivalent electric mopeds. The condition. To access this aid, it will be mandatory to scrap a combustion moped. With the aim of facilitating the process, the City Council has enabled the Serveis Municipals Barcelona depots, where scrapping can be carried out free of charge and the certificate necessary to apply for the subsidy can be obtained at the same time. And where do I load it?. The golden question when buying any electric vehicle is on the loadin a country of flats and rooms shared. An investment of three million euros is secured to create a battery exchange network, a program that will begin operating this year. The ultimate goal. The Barcelona City Council aims to incorporate up to 20,000 electric vehicles into its city, carrying out a practically complete replacement of each and every one of the gasoline mopeds that travel its streets. Image | Unsplash (Logan Armstrong) In Xataka | The first commercially ready solid-state battery is here. And an electric motorcycle is going to take it

In Tres Cantos they are analyzing the DNA of uncollected dog poop and fining the owners

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The landscape, the species of trees, the flowers in the flowerbeds, the design of the paths or the games for children may vary, but in the parks of Spain (and many other countries) there are certain “basics” that are not usually missing: there are benches, there are fountains… and there is dog poopan annoying reminder that citizens do not always comply with the obligations that come with having pets. In recent years some city councils have tried to solve it creating DNA bases that allow them to locate the owners of the dogs and punish them if they do not take care of their feces. For a while, receiving one of those fines sounded like a distant threat, but in Spain there are already town councils passing from theory to practice. The last example Tres Cantos leaves it, in Madrid. What has happened? That the Tres Cantos City Council said goodbye to 2025 by activating its machinery to fine people who breaks its regulations. So far nothing out of the ordinary. The curious thing is the offense that is being pursued and above all how the City Council hunts down the offenders. What it has done is use the “canine DNA detection service” to fine those neighbors who ignore the excrement that their pets leave on sidewalks, parks and gardens. The ordinance makes it clear that people who walk pets through the municipality must collect “immediately” (and throw in the trash) the poop they leave in any area where pedestrians pass. Failure to do so is considered an infraction that, according to TeleMadrid specifiescarries fines of several hundred euros: between 300 and 600, depending on whether or not the offender is a repeat offender. Is it something new? Tres Cantos announced a year and a half ago his intention to create a “canine genetic census” to have the municipality’s dogs ‘registered’ and thus be able to identify excrement abandoned in the streets. In 2024 even launched a campaign baptized ‘I’m from Tres Cantos, it’s in my DNA’ in which it asked neighbors to register their pets in the following months. The idea was that people would take their animals to an authorized clinic to perform a simple test (basically taking a saliva sample) that would allow them to be registered. The procedure costs about 40 eurosbut the Consistory recalled that it is mandatory. Failure to do so also carries a penalty. The measure did not remain on paper and throughout the last few months the City Council has intensified their efforts to put it into practice, even with collection days of excrement. The surprise (and this is new) came on December 30, when the local government advertisement that the canine DNA system has already allowed him to identify “several owners” of dogs who do not pick up their pets’ feces. And he warned: “He will be punished” But… Is it that important? Yes it is. And not only because the measure wants to once and for all solve the problem of dog poop in cities. As remember from Tres Cantosthe canine registry is obtained in a “simple and harmless” way for the animal and serves many more purposes than sanctioning. “The genetic census is a reliable tool that protects animals, since it allows them to be located if they are lost, mistreated or abandoned, providing scientific certainty in possible judicial processes, claims and complaints,” claimed in July 2024 the Councilor for Public Health. In fact, the canine genetic census has already helped to resolve cases of puppy abandonment. Does it only happen in Tres Cantos? No. The idea of ​​canine DNA censuses has permeated more municipalities in Spain. In December 2024, Pipper on Tour estimated that 81 locations They already require pet owners to take them to clinics to have blood or saliva samples taken to carry out a census. In recent years the idea has attracted municipalities such as Malaga, Collado Villalba, Santa Eularia, Cornellà either Alcala de Henaresamong others. The latter in fact has a “canine CSI” for offenders who risk fines of between 300 and 3,000 euros. In its first year the program made it possible about 200 disciplinary proceedings, although many were directed at owners who still did not register their pets. In July Santa Eulària celebrated also that canine DNA has reduced fecal alerts by half. Images | Bruce Warrington (Unsplash) and Monika Simeonova (Unsplash) In Xataka | Rats are growing by 300% in some cities around the world. And the problem is that we have no idea how to avoid it.

that of closed garage controls and owners

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Paul Wieland is a restless computer scientist. A few years ago he wanted to try control your garage door with your smartphone. There were interesting commercial options such as the MyQ platform, but what he wanted was to be able to open and close it while having access to home Wi-Fi, without depending on the servers of MyQ or any other company. In 2022 he managed to develop the first prototype of his solution, which he called RAGDO (Rage Against the Garage Door Opener, or Rage Against the Garage Door Opener). Users could use home automation platforms such as HomeKit or Home Assistant easily and for free without depending on third-party servers. Depending on third parties is usually a bad idea It was just then that Chamberlain Group, the company responsible for MyQ—a service with 14 million users—decided to cut off access to third-party solutions. The connections people had set up to use their MyQ port with home automation apps from Apple or Google they stopped working. Additionally, Chamberlain began promoting subscription services with external partners, thus breaking the user experience for existing customers. A RAGDO device installed on the garage opener. Source: Ratcloud LLC. These changes were highly criticized by thousands of users who saw how their hardware products lost functionality, although the basic door opening seemed to continue working in the free version of MyQ. At that time, sales of RAGDO – which offered a great solution to the problem – skyrocketed. From believing he would sell 100, Wieland found that he was selling tens of thousands of his devices. This expert commented in The New York Times How RAGDO’s success is due to a widespread frustration: companies sell Internet-connected hardware, but once they get a large enough user base, they modify or use it to “squeeze” customers with forced subscriptions that tend to take control away from users. It’s something we’ve seen numerous times in the recent past. Google announced in April that its first-generation Nest smart thermostats they would become “dumb” thermostatsand the controversy with absurd subscriptions is famous for example in the field of cars: BMW charges extra for heated seats and Mercedes for offering a larger turning radius for the wheels of some of its models or, simply, to run more. The truth is that in an ideal world you should be able to do whatever you want with the digital products you buy, but that doesn’t apply in the US. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which was created in the late 1990s, had the goal of fighting content piracy but also made it illegal to try to overcome the digital barriers that companies create to prevent their applications from being used illegally. A quarter of a century later that law remains controversial. Garage controls are the new walled gardens The problems that Wieland and the users of this type of systems have suffered in the US are not very different from those that we suffer in Spain, for example. Garage doors have been able to be opened with a remote control for decades, but this market has become a complex framework of standards and closed and proprietary solutions. While at first the controls were simple and were based on a transmitter and a receiver, the problems of that simplicity—anyone could open or close any door—led to the appearance of several iterations, such as controls with DIP switches with which it was possible to configure fixed combinations different from those of other garages, but which were also easy to end up copying. Currently the most common thing is to have control solutions with “rolling codes” or variable/evolving codes, which ensure that each signal transmitted by the remote is unique and cannot be used for unauthorized access. Security has certainly increased, but this method made numerous companies They will create their own variants of rolling codes for two reasons: one public and reasonable (to protect its users, there are no widely accepted universal standards) and another hidden (to protect the business and generate income). These designs make garage door openers, which are relatively cheap and simple to build, typically expensive for end users. The controls are not compatible between manufacturers even if they use rolling codes, because each one uses its own frequencies and modulations and proprietary code generation protocols. In some cases it is feasible to clone them with “universal remote controls”, and in fact there is a parallel industry in which locksmiths and specialized stores offer the cloning service, or we can purchase these remote controls and then program them ourselves. However, there are, for example, communities of owners in which the managers They are programmed from the switchboardnot from the remote, which prevents cloning the remote without an administrator registering the code on the receiver. The queries in various discussion forums They show that there are many doubts about what works and what doesn’t, and there are not many trivial solutions beyond buying the “official” remote control for each garage. There are, of course, systems that offer the alternative of using mobile applications and Wi-Fi or BLE modules connected to the garage motor. MyQ is the best example of this, but the inertia of the sector and the garage door regulations themselves They do not provide these types of solutions. It may be that the progressive adoption of home automation interconnection like Matter sooner or later I managed to propose a valid alternative, but today we continue to depend on these solutions. Image | Dushawn Jovic In Xataka | “Garage squatters”: there are people parking their cars every day in parking spaces that are not theirs

Porsche owners in Russia woke up this morning without being able to start their car. And they have a suspicion

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They said in Autonotion in 2019 that Russia was a country of extremes. They weren’t talking about the economy (at least not directly), they were talking about car sales. And the Russian market has always been particular, with Lada being the best-selling car brand and, at the same time, having the ability to sneak Porsche ahead of Peugeot. And Porsche lived a decade of love with Russia with constant growth. The wealthiest did not hesitate to opt for the luxury brands Germans. In fact, that report identified Mercedes and BMW as the tenth and eleventh most purchased car companies. In fact, despite the restrictions, Russians continue to buy Western cars, they explained in Motor1.com recently. Those continued sales have thousands of Porsche cars moving through the streets of Russian cities. Or they had them. Because overnight, car owners in Stuttgart keep reporting a problem as simple as it is obvious: their cars don’t move. No, they don’t work. Either they don’t start or they stop after traveling a few meters. The reason for the problem is already known. The origin is more diffuse. My Porsche doesn’t run They pick up their colleagues Motorpassion that since the last days of November, Russian owners of German sports cars are experiencing serious problems starting their cars. The problem seems to lie in the Porsche VTS (Porsche Vehicle Tracking System), a system that the German company offers as a protection measure. With it activated, the vehicle maintains a constant satellite connection so if someone steals the car it is easy to find its location. In that case, a thief must block the satellite signal but in that case the brand understands that, in fact, the car is being stolen and the car automatically does not start or stops after a few meters. This is what has happened in Russia. With a nuance, the Porsche system has incorrectly understood that hundreds or thousands of cars sold since 2013 have been stolen and, therefore, their starting is prevented. The reason is that these cars have lost the satellite connection for a reason that is still unknown. This automatically activates the system and, as we see, leaves the car inoperable. Rolf, the largest dealer group selling Porsche cars in Russia, has confirmed the latter. And the company ceased operations in the country completely in 2022, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Since then its users have been left without technical service. It is now believed that the lack of maintenance of the servers may have caused a failure that has broken that satellite connection and the Porsches have become a gigantic paperweight. The event is so striking that those responsible for Rolf have assured Russian media that the widespread shutdown “may be deliberate.” However, there is no conclusive evidence for the latter. If so, it would be a hybrid warfare maneuver especially curious. For now, what is certain is that there are hundreds of post-2013 Porsches completely stranded… and with their customers looking for desperate solutions. The companions of Motorpassion They report that some of them claim to have solved the problem with hard reboots, such as turning off the battery for 10 hours. The car would have picked up the satellite signal again at that moment and could start moving again. Others have achieved it rebooting the VTS system or, directly, removing it completely, which involves disassembling the seats and a good part of the dashboard. Whether it was some kind of computer attack or simply due to a lack of server maintenance, the truth is that hundreds of Porsche cars have been stranded and that speaks volumes. how hopelessly connected our cars are nowadays. Almost always, arguing or defending greater driver safety. Our cars have become a connected data center… whether we want it or not. The Porsche case is an example of how an interesting and useful system to prevent car theft can leave us with a completely stopped car if the system architecture suffers irreparable damage. And in this case we are not talking about a failure in the vehicle, we are talking about a direct attack against servers or satellites that directly allow our cars to move. Right now, a new one keeps constant information about our driving in a small black box. We are connected to a network with geolocation to make an emergency call with eCall, mandatory since 2018. Some modern cars can receive notices in your browsers of various incidents, How does the DGT want to send when detect a car stopped on the road with the V-16 beacon active. But it has even been proposed to use the data collected to force us to circulate around the city. in fully electric mode if we have a plug-in hybrid car or harness its power if it is detected that the batteries have not been recharged for too long. Therefore, technically it is possible to turn off cars remotely. It would be very difficult to order a concrete attack against a single vehicle since connected information sent from a car is supposedly anonymous and end-to-end encrypted. As long as that car has not been reported stolen, which can allow the police to contact the manufacturer and him order a remote shutdown. However, vulnerabilities that could leave hundreds or thousands of cars completely stopped or at the mercy of a remote control are one of the industry’s biggest concerns. Especially in a geopolitical context in which hybrid warfare seems to be increasingly present. Photo | Josh Berquist and Vadim Artyukhin In Xataka | If you do not have the V16 beacon you will be fined, but the director of the DGT proposes a grace period: “the agents will be flexible”

The best horror movie of this winter has been released. And the protagonists are the owners of a home in Spain

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The abrupt rise of the garbage rate that has exploded throughout Spain is not the result of a improvised decision of each town hall, but rather of the rush to have arrived at the last minute. Namely: of the obligatory application of Law 7/2022 (transposition of European directives) which orders that the waste service should no longer be partially financed by general taxes and be paid 100% by a specific rate based on the “polluter pays” principle, eliminating the structural deficit that many municipalities had been carrying. What has happened? That the “garbage” is more noticeable in some places than others. The normative origin. The norm established a maximum period until April to incorporate it into ordinances, which has meant that municipalities that delayed its application have communicated the charge practically at once, with increases that in some cases double or triple previous receipts and are already reflected in the CPI with an increase 30% year-on-year in the cost of the service, despite the fact that not all municipalities have implemented it yet, which anticipates additional increases when the deployment is full. In other words, curves are coming. Cangas de Morrazo as epicenter. As it is, the first public implosion has happened in Cangasin Pontevedra, where neighborhood anger became an episode of public order with councilors escorted by the Civil Guard and throwing objects after approving an ordinance that in bars went from 107 to 1,236 euros and in homes it practically doubled receipts, accumulating more than 8,000 signatures against an increase perceived as abrupt, without a transitional phase or prior dialogue. Hoteliers allege unviability when passing bills from 1,400 to more than 3,000 euroswhile regretting that the process was carried out without calling affected actors before approval, which has turned a legal requirement into a political trigger, in a framework where the service had 17 years without updating rates and was deficient in more than two million per year, compensated via general taxes that can no longer be used for this purpose. The inequalities. The law requires a rate, but does not dictate how to calculate itwhich has generated a mosaic of municipal models with disparate criteria: cadastral value, water consumption, number of registereduse of the premises, area or even flat rate per home. This diversity implies that citizens of adjacent municipalities pay very different amounts for an equivalent service, something already warned by the FEMP and by Treasury inspectors as a sure source of massive litigation. The recent annulment by the TSJ of Castilla y León, an ordinance from León opens a path that businesses, schools and sectors especially hit with receipts are already exploring up to 30,000 euros. Experts warn that the reference to the cadastral value may constitute a vice of illegality by disconnecting from the actual generation of waste and functioning de facto as an improper surcharge of the IBIwhich could reproduce a similar scenario to the municipal capital gains: imposed instrument, politically supported, challenged in a cascade and finally revoked, with an obligation to return it to whoever has resorted to it within the deadline. Europe: obligation and margin. Political tension is fueled by a deliberate misunderstanding: Brussels demands compliance with recycling, reuse and circular economy goals, but it does not force that the instrument is a rate nor does it mark the calculation formula. In fact, it was the Spanish legislator who chose this path and transferred the technical and political responsibility for executing it to the city councils, without defining a uniform standard cost methodology or setting national equity criteria. The result is a double cross reproach: The city councils accuse the Government of imposing an obligation without an application manual and the Government points to Europe to cover a decision of internal design with inevitability, while the citizen perceives that they are beginning to pay directly for a service that already existed and whose cost structure is not explained precisely, which erodes the social acceptance of the tax. Economic effect. The rate not only makes household and business bills more expensive, but reorder incentives: If the deficit can no longer be covered by taxes and must appear on the invoice, the system penalizes waste volumetrics and rewards separation and reduction practices where ordinances have introduced bonuses linked to the use of brown containers, composting, door-to-door or clean points. However, and very importantly, in large cities many current models do not reward individual behavior, proxy rules apply (cadastral, surface, neighborhood) and generate equal payment for neighbors with radically different behaviors, something criticized from environmentalism for diluting the environmental purpose of the norm. Meanwhile, the jump 30% in CPI and business cases with receipts multiplied by three have produced not only social irritation but fear of a massive wave of resources, in a context in which city councils acknowledge that they are already preparing legal defense anticipating that the rate could become a new fiscal front with a path to court. Conclusion: a sinvivir. The crisis of the “garbage” It is not born in the amount but in the combination of inexcusable legal obligation, abrupt transfer to the taxpayer without cushioning, disparate heterogeneity between municipalities, poor communication, absence of national guidance and a highly fragile legal system that opens the door to serial litigation. Cangas has been the first burst visible of a phenomenon that is structural: Spain has made it a norm to finance waste with taxes pass them on in full as a rateand this simultaneous redesign without homogeneity or pedagogy has coincided with inflationary cycles, accumulated business burdens and distrust of administrations, producing a perfect storm that mixes environmental compliance, fiscal shock and perceived legitimacy. Image | Daniel Capilla In Xataka | If you own a house, chances are you have a new problem on the horizon: the garbage rate. In Xataka | “Garbage tourism” arrives in Spain: when the next town is your landfill

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